Certified Mail – Return Receipt vs Electronic Return Receipt (ERR)

What is the difference between a Return Receipt and Electronic Return Receipt (ERR)?

Actually, let’s get more specific, shall we? What are the different types of Return Receipt for Certified Mail?

There are two different ways to get a Return Receipt through the United States Postal Service (USPS) for your Certified Mail. The first is the traditional green card, also known as PS Form 3811, which the Postal Service calls a Return Receipt.

The second method is an Electronic Return Receipt (ERR). No special forms are needed to purchase or take advantage of with ERR. An Electonic Return Receipt, simply put, is an electronic version of a Return Receipt.

Do I Need a Return Receipt?

Let’s back up just a bit and point out that you may not even need a Return Receipt for your Certified Letter. A simple Certified Letter without a Return Receipt will provide tracking on USPS.com or various other websites that have access to USPS tracking data, like LetterStream.com and www.OnlineCertifiedMail.com. So, if you just want to know the status of your letter, you may not need to spring for the additional expense of a Return Receipt.

The Return Receipt, however, does give you the added information of the name and signature of the person who received your letter. This provides you with a little extra information and might help you prove that someone actually saw your letter and took it into their hands.

Return Receipt Vs Electronic Return Receipt

So, back to the differences between Return Receipts. A Return Receipt, also known as a green card, is a green pre-printed postcard that you can pick up at your local post office and apply to the back of the Certified letter you are about to mail.

You will need to add your address to the green card or the address where you’d like the green card sent after the letter gets signed for. You’ll also want to put the tracking number from the Certified Mail barcode label (PS Form 3800) on the green card as well so you will know specifically which letter the green card relates to.

After paying the extra fees for Return Receipt and attaching the form to your letter, you are ready to give the letter to the USPS and let them do their part. When they deliver your Certified letter with Return Receipt included, they will have the person who gets your letter sign the green card.

The postal carrier will then take the green card back to the USPS and put it in the mail so it will be returned to the sender. If all goes well, you’ll have your green card back in no time (or maybe longer, just depends).

The process gets a bit simpler with Electronic Return Receipt. You simply tell the USPS cashier that you’d like to send your Certified Letter with ERR. No extra forms are required, but there is a charge for this service. The cashier will scan the Certified Mail barcode (PS Form 3800) that you’ve placed on your letter. This tracking number will appear on your USPS receipt along with the fees for Electronic Return Receipt. You will then be able to use this tracking number to check the status of your Certified letter.

Collecting a Signature

When the mail carrier delivers your Certified letter, they will collect a signature either on the green card or on their digital tracking pad. When they get back to their office, they will either scan it into their computer system or they will download the signatures from their digital tracking pad.

Once the signature is in their computer system, they will create an electronic document/letter providing details of the delivery. It will show the date the letter was delivered and include the signature of the person who received the letter. If you choose to send it as a Return Receipt, the green card will get mailed back to you. If Electronic Return Receipt is choosen, this document will not be mailed to you; however, you can go to USPS.com, enter the 20-digit tracking number from your receipt and request the signature via email when it is available.

If you choose to mail you Certified letter, either through LetterStream or OnlineCertifiedMail.com then you can access a copy of the Electronic Return Receipt right in your online portal.

Is There a Difference Legally?

Some people want to know if there is a difference in the legal authority of a green card compared to an ERR. Long ago the USPS claimed on their website that there was no legal difference, however, they soon discovered that they are not the judge of that. Instead, the ultimate authority belongs to the local judge who gets to determine whether they are the same or not.

From our experience, the Electronic Return Receipt is accepted by most judges. We haven’t heard even a rumor of a judge tossing out the ERR as valid proof of delivery. If in doubt, we suggest that you contact the local authorities and see if they can confirm that an ERR is just as binding as a green card.

To sum it up, Return Receipt and Electonic Return Receipt both provide the same value when it comes to the added information of the name and signature of the person receiving your Certificated letter. One actually just is a bit more convenient than the other.

