I followed this thread, titled “Why do airlines care if you buy a roundtrip ticket and only use one leg?”, with quite a bit of interest. And it Got Me To Thinking.
A long time ago I would take every mail solicitation that came with a postage paid return envelope and stuff all that junk back into that envelope and mail it. I made it very clear that I didn’t want the product they advertised. After a while I didn’t get any more of this type of mail. Mission accomplished.
But now, many years later, this stuff has started filling my box (and my shredder) again. I’m considering taking up my mission again, but I wonder:
Is this practice illegal? Immoral (do we want to move to GD or IMHO)? Just plain chickenshit?
Nah. 
Peace,
mangeorge
The word I’d use is “ineffective.” For the most part, the order centers that process BRM are looking for valid orders, not prank responses. Anything that’s not a real order is simply discarded.
And unless you included your name and addres and a note saying “please remove me from your list” there’s no way at all that they would know to do so. Even if you did this, there’s usually no direct connection between the place receiving the mail and the place that sends mail.
So your perception that the technique worked previously is, IMO, incorrect. It may have been a coincidence or some other factor at work. If you really want to cut your junk mail, go to the Direct Marketing Association and register for their “Mail Preference Service.” I note that they’re charging $5 for this, probably as a minor obstacle to keep everyone in the world from signing up instantly. But it will probably be the most effective.
The important point most people don’t realize about junk mail is that the company sending it doesn’t necessarily have your name in its records. If you haven’t done business with them before, they got your name from a rented list which they are prohibited by contract from keeping a copy of. (The list is handled by a third-party mailing service.) So sending them a note saying “take me off your lists” does no good, because they don’t have your info in their records. Using the DMA’s service has a chance of getting you out of some of those rented lists.
But it seems to me that the easiest thing to do is just toss it all in the trash or recycling. Is that so hard? Although I despise telemarketing and e-mail spam, I’ve never quite understood why people get so worked up about junk mail.
I’ve had people tell me they return the BRM envelopes empty or with junk in them – but not their name or address – to “teach them a lesson.” As if this technique could possibly have any impact at all on direct mailers! “Sir! We’ve received a reply envelope filled with scrap paper!” “Oh, no! You mean someone didn’t appreciate our marketing effort? We’d better cancel our multi-million dollar direct mail campaign immediately.” “Yes sir, right away, sir!”
I have been doing the same thing for years; it is a wonderful way to get removed from mailing lists. (Especially when you circle your address and write: Remove From List. Heavier Objects to Follow.)
The addressee is required to pay full first class postage on all that returned mail, regardless of weight, which is fine with me, it makes up for the fraction that they pay to send it to me. Makes money for the post office, too, so I can’t see how they’d complain. Illegal? Well, the post-paid envelope was sent to me unsolicited, I can do with it as I please, no?
Back in the day when I worked in a print shop that still had a lot of ‘leads’, 6- and 12-point thick strips of typemetal a few inches long and just shy of an inch wide, I’d slip a few of them into the envelope as well.
Nope, I don’t get much junk mail anymore…
Well, commasense, my junk mail did fall off to practically zero. Coincicence is certainly a possibility, though I had visions of great cost to the marketer sending the junk mail, as mentioned by postcards. Somebody has to pay for it, I’ll wager. Me? Maybe, but unlikely.
I wonder what would happen if a lot of people joined me and postcards in this “ineffective” practice.
I get five or more pieces of junk mail every day, more on Mondays. I’ll give my methods a try, I think, and see what happens.
I know that making loud, rude noises every time a telemarketer calls works wonders. The “do not call” registry has worked even better, though I suspect that the use of registry may be behind the increase in junk mail.
BTW; I get worked up because it’s not my job to dispose of merchants unsuccessful marketing ploys. I recycle everything. Recycling is a poor substitute for not generating waste in the first place. To teach a lesson has nothing to do with it. Possiblt bonking them in the wallet does.
So it’s not illegal, huh? No mail fraud or anything? Cool. 
My grandparents got a lot of junk mail. Grampa put up with it while gramma was alive but once she died he decided enough was enough.
One of the most persistent mailers was a magazine company that puts out maybe 20 different titles, all of which my grandmother had signed up for at one point (FREE GIFT with your order!! type stuff, y’know?). After about a year of trying to get rid of them we received a letter for one of the magazines which started off with “We’re sorry to be persistent but…”
I wrote on the letter: “You are persistent. She is dead. She wins. Please remove her from your mailing list.”
Within a month all mailings from them stopped.
So…maybe if you die, or something…
Let them know you are not about to subscribe, buy, order etc. and they are happy to remove an unprofitable addressee from their lists.
A “Business Reply Envelope” or "B R Card cost about 3 x regular postage, which translates to something like a dollar per returned BRE plus the cost of the original bulk mailing.
Call them on their dime if they have a phone! Tell them what to do and where, and how.
The junk mail marketers would stop if enough people made them pay $1 to get their envelope back with no value in it for them.
No, yuo persoannly wouldn’t be put on any knd of “ignore me” list, but if enough folks got serious, we could eliminate, or at least vastly reduce the scourge.
