Archive: Opinions

When I was around 50 the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) began inundating me with solicitation mailings.  My first reaction was one of outrage.  I was certainly not old enough to even start thinking about AARP.  I was not retired! (I'm still not.) The volume of mailings escalated.  After a few years I started noticing that anonymous envelopes contained AARP mailings.  Evidently they had figured out that the mailings make a lot of people feel old, so they had to trick folks into opening their envelopes with notices like 'Card Inside'.  You would think your credit card was being replaced, and then -- wham!  You are old again.

These tactics are usually reserved for credit card come-ons and less than legitimate scammy mailers.  But AARP isn't that/  It is a powerful lobbing entity that offers benefits to its members.  So why the barrage of just-this-side-of-honest envelopes?

Yes, just the envelopes, because the mailings inside are pretty straightforward and presumably honest, though way too numerous.  But the envelopes don't say anything about AARP on the outside.  They generally have a Washington, DC return address, and sometimes a message about a card inside.  Didn't AARP's mother teach it that when you address an envelope you include your name and address in the return address?

The most recent one had a birthday greeting.  People who know me know that I do not publicly celebrate my birthday.  Mention of it makes me extremely uncomfortable, not because of getting older, but because of being the center of attention.  I know, that is odd, but that is me.  It is bad enough when well meaning friends post birthday greetings on Facebook (which I delete as soon as I am aware of them).  But when a huge faceless organization sends me a birthday greeting I feel violated.

First of all, why do they know it is my birthday?  OK, I know you have to be 50 to join AARP so it behooves them to find out that information.  But how did they find it out?  They didn't ask me.  And clearly they don't know me, or they wouldn't have sent such an offensive mailing.  Which, by the way, does the opposite of making me want to join AARP.

The result is that I think of AARP as a stalker.  It finds out information about me without my knowledge.  Personal information it then uses to send insinuating mail.  It continually tries to contact me in order to have an actual relationship (trying to get me to join).  It uses questionable techniques to get me to open its envelopes.  Not cool, AARP.  Not cool.

In fact, creepy.

And my birthday present?  A discount on an AARP membership.  So I have to pay for my birthday present that I don't want, but just not as much as I would when it's not my birthday.  Don't you just love the spirit of giving?

I have looked into the benefits of AARP on a number of occasions over the years and never found them to not be a good fit for me.  That is not to say they're not good benefits, just that they're not for me at various snapshots in time.  The result is that when I see an AARP mailing that does have 'AARP' printed on the outside, it goes directly to the recycling bin.  I really want to understand the logic that posits that by leaving off the name of the sender, making the mailing look like it could be coming from a bank (when you get your new credit card the envelope is often unmarked to prevent theft, such as that can be effective these days), thus tricking me into opening the envelope before recycling I am more likely to join.

And if the volume of AARP mailings makes you think that it is the best option, or the only option, it's a good idea to talk to an independent insurance agent bout things like Medicare choices, because you may be surprised at how inexpensive Medicare can be for you, especially if you are in reasonably good health.  You may not need supplemental health and/or medication insurance.  Talking to such a local professional has the added benefit that you don't have to make sense of the enormous pile of mailings from insurance companies trying to get you to sign up with them, or the Part A, B, C, D tangle that is Medicare itself.  This person can explain it all in just a few minutes, saving you a lot of time and stress.  Maybe they will recommend AARP -- maybe not.

If all the junk mail were eliminated from my physical mailbox, I would receive almost no mail at all.  Just a few bills, and an occasional card or letter from - here's a concept for our modern day - people I know.  An enormous percentage of it would be eliminated if I no longer received ads for credit cards, AARP mailings and 'shopper' papers.

Wouldn't that be a better world?

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