The Return of "Problem" Confirmation Requests by the U.S. Postal Service.

Abstract ABSTRACT: The study reported here provides evidence on one assumption that is made routinely in the conduct of an audit -- that the U. S. Postal Service will return to the auditor confirmation requests that are difficult or impossible to deliver. Six hundred confirmation requests were sent to non-existent addressees and/or non-existent street addresses in 95 cities, and the percentage and timing of the returned requests were analyzed. The use of a complete 2x2x2x3 factorial design enabled the impact of four independent variables--size of city, type of recipient, type of postage, and type of "problem" or error--to be assessed for both the percentage of requests returned and the timing of the returns. In this study, 100 percent of the confirmation requests mailed to non-existent names at non-existent addresses were returned as undeliverable by the Postal Service. However, when an existing name (address) was used, some of the requests were delivered, despite the non-existent address (name). Overall, the results suggest that auditors are justified in relying on the U. S. Postal Service to return "problem" confirmation requests.