Refunds of Permit Postage and Fees – Hagerstown, MD, Post Office

Business Reply Mail (BRM) is a service offered by the Postal Service that enables a sender to provide a recipient with a convenient, prepaid method for replying to a mailing. Customers request refunds when postage has been applied to the prepaid mailing. To obtain a refund, customers must submit postage affixed BRM, and the required Postal Service (PS) Form 3533, Application for Refund of Fees, Products and Withdrawal of Customer Accounts. The Postal Service assesses fees to process the refunds and deducts them from the customer’s refund amount. OIG data analytics identified Hagerstown, MD, Post Office permit postage refunds totaling about $31,754 for fiscal year (FY) 2020, which is 51 percent of the district’s total. In addition, we identified several months with little or no refund activity. The objective of this audit was to determine whether postage affixed BRM refunds were properly issued, supported, and processed at the Hagerstown, MD, Post Office.