No junk mail - sign for the letter box

I have a letter box on the outside of my flat, and it constantly gets filled up with junk mail, usually not addressed, just things like the local paper, the ikea update, the local church rubbish, the supermarket offers of the week... basically stuff that just doesn't concern me and goes directly into the recycle bin. I'd much rather post something on the letterbox which tells the folks bringing it round not to bother. Is there a standard phrase for this? Something like "kein unaddressed Post bitte" but somewhat less Denglish? Cheers...

KEINE WERBEMATERIAL

It doesn't matter. the leafletters are told to ignore those signs and they do. I'm working on a different plan of attack...

More later.

woof.

I have seen some mailboxes with 'Bitte Kein Werbung'

but I don't know if that helps at all, in my building, all the flyers and junk are put ontop of the boxes, and you only pick what you need, the rest of the stuff goes in the paper recycling bin.

Order the official Munich city refuse company sticker online here - it's FREE.

Thanks folks- I've got one of Katrina's stickers on order. It's not an apartment block, just a lone letter box for me.

Which is illegal. Look up the "Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb"; either you or a "Verbraucherverband" can take legal action against the distributor or advertiser, or both.

Ours says 'Keine Reklame!' I don't know what it means but it seems to work. In fact, I'm off to look it up now.

My sign (cant remember exactly what is says now) seems to work ok, the only people who ignored it were the Republikaner party wankers just before the election. If I had known it were illegal I probably should have narked. Such a scandal would surely have cost them a few votes!

i've got "bitte keine werbung einwerfen" on mine
i used to quite like getting werbung, but the hausmeister just slapped the sticker on all our boxes one day, like you do, so that was that

it works for us, they don't ignore it - they'd have some of our scary old ladies to deal with if they did

they must just be out to get you, BadDoggie

No scary old ladies in my building, damit.

I'm pursuing other legal methods against these fuckers. Should I have any success, yoiu'll hear about it.

woof.

It is a difficult one. The labels do not work at all and they have never stopped me getting this stuff. I am not complaining too much as, being in the printing business, it is good to know that companies are still prepared to pay for this crap...

Anyway, I guess you could collect the leaflets and complain. The companies in question would be informed of this and warned and they claim that the leaflet distributors have been clearly informed of the guidelines and it is beyond their control. They will offer the "change" distributors. And so it goes on and on and on... There is no real stopping it as far as I can see unless they make the advertisers responsible regardless of how these things are distributed

We have a bin by the front door - if we get any of this stuff it doesn't even get as far as our recycling bin. it seems to be one of those things you just have to accept. I was drowning in charity bags and demands for money (including pen!) in Yorkshire before I came here - at least this is just leaflets.

They work for me.

I dunno, sometimes junk mail is thick enough to roach at least.

I'll report back when I've stuck my sticker up. The thing that annoys me most is that I have a two part postbox, and the back section, which gets filled with junk, also occasionally contains a big A4 sized letter from home. Not so long ago such a letter got scrumpled up by the idiot leafleter shoving stuff in behind it and nearly thrown away with the junk.

If you've got roaches you need to invite your local Reduvius Personatus round to deal with them. Of course if the roaches in question are actually bugs, then forget it.

Actually this isn't true, at least for one company I know. A friend of mine works for one of these free newspaper/leaflet distrubutor companies and it's actuall his job to manage addresses which don't want to receive freebies. Their deliverers (mainly schoolkids) have very strict instructions not to ignore the signs, and receive weekly lists of "prohibited" addresses. They are required to acknowlege by email or fax reciept and sight of these prohibition lists. People regularly call to complain a sign has been ignored, and are added to the lists which are sent to the deliverers. If more than 2 complaints come from the same address within 4 weeks the deliverer gets a formal warning, if there is one more within the next 4 weeks, he/she is financially penalised or eventually loses the job. It's all made more complicated by the fact that some people want free newspapers but not advertising inserts or vice versa, so there are actually multiple lists. Then there are the formal freebies, such as from the electricity company which are allowed to ignore mailbox prohibition. When he has nothing else to do (which isn't often) my friend tours the area confirming there really are stickers on mailboxes from where he has received complaints. His company handle the distribution of IKEA catalogues which is done differently. Initially there is a distribution of stickers to all addresses. These stickers are invitiations to receive the catalogue, so a week or so later the kids hump the catalogues around only dropping them in the mailboxes of those who explicitly want them..

