Comments on: The new phone books are here! Oh, goody.

By: John Hoff

John Hoff — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:57:24 +0000

I’m very glad to be part of the Doorstep Liberation Front and leading the charge to stop unwanted phone book dumping, save a tree.

Dumping a phone book on the doorstep of an OBVIOUSLY vacant house–with boarded up doors and windows, utility shut off notices, a pile of seven other rain-soaked, rotting phone books–is what? IS LITTERING!!! IS A NUISANCE! IS A PROBLEM!

Encourage your city government to pass ordinances against unwanted phone book dumping and fine those who participate in unwanted phone book dumping.

By: Shawna Warbington

Shawna Warbington — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:38:38 +0000

When I lived in a large city, using the Internet was the easy way to find things. I still use it for things that are not local. However, I have found in the last two weeks that it just doesn’t cut it for my current new town of 9,000.
It’s very frustrating to try to look up something local and get results for cities 4 hours away.

By: Bill Nigh

Bill Nigh — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:26:14 +0000

We live in an apartment building where my wife is the super. When they arrive, they are in shrink wrap and just sit there. We call the distributor to pick them up, but they seldom come, so we usually sadly consign all that stuff to recycle. What a waste.

By: Jim Bogart

Jim Bogart — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:27:38 +0000

I continue to find the printed Yellow Pages to be very efficient in finding local businesses. The online equivalents all tend to fall down in terms of ease of use. I use online directories for out of area searches.

By: Bill Downey

Bill Downey — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:21:53 +0000

There are still a lot of us who use the printed phonebook. I use both online and printed directories (depending on if I’m traveling). To be honest, I am more likely to retain the information if I read and hold it (printed media) than if I look at a screen. Of course I still read books and even still perform research using printed media.
One idea that I proposed on a LinkedIn discussion was that the phone company offer an opt out option so those that do not want phone books don’t recieve them.

By: Jason Potrzeba

Jason Potrzeba — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:57:33 +0000

I’ve always noticed that in the very beginning of the phone book there seems to be a lot of useful information not related to the name/number portion of the book. I believe there are even coupons in this section as well as seating charts to local arena’s and other venues, but really, who today really has the time to sit down and read this when we have the internet…?

In the past I can remember coming home from work and seeing the new phone book bundle sitting on my door step and I can clearly remember walking over to it and dumping it into my recycling bin without the books even making it into my house.

By: » DEX Phone Books Strike Northwest WashingtonThe Deets - Ed Kohler's Blog

» DEX Phone Books Strike Northwest WashingtonThe Deets - Ed Kohler's Blog — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:43:32 +0000

[...] pointed me to a post on Responsible Marketing where they talk about an issue familiar to regular readers of The Deets: phone book [...]

By: Scott Precious

Scott Precious — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:35:30 +0000

WHAT??? Why is this so good for your company?

Not only is it a total waste of trees and your money but who really looks for you as an individual? Put your money into a more targeted marketing programme and see what happens. Look at how many other companies are offering the same service as you, why would a customer pick you out of a hundred others? The book comany doesn’t care about your company only their profits. And to make my point i ran a test this year, i ran an advert in the phone book and matched that to a direct mailing that i sent out to potential customers, so far this year we have had 1 call from the phone book and we are looking at over 100 with the letter and a conversion rate of 70%. Need i say more?

PS The letter has being sent out monthly and we still have not spent what we did with the phone book advert.

By: Paul Allen

Paul Allen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:31:57 +0000

When I need to change a bulb in the ceilingfan/lighting fixture in my office, I put the Dallas Yellow Pages on a chair and stand on it – gives me just enough added height to reach the offending bulb.

May sound like a dumb and dangerous way to change a light bulb but at least I found a use for the phone book.

By: Facts and Go Figure: The Sneaky Art of Justifying Anything « Cool Rules Pronto

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:40:03 +0000

[...] at my friend Patrick Byers’ Responsible Marketing Blog, where he intelligently analyzed the wastefulness of phonebooks, which most people use to keep their kitchen counters from floating away. In response to the [...]