Noddy - flap with one envelope and listen.
Aa - may one then presume that the a zen state of mind is akin to being in a stupor?
Welcome back, by the way.
I really don't think the envelope thing has to do with the cost of printing or manufacturing envelopes.
I think it has more to do with eliminating a lot of lost mail. If you were expecting payments from, say, 150,000 people every month, how many of those people would have illegible handwriting, thus delaying receipt of payment? Let's say there's just 10% (common sense tells me it's more like 60%).
So, you tag 15,000 people with late fees, and the vast majority of those people are late only because their handwriting is illegible, not because they're deadbeats.
It would be much cheaper to include an envelope or other printed/barcoded means to eliminate sloppy handwriting than to handle 15,000 complaint calls and angry customers.
I think it's on the same lines as that little box they've added to most of my bills these last eight years or so. On the payment portion of the bill, right under the "Amount Due" box, there's a box to fill out that says, "Amount Paid."
How ridiculous. They have my check--they know how much I paid!
So I think the billing companies just use this box to make sure people are reading their bills and writing their checks accurately. Basically, the added box makes the customers inadvertantly double-check themselves.
Yes, but the enclosed envelope could have the company address instead of a glassined window.
A few companies do this and I thank them for it.
A company with which i dealt frequently in the past supplied forms and stationary. With each order we received would come a solicitation to try their new, easy to use, "no lick" envelopes. The reply envelope, however, required licking . . . i called them about it once, but no one seemed to understand.
Another thing--my mortgage payments are done in coupons. They get mailed to different locations, but the envelopes are the same.
Same with the phone company. I get four phone bills (from the same company), and they go to two different PO Boxes in the same city. These bills all have window envelopes because, I suppose, the bills go to different places.
But...but...but...they could buy solid envelopes and print the proper address right on the envelope.
Some companies have they mail go to several locations. This splits the work load in the Accounts Receivable department. Some companies who have Nationwide accounts have P O Boxes in sevearl cities so the mail gets to them sooner. The lock boxes receive the checks, deposit them and speeds the collection process.
While they may send out 100,000 bills a month they may be processed in several locations.
Meanwhile, they are irritating more people than that by not printing the address on the envelopes. Grrrrrrr.
Glassine envelopes save company time.
Back in the good old days the company switchboard operator could direct your call.
Now you are ordered to listen carefully to a menu--which may or may not dovetail with your question. Of course the how-to-talk-to-customer-service is the last item on the menu.
