Return to Sender mail - what happens to it?!

Valli

notenoughhoursintheday wrote: »

I have absolutely no idea which category on the forum is the best place to post this thread, but here goes.....!

When mail is returned by the current occupier of the address as 'not known at this address' - what process actually then happens to it?

I had a huge pile of letters dating back the last couple of years for someone who I don't think ever lived at this address, and popped them all in the post box last month with a sticker over the name and address printed with 'return to sender - not known at this address'. I would say that approximately 99% of the letters had the senders address printed on the back of the envelope.

These letters, I posted in a local village post box that is emptied and mail taken to the sorting office in the local town.

I was chatting with my postie a couple of days ago and he said he had something to tell me - 'oooh, when you return post, don't stick stickers over the recipients name and address because the workers in the town post office have moaned that you have returned lods of letters and they have to peel off all the labels'.

So what I want to know is, what happends when mail is returned? (I've always wanted to know the answer anyway, lol!)

Why does it matter that the recipients name and address is covered with a label when the return to sender address is clearly on the back of the envelope?

Many thanks if anyone can help :money:

Track down Custardy and ask him...

custardy

notenoughhoursintheday wrote: »

I have absolutely no idea which category on the forum is the best place to post this thread, but here goes.....!

When mail is returned by the current occupier of the address as 'not known at this address' - what process actually then happens to it?

I had a huge pile of letters dating back the last couple of years for someone who I don't think ever lived at this address, and popped them all in the post box last month with a sticker over the name and address printed with 'return to sender - not known at this address'. I would say that approximately 99% of the letters had the senders address printed on the back of the envelope.

These letters, I posted in a local village post box that is emptied and mail taken to the sorting office in the local town.

I was chatting with my postie a couple of days ago and he said he had something to tell me - 'oooh, when you return post, don't stick stickers over the recipients name and address because the workers in the town post office have moaned that you have returned lods of letters and they have to peel off all the labels'.

So what I want to know is, what happends when mail is returned? (I've always wanted to know the answer anyway, lol!)

Why does it matter that the recipients name and address is covered with a label when the return to sender address is clearly on the back of the envelope?

Many thanks if anyone can help :money:

because the mail has to go back to the original delivery office for official condemnation
so with the sticker. some poor sod has to peel everyone back to see that
perhaps next time don't let mail sit for 2 years..........

arcon5

custardy wrote: »

because the mail has to go back to the original delivery office for official condemnation
so with the sticker. some poor sod has to peel everyone back to see that
perhaps next time don't let mail sit for 2 years..........

With this being business mail is likely to be franked, can they not just use the franking label to determine the origin?

custardy

arcon5 wrote: »

With this being business mail is likely to be franked, can they not just use the franking label to determine the origin?

there is a system in place
all mail is returned to the originating delivery offfice
the majority of business mail isnt franked

notenoughhoursintheday

custardy wrote: »

because the mail has to go back to the original delivery office for official condemnation
so with the sticker. some poor sod has to peel everyone back to see that
perhaps next time don't let mail sit for 2 years..........

Next time it will go straight in the bin.......!

arcon5

custardy wrote: »

there is a system in place
all mail is returned to the originating delivery offfice
the majority of business mail isnt franked

But how does knowing the recipients address determine which office it originated from?

custardy

arcon5 wrote: »

But how does knowing the recipients address determine which office it originated from?

no. I said the delivery office,as in the office that delivered the mail.

mazza111

notenoughhoursintheday wrote: »

I can understand the local postie having an interest in whether they live here or not, but the post is not sorted in this village - it is taken to the main sorting office in the city, therefore no-one there would have a specific interest in it?



Will it be returned via my local sorting office so that my postie sees it then?


Thank you for replying I was chatting to a collegue this morning, and he said that he regularly returns his unwanted junk mail by marking it 'not known at this address'. Obviously his postie knows that he *is* at that address, so I wonder how that works?!

As you can probably see from the above advice from Custardly, he beat me to it as usual. He's 100% right of course.

heretolearn_2

'it let's the postie see who's not at that address and will eventually pick up on it'

you seem to be suggesting that the postie can then decide not to deliver those items of post. I don't believe that's true. It's not down to them to decide if anyone lives there or not, or if post should be delivered or not.

LisaW123

I think the post office have a returned letters branch and it goes there to be redirected.