November 04, 2005

Doesn't work, sad to say.

Oh, apparently it used to, but the Post office dead letters those things these days.

Looks like the thing for old printers, monitors, etc....:-)...!

The PO won't let you mail a box with a taped on postage paid envelope. It has to be a postage paid LABEL.

You can still put all your junk mail in it and give some temp a job at the far end opening envelopes and throwing it all away.

or you can cut up the envelope and make it look like a label and tape that on....

The NY Times always sends me a postage paid envelope with the letter inquiring if I am interested in home delivery.

I enjoy using that envelope to send them a little "love note" telling them why I won't buy their rag!

None of that will work. The Post Office will trash can any large items taped to a business reply piece. The merchandise return labels mentioned above are completely different and yes, the postal employees are smart enough to tell the difference.

You can, however, put as much stuff in the prepaid envelope as you can fit and mail it and the originating company has to pay the postage on it. They get tons of stuff like that every day and trust me, it's not a big surprise or a problem for someone like MCI.

Keep in mind that marketers need a way to present their products to you. If you close one door it opens another. When everyone started signing up for the "do not call" telephone list, companies started sending door-to-door solicitors out. Which is worse?

I venture to bet that a piece of mail has never gotten you off of the toilet or interrupted your dinner, so what's the harm?

Be aware that one out of every nine people in this country get a large percentage if not all of their income from the mail. This includes printers, tree farmers, paper mills, trucking companies, postal employees and yes, mailers.

And, it's more environmentally friendly than newspapers. Mailers tend to target mailings to those most likely to respond, unlike tons of newspaper advertising, and use recycled paper and soy bean based inks.

It's fun to talk about pranks like the bricks and tires, but they're urban myths. What I like to do, is write letters to the people and send them in the postage paid envelopes. Stuff like "stop sending the magazines, I never bought a subscription but they keep coming." I got a whole slew of correspondence from the Wall Street Journal trying to figure out why I was getting the newspaper every day and how...

Fill the prepaid envelope with lead shot (available at your local gun shop) ... as much as it can hold. Its perfectly legal, and it all fits inside the envelope. I know because I've done it. Enjoy!

Sounds like shooting the messenger to me...why punish the letter carriers?

Business Reply Envelopes usually go to a contract direct-mail agency, seldom the company named on the envelope.

An easier way to limit mail offers is to opt off the Direct Mail Association's list. Send them a letter and tell tem you'd rather not receive direct-mail advertising. See http://www.dmaconsumers.org/consumers/optoutform_emps.shtml

Direct Mail association has an opt-out for e-mail, also.

Opting out doesn't save you from the mailer using his own lists or a "every house on the block" approach.

djs

trish, honey, ya missed the point...

its no punishment to letter carriers, they get paid to handle and deliver whatever we send, the punishment is to the sender. a postage paid envelope is a blank check. the heavier it is the more the original sender has to pay when you ship it back

More than 30-years ago I did this - stuffed the reply envelope as full as I could with the stuff they sent me and old coffee grounds. Someone must have paid attention - I began to get less and less of this type mail.