PaperKarma - Stop Junk Mail Reviews

by Ken94305

Really wanted this to work, but still getting mail from at least 90 senders I reported 3 months ago. Mainly non-profits that mail every 3 weeks, with many reported 4 or 5 times. They’re ignoring this app’s requests. I’d pay more if this app would call them and get me off the list. Am going to start using their business reply envelopes to ask to be removed from the list. When a mailer has appeared multiple times over 4 months, there should be an escalation path to deal with them.

by LaurenW - In SV

I have bought tons of apps and this is the first review I have ever taken the time to write.

I was so excited about PaperKarma and was happy to pay for the opportunity to end (or even substantially lessen) all my paper junk mail! I’ve been paying for a monthly subscription for the last 5 months, and have taken the time to unsubscribe over and over to each of the vendors. Most of my unsubscribe requests say “successful” (except CB2 and Crate and Barrel are weirdly still pending) but I have seen very little abatement and still receive almost the same amount of those catalogues on a regular basis.

Even more frustrating, is now I’m constantly getting NEW catalogues from companies I’ve never heard of. I realize that all of these companies share and sell consumer address lists, but I’ve never seen so many additional new catalogs in such a short period of time. The torrent of new-name ones only started coming about a month after I subscribed to PK! Now I have to use PK even more! I’m wondering if unsubscribe requests from PK somehow alert companies to sell your info to other like companies?

I will definitely be “unsubscribing” from PK. Very very disappointing.

by Clareakaoz

When you first use PaperKarma it starts to walk you through the process of removing your address from a mailing, which I think is what most people DL PaperKarma for. You take a picture of the senders name and address, then manually enter your own name and address, and are then prompted to accept the terms and conditions (which include a lot of stuff about the interactive user content aspect of PaperKarma , rather than the remove junk mail feature). The next screen has required fields for your full name and a password and confirm password. Is this a new password I need to create to use PaperKarma ? Why?
When all fields are filled, I couldn’t get further, and the Oops message was completely useless, simply saying that my “full name” was needed when it was already there.

by Oldthinker

This developer may very well send a desist request to junk mailers on your behalf, but what they hope you don’t know is that those mailers are not legally obligated to honor a request by someone else on your behalf. They’ll take your money and perform a service, but be aware that their service could have literally no effect on the amount of junk mail you receive.
UPDATE: The developer response to this review does not manage to contradict this premise at all, but rather simply claims that they presume to leverage good “relationships” with some companies (although not all, with one “bad actor” being the US Postal Service itself). Further, customer reviews “point to” an efficacy rate markedly less than 90%.

by WTFitdoesntwork

10 out of my 11 requests are still pending. They all say “You’re one of the first people to request removal from this company. We have it in our queue now, but figuring out other companies may take precedence.”

For an app that claims to prevent junk mail from credit card companies, saying that I’m “one of the first people” to report getting junk mail from American Express is pretty hard to believe... I can understand local companies being new to them, but come on... I’ve already paid the $20 for the yearly subscription so I’m constantly entering in new junk mail in hopes that they’ll stop telling me that everything is new to them!

What is the point of PaperKarma if the developers didn’t research all the companies and how to follow through with their big claims to prevent junk mail from companies?? It’s a great idea, but they’re not following through with their claims on what it can actually do.

I’ll continue to enter in all my junk mail... but it’s getting pretty disappointing.

by Monkeyattack

I had PaperKarma for a long time back when it was free, and it worked reasonably well. There was still a number of items I could not remove, but it did remove quite a few. However, it also didn’t last. It seems you have to remove yourself every year from some of these subscribers.

As time went on, PaperKarma proved to be less and less effective at removing catalogs and credit card email. I seemed to get more and more. I don’t think this was PaperKarma ’s doing, but I do think PaperKarma have somehow lost some of its effectiveness.

Then one day, they asked me for money. A LOT of money. I fail to understand how you can possibly justify charging $20 a year just for using PaperKarma, especially when PaperKarma was free for so long. I would have supported a one-time $5 purchase, but a monthly subscription? Talk about shifting from a philanthropic mindset to an absolutely crass, cash grab. Take Karma out of your name—it’s now an oxymoron.

I’ve deleted PaperKarma from my phone.

by Mmpeach

Unusable app as of April 2018, when you are supposed to take a picture of the junk mail’s logo, the button to take the picture is below the bottom of your phone screen. You can see the top edge of the button but there is no way to take the picture.
I’ve used the previous paper karma app for years and it worked great. Now that they are charging a subscription fee , it appears they are rolling out updates to PaperKarma without inadequate testing. Now everyone with a phone with my screen size is wasting $2 a month on an unusable app.

by Harmany In Nature

I used PaperKarma several years ago when it was free or just a couple bucks. Took my junk mail to virtually nothing. My mom lived on my property and passed away. She loved her junk mail.
So I paid for the new version and almost 6 months into faithfully listing every catalogue and junk mail I have maybe reduced the amount by a little. Half of them are marked pending since back in June. A bunch say success and when I go and report that they are still sending mail I see the note “we’ll check into it” for months. And the mail keeps coming.
Frustrated at paying for an app that works less well than when it was dirt cheap.

by JustOneAndDone

I occasionally start to get a bunch of junk mail so once in a while I pickup PaperKarma .

However the first 2 plans don’t cover everything so I paid for the full year service thinking it will allow me to get rid of most of the junk mail.

But I was dead wrong. I am getting a bunch of junk mail directed at me or my household members. Not bulk mail but regular junk mail. But every time I try to send a stop request through PaperKarma , it just tells me that its a bulk mailer without an option to appeal this. Straight up denial. So much for the useless yearly plan I paid.

