Lawmaker to AOL: You've got mail

Given up figuring out what to do with those America Online CD-ROMs clogging up your mailbox? A California lawmaker has a plan.

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) recently introduced a bill that would require companies that mail CDs or DVDs in unsolicited bulk to include self-addressed, stamped envelopes. That would easily allow people who don't want to receive another offer for 1,000 free minutes of AOL, for instance, to mail the CD back to the company or to a processing plant that recycles CDs.

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Mmmmmmm! Wouldn't it be better if you just popped the disc into an envelope, addressed it to AOL and mail it without a stamp......t'would be far costlier to them don't you think??. I feel sure it would steady their output somewhat.

Cochise,

 

nah US post office won't deliver it without postage :-/

 

It's a bit different here in the old UK....they deliver the mail and charge you double the cost!!!......looks to me like the U.S. Mail Service is dipping out on a real money spinner there mate.....whose the CEO there, don't tell me it's Cliff Clayburn from 'Cheers'.

Cochise,

PS. So what happens to all the mail that maybe someone just forgot to put a stamp on?....could have been important stuff!!!!!

 

They send it back to you if you didn't put postage on it. So, I suppose you could put AOL as the return address, but then again it'd be a federal offense

 

If it's an AOL CD that you get through the mail, simply write 'Return To Sender' on the address label and put it back in the mail. AOL then pays it both ways.

 

That's correct - and absolutely simple.. That must be why I didn't think of it first; too easy!

 

It's to simple there has to be a catch.

 

Guess we got it lucky here in Oz then.

Here, it's both cases working for you.

Drop an envelope/package in mail, no postage, they send to adress, but leave a card [for the recipient], saying they have mail to come and collect and pay the postage...

OR.. as dangitall said, simply put Return to Sender, and it's gone..

I have had several pieces of mail sent to me, don't know the recipient, and taken it back to Post Office [inconvenient] and they simply told me to put RTS in red letters across the front and drop in nearest PO box. Cool.

TAS

 

But on the other hand, use ones imagination. You can turn the CDs into really nice looking desk clocks and give them away as gifts. A friend of mine does this ...

 

That'd be okay, Peaches, but how long will it be before they stop being friends after a deluge of AOL clocks?!?

 

This is just awful. I had written a sensitive and understanding response and posted it, only it dissappeared. I am forcing myselfe to be sensitive and understanding enough to reproduce it!

I think i was...maybe...

Take all of your junk mail and stuff it into any of the postpaid sucker response envelopes and let them plague eachother with paper spam!

- HandsOff