herrickd@uunet.uu.net (CONTR HERRICK, DAN) (02/26/91)
In TELECOM Digest #136, Ron Heiby <heiby@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com> writes: >> The thing about my IL Bell bill-paying envelopes, and many others, >> that I continue to find a mystery is, "Why the heck do they need that >> window on the envelope?" As far as I can tell, it's just to give me a >> pain by forcing me to a specific orientation of contents insertion. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >> The envelope already has the city/state/zip+4. In fact, the zip+4 is >> BAR CODED on the envelope! [...] > It may give you a pain to put the contents into the envelope in a > particular way, but it aids the Telco's automation. If the check is > always behind the bill and the bill is right side up, a machine can Ohio Bell annoys me with an envelope that is outsize and won't fit into a shirt pocket or the rubber banded bundle of mail to be posted at various future dates. So I wad it up to fit. Many of my creditors who provide envelopes have the extra flaps that they want me to tear off and use to buy something else. I carefully put my check in the envelope, fold the flap in on top of it and then put their coupon in so it shows through the window the way they specify. My perversity considers the effort a wasy compared with tearing off and discarding the coupon. I want to take away any productivity benefit they get until they stop using those dumb flaps. dan herrick herrickd@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com
levine@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Leonard P Levine) (03/03/91)
Many of us do not know that the cost of mailing a nine-digit bar coded envelope that has the five virtical stripes is $0.27, not $0.29. The nine digit code decreases postal cost, the window save sorting and searching and you save $0.02. Maybe someone will post this someday where various people can see it. By the way, there is at least one program available (for the PC) that will permit the appropriate bar codes to be printed on an envelope by a laser printer as a part of the addressing mode. Program costs $50, savings $0.02; so you have to use it 2500 times to make it pay off. | Leonard P. Levine e-mail levine@cs.uwm.edu | | Professor, Computer Science Office (414) 229-5170 | | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Home (414) 962-4719 | | Milwaukee, WI 53201 U.S.A. FAX (414) 229-6958 | [Moderator's Note: The thing you overlooked was the *minimum pieces per mailing* requirement to get the 27 cent rate. You must mail (I think) 500 pieces or more at a time. The mail has to be taken already sorted by zip code to the post office. You cannot just drop it in a mailbox. I think the postage has to be affixed by meter rather than postage stamp. There are a lot of catches; essentially only very large mailers (this includes telco's outbound mail) are eligible to get the 27 cent rate or find it worth their time. PAT]
johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) (03/04/91)
In article <telecom11.170.6@eecs.nwu.edu> is written: > mailing a nine-digit bar coded envelope that has the five vertical > stripes is $0.27, not $0.29. > [Moderator's Note: The thing you overlooked was the *minimum pieces > per mailing* requirement to get the 27 cent rate. The 27 cent rate applies to single barcoded pieces -- it is specifically intended for customers mailing back bill payments and such. Mailings of 500 pieces suitably marked and bundled are cheaper, about 24 cents. The implementation of the 27 cent rate is "deferred," allegedly because of the need for public education, but also largely because there are no 27 cent stamps printed. It's not clear whether at this point a barcoded envelope on which you put 27 cents would be considered to have enough postage. On another topic of interest here in recent days I note in passing that as well as Enterprise and Zenith prefixes for the old auto-collect service, I've seen them called WX numbers in New Jersy and Pennsylvania. They're not totally obsolete, since you can target a much smaller area than you can with 800 numbers, though I suspect that at an extra dollar or so per call for the collect billing you'd be better off taking a few random 800 calls. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl
dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave Levenson) (03/08/91)
In article <telecom11.170.6@eecs.nwu.edu>, levine@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Leonard P Levine) writes: > Many of us do not know that the cost of mailing a nine-digit bar coded > envelope that has the five virtical stripes is $0.27, not $0.29... > [Moderator's Note: The thing you overlooked was the *minimum pieces > per mailing* requirement to get the 27 cent rate. You must mail (I > think) 500 pieces or more at a time. The mail has to be taken already > sorted by zip code to the post office... I think the 27 cent rate applies to bar-coded mail in minimum mailings of 250 pieces, metered, and delivered to the post office. There is a better rate (used to be .21, now I think it's .23) for bar-coded mail that is also pre-sorted by zip codes, and delivered to the post office in lots of 500. For those of us who mail one or two, or even a dozen envelopes at a time, it's hard to mail for less than .29 for the first ounce. On the other hand, use FAX! It gets there faster, and for up to three pages, probably costs less than .29 within the US. (This _is_ the telecom newsgroup, isn't it?) Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857