A Little Something To Help The Post Office

As a stamp collector, I really want the USPS to hang around.

So, I found something that might help the post office AND possibly annoy people that annoy you.

I take all the junk mail I get (mostly credit card offers), open it up and mai back the business reply envelope with nothing in it. That way, the company sending the offers is forced to pay for the return postage, and the post office makes first class postage for each envelope mailed back. I have 12 of them stacked up to go out right now.

It doesn't cost you anything but time, and I think it's a win-win.

I might just have to start doing that!

Great mind's think alike. I started doing that about 2 weeks ago. Sometimes I get three pieces of credit card mail from the same place, so that's 3 pieces sent right back.

Make sure that you name doesn't appear on anything, i.e., computer code in corner. Don't know what the companies would do, but if you see an unmarked dark colored chevy van parked at the end of your driveway.......

I remember years ago some people would tape them to a weight or package like a brick when they would still get charged postage due.

My brother-in-law shreds the inside in a paper shredder and stuffs it all back in (as much as he can, and then mails it back. If it's a bank he hates he ou something heave inside to crank up the postage. At one point, he mailed the lids to some tin cans back, edges tapes to avoid injuring anyone.

I like it- funny stuff.

Here's an entire web site about this very idea (as well as some creative alternatives)!

http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/bulkmailer/

By the way, has anyone taken notice that built into the 2012 postage rate increase is a provision that mass mailers may mail up to the second ounce free. The idea is that bank statements and credit card companies can add globs of junk mail to your monthly statements AT NO EXTRA COST TO THEM!

That is a fantastic idea! I will have to start doing that.

My wife is all on-board for this one! We'll send a different companies offer back. So, a bank may get an offer from say fingerhut!!

Stuff 'em full! plus we wont have to recycle as much paper, or increase the influx of trash to the landfills. It's all very "GREEN" of course. Really quite noble actually. We're saving the planet and the PO.

Interesting, recently I started getting pre-approved offers for really nice credit cards for all sorts of names of people I never heard of before. I've lived here quite a while, already know the name of the previous tenant, but these folks were absolutely random.
Believing something "wrong" afoot, combined with understanding the labor and mailroom costs these companies spend on a per letter basis, I sent them all back to sender. It wasn't current resident mail, and, as far as I know, I'm supposed to. Until this week, I was sending back a good deal. Surely helped save a lot of jobs, and hopefully if it was an Identity theft or fraud issue, that fixed it too.

I wonder why I did not think of this? I like it!

I think there was another thread about this sort of thing a couple of years ago. I remember then I posted the story of a college teacher of mine who would tape a brick to those things and drop them in the mail box. As he said, the post office HAS to deliver it.

I am confused on how this might be considered a 'good' thing.

It does not seem to me to be green in any way. It would drive the consumption of additional non-productive resources (i.e. energy/fuel/time/money) and putting paper waste in a landfill occurs in either one place or another.

As to the causing additional cost to the sending company, who actually pays for this cost? Companies roll the cost of doing business into what they charge for their products/services. Other consumers end up paying for this action, not the company.

Perhaps a better way to help USPS is to promote our hobby and bring new hobbyists to the PO window.

I guess if we just shut down the post office we can make all GREEN people very happy. Look at the carbon you would get rid of.

I have been doing this for as long as I remember, it is just fun but it has never stopped the junk mail. However if it wasn't for junk mail and bills I would get no mail. Let the truck rolls and keep the mail coming.

I've been doing this for years.