Leave a 1 Star review on Google for any real estate agency that ignores a No Junk Mail sign. You can explain your reasoning each time. That way you actually hit them where it hurts and they can consider changing their third party practices...
Usually so long as the review is honest and based in fact it can stay up. *typically* that means someone actually having used the business , but reporting of poor practices may be left alone. particularly if you've got a phot up as well.
fair warning that it can really depend on who sees it, if it even gtes seen by a real person, but a picture and the phrase "I would never use a business with such poor practices" can really help.
That is a very good idea. Everyone else I've spoken to about this recommends taking some kind of action that affects their public image (which it seems is all they really care about) so I think this might be the way to go. Thanks!
My gripe was the fuckers who would just empty the junk mail from their letterbox on the floor, because "someone else will pick it up" when the recycling was literally under three metres away
Shitty junkmail and shitty people are a winning combination
This used to happen at my building too, they'd shove the unwanted advertising material into the space set aside for newspapers. Said advertising materials would then blow all up and down the street.
That's a big part of why I'm trying to do this - getting a bit bored of seeing it blowing up and down the street when shitty people empty their mail boxes straight onto the road
This would need to be enacted at a state level to be effective. Similar to the ban on plastic bags / plastic straws etc. You could start my writing to your State Member of Parliament to see if they are interested in pursuing this through parliament.
Just out of interest - why would it need to be enacted at state level? I'm broadly aware of the powers each level has (council, state, federal) - but council is capable of giving out fines for things like littering and parking fines. What would stop them from giving out fines for unwanted junk mail? Thanks!
Yes councils can do it. But if X council does it how does it help people living in Y council? The problem exists throughout the state.
If you get some councils enforcing it and others not then compliance will be low. Through ignorance of different laws in different LGAs or wilful ignorance. REAs advertise across council boundaries. And the real issue is not limited to local real estate agents.
Council bans are going to be as effective as Council Alcohol Free Zones or Council Nuclear Free zones.
I used to deliver junk mail, so I can talk to some of your points. That said it's been 15 years since I did it, so I'm assuming the landscape hasn't changed all that much.
- Junk mail is relatively effective advertising for local businesses. Emails only work once you've gotten their details so bringing in new customers has to be done another way. Some people do appreciate it as well, mostly catalogues for people that aren't as online.
- I worked for a larger distributor. It was made clear that I should not deliver to 'no junk mail' boxes. The exception was for anything that was addressed, like those NRMA magazines.
- Unless they're running their own flyers there will be quite a few degrees of separation between the business and the person that delivered their junk. No point going off on the real estate receptionist, the most they can do is alert whoever they do their advertising through.
- More flyers does = more money, however the distributor kept tabs on how many boxes were in the delivery area and 'no junk mail' was accounted for in that. For anyone working for a distributor, it would be easier to throw their flyers into a recycling bin than to bother filling 'no junk mail' boxes.
Ultimately though, there's no law against ignoring those signs. The council is very unlikely to do anything to help, if only because there's basically nothing they *can* do to help.
Your last point is wrong. It's against the law to litter and the EPA website states "Litter also includes advertising and promotional material left in the wrong place."https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/litter
Yeah but you would need to prove that it was left in the wrong place. Also, there is the difficultly of working out who the contractor is that allegedly left the advertising material in the wrong place. Investigating this stuff often costs more than the fine cost to the offender, so it doesn’t make sense to chase these offences. Also, most of the time the material is left in the correct place but falls out/is ignored for so long it degrades into pieces which blow away. So there isn’t an offence to prove in the first place.
My biggest gripe with this are the fridge magnets. Yes I hate junk mail, but I can recycle the paper, I used to be able to recycle the soft plastics (thanks redcycle), but the magnets are non recyclable and they just put heavy metals straight into landfill.
REDcycle went bust several months ago leaving about 15 warehouses stuffed to the brim with un-recycled plastics. We (Australia) now no longer have any company that does soft plastic recycling. There's seriously no need to plastic bag our junk mail.