Likewise, if 95% of Americans refused to ever buy anything from telemarketers, they’d fold within 6 months tops. But since 20% of America does buy lots of junk from them, the rest of us get to put up with the calls. (no-call lists notwithstanding)
Well, I suppose it all depends on the kind of junk mail you’re getting and who’s sending it. You guys may have been getting most of your junk from companies that you’d done business with, and who actually had you in their records.
But as I mentioned, there’s a significant portion of junk mail for which replying “take me off your list” won’t work. You’re not on their list. That’s why I recommended the DMA’s service, mangeorge. It’s the junk mail equivalent of the Do Not Call list, which, as you say, has been quite effective. (And you’re also right that it has probably led to an increase in junk mail.) I think it’s really a pisser that the DMA is charging for it, but if you really want to cut your junk, it will work. And it’s quicker and easier than sending back lots of individual pieces to lots of companies.
Believe it or not, you and postcards aren’t the first to think of returning a BRE empty or with junk. Lots of people do it, and yet somehow it hasn’t caused the direct mail industry to collapse. It’s just a cost of doing business. By all means keep it up if it makes you feel good. But don’t delude yourself into thinking it has a deterrent effect or will somehow reduce waste.
Oh, and FYI, postcards, BRM users pay more than full first class for returned reply mail (although not as much as spingears claimed). Forty cents. But you’re mistaken about the heavier stuff. It’s forty cents no matter how much is crammed in the envelope, and if you were thinking about sticking the envelope to a bowling ball, the post office has rules allowing them to throw items like that out.
::Sigh:: Well, 1) it’s not going to happen because most people aren’t as annoyed by junk mail as you guys, and B) even if more people did do it, the junk mailers still wouldn’t stop, they’d just raise the prices they charge the people who do respond.
What’s your source for these numbers? I would assume that response rates for telemarketing are well under 5%, and it’s still worthwhile to the marketers.
Look folks, marketers are going to do what they need to do to sell their products. When enough people get annoyed enough to complain to their representatives we can get the Do Not Call list implemented, but even that has limits. And mail isn’t as amenable to that sort of solution. But mail isn’t as intrusive as a phone call and is easier to disregard. Live with it.
I don’t get much of that mail - it usually makes me happy to mail them an amusing comic, small paper airplane, or flattish gizmo. The people opening them are far better than telemarketers after all. 
How nice of you, Nanoda! Can I add you to my mailing list?
Hey guys: what Nanoda said.
Geez, didn’t ANY of you read “Steal This Book” in the early 70’s?
If you had, you’d be following Abbie Hoffman’s advice and taping those Biz Reply Cards to cinderblocks before you mail 'em back.
(And you’d be wearing baggies inside your trenchcoat to buffets, and putting tape on the sides of #_4 brass washers…)
Well, there go five of them. One local newspaper, two pre-approved credit cards, and two life insurance from the same company.
I should keep a received/sent log, huh? It would give me some indication of the effectiveness of my actions.
“Live with it” isn’t part of what I am. I don’t solicit this stuff simply by being alive. I resent having to add my name a “do not call” list. I feel there should be “please call” and “please send junk mail” lists.
I’m off to the library to get a copy of Steal This Book, if they still have one.
I just noticed the mis-type in the title of this thread. And the “l” and “n” aren’t even adjacent.
Anyhow. I hope that if this indures, a mod will move it to a more appropriate forum. My original question has, I think, been answered.
Keep them offers coming!
Cecil wrote a column on this:
Page 356 of “More of the Straight Dope.” The response was that if you do send something like a brick back, it tends to get “lost” before getting far enough to charge the company.
As someone who used to do the awful job of recording survey responses from a magazine, your missives back do absolutely nothing except get you laughed at by the staff, if they even think about it.
Actually a BRE (#6 sized envelope) generally costs about 50 cents or so. I send out many tens of thousands of them per year.
We’re always glad to remove someone from a list. But, as mentioned up there, we generally don’t have the list. And never did.
But I’m glad to do it if possible.
Staff? 
But if it gives somebody a giggle, it’s worth the offender’s $0.50.
Anyway, I thought the brick thing was a joke. Someone would actually try to send a brick?
Well, digs did mention Abby Hoffman fans. Oddly, I’ve found that they don’t really have a sense of humor…
Point of observation:
If you do plan to stuff the BRE with junk mail to return it, check the envelope first. These days I’m finding bar codes on the flap that identifies the original mail sent to me.
So if you really want to be anonymous just so they have to pay the return postage, make sure the identifying bar code to obliterated.
Yes, whatever you do, don’t let us evil direct mailers find out who you are when you pull a vicious prank like that, because we’ll immediately send our minions out to slash your tires, throw toilet paper in your trees, short sheet your bed, and take your name off the Federal Do Not Call list. BWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!
Sheesh! Paranoid much?
Jonathan: You’re not getting the best BRM rate possible. I pay only 40 cents, and that’s not with very high volumes. Check with your postmaster.