Using junk mail to make a statement

Jeanwah

I am so going to do this with my junk mail from the banks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JlxbKtB ... r_embedded

Jeanwah

Ok, so if you don't want to watch the (short) video, all you do is take those business reply envelopes so often included in your junk mail from banks offering credit cards, etc., seal them and send them back. The banks pay for mailing as whoever sends these envelopes back. If a lot of us do this, the banks inevitably have to pay. It's not the same as getting out and protesting, but it's something, especially seeing they spend enough on junk mail to begin with. If the war is about the banks, we have to use ingenuity in getting them to change their ways.

the wolf

I hate to tell you, but it don't hurt the bank at all.

I work for the credit department at a bank. The bank pays an upfront fee to send out the offers. The business reply envelope is already paid for in that upfront fee.

So in all honesty, all you are doing is making the mail man carry more, and making some guy's who gets paid about 9 dollars an hour life a horror show at work every day.

I take an hour out my day every day to open the things so he can leave to eat lunch.

Trust me, its not hurting the bank in any way.

I suggest getting out in the streets to protest.

Just because I work for a bank, don't mean that I don't see that banks are in some ways evil.

Protest all you want, just letting you know this does nothing to hurt the bank.

Jeanwah

the wolf wrote:

I hate to tell you, but it don't hurt the bank at all.

I work for the credit department at a bank. The bank pays an upfront fee to send out the offers. The business reply envelope is already paid for in that upfront fee.

So in all honesty, all you are doing is making the mail man carry more, and making some guy's who gets paid about 9 dollars an hour life a horror show at work every day.

I take an hour out my day every day to open the things so he can leave to eat lunch.

Trust me, its not hurting the bank in any way.

I suggest getting out in the streets to protest.

Just because I work for a bank, don't mean that I don't see that banks are in some ways evil.

Protest all you want, just letting you know this does nothing to hurt the bank.

I'm pretty sure that businesses only pay for the business replies when they are sent back. I have a friend who works in mailing and my husband works for the USPS. The more people who send these envelopes back with a note or even better, a wood shim, requires that business to pay for the postage to send it back, and that adds up to a lot of money. I doubt that your bank pays up front on these envelopes. But if they do, they are wasting money on envelopes not used. And the majority of those envelopes are not used. I just can't see any business or bank agreeing to a contract with the USPS to pay for unused envelopes. No one would agree to throwing money away.

I'm going to make use of my junk mail. At the very least, since my husband works for the USPS, I consider my actions stability for his job.

chadwick

i like scratch paper and fire starter. i also enjoy recycling. junk mail is a huge business generating millions across the board. how this is possible is beyond me. it's the masses that get hit with this stuff and in the masses some will bite. society (through my eyes) sucks. i still fully believe people are out of their damn minds.

thank you.

brianlux

Great idea and thanks for posting, Jeanwah! I started doing this ages ago (in fact, before all packages were screened you could glue the envelope to a brick and toss it in the mail box) but quit doing so when it occurred to me that all this paper was getting thrown away in landfills so I started to recycle them instead. But using the envelopes to start a communication- I like that. I think I'll use the envelopes to send a message AND recycle their other junk paper.