RETURN TO SENDER but international??

[ozchick]

What happens to overseas mail that I post with my 'return to sender' scribbled on it?Like many of you on here, we get a lot of mail for the previous tenant, and this mail is from France mostly. If I return to sender, surely SG Post wouldn't send it back 'cos then who is paying for that expensive trip back to its origin?
Sometimes I open it and email the sender, and that helps. Good fun really. I practise my French with an apology for the errors, and they email back and thank me in French and tell me I'm just damned good at their lingo!
But just wondering if the ones I send back ever get there.....mm.....

[Plavt]

Don't know if they still do this in these harsh economic times and I haven't bothered to read this blog just had a cursory look;


http://sgstamps.blogspot.com/2009/05/si ... icker.html

[Splatted]

What happens to overseas mail that I post with my 'return to sender' scribbled on it?Like many of you on here, we get a lot of mail for the previous tenant, and this mail is from France mostly. If I return to sender, surely SG Post wouldn't send it back 'cos then who is paying for that expensive trip back to its origin?
Sometimes I open it and email the sender, and that helps. Good fun really. I practise my French with an apology for the errors, and they email back and thank me in French and tell me I'm just damned good at their lingo!
But just wondering if the ones I send back ever get there.....mm.....

I wouldn't open any mail if I were you. Not sure about Singapore's laws, but certainly in other countries opening other people's mail can lead to jail time if caught out.

As to the return mail.. my understanding is that all mail gets returned to sender, and the postal service provider bears the cost, even international mail.

actually, i tried to google on this, as I think there is an international agreement on postage.. but came up with nothing.

[intellectualsmuse]

We have a box close to our letterbox for "Returned Mail". Am assuming the stuff I put in it is Retuned to the Sender?

[ksl]

It is the duty of the tenant, to notify the postal office of their forwarding address, there is a charge for this! Or return it to the post office, highly unlikely they will forward it on. If they do, they will bill the person and if there is the slightest chance they do not get there money, they will dump the mail. It is the tenants responsibility to notify the post office which is fairly logical, If they do not care, why should anyone else be expected to care.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/cont ... d=48100695

[carteki]

It is the duty of the tenant, to notify the postal office of their forwarding address, there is a charge for this! Or return it to the post office, highly unlikely they will forward it on. If they do, they will bill the person and if there is the slightest chance they do not get there money, they will dump the mail. It is the tenants responsibility to notify the post office which is fairly logical, If they do not care, why should anyone else be expected to care.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/cont ... d=48100695

Any reason you're quoting a UK Mail website?

[x9200]

Somebody sent to us from Europe a small parcel if I remember correctly with a wrong address. It was pointing correctly to the condo but with a unit No missing. It was returned by the post to the sender.

[ksl]

It is the duty of the tenant, to notify the postal office of their forwarding address, there is a charge for this! Or return it to the post office, highly unlikely they will forward it on. If they do, they will bill the person and if there is the slightest chance they do not get there money, they will dump the mail. It is the tenants responsibility to notify the post office which is fairly logical, If they do not care, why should anyone else be expected to care.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/cont ... d=48100695

Any reason you're quoting a UK Mail website?

Actually yes there is! The UK sets a standard in mail delivery along with the rest of Europe, customer service being reasonable, rather than none existent, like on the singpost website! My point is that if you want mail sent on, you pay for it, it's that simple.

This is all i could find on singpost In the absence of a definite request for abandonment or for delivery at an
alternative address, a Speedpost Worldwide Parcel that is undeliverable at
the original address is returned to the sender without previous notification and
at his expense

Personally i think it is quite silly to expect the post office, to save your mail, if you have moved address and not notified the post office of your new address. It appears everyone is running away from bills in Singapore, they just disappear into thin air!

[Splatted]

Personally i think it is quite silly to expect the post office, to save your mail, if you have moved address and not notified the post office of your new address. It appears everyone is running away from bills in Singapore, they just disappear into thin air!

Can't speak for Singpost.. but I know that in Australia, the post office (main mail distribution centre) sorts through tonnes of undelivered mail every year, including thousands of letters addressed to "santa" and "north pole"

letters that don't have a return address are opened by select staff to try and determine where the mail came from , and info so they can forward to correct address or return to sender.

During Christmas and new year, the news always does a short news piece on this.

[Splatted]

ok, re Australia.. they hold the mail for 6-12 months to give sender the opportunity to claim undelivered mail. this is the mail that has no identifying details on it of sender..

Australia Post keeps the undelivered items at its Mail Redistribution Centre in central Melbourne. The items that don't have the identifying details of the sender or the recipient are stored for between six and 12 months to give senders an opportunity to claim them. Items that are not claimed are auctioned to benefit charity.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ ... 31208.html

[Splatted]

We have a box close to our letterbox for "Returned Mail". Am assuming the stuff I put in it is Retuned to the Sender?

Apparently... it's collected at least..

http://tinyurl.com/singpost

As he finishes with each block, he collects the returned mail — letters that failed to reach their intended addressees — and indicates on the envelope the reason for its non-delivery.

If you read through this story,.. you realize some people working for Singpost go the extra mile to make sure people get their mail

[Plavt]

I don't know why ksl is quoting the section of the UK website he is since it relates to a different country and a different issue. Any time I have written a letter to business or somebody no longer in residence at an address the letter has been returned free of charge! I am of course referring to the UK.

[x9200]

If you read through this story,.. you realize some people working for Singpost go the extra mile to make sure people get their mail

Yes, and this one I can confirm. Being apparently not extremely lucky with the senders we got a mail with missing unit No and IIRC without blk No delivered to our mbox.

[ozchick]

It is the duty of the tenant, to notify the postal office of their forwarding address, there is a charge for this! Or return it to the post office, highly unlikely they will forward it on. If they do, they will bill the person and if there is the slightest chance they do not get there money, they will dump the mail. It is the tenants responsibility to notify the post office which is fairly logical, If they do not care, why should anyone else be expected to care.

We surely all know about paying to have our mail forwarded on, but I'm speaking about those who don't pay it at all, or don't pay it for long enough.
And the reason I care is that I don't like 'binning /recycling' other peoples' paper. It's time consuming or wasteful either way. IF I can stop it coming then it's a positive result. Also, if none of us try to stop the previous tenant's mail, then as I see it, the mail for previous tenants from the year dot are just going to keep coming to the specific address for years to come. Many of us have experienced this and it's more than a little annoying. I opened a Christmas card recently for the old tenant. It had an email address in it and when I emailed the lady she emailed her thanks and was very grateful for my advice and was then going to contac t a mutual friend to find the new address. This is better than her being on the wrong track for who knows how long? The next tenant in my property will have a better time of it than I've had cos I've made a bit of an effort.
But I still don't have an answer to my original post. I doubt that Sg post
would be sending overseas mail back to origin. Gonna ask them next time I find a post ofiice. The one in Bukit Timah (6th Ave) has apparently gone AWOL.

[Splatted]

I doubt that Sg post
would be sending overseas mail back to origin. Gonna ask them next time I find a post ofiice.

I go on the presumption that the price of postage in Singapore is priced to factor in the cost of returning undelivered mail, among other things.

When someone sends international mail to Singapore, does Singpost get a cut in profit from the country of origin that sold the stamps to the sender?

I am assuming they don't, and that all international mail they receive is delivered for "free" to Singapore addresses (once it reaches Singapore's shores). The flipside of this is that mail leaving Singapore also gets delivered free at the city of destination, once it reaches the mail distribution centres abroad.

Again, (following this same line of reasoning) the standard cost of postage is adjusted accordingly to factor in this extra labor burden.

It would be nice to know for sure, though.....