BS: Return to sender

Subject: BS: Return to sender
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 04:21 AM

Just got another load of junk delivered by the postie.

If I give then back to the postie and mark them return to sender, is the postie obliged to take them?

or

Can you mark them return to sender and shove them back in the post office postbox.

Just got one today from readers digest. Massive envelope, telling me that I am in their draw. Must have cost them a fortune and total waste of paper, ink and all the other costs involved. Can't we get a ban on readers digest?

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: fat B****rd
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 04:26 AM

Years ago,I applied for a form to have my 'junk mail' stopped, on the other half of the form was a section to allow more junk mail.
Sorry, Les, can't remember where I got the cancellation form -but it did work.
Charlie

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 04:53 AM

I know about the form Charlie. The problem is that some post that may be treated as spam/junk mail I want.

I just thought, it would be good fun to send it all back to the post office as I didn't ask them to deliver it in the first place.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 07:46 AM

On this side of the pond, rumour has it that marking something REFUSED means the sender has to pay the postage when we send the junk back.

Until I heard this, I used to slap on a (homemade) UNSOLICITED JUNK MAIL, RETURN TO SENDER sticker before returning junk mail.

OZPost also makes a fortune delivering unaddressed mail - those of us who rent PO Boxes can tick the box that sez. words to the effect of NO JUNK MAIL when paying for our POBs, but I'm not aware of any such option for home post boxes.

We can also get NO JUNK MAIL/NO ADVERTISING MATERIAL stickers from civic-minded organisations, but some folks delivering junk mail don't see it as junk, so deliver it anyway.

good luck in stopping the flood of junk mail.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Michael
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 07:54 AM

One of the problems is that the Post Office are required to deliver addressed mail no matter how junky it is, so the onus is on you to return it or stop it at source.
Now the unaddressed shite they also deliver is another matter.

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 09:42 AM

I just recycle it. It's THEIR expense; my recycle bin is on the way into the house. I can't be bothered to write "NOT AT THIS ADDRESS" or "REFUSED" on it -- I just junk it.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 10:30 AM

Bulk mailers nowadays use so many tactics to make their stuff look important ("official" looking government-brown envelopes, "URGENT" markings, etc.) that a lot of it would probably get by a "no junk mail" order anyway. The post office can't open it to see what's in it, and if it's not 100% apparent that it's junk mail, they'd have to deliver it. They can't be making judgement calls. Ninety-nine out of a hundred pieces marked "URGENT" may be bullshit, but that other one piece could be very important.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 10:35 AM

I have marked junk mail return to sender and put it back in the post post box. If I can't be bother to go to that hassle I put it in the recycling.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:27 PM

Here is a non-profit set up to help you stop junk mail. It's purpose is to help stop the environmental impact of unsolicited printed mail. There is also a Facebook group for it. There is a fee, but they donate it to a cause of your choice.

http://www.41pounds.org/

41pounds.org stops your junk mail and catalogs

You can contact the direct mail association and ask to be taken off of mailing lists (free).
https://www.directmail.com/directory/mail_preference/


Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:34 PM

It takes less than a minute online to remove your name and address from the direct mail mailing lists at the directmail.com link I posted. That's what I did. I recommend it, and it is free.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:46 PM

It's interesting to see a discussion of a topic like this, involving people from at least three different continents....
The problem is universal, but the solutions vary.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:47 PM

Ok I will give that a try Alice

Thanks for all the help from everybody

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:50 PM

In the past I received the occasional package usually containing a book that I hadn't ordered. I discovered that if I had not opened the package and Returned to Sender that was the end of it. If I opened it and discovered that I had not ordered it, the post office would not return it free of charge.

Regular junk mail goes to recycle at my house.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:52 PM

Where are you Alice?

I went onto teh direct mail website and it looks like its for the USA

Les

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:58 PM

Direct mail solicitations/ads (junk) use a lot of resources in paper, ink, printing, transportation. It helps the environment if you put your name on the do not mail list, rather than recycling it or throwing it away. Better that it not be sent to you at all, to conserve resources and energy. The one I linked is for the USA.

