Thursday, August 13, 2009

Damn you Sensis - stop the phone books

phone book.jpgOnce again, despite my repeated attempts to halt delivery, the phone books turned up again.

In 2007 I formally opted out through Sensis's call centre and then again through their web site. The books came again in 2008. The so called "Green Office" program is a sham.

We never use the printed phone book. It will go - still wrapped - into the paper re-cycling again.

Update: It's 2011 and I'm pleased to report that instead of receiving a phone book I just received a card saying that they had received my request not to get it.


They go on to say that my request will be honoured for three years and then they'll revert to delivering books again unless I let them know again.

So, good on you Sensis at last.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I head the Sustainability area within Sensis and noticed your blog.

I’m sorry you have received a directory if you have opted not to. If you can please provide me with your address (to my email below) so I can follow this up and seek an explanation as to why you have received a copy.

The White Pages and Yellow Pages directories are still used by a huge number of Australians. Over 7.2 million Australians use the White Pages print directory each month and 38% of Australians (6.6 million people) used the Yellow Pages® Directory, on average, at least once every four weeks.

However, we don’t want to deliver directories to people who would prefer not to receive them. A systematic process for people to advise they would prefer not to receive a directory was introduced in 2005. The details on how to change your preferences are on the first page of the Yellow Pages directory and in the front section of the White Pages. Our distribution system has also improved significantly in recent years with GPS tracking of directory distribution to increase accuracy and accountability.

Without listing all our programs and achievements - put simply Sensis strives for social, environmental and economic sustainability in all operations. Part of this is our commitment to minimising the environmental impact of our products. This includes using recycled materials in the production of our directories, recycling leftover paper materials from our production process into things like insulation and kitty litter, as well as encouraging people to recycle their old directories. Last year, 96% of old directories recycled or reused. We are also continuing to work on further improvements which we look forward to announcing in the coming months.

More recently Sensis also became a member of the Forest Stewardship Council and renewed its partnership with Planet Ark to present recyclingnearyou.com.au – a one-stop recycling website for Australians which has attracted over 3 million unique users since we launched it in 2006.

Our Sustainability Report also details much of our product and sustainability credentials (pdf and z-mag available online at http://www.about.sensis.com.au/community/corporateresponsibility.php).

Please feel free to email me if you’d like further information at any stage (Jillian.Riseley@sensis.com.au). Again, I’m happy to speak with you about our credentials or put you in contact with our distribution team at any stage.


Kind regards,

Jillian Riseley
Group Manager, Sustainability
Sensis

Peter Marks said...

Wow, thanks Jillian, that's a good sign.

I've written to her with my address and am looking forward to any news.

Peter

Peter Marks said...

Jill wrote: "I've asked our distribution team to look into this and I'll ensure we get a response asap."

Great stuff.

Ash said...

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Peter Marks said...

Ha! thanks Ash, very amusing!

Anonymous said...

Many thanks Marxy for pointing me in the right direction to stop those annoying unwanted phone books from arriving on my doorstep every year.
Much appreciated.

Peter Marks said...

Well, good luck. I have failed to stop them coming so far. Printed phone books appear to be compulsory. Jillian Riseley went to investigate but never reported back.

My guess is that while Sensis keeps a register of who doesn't want books, the delivery contractors are not motivated to take the time to look at that list.

Anonymous said...

Good luck trying to stop the books. Ut doesn't matter what Jillian or any of the other headless chooks at Sensis actually say to you, they simply do not know what is going on inside their own four walls. Take it from me, I have a huge amount of first hand inside experience. Sensis is the only place I ever worked where nearly every single thing they touched ended in an error. And as you can see, Jillian used her response to your blog as an excuse to plug their business and how great they all think they are. There's no genuine concern for you there, just an exercise in damage control. Remember - Senseless does not care about anything but $.