I hate COA and ECOA and GM

Today I got a piece of mail in my post office box. Service offers for my Buick.

Only I don't own a Buick. My dad does.

And I got an email today from Buick. Because of the address I used, I can track it back to an email I sent to a local Chevrolet dealership asking questions about the new Malibu.

And this isn't the first time I've gotten mail at the post office box addressed to my dad.

My dad is acting as our banker and owns about 2/3 of our house.

Somehow, marketers are connecting our house to our post office box -- and now my email address -- and confusing me with my dad. (We have similar names.)

How? A stupid process called COA or ECOA, offered by companies like Fresh Address. When you don't update your information with some company that has it, they go to a company like Fresh Address. Fresh Address buys address change information from the companies where you do change your address and then sell it to these companies you chose not to give your new information to.

Evil.