so.. We've moved and now we are getting so many free local newspapers that even clearing it every day real post is sometimes left sticking out of the mailbox. As our box is on the wall on a major thoroughfare this makes me nervous.

The anti werbung sticker is working well as far as advertising goes, but is there a sticker (that will fit in with our building's 'tidy mailbox" policy) that will stop the papers too? it's something called 'Forum' that seems to be from the local council that is the main offender.

You mean the local rag, Forum? It doesn't have anything to do with the council as far as I'm aware. It's a free newspaper that makes its money from the classified ads contained within it. You should be able to call them up and ask to be excluded from the delivery.

Update: I now have a homemade sign and a Munich council sticker. Junk mail has reduced, but not stopped. Thinking about going down the complaint route. Must... lose... apathy...

@Small Town Boy

That's the one. I've never looked at it that closely, but it always seems to have local government types shaking hands on the front of it, Thanks for the link, I'll have a go at refusing it.

Forum belongs to the Anzeigenblattgruppe Südbayern. You can explicitly sign up NOT to get it (or to get more copies if you are particularly perverse) here (check the box marked "Ich möchte das FORUM zukünftig nicht mehr lesen. Bitte beenden Sie ab sofort die Zustellung"). I am familiar with the organisation that delivers these rags. They take requests not to deliver VERY seriously. A delivery man/boy/girl/woman can be fired if the same customer justifiably complains about any delivery issue more than twice.

I have the opposite problem. In our new place, there is a sign outside and on each individual letter box inside that says 'no ads', or rather the German equivalent. However, like Topsy before me, I like getting all the free papers and special offers. Suppose, I'll just have to live with it.

Presumably you've considered the option of removing or covering the sign?

No-one can deprive you of your information liberties without your permission or acceptance. Simply append your own sign "Ausnahme: Familie Tara in Apartment xxx".

The outside one is engraved. The inside ones are all uniform, same sign, same position. Anyway, I doubt that they even come inside because of the sign inside. I'll find out next week when I move there.

Must say that I have just ordered the no junk mail sticker.

Katrina you are a mine of information. I'd never have thought of looking for an official sticker. Very German isn't it?

Just ordered the anti Werbung sticker too. Great idea, although it is disturbing when you think how much postage costs in Munich and how high Gewerbesteuer is.

I've tried this check box opt-out twice since it was suggested - and we're STILL getting it. aaaaargh!

Send email to vertrieb@anzeigen-forum.de withr your name, address and the name of the paper you wanted to stop. They'll check the database and if the delivery guy/gal has been advised (they tell them once a month). If he/she has been told not to deliver to you, he/she will get a rollocking...

Thanks YL6, will do that tomorrow. If I can get it stopped by the time I go on holiday next month I'll be well pleased.

Hate junk mail but still want the IKEA catalogue?

IKEA is doing downloadable logos so you can say "Hej" to the new book (also available instore from Juli 1st, dropped off free at homes from 28th August 2006).

This is apparently benpanter's bestest thread evah.

I ordered one of those stickers from Katrina's link, but it since been torn down. In fact any box that has any form of "Keine Werbung" has been ripped off shortly afterwards. I am sure its the cleaners of the building, havent had any snotty note put in the letter box for this??

I thought these stickers were allowed.

They are. Your Hausmeister or the house management company may not want stickers to be used though and might want you to use a specific permament sign?
Had similar happen to me in Erlangen, my temporary name plate kept on being removed as it wasn't the standard one.
Might be worth asking.