ethical dilemma - mail

[hebe]

Yup, RTS...................Oh, I feel a song coming on.

Now who remembers Elvis Presley singing Return to Sender.

"address unknown, no such number..." I'm married to an Elvis buff.

Definitely return to sender.

[Irulan]

I just put a slash mark through the main address, mark "no longer at this address" and put in the mail box.

[badgercat]

Yes, return to sender... I agree, you've already gone above and beyond.

Tip: when RTS-ing, use a permanent marker to black out any barcodes (front or back, black or orange) that were printed on the envelope by the post office. I had a job for a year at a college dorm hall-desk, and a big part of our daily duties was sorting mail. This included forwarding, RTS-ing, or destroying mail addressed to former residents, depending on whether or not they left a forwarding address, how long ago they moved out, and the level of postage. (Presort Standard and the like--aka bulk or "junk" mail--don't get forwarded, unless there are forwarding instructions from the sender, because as I understand it the sender has to have paid extra for forwarding services. You can feel free to throw that out just as you would your own junk mail.)

Anyway, if we didn't black out those barcodes, even if we had crossed out the address and marked Return to Sender, sometimes the envelopes would come right back to us because they got routed based on the pre-existing barcodes, not what was written/stamped on the envelope. Granted, it's been about 5 years since I worked in that capacity, but I'm guessing it's still the same deal. Your postal carrier would probably catch it, but it might save him/her a step.

[jessmarimba]

Thanks guys. I have a bunch of mail in the mailbox to be returned now.

I feel bad about one, which was a slightly oversized envelope that seems to be a Christmas/holiday thing or other, but has no return address (c'mon, people!). But...too bad. I reminded them with my last forwarding & the only reason I didn't send that back was b/c one was a card from Israel.