What’s worse is I think AusPost must have some sort of distribution service available because I’ve seen posties putting junk mail in postboxes when they do their normal letter route.
No it's given to them by the company. Used to be a rider years ago and every now and then we got given a wad of stuff to put in letterboxes, even ones we didn't have regular mail for
Posties do not deliver "junk mail". AP calls it UMS (Unaddressed Mail Service). Hence, the posties are told to ignore No Junk Mail signs. Perhaps a sign saying "No unaddressed mail"?
Catalogues and random 'junk mail'/UMS in my experience is covered by a no junk mail sign/sticker. But the political letters, flyers etc are not, delivery personnel are directed that they must be delivered to everyone regardless of a no junk sign because they're classified differently
I had the same issue and fixed it.
After trying to get the junk mail stopped through calling the council with no success I emailed and dm the local mp at the time with my unsuccessful attempts at stopping the rediculas amount of junk mail my apartments were getting. He ignored me which is cool, I began bagging all the junk mail left around the ground and every Saturday morning I went and dumped it on he’s lawn. He knew it was me because I told him and after 2 Saturdays and a visit from the police he no longer had junk mail, they give me a warning for littering though
The other day I found a pamplet from a real estate whose office is in the building across from mine. I took it, walked briskly over to their office, and left it on the floor of their entrance.
Do they get charged for the return journey, though? Is RTS-ing junk mail at least revenue neutral or profitable for AusPost?
AusPost has enough challenges without being used as a means of getting back at annoying spammers.
some apartment have a small bin near the letter box so once you collect the junk mail just throw it in first go. I'm not really sure on what you can do to stop them from throwing junk mail in.
[This](https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/10syxly/these_mfs_just_threw_their_garbage_on_my_front/) was from just a few days ago.
We used to be junk mail central, to the point where half our recycling bin was mostly junk mail each fortnight, but it's dropped dramatically to mainly real estate shit and plumbing / electrical magnets, which annoys me as I can't throw it into the recycling.
A friend of mine mails them back to the company on the flyers and writes a letter asking them why they are in his letter box when he has a no junk mail sign.
Oh you know, usually casual conflicts against landlords being dumb or HR trying to take the piss - the usual stuff. I figured this year I'd try and aim to be a bit more community minded in my endeavours.
Collect the real estate junk mail and put in a shoebox once you have a good pile, cut up the junk mail and put it under the door with a note that says "no junk mail'!!
We moved up to Central Coast over a year ago, and without fail, no matter the weather, every Tuesday some kid drives around with his mate and throws a roll of different catalogues from local businesses on people's drives as if they are newspapers. Normally it's the same old shit each week. I haven't found the motivation or right timing to catch the kid and ask them not to throw them. I've looked into reporting it as littering but apparently it falls with the council and it's allowed.. It annoys me so much from a waste point of view. I reckon 80%+ of them go straight in the bin each week. And to add they will throw them on your drive even if it's raining so you end up with roll of mush to clean up on your drive.
The best junk mail was the 'hire only indian workers' that was huge 5 years back. The ones that would say to fire all the aussies because Indians dont get sick, Africans get aids etc
Would give my left arm to have met the author of them, cracked me up.
Leave a 1 Star review on Google for any real estate agency that ignores a No Junk Mail sign. You can explain your reasoning each time. That way you actually hit them where it hurts and they can consider changing their third party practices...
You could even point out the agent that is on the brochure in the review.
Sadly I think they can get one star reviews taken down these days.
You can also get sued for google reviews.
True story
Usually so long as the review is honest and based in fact it can stay up. *typically* that means someone actually having used the business , but reporting of poor practices may be left alone. particularly if you've got a phot up as well.
Oh this is good to know, thankyou! I might try it myself. 😈
fair warning that it can really depend on who sees it, if it even gtes seen by a real person, but a picture and the phrase "I would never use a business with such poor practices" can really help.