In the UK, register on the do not mail list here:

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 02:11 PM

Is there a link you can click to have your junk mail piled up to the height of the Great Pyramid over a telemarketing call centre and set on fire?

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 02:13 PM

Just a note, the USA site requires that you reply to two confirmation emails sent to the email address you provide in order to COMPLETE the registration of your name and address on the do-not-mail list. Don't forget to open the emails you get from directmail.com and complete the registration.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 02:23 PM

Please don't do anything to sabotage the Post Office (UK). It is fighting for its life against the forces of capitalism within "New" Labour and the willowy Mandelbaum. If it runs operating losses they will privatise the profitable bits.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 02:26 PM

And in the meantime, companies are using up valuable resources.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 02:37 PM

Just a thought here Alice
If I register would the following examples be affected

BSKYB send us there monthly TV magazines, which we want as we have Sky

Tesco send us our shopping vouchers which are worth money.

Companies where we have road insurance/house insurance/etc

What I want to stop is people like readers digest, car insurance companies, house insurance companies, loan companies, credit card companies etc.

Thanks for the link

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 09:53 PM

You choose what type of SOLICITATIONS you do not want to receive.
If you are already a subscriber or customer of a company, then you would still get mail from them.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 09:59 PM

If I'm not clear, let me describe it this way.

If you are a customer of a company or subscribing to something, you have already given them permission to mail to you. You will continue to get mail from them.

If there are Direct Mail advertisers (junk mail you have not asked for) who mail stuff to you when you have not asked for it, you can ask on that web site to be put on a do-not-mail list.

Companies waste money when sending stuff to people who definitely don't want it. They save money by having their mailing lists purged so they are only mailing to people who may want to buy. It is in the interests of the Direct Mail industry to know that you don't want the stuff sent to you.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 03:09 AM

Thanks Alice. Done it.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 10:15 AM

Back in the olden days (before junk email!) I contacted the Australian Direct Marketing Assn to get my name removed from lists maintained by their members. I assume they still exist & can still stop unwanted mail being sent by their members.

We also have a Do Not Call Register, which works well, tho charities, politicans, marketing companies & companies you've dealt with are exempted.

seems like the situation is the same all around the world

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Alice
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 10:47 AM

Villain, if you are in doubt about Tesco and Sky continuing their mailing, just contact them directly and let them know you want to continue receiving the tv schedule and the shopping vouchers.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Peace
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 02:10 AM

I once put the 'return' stamp onto a brick that weighed about 20 pounds and sent it back. I put a note with the brick telling the people who'd sent the mail that since my first request to be removed from their mailing list was ignored, I thought this an apt way to bring myself to their attention. And if this didn't work the next parcel would have two bricks in it. Never heard from them again.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 11:24 AM

I live in the united states. Long ago I signed up here:

https://www.directmail.com/directory/mail_preference/

and got my mail cut by a lot. This is not a government thing, and it doesn't affect charities. But it does help.

When I get unwanted mail now, I go to the company's web site and send an e-mail asking to be taken off. It usually works.

Don't send the mail back. The post office will just throw it away, because it's just bulk mail with something wrong with it. You will be making life harder for the letter carrier and clerks in your own neighborhood. From what I have seen, those people don't need any more hassles.

I take my junk mail down to a church, which recycles it to help feed the hungry.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: GREEN WELLIES
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 11:57 AM

When we get junk mail, I gather up all the sweet wrappers, choc wrappers, empty crisp packets etc I can find in the house and pop them in the envelope with their mail and a note saying, 'thanks for the rubbish - now you can have some of ours' ! and just put it back in the post with a label saying 'not known at this address please return to sender'

Ive even received an apology in the past !

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 03:55 PM

I assume The Villan is not in the USA since we don't use the word "postie" here.

For the benefit of any Americans who might this thread, I will tell what I know about American postal procedures.

If you mark something "Return to Sender" it probably won't accomplish what you want.

Regardless of what you write on a letter or package, it won't necessarily be returned; that depends on what level of service the sender has paid for, or promised to pay for. Generally, First-Class mail and packages can be returned, while advertising mail can only be trashed, unless it was endorsed by the sender with special instructions such as RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED.

