UPDATE — Our launch is already having an impact! So many people want to stop unwanted yellow pages deliveries that the opt-out site is running a bit slow, but hang in there and let your choice be known!
Today Seattle launched a new service allowing residents and businesses an easy, reliable way to stop delivery of unwanted yellow pages. The industry says our site is redundant, that they already give consumers a choice of opting out. But the fact is their site is voluntary and nothing holds them accountable to honoring your opt-out request. If you opt out of phone books through the industry site and they still deliver, you are out of luck.
But with Seattle’s site, stopphonebooks, we are mandating that yellow pages publishers honor your choices about what gets delivered to your home. And we enforce it by imposing monetary penalties upwards of $125 per unwanted book delivered. Finally, the yellow pages industry has a financial incentive to stop delivering books you don’t want.
Summer is just around the corner and is the time everyone in Seattle looks forward to on rainy days like today. But summer is also phone book delivery season. Dex, the largest phone book distributor in Seattle, begins their delivery of their books in mid-June. To prevent these books from hitting your doorstep, you need to opt out by May 16. So GO OPT OUT TODAY!
Once you opt out, help us spread the word. Go like our Opt Out Seattle facebook page and share the page with your friends and family. Let’s show the industry and the rest of the country that the people of Seattle are committed to reducing waste like these yellow pages that few of us even want anymore.
I’ll leave you with a video that was sent to me about a year and a half ago that helped inspire me to work with my colleagues on the Council to adopt these new opt-out ordinances.