I sent out an invoice on 7/11/2024. The customer claimed that she never received it and apologized profusely. Today, 9/13/2024, I get this returned mail:


Notice anything strange that would imply they never attempted to deliver the letter? And yes, the customer does have a "mail receptacle".

Stamp is uncancelled.

No cancellation mark

dammit, kkina beat me to it

^Yeah, but it took me a whole minute. Must be losing my touch.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Stamp is uncancelled.

Yep. I should totally complain to someone that won't listen anyway. Do you know how much stamps are these days?!

LOL yep, believe it or not I've had the PO return my BR mail envelopes to clients (BR is Business Reply), which is pre-printed, pre-paid PO coded envelope.

The print is supplied and approved by the PO and the same envelopes have been used for 20 years to the same Box back to the client with no such address labels stuck on them..

At that time the top person at the PO and I got along, so I told her about it, she didn't believe me so I brought her 4 envelopes that were done in a week this way.

Got fixed pretty quick, but still how dumb do you have to be to sticker up and return a pre-paid BR envelope.

My question is why bother to put a sticker on it and return it when there are so many trash receptacles everywhere.

I’m puzzled by the date code on the return sticker: “0209/10/24”. It presumably indicates Sep 10, 2024. But what are the first two digits – “02”?

It looks as if the “send to” window is blank but you may have your return address in the “from” window. That’s all that can see without a full on photo.

The yellow sticker would not be phrased right but the envelope would still be returned to you.
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RE: the returned letter not having been cancelled. Just so you know, the non-cancellation means nothing.

I save all the stamped mail I get, and for years, around half of those the USPS hasn't bothered cancelling. (And that's actual numbers - when I started noticing, I tracked it piece by piece for a year and that year it was 54%.) Doesn't matter the type of mail, size, etc. Bulk mail, non-profit, first class, those with USPS printed Zip+4 codes and/or stickers on the bottom or no.

No idea what it saves the USPS in effort or ink, or what it costs them in having some percentage of the stamps winding up getting steamed off and re-used. They must think the latter is irrelevant and maybe it is.

When this first started happening I assumed there was some subtle invisible cancellation, maybe UV-visible. As a stamp collector, I was interested in knowing so I took samples to the local main post office and asked them and they said, "Nope, if it's not visible, it didn't get cancelled." They didn't give a reason and implied it just sometimes happens.

According to a thread in a stamp collector forum, it happens a lot and in other countries, too.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
It looks as if the “send to” window is blank but you may have your return address in the “from” window. That’s all that can see without a full on photo.

The yellow sticker would not be phrased right but the envelope would still be returned to you.
.

Last year when I mailed in my checks to the IRS I had two returned with something similar written on the label.

The address was correct. I had cut it from the tax form and taped it securely to the envelope.