Unless the sender has specifically asked you to do so, I wouldn't recommend using business-reply envelopes to notify the sender that you don't want their mail. Often the job of opening and processing business-reply mail is outsourced to a fulfillment company. These companies are paid PER PIECE to FILL ORDERS—hence the name. They employ low-paid, low-status, low-skilled, overworked employees to process their customers' orders. These people have no sense of loyalty to the company that is sending the mail, and no incentive to do anything that is outside the terms of their contract (the company) or outside their job descriptions (the employees). Any complaints, non-routine requests, or miscellaneous correspondence that they receive will probably be "lost." Receiving bricks or candy wrappers in the mail is definitely not routine. Can you imagine a low-level employee forwarding a brick through interoffice mail to the person who actually has control of the mailing list? They'd probably fire HIM.

Finally, if you are getting unsolicited mail from a company you have never done business with, it is because the company has bought a mailing list, probably for one-time use only, from a list vendor. (Of course the same company might buy the same list again later, thus giving you the impression they have you on their own permanent list, but this is probably false.) Therefore the sender CAN'T remove you from the original list because they don't own the list. You won't be added to the sender's own permanent database unless you order something. If you write to them demanding that your name be "removed", they could, theoretically, forward your request to the list vendor, but they have practically zero incentive to do so.

The best way to reduce your unwanted mail is to do exactly as leeneia advises above.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: beardedbruce
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 04:10 PM

I can remember an article ( back in the 70's) about a man in Vermont, who built a "green" house. He designed it so the furnace burned paper- and had a barn to store his junk mail in the summer, which he used to heat the house all winter. Seems he liked the idea of the post office delivering his fuel to him throughtout the year.
He did sign up for every free mailing and catalog he could- I don't know if the article blew his cover or not.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 04:47 PM

I love gettin' junk mail. The more the better. I use it for startin' fires, for pluggin' air leaks around doors and windows in the cold weather, and for stuffin' cheap pillows and mattresses, and I have also wallpapered the entire entrance hall with it at no cost to me except for a little white glue. Sometimes I make paper airplanes out of it on a slow day and sail 'em out the office windows. It's on the third floor, so they fly real good.

- Chongo

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: open mike
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 05:07 PM

i usually comment about the kindling each time i pick up (junk) mail at the post office. I do keep it until winter, when it comes in handy for fire starter...but last winter i heated my motor home with the propane furnace and so have accumulated a huge pile of paper now..

and it is not likely to be cool enough to build a fire any time soon.
temps are in the 100+ degrees. i did use some papers to start burn piles last winter...as there are huge piles of trees needing to be eliminated since the forest fire killed most of the ones in the area.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 10:56 AM

Thanks for all the info, Jim Dixon. I didn't know that about the one-time use of lists. That is good to know.

As for the man who heated his place using bulk mail, I have my doubts. Paper burns very fast and is probably very inefficient fuel. It also produces particularly irritating smoke and soot. I wonder what shape a chimney would be in after burning a lot of paper.

Remember when you could buy a device for rolling newspapers into 'logs' for burning? I don't see the devices for sale any more. Perhaps people tried them and the whole thing just didn't work.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: olddude
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 11:11 AM

I use to take their paid envelopes and send them back with nothing in them. That way they had to pay the postage for an empty envelope. Like the credit card stuff, fill out this form and mail it back ... well I would just mail the empty envelope back nothing in it not even the return address

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: maeve
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 11:25 AM

Here it at one of many sources found by Google Newspaper log roller

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: ranger1
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 12:14 PM

LOL, there is a spam post right above mine.

I tried filling out the form, but they insist on a title and an e-mail addy. I don't give out my e-mail addy and it really is none of anyone's business if I have a title. Guess I'll just continue to stick the unwanted mail abck in the postage paid envelopes and mail them back.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to sender
From: EBarnacle
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 10:51 AM

Instead of sending bricks, which have value, send rocks. Also, you can use the direct mail response card enclosed in many of the mailings to make sure they pay the freight. Generally, they have no postage required imprints.