UK Users - New Royal Mail Regulations

[sobriquetnic]

Hi all

I'm sure that many of you will have received a letter at your business from Royal Mail regarding this, but they are asking that a return address be put on all your mail to ensure that undeliverable mail is returned to you.   I understand now that any such mail, should it not include a return address, will be destroyed.  Follow this link for full details:-

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=600024&mediaId=14400260

This has been a wake-up call for our company as we do not have pre-printed envelopes which include our address, though I quite often use the Letter addressing feature on word which prints it on my envelopes.  Our main concern of course is our payments which are sent out by our Accounts department who do not follow any procedure on their envelopes.

I have now obtained a new logo for our franking machine which instead of just having our logo on, now has our return address printed underneath it.  This cost £75 + VAT but this is a one-off charge and I think will prove to be the most effective in the long run.  

All the best,
Nicola.

[Cozwaz]

We got a letter about this on Friday Nicola and it caused lengthy discussion, with some of the male members of staff saying 'why should we!'!

Thing we will get our addresses added to our franking logo too.

Coz

[beaintheuk]

Our company is complying and straight away, we were told we should put labels at the back of any letter (we were given some by the receptionist!) until we get our envelopes pre-printed (the already have our logo on).

Makes sense for businesses, I think!

Bea

[andream]

It's always puzzledme that having a return address in the UK wasn't much of an issue.  In the US a letter isn't a letter without a return address on the envelope and the letterhead itself.  Given that both organizations have the occassional spotty delivery record, it's a safe thing to do! In the US if a letter needs to be returned and has no return address, it goes to the dead letter office, (which means it may as well be shredded since you'll a.  never know it's there and b.  never find it anyway even if you DID know it's there....
Andrea

[uberpa]

Andrea, this too has always puzzled me.  Many companies have no retrun address on their envelopes and most of the time they use plain white or manilla envelopes.  Although you should probably open all your mail, most people probably don't unless expecting something important.  It's just too easy to get inundated with spam when you have no idea where your mail is coming from.

I even got told off for writing our company return address on my bosses letters, though I explained to him that if letters were undelivered we would know it because they would be returned to us and easier to detect when recipients were being untruthful about never receiving his letter.  It would also facilitate finding out whose address was incorrect immediately rather then later.  He agreed and said he had never thought of that.  I had to roll my eyes when he wasn't looking.

My husband used to always send me post in the States with no return address and more then once my letters were undelivered to him and thankfully I, being an Americacn, had it ingrained in me to always write a return address.

Glad they are finally doing something about it here now.

[sobriquetnic]

Hi girls

I too think it is an excellent idea.  I have put a return address on my personal mail for some years as I used to be married to an American and he always did it with everything - mind you he used to put it on the top left of the front of his letters whereas I tend to put it on the reverse of my mail.  

All the best,
Nicola.

[spitfire78]

Ever since we had that anthrax scare after the 9/11 attacks, I don't even open ANYTHING at work or at home that doesn't have a return address that I am familiar with.  I just toss it in the trash, because my belief is that if it is legitimate, it will have the sender's name/company name and address.