Freepers Flaying Nytimes Finances??

none | January 17, 2009 | urtax$@work

[urtax$@work]

I received a nytimescorp. subscription sign-up in my mailbox last week containing advertisements about all the future news that would be available to me if I subscribed to their corporation news. It would contain, I assume Obama coverage (a little pic of him on the advert form).It also contained a return envelope that required no postal payment on my part.

So……….. I started cogitating about the unsolicited paperwork I was forced to deal with, yes forced because you HAVE to do something with the paperwork. Trash it /open it /etc. If you did nothing, your mail box would fill up/ or you desk would clutter up.

Then I thought about the return envelope provided to me. I asked a postal clerk what that envelope is called. She said it was a “Business Reply” envelope. The “no postage needed” label in the top right corner means the nytimescorp WILL BE BILLED by the postal service If I return it to them.

So, I clipped up the contents and returned the “Business Reply” envelope to the Nytimescorp. I can only surmise they will be billed against their budget for an unsuccessful attempt to sell their product.

So……what if lots of people did this. What would the impact be to a struggling business? What if you added extra “paperwork” to the envelope ? Would that add extra postage fees to the billing of the nytimescorp. ?

These are just questions , and I would be interested in your comments.

[urtax$@work]

comments welcome

[raybbr]

I plan on doing the same thing to all the RNC crap I get. I also do it to the Sierra Club.

[hinckley buzzard]

I routinely return all such "reply envelopes" from leftwing organizatoons. I have cost the Carter Center a couple bucks since last year.

[vg0va3]

Great idea! I wish I could do that. However, the grey tramp will not send her trash down this far south because they know we will not purchase their rag.

I would get so much gratification hitting their profit & LOSS statement.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ve done that for ages. Anytime I get unsolicited mail that has a pp return envelope, I stuff everything they sent to me back into the envelope and mail it back to them on their dime.

Let them deal with the trash. I rarely hear from them again. Except cc companies. And the RNC. They’re both shameless.

[George Smiley]

I've done that many times with stuff from people that chap me off.

I haven't looked this up so the numbers here are probably stale, but every prepaid reply envelope that gets returned costs the business something like 85 cents. I believe it's more if the envelope plus contents weighs over one ounce (the underlying meaning of this is left as a hypothetical exercise for the reader).

You can also run the contents through a shredder first before putting it in the prepaid reply envelope as it keeps them from knowing who did it.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Whenever I get credit-card apps (or any other junk mail, except NRA mail or mail from conservative orgs) with a prepaid envelope, I tear my name and any identify info off everything they sent me, pack it into the envelope, and send it back.

If they have a bar code on the back, a black magic marker

[raybbr]

You can also run the contents through a shredder first before putting it in the prepaid reply envelope as it keeps them from knowing who did it.

Just tear off or color over any identifying info. Or, simply stuff it with sheets of newspaper or other junk mail - without your name/address, of course.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Me too. A freeper a year ago or so wrote that he sometimes wraps a brick in brown paper and tapes the envelope to the brick...that they have to pay for the delivery.

[usconservative]

I've been doing that for YEARS now. Any junk mail that comes with a return envelope requiring no postage on my part gets filled with shredded junk mail and returned to the sender.

It's always just been my little way of getting even with "the man."

[peggybac]

I’ve been doing this for years when I get all the unsolicited liberal mail that comes everyday in my mail box. I’ve been receiving mailings from AARP since I was in my early 30s.

[MahatmaGandu]

My father used to wrap up our old phone books in brown wrapping and then tape a junk mail business reply card to the package and drop it in the mail. Then the recipient was charged the usual 150% of first class rate per ounce for the package.

It was an AWFUL thing he used to do and, of course, I'm not encouraging anyone to do the same. (-:

[urtax$@work]

85 cents.......
Good info. I did not think of the ‘extended costs’ to the
nytimescorp.

A friend said he ADDS stuff to generate a higher rate charged back to the business, but i don’t know if thats the way it would actually work.

[Rappini]

Thanks for the tip.

[MahatmaGandu]

Thanks for the tip.

Of course. I felt it was a public service to put this out there so no one did this kind of thing accidentally.

[library user]

I thought the last word in the headline was Fiancés. I was like WTF? My mind is in the gutter apparently.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Whatever you do, do not, I said NOT, fill in the subscription form with the name and address of a neighbor with a Prius festooned with Obama bumper stickers.

Just don’t do that. OK? Got it?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Not even once. Let alone dozens of times.

[tips up]

I do this for most junk mail that comes with such an envelope. Just put their advertisement back in the envelope and send it back to them. Better yet, add some weight so the postage is higher.

[CAluvdubya]

Been doing this for a long time. I like the added touch of shredding the original contents and including it in the reply envelope, though.