Postage Paid Envelopes
 

I once heard that if an organization you don’t like sends you mail asking for donations, and they send you a postage paid envelope to send back your money to, if you wanted to you can tape a brick to that envelope and mail it. That organization would then have to pay for postage for that brick.

Does that sound true to anyone? Think it actually works?

You could give it a try, but how would you know if they ever recieved it? That is where your satisfaction would lie, knowing the senders would have to pay to have a brick sent to them. Wouldn't that kind of hurt the people you were sending it to? If they were looking for donations anyway...paying shipping costs on a brick would set them back that much more. I don't know, something to think about.


edit...No. I don't think you could do that. The pre paid postage would only cover the contents of the envelope, not what the envelope was taped to. If that were the case , couldn't you tape it to a car or a tractor?

I read somewhere that there's a cap on the amount of liability attached to a single postage paid envelope. I've also heard that postal workers are allowed to discard postage paid envelopes that are obviously being used for pranks (ie. taped to a brick).

Whether or not that's true, you might damage other people's mail if you put a brick in the system.

I used to put all the material sent to me in the envelope to mail back to them. Once, they sent me a second letter, stating that I had left several items blank on their form, and requesting that I please fill them in. I returned that also, and got a third letter identical to the second. I recycled that one.

Edit: I'm talking about credit card companies here -- I'm not so aggressive towards nonprofits.

taped to a brick wouldn't work, as that's more postage than the standard letter rate (which is usually what the postage paid envelopes arrange for)

tearing up the stuff they end you and sending back the pieces is fun though.

I occasionally send back other peoples solicitations in the return envelope but my friend has done the best thing that I have heard of so far. He took a picture of himself flipping the bird with a big snarl on his face and he sends that back with all of the unsolicited mail that he receives.

I wish there was a way to catch their reactions to that.

Taping it to a brick? No. The Post office would not accept that, but... If you do mail it back, the Post Office does charge that back to the permit holder. If it's more than an ounce, then the difference is split by the permit and the Post Office. There is a limit as to what is charged back though. The company I work for does a lot of mailing with return envelopes.

...for some reason the idea of taping a brick to an envelope and sending it back is a pretty funny mental image in itself... heh heh.

I used to fill the envelops with heavy and/or wierd things: weights, rocks, dirt, random bits of hardware...

It's even funnier when you use a yellow brick and write the address wth a marker and attach the postage with glue.


As for the junk mail, I have three words for you, "RETURN TO SENDER"

thatd be funny as hell...but i seriously doubt itd happen

Someone is being paid minimum wage to sit there and open the envelopes. It's not their fault that credit card companies suck ass. That's why I stopped sending crap back in the return envelopes. I felt bad for making extra work for somebody.

doubt they'd accept a brick, anyway, how on earth would u get it to fit in a post box?!

I can't find a reference to it, but I'm pretty sure that it is illegal to mail buidling materials. I think I might have read it in the Straight Dope. As I recall, someone discovered that it would be less expensive to mail the building materials than to have them transported in any other way; this was quickly discouraged.

When I get unsolicited mail sent to me I clean my truck, put the contents into the return envelope along with all their shit and send it back to them. They want to waste my time; I'll happily waste their time.

Just a curious thought, but can I be held criminally or civilly liable if I print out goatse guy and mail it back to solicitors? That's some sort of harrassment, right?

Oh sweet jesus! Thats brilliant!
You gotta do it!

EDIT: and yeah, it probably is ilegal! :D

That's a hillarious prospect to do! The person opening it will have a coronary. Now we're thinking. As for the legality, who is going to know <I>you</I> sent that in?

i get credit card applications by the dozen every week...

they come with postage page envelopes that i stuff with baseball card wrappers, baseball cards, marlboro miles, potato chip bags what ever i can come up with and send them back - don't stuff them with dirty kleenex - you could be sending a virus - heheheh...

but now they place on the return envelopes "customer locator codes" that identify you as the sender...

so what - have fun but be careful...

I'm somewhere in between. Sometimes I'll send a batch of pennies, other times, I'll send back their stuff filled out with a made up name and an ex-girlfriend's address.

If you ever want to try that, PM me - I'll give you my address - that way you'll know if it works or not.

<i>You can never be too thin, too rich, or have too many tractors</i>

While sending back strange thing's may sound great, it won't stop your getting more stuff. the envelope never goes back to the same place that sent it. While it might cost them $.10, that is a drop in the proverbial bucket, as to their real costs. You are expending more energy in stuffing it and returning it, than the machine that opens it. Best to just throw them all in the trash and make work for the trash disposal people in your local area. If you don't they will go on welfare and it will cost you more in the long run.