USPS Certified Mail Signature Delay

Certified Mail Return Receipt Delays ERR

We are noticing delays in the speed at which the USPS returns electronic signatures for Certified Mail that are requested on their website, www.USPS.com. In a recent test (shown above), it was 48 hours before a signature was provided via email by the Postal Service.

As a quick refresher, if you need to get the signature for a piece of Certified Mail that you sent through the USPS, you typically need to follow these steps: Find your USPS cash register receipt with the tracking number, go to the United States Postal Service website (www.USPS.com), enter the tracking number from your receipt, click the link called “Return Receipt Electronic”, and enter your email address. Keep in mind, just because you see the link called “Return Receipt Electronic”, doesn’t mean your letter was delivered. If you click the link before a signature is available you’ll receive a response from the USPS (in maybe 2 days), but it will just tell you that a signature is not available yet. …That’s a bummer.

When you are dealing with the urgency and legal concerns that necessitate the use of Certified Mail with Return Receipt, you don’t always have time to wait around a few days for a signature the be emailed back to you. If your attorney calls and says they need the signature, you want to get it right then.

Faster with LetterStream…

Here’s quite possibly a better way, let LetterStream handle your Certified Mail. If you send your certified letters through our service you can retrieve a signature in a fraction of a second, maybe a half second on a slow day. That’s assuming that the USPS has delivered the letter and collected a signature, of course. You don’t have to find your receipt and you don’t have to enter a 20-digit tracking number, you simply click on the button that says “view”, which activates after we receive the signature from the USPS.

Ah, you might say, “but LetterStream has to wait on the USPS too”. Well, that is partly true, but our automated servers are always communicating with USPS servers and as soon as we find signatures to the letters we print and mail for our clients, we save them to your account on our website. It’s kinda like having someone in your office (that you don’t pay) go out and check everyday for every certified letter that you still need a signature for and then save them on your network in the same folder as the letter that you sent. In this way, if we do have a signature for your letter, you can get to it immediately.

Getting your Certified Mail signatures at LetterStream…

After you load your Certified Mail letter to our website, we print it, fold it, insert it into our proprietary USPS approved Certified Mail envelope and put it in the mail for you, without you ever needing to leave your home or office.

You can search for the status of your letters very quickly on our website by clicking on the job name (whatever name you want to assign to your mailing to help you identify it later) and the recipient name, or you can simply search by any part of the recipient’s name or address. Unlike sending Certified Mail at the local Post Office, you don’t have to keep a receipt with the tracking number because all of this information is saved neatly into your LetterStream account.

So, if you are ever in a hurry, or simply hate to wait, use LetterStream to get instant access to the status of your Certified Mail signatures and tracking information.

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How Do You Organize Certified Mail Return Receipts?

certified mail green card

These slippery little green cards have a way of getting lost. For you mailroom folks, you probably know them as a PS Form 3811, but the rest of us simply call them green cards. Obviously “Certified Mail Return Receipt” is a more complete term, but it is probably not the term we use when trying to find the one we lost.

So the big question is, how do you keep track of green cards? They are small and get mixed in with empty envelopes that you put in the trash, they fall out of file folders even while in a filing cabinet, they get piled up waiting for a rainy day for someone else to file. Let’s face it, they are hard to file and they are hard to find. There’s nothing like the attorney calling and saying, “We are headed to court, what happened to the green card?”

Here’s a better way to organize your PS Form 3811 receipts… skip the entire paper process altogether and keep your electronic signatures organized online–always available, always filed correctly, always filed instantly, and best of all, never lost.

Wondering how?

The best way to get your certified mail receipt electronically filed is to create your certified mail online. When you use LetterStream or OnlineCertifiedMail.com to create your certified letter, your PS Form 3811 as well as all of the related USPS tracking scans will be available online for you to access when you need then.

The online process of making real Certified Mail is fast and easy, with no forms to fill out, no envelopes to seal, and no trips to the post office. We take care of all that so you can focus on other pressing issues. Oh, and one more benefit… you won’t need to type in that 20-digit certified mail tracking number–you can look up information about your certified letter by searching on the job name or the recipient’s name.

Stop searching for green cards. Use our online tools and let us organize them for you.