Will the endless political emails and texts ever stop?

[vito]

I have made the mistake of sending modest financial donations to several Republican candidates this election season, similar to what I have done in several recent elections. But I now realize how foolish I was to do so, from the perspective of opening myself up to ENDLESS emails, phone calls and text messages asking me for more and more money. Every day for the last several months, and with increasing frequency in these last several weeks, I literally get several dozen emails, at least that many texts, and probably a dozen phone calls every day asking me to support some candidate or issue. This constant annoyance will likely ensure that I do not donate to anyone in the future, unless I can just put a few bills into a collection jar annonymously. The worst of the communications are from candidates totally outside of the area that I can vote for, where I might have sent a single $25 donation because I wanted to help out the candidate. Some of these are military veterans running against incumbent Democrats, but I wanted to help if I could. Getting repaid for helping by being endlessly besieged with requests to give again and again ends up being counterproductive as far as I am concerned.

Election day is tomorrow, but I am not optimistic that this will mean the end, or even the slowing of the donation requests. I guess I have to get used to, whenever I open my Iphone, to just deleting 5 to 10 texts and emails before I actually use the phone, and will have to continue to never answer my ringing phone unless I can see who it is that is trying to call me.

Okay, rant over.

 

[turd]

It's all about the money.........

 

[peachhead]

Don't feel bad. I made the mistake of being at the same place at the same time as the Trump volunteer coordinator. I put my name down on the list thinking maybe I can do some phone calls when I have time. Well, I have been harassed almost daily by someone wanted to know when I was going to get out and knock on doors. We were waiting on hurricane Helene, at the time she was supposed to come right through here, and I got text messages demanding that we get out that night and knock on doors.
No thanks. I won't make that mistake again.

 

[Cholo]

They all want your money even if they have might have no intention of using it for their election.

 

[peachhead]

Hopefully I'm not the only person that thinks this is insane.

 

[thinckley]

Unfortunately, one of the gun/ammo online sites I ordered from was kind enough to sell my info to some conservative superPAC. I was getting 20+ emails per day, each one a different "campaign" all managed by the same PAC. Took me weeks to finally get unsubscribed (like I can do a damn thing about a state race on the other side of the country).

 

[hittman]

Am I the only person here who has the "opt out" thingy work?

 

[thinckley]

Am I the only person here who has the "opt out" thingy work?

I had to opt out of each individual campaign. After two weeks they finally added the option to opt out of all of them.

 

[Jeepnik]

Can't do much about political mailers. But they should end in a couple of days.

As to emails just block senders or unsubscribe. Better do both. An old trick that sometimes works is when blocking senders make the address *.*@(the domain), ie: *.*@gmail.com.

If it works you block all emails from that server. For a while that didn't work to well. But I think programmers have let that drop so I find it working pretty good.

Some may remember the failed Do Not Call List. If interesting note, it didn't apply to politicians.

 

[thinckley]

Some may remember the failed Do Not Call List. If interesting note, it didn't apply to politicians.

That toothless, worthless, law has been a catastrophic failure. If the FCC ever allows phone companies to block spoofed or non-verified numbers we might all start to see fewer car warrantee and Medicare calls.

 

[Jeepnik]

The technology is there. But that would cut into their profits. The USPS could likewise end junk mail but is not financially motivated to do so.

 

[thinckley]

In this case, the problem isn't profits, it is regulation. I get the slippery slope of allowing phone communication providers to not connect calls, but the fact of the matter is, much like spam email which the CAN-SPAM act did nothing to stop, most of the calls are technically illegal. As for comparing to USPS and junk mail, it's apples and oranges.

Bulk mail is paid for by legitimate companies, as opposed to the spam email and robo-calls.

 

[thinckley]

Seems appropriate

 

[vito]

Am I the only person here who has the "opt out" thingy work?

I have tried to "unsubscribe" to unwanted emails, and responded "STOP" to try to stop the texts. Neither action seems to have any real effect upon the volume of communications received. As to phone calls, I just ignore any calls from unidentified callers but I do check out anytime that I have been left a voicemail. Most of the time the so-called voice mail is shown as just a few seconds of silence, which I then delete.

None of this is a serious issue, just an annoyance.

 

[dchmule]

I have made the mistake of sending modest financial donations to several Republican candidates this election season, similar to what I have done in several recent elections. But I now realize how foolish I was to do so, from the perspective of opening myself up to ENDLESS emails, phone calls and text messages asking me for more and more money. Every day for the last several months, and with increasing frequency in these last several weeks, I literally get several dozen emails, at least that many texts, and probably a dozen phone calls every day asking me to support some candidate or issue. This constant annoyance will likely ensure that I do not donate to anyone in the future, unless I can just put a few bills into a collection jar annonymously. The worst of the communications are from candidates totally outside of the area that I can vote for, where I might have sent a single $25 donation because I wanted to help out the candidate. Some of these are military veterans running against incumbent Democrats, but I wanted to help if I could. Getting repaid for helping by being endlessly besieged with requests to give again and again ends up being counterproductive as far as I am concerned.

Election day is tomorrow, but I am not optimistic that this will mean the end, or even the slowing of the donation requests. I guess I have to get used to, whenever I open my Iphone, to just deleting 5 to 10 texts and emails before I actually use the phone, and will have to continue to never answer my ringing phone unless I can see who it is that is trying to call me.

Okay, rant over.

In 2020, when the defund police movement was sweeping across America, we donated to the local sheriff's fund. Big mistake! since then we have been almost constantly harassed by Law Enforcement/charity organizations wanting more money. NEVER AGAIN for us. If we donate it will be anonymously.

 

[Jeepnik]

Will it ever stop? Well, interestingly enough yesterday I received no political mailings at all. So apparently the politicians figured out just how long it takes for their mail to be delivered.

Heck, junk mail is delivered in time for folks to go to "sales".

Now if the USPS could be half as good with delivery of the rest of the mail.

 

[moparclan]

My local PO removed the trash bin from the lobby because of being filled with political pamphlets and some scum depositing dirty diapers in there also!

 

[thinckley]

political pamphlets and some scum depositing dirty diapers

Aren't those the same thing?

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I can relate, I made some donations, only to get my credit card numbers used fraudulently, and am struggling with Visa (who is doing a poor job) getting them to make me whole.

Now understand that you also have to take into consideration that this election (both sides) spent $16 BILLION. I can't imagine how that's even legal, but it's no wonder every politician needs all the money they can get their hands on to have a chance of winning. It's desperation that you are hearing in these emails and texts. As frustrating as it is, it makes you see why it's so difficult to find good candidates.
Edited to add the $16 BILLION number was Bret Behr (not sure of spelling)

The bad news is they already have your email and text. I may change both my phone number and email.