Undeliverable (Return) Mail Processing Service
Eliminate Returned Mail with LetterStream Undeliverable Mail Processing
As part of our goal to be your very best mailroom, we have added Undeliverable Mail Processing (UMP) to our already rich line of mailroom services.
In a blog post, we showed you how you can reduce the amount of return mail that you receive by cleaning up your address data with our CASS and NCOA tools. Now we are offering a way for you to completely eliminate your return mail by using the LetterStream Undeliverable Mail Processing Center as your return address.
This will eliminate the labor you currently spend on processing returned mail and will keep a permanent record of each piece of mail returned. Imagine when a client of yours says they didn’t get a letter or bill that you sent, being able to see that the mail piece was returned. Then, instead of sending the same bill to the same address, you could work to capture a better or more complete address from your client.
To implement return mail processing we simply swap out your return address with ours, keeping your company name attached for recognition by your clients. Undeliverable mail will then be returned to us by the USPS instead of to your office. We will make a record of which pieces are returned and electronically flag them in your account on our website. Returned mail pieces will be highlighted in your mailing history for instant identification.
This same highlighting will appear on addresses of returned mail when you are searching for mail pieces by recipient name or address. With our handy “show only returned mail” feature, you can see how much returned mail you have by date range, sender, job type, or nearly any other identifier that our system allows you to search on.
Undeliverable Mail Processing might not make sense for you if you have less than a few returned pieces per month, but if you see that stack of returned mail piling up, wondering if you’ll ever have time to figure out what’s going on, now might be the time to see how LetterStream can help.
The fees for this service include:
$89 per month for a three-month minimum. Mailings in secondary months extend the term. Monthly fees continue for two full months after the last mailing date with this service enabled.
The price per return piece is $.30. This basic service involves us recording the piece in your account as being returned, but without a return reason description.
Discount of $.20 each (resulting in $.10 each for basic service) if you use our Deluxe Address Cleanup service for every job you send. This discount is to encourage customers to clean up addresses to the maximum extent possible in order to reduce the number of pieces being returned. This is a very strong financial incentive reducing the cost of our return mail processing service and possibly reducing the cost of your initial mailings so please reach out to our Sales or Support team if you need assistance with this task.
FedEx delivery of actual correspondence. $35 per FedEx 2-day envelope. By activating this service we will inevitably receive mail that is intended for you. It seems no matter what FROM name/Return Address you put on the outside of your document, even including words like "not for correspondence", we will still receive mail addressed to you. We generally will attempt to gather up a few days or more worth of mail before sending it to you. For clarification, this is correspondence that is being sent to you. We don't return your undeliverable letters. We actually shred them shortly after we load the details into your account.
Not all pieces are recorded. If the mailpiece has been opened or tampered with or the mailpiece is wet or shows signs of water damage, or the barcode is defaced, we will simply shred the piece and will not record it as being returned. We also don't charge you for these pieces. These mail pieces unnecessarily slow down our recording process.
Returned pieces are not kept by LetterStream, but are shredded as soon as they have been recorded in your account.