Thanks for the column on bar codes and FIM Face Identifying Marks on return mail envelopes provide by our creditors and others. I would like to insert this valuable information into a more recent mail and paying our bills milieu. As you know, many of our creditors are asking us to “go green” and stop receiving paper statements and these return envelopes from them. I have opted not to do so because the paper in my mailbox is a reminder to me about a bill that needs to be paid and the paper serves as a record for my wife should she need it if I die suddenly as I am the one who pays the bills. At least she would have some paper laying around to guide her. Anyway, since I do pay the bills on line, I was merely discarding the return envelopes to send a check back to the creditor. I thought that was a waste. So, I started to save these envelops with the bar codes and FIM codes on them. I find them useful for corralling coupons when I go to the supermarket or hold an odd sized cash register receipt that I need to save for some reason. Then, I decided, I wanted to use these marked envelopes for mailing things out but not to the area that the envelope was pre-coded/marked for. Can I scratch out the bar codes and FIM and use these envelopes for general mailing purposes?
I don’t know, but I don’t see why not. You’d want to be sure the barcodes are entirely gone (not just draw a line through them) – maybe use white labels to paste over the codes. I’ve certainly reused boxes for shipping, just been careful that all trace of the old barcodes is completely gone, gone, gone.
PS - I’ve edited the column header to be a bit more descriptive.
I work for a nonprofit that sends preaddressed envelopes to people, intending them to be used to send us donations. I sort the mail. A couple times each week I’ll get an envelope someone repurposed in this way, but neglected to cover the barcode.
So they’ve scratched out our address and written in some other destination. But the USPS machinery sends it straight to us, because all the gadget can see is the barcode.
I use correction tape to cover the barcode, then drop them back in the mail so that they will continue on to where they are indended to go.
I re-purpose “window” envelopes from my bills all the time. They don’t have any pre-printed bar codes except for five little bars at the top (grouped as two-one-two). Are my mailings getting re-routed on all sorts of detours because of this? Oops!!
That is a Facing Identification Mark. Your two-one-two pattern is FIM-A, which (according to Wikipedia) is “used for courtesy reply mail and metered reply mail with a preprinted POSTNET bar code.” If, as you say, there’s no other barcode on the envelope, then presumably the preprinted POSTNET code was on the insert.
I suspect it would confuse the sorting machinery, delaying your mail somewhat, but not likely to cause a misdirection, so long as there’s no other barcode.
Powers &8^]
I am astonished the USPS pays attention to the bar codes at all. I have them added when I print envelopes using my word processor, intending to help out a little.
But … I have a relative who lives on a street that is also a state name. Guess where the letter gets routed before bouncing back as “No such address”?
Over and over and over. The zip code? Ignored. The city and state name after the street name? Ignored. The bar code? Ignored. Well, not completely, they put tape over it with my return code when it’s sent back.