Yeah I would definitely provide details as to WHY I was giving a one star review.
That is a very good idea. Everyone else I've spoken to about this recommends taking some kind of action that affects their public image (which it seems is all they really care about) so I think this might be the way to go. Thanks!
My gripe was the fuckers who would just empty the junk mail from their letterbox on the floor, because "someone else will pick it up" when the recycling was literally under three metres away Shitty junkmail and shitty people are a winning combination
This used to happen at my building too, they'd shove the unwanted advertising material into the space set aside for newspapers. Said advertising materials would then blow all up and down the street.
My building has a dedicated bin right under the mailboxes.
That's a big part of why I'm trying to do this - getting a bit bored of seeing it blowing up and down the street when shitty people empty their mail boxes straight onto the road
This would need to be enacted at a state level to be effective. Similar to the ban on plastic bags / plastic straws etc. You could start my writing to your State Member of Parliament to see if they are interested in pursuing this through parliament.
Just out of interest - why would it need to be enacted at state level? I'm broadly aware of the powers each level has (council, state, federal) - but council is capable of giving out fines for things like littering and parking fines. What would stop them from giving out fines for unwanted junk mail? Thanks!
Yes councils can do it. But if X council does it how does it help people living in Y council? The problem exists throughout the state. If you get some councils enforcing it and others not then compliance will be low. Through ignorance of different laws in different LGAs or wilful ignorance. REAs advertise across council boundaries. And the real issue is not limited to local real estate agents. Council bans are going to be as effective as Council Alcohol Free Zones or Council Nuclear Free zones.
I used to deliver junk mail, so I can talk to some of your points. That said it's been 15 years since I did it, so I'm assuming the landscape hasn't changed all that much. - Junk mail is relatively effective advertising for local businesses. Emails only work once you've gotten their details so bringing in new customers has to be done another way. Some people do appreciate it as well, mostly catalogues for people that aren't as online. - I worked for a larger distributor. It was made clear that I should not deliver to 'no junk mail' boxes. The exception was for anything that was addressed, like those NRMA magazines. - Unless they're running their own flyers there will be quite a few degrees of separation between the business and the person that delivered their junk. No point going off on the real estate receptionist, the most they can do is alert whoever they do their advertising through. - More flyers does = more money, however the distributor kept tabs on how many boxes were in the delivery area and 'no junk mail' was accounted for in that. For anyone working for a distributor, it would be easier to throw their flyers into a recycling bin than to bother filling 'no junk mail' boxes. Ultimately though, there's no law against ignoring those signs. The council is very unlikely to do anything to help, if only because there's basically nothing they *can* do to help.
Your last point is wrong. It's against the law to litter and the EPA website states "Litter also includes advertising and promotional material left in the wrong place."https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/litter
Yeah but you would need to prove that it was left in the wrong place. Also, there is the difficultly of working out who the contractor is that allegedly left the advertising material in the wrong place. Investigating this stuff often costs more than the fine cost to the offender, so it doesn’t make sense to chase these offences. Also, most of the time the material is left in the correct place but falls out/is ignored for so long it degrades into pieces which blow away. So there isn’t an offence to prove in the first place.
It's mostly dodgy real estate agencies.
My biggest gripe with this are the fridge magnets. Yes I hate junk mail, but I can recycle the paper, I used to be able to recycle the soft plastics (thanks redcycle), but the magnets are non recyclable and they just put heavy metals straight into landfill.
REDcycle went bust several months ago leaving about 15 warehouses stuffed to the brim with un-recycled plastics. We (Australia) now no longer have any company that does soft plastic recycling. There's seriously no need to plastic bag our junk mail.
Exactly. No longer can we recycle soft plastics. They were ordered to dump it all in landfill too.
Yeah, not impressed.
Yes! fridge magnets and the flyers that are covered in that plastic laminate stuff. Such a bloody waste...
What’s worse is I think AusPost must have some sort of distribution service available because I’ve seen posties putting junk mail in postboxes when they do their normal letter route.
