This morning I received yet another unsolicited copy of BT 'The Phone Book'. Please could you advise me if there is anything I can do to prevent BT sending me 'The Phone Book'? I have written to them numerous times but get no response.
It seems BT finds it very difficult to accept there are people with no need for paper directories. However, there's a way to force them to stop ignoring you; making a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office.
As you may know, BT started contacting people who had opted out of receiving The Phone Book via Junk Buster in June this year. The company told people that it was unable to process the opt-out requests because Junk Buster doesn't give BT the requester's telephone number. This was quite clearly a breach of the Data Protection Act (there's no need to collect people's phone numbers to stop delivering unsolicited books) and I made a complaint about this to the Information Commissioner the same month. They agreed, and the letter I've received from the Information Commissioner states they've asked BT to prevent the situation from happening again and that they may use enforcement action against BT should similar complaints be made. In short, making a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office about BT ignoring your letters may well force the company to respect people's wishes.
More information about making a formal complaint can be found on ico.org.uk. If you're going to lodge a complaint, feel free to refer to the above-mentioned case – the reference number is RFA0394885. More information about my troubles with BT can be found on my blog.
Apart from this there's little you can do. You could lodge a complaint with the Direct Marketing Association as BT happens to be a member of the junk mail lobby group. The DMA's Code of Practice states that Members must have in place a structure to enable every effort to be made to respect a householder's wish not to receive unaddressed items, whether such requests are made directly to the member or via any industry schemes approved by the Association.
(13.23 - Requests not to receive unaddressed items). Although this suggests BT has breached the Code I doubt the DMA will be willing to criticise BT (they're a lobby group, not a regulator), and in any case the DMA has no enforcement powers (expulsion of its membership is the ultimate sanction).