# Who pays for "return to sender"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572 "2008-10-25T23:42:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/1 "2008-10-25T23:42:06Z")
Lately I’ve been receiving alot of mail from the McCain campaign. I’ve been writing “Return to Sender” on it and shoving it back in my mailbox. Who pays postage on stuff that’s been returned unopened? Does USPS simply eat the cost or does the original sender need to pay? Does USPS return _everything_ to the sender or can the sender instruct them not to bother (I imagine alot of junk mail gets sent back)? ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/2 "2008-10-25T23:49:41Z")
Whenever we get anything “refused” at work, or return to sender, we pay the return shipping. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/3 "2008-10-25T23:58:26Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Lately I’ve been receiving alot of mail from the McCain campaign. I’ve been writing “Return to Sender” on it and shoving it back in my mailbox. Who pays postage on stuff that’s been returned unopened? Does USPS simply eat the cost or does the original sender need to pay? Does USPS return _everything_ to the sender or can the sender instruct them not to bother (I imagine alot of junk mail gets sent back)? The post office will not send bulk mail back to the sender. They will just throw it out at the post office. You are just making post office waste money. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/4 "2008-10-25T23:59:57Z")
Depends on the class of the original mail. First Class mail (has a real stamp on it) does get returned to the original sender, at no charge – returning undeliverable mail is built into the 42¢ cost. Third class (bulk or ‘junk’) mail is normally NOT returned (even if you write “return to sender” on it) – it is just discarded. Unless the sender has something printed on the envelope like “Return Service Requested” or “Forwarding Service Requested” or “Address Service Requested”. If those were printed on the original mail, then the Post Office will Return or Forward or whatever, and the original sender will pay for that service. Most ‘junk’ mail does not have this printed, because they do not want to pay for people like you who refuse their mail. They do want actual changes-of-address, but they get those electronically through a subscription service with the Post Office. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/5 "2008-10-26T00:19:32Z")
Not directly relevant to your example, but the domestic versions of: Express Mail and Priority Mail include free “Return to Sender” privileges. BPM, as mentioned, doesn’t include those privileges, nor does Media Mail [aka Book Rate] or Library Mail. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/6 "2008-10-26T03:05:12Z")
Since it’s bulk mail, I would open it, check to see if they have a postage-paid return envelope, and send back a refusal. That way, you’re soaking the campaign for the postage. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/7 "2008-10-26T07:56:08Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Since it’s bulk mail, I would open it, check to see if they have a postage-paid return envelope, and send back a refusal. That way, you’re soaking the campaign for the postage. I do the same with an addition. I pack the envelope with all the other crap I’ve received and send it back, let them see what it feels like to put up with all that shit day after day. Yes I know, it’s childish;) ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/8 "2008-10-26T10:32:29Z")
Are senator’s allowed to use their franking privilages to send reelection (or in this case election) materials? If so, then the answer to who pays the postage when you return McCain’s stuff is you…and me. So stop it. J/K I would be surprised if they actually could use the privilage. -kjckjc EDIT: Actually, upon some research, there seems to have a been a proposal in Congress to prohibit franking 90 days prior to election day (S. 1285: Fair Elections Now Act & H.R. 1614: Clean Money, Clean Elections Act of 2007). So perhaps they in fact CAN currently do it. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/9 "2008-10-26T10:55:23Z")
Postal worker checking in (who is surprised at some of the US practices): DON’T BOTHER returning stuff from political parties you don’t like or from marketers. Especially don’t bother with filling reply paid envelopes with lead sinkers or anything like that. It doesn’t work. Just as you have a right to refuse mail, so do the senders (even though it’s theirs). If it comes back with RTS scrawled on it, your pet hate politician won’t see it. It’ll be a sixteen year-old kid on minimum wage in the mail room just binning the stuff absent-mindedly as he listens to his iPod. That’s if it gets that far. If it’s a reply paid item, they’ll just refuse them. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/10 "2008-10-26T21:16:09Z")
> [@kjckjc](#): > > Are senator’s allowed to use their franking privilages to send reelection (or in this case election) materials? No. The franking privileges are to be used only for official business. (By both Senators & Representatives, by the way.) But sometimes they send out ‘Legislative Reports’ or similar reports to their constituents that seem so filled with stories of all the good things they have done and smiling pictures of themself that it seems more like a campaign piece than a constituent report! That’s why there have been suggestions to limit the use of franking privileges just before an election, and make them pay for this out of their campaign committee. ---
**Author:** ![Variousgood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/90db22/32.png) [@Variousgood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Variousgood)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/11 "2012-03-20T20:41:54Z")
Damn I love google… ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-return-to-sender/469572/12 "2012-03-20T20:54:28Z")
You resurrected a zombie thread just to say that?!!