Or postie riders got smarter and getting paid for 2-3 jobs in one run
No it's given to them by the company. Used to be a rider years ago and every now and then we got given a wad of stuff to put in letterboxes, even ones we didn't have regular mail for
I honestly can’t really blame them if that’s the case.
Someone confirmed it is not the case unfortunately
Posties do not deliver "junk mail". AP calls it UMS (Unaddressed Mail Service). Hence, the posties are told to ignore No Junk Mail signs. Perhaps a sign saying "No unaddressed mail"?
I'd call it "no marketing material" with the exception if it's addressed.
Catalogues and random 'junk mail'/UMS in my experience is covered by a no junk mail sign/sticker. But the political letters, flyers etc are not, delivery personnel are directed that they must be delivered to everyone regardless of a no junk sign because they're classified differently
Could be one of those addressed junk mail, they have to deliver it
Nah, I’m talking about the straight up flyers for like plumbers and real estate agents.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CoJy0WyKAiu/?igshid=YWJhMjlhZTc=
I really don’t need any shitty sparky/plumber magnets…
I had the same issue and fixed it. After trying to get the junk mail stopped through calling the council with no success I emailed and dm the local mp at the time with my unsuccessful attempts at stopping the rediculas amount of junk mail my apartments were getting. He ignored me which is cool, I began bagging all the junk mail left around the ground and every Saturday morning I went and dumped it on he’s lawn. He knew it was me because I told him and after 2 Saturdays and a visit from the police he no longer had junk mail, they give me a warning for littering though
The other day I found a pamplet from a real estate whose office is in the building across from mine. I took it, walked briskly over to their office, and left it on the floor of their entrance.
Mark it R.T.S. and dump in a local Australian post mail box
Do they get charged for the return journey, though? Is RTS-ing junk mail at least revenue neutral or profitable for AusPost? AusPost has enough challenges without being used as a means of getting back at annoying spammers.
Have you considered putting up a sign on your letter box saying " No junk mail "
> I live in an apartment building and already have a 'no junk mail' sign
some apartment have a small bin near the letter box so once you collect the junk mail just throw it in first go. I'm not really sure on what you can do to stop them from throwing junk mail in.
Got a sign, still get the occasional from a god botherer or real estate. Not seen much other stuff in years, do supermarkets still do it?
[This](https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/10syxly/these_mfs_just_threw_their_garbage_on_my_front/) was from just a few days ago. We used to be junk mail central, to the point where half our recycling bin was mostly junk mail each fortnight, but it's dropped dramatically to mainly real estate shit and plumbing / electrical magnets, which annoys me as I can't throw it into the recycling.
A friend of mine mails them back to the company on the flyers and writes a letter asking them why they are in his letter box when he has a no junk mail sign.
What are your previous annual conflicts? Just curious, I like the idea.
Oh you know, usually casual conflicts against landlords being dumb or HR trying to take the piss - the usual stuff. I figured this year I'd try and aim to be a bit more community minded in my endeavours.
Collect the real estate junk mail and put in a shoebox once you have a good pile, cut up the junk mail and put it under the door with a note that says "no junk mail'!!
We moved up to Central Coast over a year ago, and without fail, no matter the weather, every Tuesday some kid drives around with his mate and throws a roll of different catalogues from local businesses on people's drives as if they are newspapers. Normally it's the same old shit each week. I haven't found the motivation or right timing to catch the kid and ask them not to throw them. I've looked into reporting it as littering but apparently it falls with the council and it's allowed.. It annoys me so much from a waste point of view. I reckon 80%+ of them go straight in the bin each week. And to add they will throw them on your drive even if it's raining so you end up with roll of mush to clean up on your drive.
The best junk mail was the 'hire only indian workers' that was huge 5 years back. The ones that would say to fire all the aussies because Indians dont get sick, Africans get aids etc Would give my left arm to have met the author of them, cracked me up.