Pushing the envelope

March 7, 2006 12:35 PM

Window envelopes - Why? (MI)

The last remining bill that I pay that didn't use a window envelope has succumbed. Why do companies make their customers deal with these things? It's not so they won't have to pay for printing their address on the outside - many of them do just that, and use the window to show just the company name.

I assume it's to accomodate some automated equipment that opens the envelope and removes the bill, so the machine gets all the bills oriented the same.

What about my check? Does a person still have to read that? If so, why can't that person also remove the bill? If not, and the auomaton removes both pieces of paper, it must be able to orient the check for reading. Why can't it orient the bill, also?

posted by Kirth Gerson to technology (15 comments total)

Oddly, the spellchecker accepted "auomaton". (The word needs another T.)
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:37 PM on March 7, 2006

I think it's to avoid printing on the envelope. The address on the front is for a bill mill -- a large bill processing center that processes payments for many different companies. So they can print the generic info on the front, and specify on the company name which that payment gets shunted to.

So it saves a step in the printing.
posted by Miko at 12:39 PM on March 7, 2006

I'm confused about what you mean by "make their customers deal with these things." They're envelopes. I've never had to "deal with" one so much as "put mail in" one.
posted by CrayDrygu at 12:59 PM on March 7, 2006

Yeah, but you have to put mail in them oriented a particular way, and it's not always immediately apparent which way. It ought to be enough that I'm giving them money, without my having to give it to them facing in a special direction. If this doesn't bother you, fine. I wasn't asking whether it did.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:20 PM on March 7, 2006

The wikipedia entry isn't much help, as it only says that "they are generally arranged so that the sending address printed on the letter is visible, saving the sender from having to duplicate the address on the envelope itself."


My guesses:

1) It saves everyone involved printing costs.

2) In particular, if a company has different reply mail going to different locations, it allows them to use a standard envelope for all replies. For example, if it has processing centers on each coast, its only needs to order reply envelopes from one distributor, as they are interchangeable.
posted by googly at 1:53 PM on March 7, 2006

Yeah, but you have to put mail in them oriented a particular way, and it's not always immediately apparent which way.

That's a feature, rather than a bug. By forcing you to orient the address, they idiot-proof the process so that someone can't accidentally send them a check without also including the identifying information to indicate which account the check belongs to. Because you're necessarily including the payment slip with the check instead of writing an account number on a check or inadvertently omitting the payment slip, it reduces data-entry costs and errors.

Others have already noted the savings on envelope supplies, since a company can change its address for its bill processing costlessly.
posted by commander_cool at 1:58 PM on March 7, 2006

OK, but how does that explain the companies that print the entire address on the envelope, less the company name? If that's for the bill-processing center that Miko mentioned, why use a window?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:59 PM on March 7, 2006

commander_c, I'd give some weight to that argument if not for my experience with forgetting to write the account number on my check. The electric company generously gave my money to someone else's account, even though it was my bill in the window envelope with my check.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:04 PM on March 7, 2006

They print the entire address, less the company name, because bills for mutliple companies are being processed at one location. Sorry I didn't write that very clearly. So the company name serves to direct the mail to the proper account once it arrives at the processing center. It still saves money, because you print, say, 10,000 generic-address envelopes with windows, rather than 2,000 of each type for 5 companies at one location. Printing costs are always greatest at the typesetting end; once you have created the master, the cost of producing more copies is startlingly cheaper. So the fewer masters required, the greater the savings.
posted by Miko at 2:28 PM on March 7, 2006

To make you cry when you find them in your box.
posted by haikuku at 3:41 PM on March 7, 2006

Extra bonus bitch: The town I live in won't take window envelopes for recycling. So I waste time every day carefully tearing the windows out of all my junk mail. <sigh>
posted by Mr Stickfigure at 4:06 PM on March 7, 2006

Miko, when the company prints the address below the window, and their company name elsewhere on the envelope - how does that save money?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:13 PM on March 7, 2006

I guess we'll never know.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:59 PM on March 8, 2006

Kirth -- I can't help you there. I'm not sure I've seen any like that.

You could try calling them to ask.
posted by Miko at 4:47 PM on March 8, 2006

I said reduces, not eliminates.
posted by commander_cool at 7:00 AM on March 10, 2006