There’s also no way to add an address of mailer not on the database yet I’m paying for the tier that supposedly lets me add them.

by Just Another Statistic

Classic case of app developer over estimating the value of their service. Would have been fine paying 0.99 for 10 unsubscribes (and then 0.99 for another 10 pack). But $2/month or $24/year way over estimates the value of what this does. There’s an ‘unsubscribe’ link on many junk mail pieces that takes me a few clicks to complete the same thing that PaperKarma does. PaperKarma was a handy way to skip a few manual steps. And even if there were not, the pricing here is just way off for me at least. Too bad, as I would have stuck with it.

by Yankees Famly

I have tried for twenty minutes to set up PaperKarma . It just keeps sending a message to verify my name, email address and\or password. Waste of time. Update: Developer contacted me to say it was likely due to my email address already used on their site. That turned out to be correct but I am not paying for PaperKarma. There used to be one free. I will find that one again. Upgraded to 3 star due to their customer service.

by DLMMLD

PaperKarma was a Godsend when it first came out. Now you are requiring a subscription payment, which I absolutely understand. I have no problem paying for the service contained in PaperKarma. What I do mind, however, is the amount. I feel that it is excessive. I would gladly pay an annual fee with restrictions placed on the number of requests. Why is that not an option... or perhaps a pay per use option?

by JEShakespeare

I was getting a lot of junk mail when I moved to my new apartment and PaperKarma has helped cut down on it a substantial amount. I probably get about five items of junk mail per week whereas before it was around 10 or 15. Using PaperKarma however is not enjoyable. It uses an OCR feature to detect the mailer from a photo of the junk mail, but it is only right about a quarter of the time, if that. It would be much quicker to simply be able to type in the company in the first place.

by CaliRya

This has become one of my favorite apps. At first it felt like a lot of work to set up and I wasn’t seeing immediate results. But then I just got in the habit of snapping a pic of every item of junk mail I get and tossing it in the recycling bin.

Patience paid off, because after a few months, I’m seeing my junk mail volume starting to go way down! There’s still a few companies that don’t seem to honor the request, so I‘ve called them for removal. However, I’ve only had to call a handful. PaperKarma is a huge time saver.

by Craftygirl79

I hardly get any junk mail anymore. I been using PaperKarma and a few other tricks to get rid of junk mail. First, I started taking all the mail that comes with a return envelope and sending that mail back to the company. Write on the envelope, “take me off your list”. Include your home address to make it easier for the company to take you off their list. To get off of the Redplum ads, you have to go their website and use their unsubscribe page. To get off the ads that are apart of your newspaper company, you have to write to the newspaper. I don’t get the newspaper but I was getting their annoying ads. I have been ad free for three years maybe. I do all that and I use this ap. I get one or two pieces of junk mail a month. I started using PaperKarma a few years ago. It has changed my life. Now, mostly get bills in the mail. Some days, I get zero mail. I love it because I feel like I’m helping the environment. I’m saving paper or a tree. The more people use PaperKarma. the more we do good things for the environment. It’s exciting when someone sends me a card in the mail. It’s not all mixed up with a bunch of junk. Stuff won’t get lost. I really appreciate PaperKarma. I enjoy being paper free. I recommend PaperKarma to someone who can’t seem to get his mail situation under control. I hope he uses PaperKarma . Thank you this app for making apart of my life paper free. :)

by SmallmcCall

But Paper Karma is everything they said it would be. It’s super easy and actually makes me happy now when I get junk because I have this simple way of dealing with it. I was HAPPY to pay the annual fee to support this beautiful work, to benefit the planet, and to save me HOURS of hassle. Thank you Paper Karma!

by Geekgirlweb

I've been using this app for years and am so glad it exists for all that unexpected paper junk mail you get. Especially any previous tenants if you just moved into an apartment!

Would you rather have to keep recycling tons of mail or just unsubscribe with a photo? It has a simple interface and save tons of time trying to figure out how to opt out of paper spam.

by Robsters79

Thankful a company like this exists. PaperKarma gives feedback on if they were able to notify the mailer or not. Understandable they can’t contact every possible sender in the world, but it sure seems like they successfully submitted a request for 75% of the mailers I’m tired of have to shred and recycle. Don’t mind paying them a small fee to eliminate wasted time opening and shredding junk mail that I would never read anyways.

by 115ab115

It took 18 months of diligent snapping for my mailbox to go from 300 avg/month pieces of junk (catalogues, offers etc) to under 10.
it takes a while I suspect because some of the companies process the Remove request in bulk at periodic points (rather than as they receive requests).
But i went on a 8 week trip (!) and my mailbox didn’t overflow: 18 months ago when I started with Paper Karma, it would overflow in under a week.

by Occasional PC User

i’ve been using this app for a few years, always recommending it to friends trying to reduce waste and stay more off the marketing grid.

i moved to a new address which came with tons of new junk mail. the new app won’t take my email and the reset password doesn’t work, so i can’t really speak for the new features or paid subscription.

thanks for all the help in the past but would love some help with my account so i can use again

by Teamkristen

I was excited to sign up for PaperKarma when I first heard about it years ago because its mission statement seemed to focus on reducing paper usage across the country. I used it religiously for a long time—then suddenly they started charging a monthly fee. I hoped after this long they would have realized their mistake and offered a free version, but they are still charging a subscription fee. I understand they want to make money, but it shows that they aren’t exactly the environmentally-conscious company I thought they were.

by Emanuel469

My experience has been great so far. Receiving less junk email in the last couple of months. My only feedback for now is that I wish we could use the same address and simply change the name of the person when adding a “new address”