By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Last week in this space I likely bored you with my outburst against charities that share the names of donors with other charities who then flood our mailboxes, e-mail and telephones with solicitations for gifts.
It’s so bad at my home that I’m getting as many as eight direct mail pieces a day and I’ve accumulated nearly 70 addresses of these organizations. I’ve called and written to ask several of them to remove me from their mailing lists but those pleas were ignored and the junk mail keeps rolling in.
I tried to send a note to an old Army pal a few weeks ago but the address I had was out of date and the letter came back, much to my dismay, but it also had a good result because the front of the envelope contained a four-word message that I am hopeful will become my secret weapon.
REFUSED – RETURN TO SENDER.
Despite my frustration over the incessant mailings, I had forgotten that the U. S. Postal Service will return mail if it remains unopened and a return address appears on the envelope. And the folks who mailed it get to pay additional postage to have it returned.
My friend had moved away and the manager of his apartment building had printed those four magic words on my original envelope. It cost me about 60 cents to get it back, but I felt empowered with the means to fight back.
Those arrogant charities or the direct mail companies working for them now get to lose what it cost to print and mail each piece and then they have the privilege of paying return postage. That makes me want to laugh out loud.
I have a label printer hooked to my personal computer at home. I already have printed 10 labels with those four key words in bold letters. Those labels were placed on unwanted solicitations and I’m taking them to the Post Office tomorrow.
If that really works and everyone does it, we might get the USPS back on track financially.
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
Keith, I am very sorry thet you are being punished for donating to charities by getting slammed with junk mail. Unfortunetly putting “REFUSED – RETURN TO SENDER” on a 3rd class mailpiece will do nothing. The only thing you are doing is causing more work for your mail carrier. All they will do is toss it into the trash. If you would really like to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive sign up for DMA Choice for $4, Optoutpreescreen will stop credit card offers. If you need more help stopping junk mail let me know.