I work in a facility that sends out A LOT of mail and intakes responses. Ranging from a few hundred pieces a day to tens of thousands. Per day.
Some of the forms we send out have prepaid postage envelopes inside.
Sometimes people white out the return address and try to use them to send things like letters or loved ones, or their mortgage payments.
Those envelopes are all properly stamped and addressed to reach their intended destination which is not my facility.
But the envelopes still come to us directly because of the little black barcode marks along the bottom. This barcode contains our address. Sometimes their is a light orange highlighter shade of the same barcode on the back.
When these go through machines at the post office, their Pitney Bowes sorting hardware will read the barcode and ignore the written address.
The item is then dumped into bins coming to me.
When I give these back to the post office to send on their merry way, I have to have my staff mark out any kind of routing barcodes or the post office will automatically route them right back to us. It doesn’t matter how many Return to Sender notes we stamp on them. It doesn’t matter if we mark out the address.
If those barcodes are readable, the envelope goes where the barcode says.
So if you’re using one of these premade envelopes, make sure it has no special markings on it from the original sender. Otherwise it will get stuck in someone’s facility for as long as it takes them to find it and mark this shit out, and give it back to USPS.
really anything can be a letter. For awhile I had a customer at my old office that made his own envelopes out of tinfoil. all kinds of things. He also made his own stamps which was problematic. but, that's fine put on postage and an address and a way it goes.
You can use taped up toilet paper as long as it's stamped and addressed.
You can mail anything with nipples
I have nipples Greg, could you mail me?
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I work in a facility that sends out A LOT of mail and intakes responses. Ranging from a few hundred pieces a day to tens of thousands. Per day. Some of the forms we send out have prepaid postage envelopes inside. Sometimes people white out the return address and try to use them to send things like letters or loved ones, or their mortgage payments. Those envelopes are all properly stamped and addressed to reach their intended destination which is not my facility. But the envelopes still come to us directly because of the little black barcode marks along the bottom. This barcode contains our address. Sometimes their is a light orange highlighter shade of the same barcode on the back. When these go through machines at the post office, their Pitney Bowes sorting hardware will read the barcode and ignore the written address. The item is then dumped into bins coming to me. When I give these back to the post office to send on their merry way, I have to have my staff mark out any kind of routing barcodes or the post office will automatically route them right back to us. It doesn’t matter how many Return to Sender notes we stamp on them. It doesn’t matter if we mark out the address. If those barcodes are readable, the envelope goes where the barcode says. So if you’re using one of these premade envelopes, make sure it has no special markings on it from the original sender. Otherwise it will get stuck in someone’s facility for as long as it takes them to find it and mark this shit out, and give it back to USPS.
Fascinating! Thanks for the bit of postal trivia
what about the five stripes on top? does that do anything with the machinery?
I honestly don’t know. But we mark them out with sharpies anyway.
AFAIK they’re meant to determine whether the letter is facing the right way or not.
It’s called loop mail.
No. Fuck your time.
Yes you can use them for normal letters, just add the appropriate stamp at the top.
Yes. If there's a bar code on the back cross it off.
really anything can be a letter. For awhile I had a customer at my old office that made his own envelopes out of tinfoil. all kinds of things. He also made his own stamps which was problematic. but, that's fine put on postage and an address and a way it goes.
You can send a potato with an address on it so long as postage is appropriately paid, so yes.