My Post Being Stolen, What Can I Do?

achtunglady

I sent off for some glasses and got a postcard saying they would be with me very soon (Baileys freebie glasses). Seeing on the thread that people had received theirs, was wondering where mine were.
12.30pm today, my postman knocks on my door, says he delivered a parcel to 24 BURY STREET (as the parcel was addressed, correct name of mine) instead of 24 XXXXXX HOUSE, BURY STREET. After delivering it he remembered my name as he has delivered parcels before to me and his son goes to same school as my son, so I see him everyday. So he goes back after his round and knocks on door and says to the lady, that he delivered a parcel here this morning and he wants it back.
The woman replied " its only a couple of glasses" she opened my parcel!!! The postie asked "Does anybody called XXXXXX O'BRIEN live here, to which she said "no, but ive had loads of stuff coming here addressed to XXXXXX O'BRIEN".

Now I have never had any mail redirected you know like when you write on the envelope and pop it back in the postbox- NOT KNOWN AT THIS ADDRESS TRY 24 XXXXXX HOUSE

Now isnt it an offence to open other peoples mail???? Not to mention stealing other peoples post???? I want to take this further as I have had other things go missing. Should i go round and confront her telling her shes broken the law and why she didnt send the "loads of stuff" back to sender and involve the police? She would have had to open her door to the postman the get the parcel as it wouldnt fit through the postbox, so why didnt she say to the postman " sorry this person doesnt live here".

I know it was the incorrect address but it had the right postcode(my postcode) and my correct name,so that still doesnt give her the right to open the post. She ripped the address label off, so I didnt know if there was a return to sender address on it, but have asked the people who got theirs sent to let me know.

What should i do?

vickithomas

yes i agree go round and ask for your post saying that the post office had mis-posted your mail. Also i would go and put in a complaint with the post office as they should have checked the address properly before posting it.
I had a similar problem but i was recieving someone else's mail because the post office wasn't reading the the post code on the letters, as my address was the same but the post code was different so they just kept getting posted to me even after i had written on the envelope not at this address, it was just the post office not being bothered to check the postal codes so i would definatley put in a complaint hun.

kittykirsty

As far as i'm aware, it is illegal to open other people's post, so it does sound as though this woman is breaking the law. She should have returned it, and had absolutely no right to do this. I would do as albertross says and go round to speak to her, if you do not feel confident doing this maybe you could take someone with you, or write to her instead. I would be polite even though I'm sure you're angry about this (I would be fuming), and explain that you know your post has been delivered there in error. Ask her to give you your post back and see what she says.

If she says she won't give you it back I would be inclined to let her know that you won't let this drop. I would speak to someone at your local citizens advice bureau to see what you can do about this matter: http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk gives you somewhere to find your nearest bureau if you don't already know.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

=^.^=

computerwoman

it is against the law to open and keep other peoples mail/parcels get in touch with the police that's what you pay your council tax for and do it the correct way.

tyllwyd

Can the Royal Mail postcode finder cope with your address? I'm just thinking that websites often ask you to enter a house number, then your postcode, and they fill in the rest of the address for you. If the person on the other end of the phone was trying to find your address, they might put in 24 and the postcode, and it might fill in this other woman's address. Would it maybe help to start giving your address as Flat 24, XYZ house, rather than just 24 XYZ house?

achtunglady

tyllwyd wrote:

Can the Royal Mail postcode finder cope with your address? I'm just thinking that websites often ask you to enter a house number, then your postcode, and they fill in the rest of the address for you. If the person on the other end of the phone was trying to find your address, they might put in 24 and the postcode, and it might fill in this other woman's address. Would it maybe help to start giving your address as Flat 24, XYZ house, rather than just 24 XYZ house?

Yes thats exactly the problem, i enter alot of competitions online and they ask for house number, then postcode. But the other womans postcode is different but our building number is 185 so perhaps i will start putting 185 instead and see if that makes a difference. At least it will get to my building instead of her sticky mitts and if the postman has any sense he will see who its addressed to and will know from the mountains of letters I get that its mine!

arnie&caseysma!

If she is refusing to give your mail to you then report it to RM and Police as it is theft at the end of the day.

Royal Mail are always very good at telling us to use the post code but when they don't do it themselves I don't know why they bother. I have received mail for someone with the same house number and street name as me, but with a totally different town (100s of miles away!) and postcode. It got put back in a post box with a sarcastic comment on envelope asking them to stop delivering me mail in XX town that was for someone else!

TheFlyingGerbil

achtunglady wrote:

Yes thats exactly the problem, i enter alot of competitions online and they ask for house number, then postcode. But the other womans postcode is different but our building number is 185 so perhaps i will start putting 185 instead and see if that makes a difference. At least it will get to my building instead of her sticky mitts and if the postman has any sense he will see who its addressed to and will know from the mountains of letters I get that its mine!

I think it is not the postman's fault - I think I remember reading on here they HAVE to deliver it to the address on the mail, not the person - even if they know it's not the right person named with the address, so if the address isn't right they have no choicebut to give it to the thief - you'r elucky he noticed and told you so yuo can do something about it.

Joe

roswell

find out off the post office if there is any redirect on mail to your address and get it removed

hanslope

trying adding something to the address, say "off BURY STREET", that may help

you would have to keep it exact for stuff like banks and credit checks

hollydays

I dont know if this is correct but i had read on this site that it is illegal to open post with dishonest intent,ie if it was accidental that would be ok maybe once or twice.Is what the person intends to do with it that counts.I think you should be careful.I think it would be safe to ask her if she has anything to return to you,and ask her to pop it in the post or return it to you or the postman NEXT TIME. If you make an accusation about other stuff,can you prove it,if not ,dont do it..But if it then happens again...