Mis-addressed Mail/Former staff/Staff moved departments
Some incoming USPS and campus mail arrives with missing or inaccurate address information, rendering the mail piece undeliverable. Common examples are an unknown or missing department name, incorrect mail code, or an undecipherable acronym.
Mail Services uses a variety of campus data sources to attempt to determine the correct address for incoming First Class mail, periodicals and parcels. In the case of a successful outcome, the mail piece will be re-addressed and stamped and dated. This process adds 1-3 days to the delivery time – a delay that can be avoided if you always use the correct address. If the correct address cannot be ascertained, the mail piece is returned to the sender.
The only exception to this process is incoming bulk rate mail, which, in the case of bad address information, is returned directly to the sender or recycled. Any mail that cannot be re-addressed or returned to the sender is recycled.
If you receive mail that is incorrect for any reason possible, write RTS on the piece of mail and give it back to mail services. We return all mail back to the post office or back to the department for return to sender.
If departments wish to forward mail to a former employee, they must follow the steps below. Since campus mail is sorted and delivered by department name and Mail Code, there is no identifier for an individual, and subsequently no way to track and divert mail for former employees.
- Employee has transferred to another campus department – cross out the address on the mail piece and insert "FORWARD TO" and the new campus address and Mail Code. Include the piece with your campus mail and it will be delivered to the new location. This redirect can be implemented for all campus and incoming US mail except bulk mail, which may be forwarded or recycled as you see fit.
- Employee has left the University – unless it is clearly a personal mail piece unrelated to University business, open the mail to determine whether or not it is business related. The only mail eligible for forwarding is First Class mail that is not business related. Any mail to be forwarded must include the former employee’s complete new address. If the mail has been opened, it will need a new outer envelope – the Postal Service will not forward mail that has been opened.
- Another way to deal with mail for former employees is to register them with Ecological Mail Coalition, a mail list cleansing service. A link to their site is on the right.
- Junk mail addressed to former employees – see Mail Services Junk Mail Programs for steps that can be taken to reduce the amount of junk mail addressed to former employees.