Junk Mail Magic

Tell route-wide advertising from a named mailing list

Read the address block first. A piece addressed to a person's name calls for a request about that name. A piece addressed to Current Resident or Postal Customer may have gone to a whole carrier route, so the useful request asks the advertiser to leave your delivery address out. USPS describes Every Door Direct Mail as targeting carrier routes without requiring an individual named list.

By Junk Mail Magic. Updated .

Sort the piece before you write

  1. Copy the address block exactly as printed. Note whether it shows your name, a former occupant's name, a household label or resident wording.
  2. Find the advertiser in the body of the piece by its business name, phone number or website. A printer credit or postage mark does not identify the advertiser.
  3. If a name is printed, ask the advertiser to stop mail to that name at that address. If only resident wording appears, ask it to leave your delivery address out of its mailings.
  4. Record any facing-slip or postage wording you can see. Do not guess which USPS service the mailer used from the format alone.

Where a route-based exclusion happens

USPS's EDDM Retail instructions tell mailers to list addresses that requested removal in the Do Not Deliver Address column on facing slips. The mailer completes that step for EDDM Retail mailings. You cannot apply it yourself, and other EDDM services or other mailing arrangements may work differently.

Ask about your own address only. A request to drop a street or a whole route would affect your neighbors' mail.

Comparison worksheet

Example for your own use. Replace the bracketed details and review what you share.

Advertiser name: [name] Address line as printed: [exact text] Named recipient or resident wording: [which] Postage or facing-slip wording seen: [text or none] Request to send: [stop mail to named recipient / leave this delivery address out] Contact route found: [website, phone or mailing address] Date requested: [date]

Match the request to the label

Fill in one worksheet line set for each advertiser. If a later piece from the same advertiser changes from resident wording to a printed name, send the named-mail request as well.

Official source

Ask an EDDM advertiser to leave out your addressChoose the right contact when a mailer has several logosCan a no-junk-mail sticker stop USPS advertising?Ask about repeated internet availability postcardsNeighborhood advertisingAll practical mail guides

Choose the route that matches the mailing

Use the official route described in this guide for this kind of mail. For a separate ordinary advertisement, Junk Mail Magic can help prepare a sender-specific removal request.

Compare removal routes