So I put the recipient address on the letter but don’t put a return address and don’t put on a stamp
What would happen
Depending on your local postal laws and how willing your postman is, it would either get delivered, and the delivery address gets asked to pay, or it would not get delivered. Or it would get delivered, with just a little complaint note attached.
I’d argue the risk of non delivery is probably relatively high in most countries.
Place where I live has super good postal delivery. My workplace gets quite a lot of post. They deliver it with a little note to inform you postal fees should be paid.
Iirc the return address has to be within a certain radius. So if the return address in the same vicinity of the post office, they’ll return it usually. But bare in mind this is technically a federal offense if you do this knowingly. I don’t think they’d investigate a one-time thing but if you make it a habit, they could.
The Purge depicted in movies: murder and blood everywhere
The Purge IRL: Mail Fraud
Yeah I heard that one before. Another was using a stamp but putting a layer of Elmer’s glue over it, which stopped the cancellation ink from getting on the stamp. The recipient would wash off the glue and re-use the stamp (covering it with more glue the same way) to write back to you. I never tried that myself but I knew people who claimed to have done this in real life, with 1 cent stamps even. Obvs that was from before email and from when out of town (“long distance”) phone calls were quite expensive for the broke nerds I hung with. So they actually wrote to each other with snail mail.
This one doesn’t work anymore. I did this accidentally because I had misaddressed an envelope very badly and decided to use a new envelope. I peeled the stamp off it (one of the sticker ones) and used glue to put it back on the envelope.
The post office returned it to me with a note saying that the stamp could not be used as the ultra violet mark they use to validate stamps couldn’t be seen through the glue.
Be sure to try it with a rent or mortgage payment.
In my experience the recipient gets a card in their letterbox to collect mail from the post office. When they go and collect it, they’re required to pay for the missing postage before they even get to see the item, let alone inspect it.
Source: eBay senders had a brief habit of doing this. I no longer buy from eBay.
If you buy on eBay they are required to send items with tracking. No tracking means you can just ask for a refund and you’ll receive it automatically since they can’t provide a tracking number. The major carriers also do rate adjustments if the seller tries to underpay for packages by listing the wrong weight. Unfortunately as a seller this also means that you have to watch for erroneous weight adjustments and contest them when they crop up. I think it happens when your package is sitting on top of another package when it goes under the automated photo system.
I’ve never had an issue with receiving a package from eBay and I buy and sell on there all the time. I had one package I shipped get lost, I had another I sent through eBays international forwarding service (Pitney Bowes) who said they wouldn’t forward it because of the materials in the item. It was not listed as a prohibited item and isn’t prohibited to ship internationally, I got to keep the money and the buyer got a refund.
I think the scenario is you put your recipients address as the return address.
The post office has been alive longer than you or I. I suspect they’ve seen and dealt with anything you dream up.
Old idea that I fail to find a reference for. It has appeared in some TV shows as a plot. It likely has a cool name…
Last I recall, the “return address” gets a note to pay the postage to get the letter if it seems someone is being clever.
Within one town and once? Likely free postage.
A noticed pattern? Maybe a visit from Postal Inspector.
It’s also a federal crime. So if you keep doing it, you’d get jail time.
Just make sure to also raid the White House. Then you’ll get a pardon.
It was definitely mentioned in Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman.
I’ve wondered the same about switching the to address and return address but not including a stamp. They go to “return” let letter and end up delivering it, unless postage is checked at time of pickup.
Huh, this letter with a Boston return address is in a Hollywood sorting facility. Nothing wrong there!
Gonna need you to hang on. I’m getting a collect call.
…uh-huh…mm-hmmm…ok…sorry, wrong number.
Hey, that was Bob. He had a baby. It’s a boy.
Ah, yes, the ol’ Bob Weottababyitzaboi
Before my time slightly, but I always heard some kids calling collect home to say they are ready to be picked up.
Ring
Click “Hello?”
“There is a collect call from ‘ItsBobImDoneAtTheArc’ would you like to accept the fees?”
click
I was the first in my my friend group in highschool to have a car and a cell phone. My friends would call my cell collect from a payphone and just say where they wanted me to meet them. Never needed a name or explanation, if I got a collect call with a location I would decline it and be there as soon as I could.
