From: John De Armond Newsgroups: alt.home.repair,misc.rural Subject: Re: Height for rural mailbox Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:35:18 -0400 Message-ID: <vpa804ljspo48813qt6o0g6l8thdg2fdjm@4ax.com> On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:53:43 -0400, "Edwin Pawlowski" <esp@snet.net> wrote: > >"SteveB" <pittmanpirate@henderson.com> wrote in message >> I'm going to start taking their return envelope, fill it with other >> stuff, and send it back to them so they will have to pay for the excess >> weight. MAYBE they will take the hint and take me off their mailing list. > >I do that all the time. I remove anything with my name and stuff the return >envelope with papers from another offer. Be aware that the direct mail industry got the regulations changed over 15 years ago to stop most of the liability for those stunts. The return postage limit is capped at something like a dollar. The regs let the post office simply toss overstuffed envelopes, something the sorting machines do with verve. If you want the BRM to actually cost the mail spammer anything then don't over-weight it. Actually, just sending back the empty envelope accomplishes about 85% of your goal of costing them something. As of 15 years ago when I was in the magazine business, a postage-paid business reply matter (BRM) cost around 85 cents in postage so stuffing it doesn't do much. Takes the fun out of sticking a PP-BRM to an old tire and mailing it back :-) >Credit card company may get the >offer for cheap car insurance or a coupon for 20ยข off a box of Tampax. >Sure, childish maybe but I have to wonder what nasty names the guys in the >mailroom call me when they open them. Much of the BRM envelope processing is now done in the Third World. Again, 15 years ago Bangladesh was becoming a major player. Back then they'd ship the bulk mail to Bangladesh for opening and ship it again, this time to a nominally English speaking area like India for keypunch. Handwriting recognition software probably does it now. No Americans ever touch the paper after it leaves the USPS sorting facility. Only speculation now: Probably the most effective thing at gumming up the works that you could do would be to put something in or on the envelope that would muck up the operation of the sorting machines. Like that rubber snot that they bind in the business reply post cards in magazines. The post office tends to reflect all the costs of processing back onto the direct mail industry so I bet that if a lot of people do this, there would be a negative effect on direct mail. If you just want to get rid of junk mail then there are several steps you can take. I've done all of these and it has worked grandly. 1. Get on the federal do-not-call list. http://www.donotcall.gov/ 2. Get on your state's do-not-call list 3. Get on the Direct Marketing Association's do-not-mail list 4. Have a flag put on your account with the three major credit reporting agencies that you do not want to get credit card or loan solicitations. Here is the DMA's opt-out page http://www.dmachoice.org/consumerassistance.php The first selection is what you want, though it seems broken at the moment. Incidentally, the DMA is raising the legislative alarm regarding states that are proposing to pass do-not-mail legislation similar to the do-not-call ones. Their "bad" (our good) states are listed here. http://www.the-dma.org/donotmail/ Use this as a guide to support existing legislation if your state is included or to spur new legislation if it isn't. John |