INC NEWS - Some residents get irate as phone books accumulate (INC mentioned in today's N&O)

[John Schelp]

Some residents get irate as phone books accumulate
by Matt Dees, News & Observer, Nov 28, 2005

Kelly Jarrett gets so frustrated with all those
"honking huge phone books" tossed in her yard, she
sometimes feels like letting just one of her fingers
do the talking.
"I call about them every year," the Durham resident
said.

"Of course, when you call you end up talking to
someone in Bombay. They say, 'We'll put you on a
list.' But then I get a new one every year."

Jarrett said she has received four phone books this
year but uses only the one from Verizon, which
provides phone service for all of Durham.The rest, she
chucks.

She is at her wit's end about a problem most
homeowners just bear. But Jarrett has struck up a
conversation among members of a Durham neighborhood
group about whether phone companies should be allowed
to distribute the books without residents' consent.

The listserv -- an Internet bulletin board and
listening post of sorts -- for the Inter Neighborhood
Council of Durham has been buzzing about this issue
since last week, and the neighbors are exploring ways
to get phone companies to change with the times.

"How many trees have been cut down? How many paper
processing chemicals have gone in the streams so we
can all get three phone books that we don't use?"
Jarrett said, her voice rising. "I don't know why I
can't be allowed to opt in."

Neither BellSouth nor Verizon allows customers to call
and cancel phone book delivery, although
representatives of both companies said they encourage
recycling of unwanted books.

BellSouth spokesman Ed Patterson said advertisers have
to be assured that all 691,000 Triangle homes will get
both the company's White and Yellow pages.

"It's really important they get the book in the hands
of consumers," he said, adding that a recent study
found that 83 percent of Raleigh BellSouth customers
kept their books.

Verizon spokeswoman Lisa Partain said it's simply too
unwieldy to let a handful of people opt out.

A third company, The Talking Phone Book, does have a
cancellation number -- (888) 605-9167 -- but it's not
effective, Jarrett said. The Talking Phone book is the
one she said continues to deliver despite her requests
to cease.

Developing a defense

Bill Anderson, president of the Inter Neighborhood
Council, said his group wants to keep the issue alive
in hopes of prompting change.

"This one's just beginning," he said. "Why ... can you
throw stuff on my lawn indiscriminately?"

Anderson said people should be allowed to be put on
"Do not deliver" lists, similar to the "Do not call"
lists.

But not everyone in the neighborhood group is against
the phone books.

Ken Gasch wrote on the INC listserv that although he
agrees the deliveries are wasteful, he thinks the
companies should have the right to deliver.

"I believe that this is 'free speech' and should be
protected," he wrote.

Kelley VanSlander, a marketing manager for The Talking
Phone Book, said she didn't know how many people call
to cancel.

"Most people like the fact they can have a choice,"
she said. "Each book is different. Ours offers ZIP
codes and larger print."

That's not good enough for people such as Jarrett.

"It so annoys me," she said. "The reality is that
folks use phone books less and less in the Internet
age, and yet the number of phone books delivered to me
is proliferating every year."