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Who sends from this PO Box address?
cottager
Posts: 934 Forumite
Don't think there's really one ideal board for this query, but will try here as it could be bank-connected.
A month ago we received a batch of three envelopes addressed correctly but to two parties (jointly) who we have no knowledge of and who have never lived at this address. I can say this with certainty as we know names of all past occupiers as far back as the late 1950s.
All marked Private and Confidential, and on the reverse If undelivered, please return to:
PO Box 5012
Coventry
CV3 9ED
along with Please do not use this address for any correspondence.
No sender's name, but it wasn't hard to guess they were probably from a bank, card company, finance outfit or something similar. It's unlawful to open someone else's mail so we didn't, and can't confirm the sender. Nothing was visible in the envelope windows except the names/address and a barcode, but they didn't look like junk mail.
Looking online after these arrived, very few results but it seemed it might be either HSBC or HFC Bank (part of HSBC). At HFC's contact page, two of their postcodes were very close, although their PO Box numbers weren't as similar.
I rang HFC and the suggestion was to mark the envelopes "Not known at this address" and stick them in a postbox. Normally I would do this if they hadn't almost certainly been from a financial institution. Apart from these people not receiving what could be important mail, my concern was how and why their names became associated with our address. It isn't unheard of for a financial connection to be made in credit files in error and I didn't want it happening with ours because of a mixup.
If these letters originated from HFC I wanted to return them with a covering letter. She didn't specifically say the PO Box was theirs, but didn't deny it either. She suggested I return them with a letter to their Customer Services address, which I did by Recorded Delivery and kept copies of the envelopes.
No reply almost a month on, but at the weekend two more envelopes arrived and on Tuesday another, so a second batch of three. Same origin but this time a reference visible in the windows -- different on each one -- plus (Please quote on all correspondence) and beneath that, ADVICE OF DEBIT. Certainly sounds bank-related.
Talked to our postie yesterday. He has no knowledge of these names either and they're nowhere else on his round.
Looked online again today with more results, and one (though only a third party look-up type of site) specifically linked the PO Box and postcode with HSBC.
I called, and was assured nothing came up on the system for either of the names, the references or our postcode, and she also said the PO Box wasn't HSBC's. Rang HFC again, but was told the reference didn't resemble any format they used and the PO Box was not on the list she had of their addresses.
Tried from another direction then, calling Royal Mail Business to ask if they could say who the PO Box belonged to. No they couldn't, under any circumstances (no less than expected, but worth a try).
I'm out of ideas. Then blow me, yet another envelope turned up in today's post, this time addressed to just one of the parties. It's clearly not a one-off blip but becoming established.
Whether it's either of my "suspects", or if I'm wrong and it's another organisation altogether, do any readers have mail coming in envelopes with this exact return address on the reverse? Could you confirm the sender/origin, please? Then I can call whoever it is with some certainty.
Many thanks
A month ago we received a batch of three envelopes addressed correctly but to two parties (jointly) who we have no knowledge of and who have never lived at this address. I can say this with certainty as we know names of all past occupiers as far back as the late 1950s.
All marked Private and Confidential, and on the reverse If undelivered, please return to:
PO Box 5012
Coventry
CV3 9ED
along with Please do not use this address for any correspondence.
No sender's name, but it wasn't hard to guess they were probably from a bank, card company, finance outfit or something similar. It's unlawful to open someone else's mail so we didn't, and can't confirm the sender. Nothing was visible in the envelope windows except the names/address and a barcode, but they didn't look like junk mail.
Looking online after these arrived, very few results but it seemed it might be either HSBC or HFC Bank (part of HSBC). At HFC's contact page, two of their postcodes were very close, although their PO Box numbers weren't as similar.
I rang HFC and the suggestion was to mark the envelopes "Not known at this address" and stick them in a postbox. Normally I would do this if they hadn't almost certainly been from a financial institution. Apart from these people not receiving what could be important mail, my concern was how and why their names became associated with our address. It isn't unheard of for a financial connection to be made in credit files in error and I didn't want it happening with ours because of a mixup.
If these letters originated from HFC I wanted to return them with a covering letter. She didn't specifically say the PO Box was theirs, but didn't deny it either. She suggested I return them with a letter to their Customer Services address, which I did by Recorded Delivery and kept copies of the envelopes.
No reply almost a month on, but at the weekend two more envelopes arrived and on Tuesday another, so a second batch of three. Same origin but this time a reference visible in the windows -- different on each one -- plus (Please quote on all correspondence) and beneath that, ADVICE OF DEBIT. Certainly sounds bank-related.
Talked to our postie yesterday. He has no knowledge of these names either and they're nowhere else on his round.
Looked online again today with more results, and one (though only a third party look-up type of site) specifically linked the PO Box and postcode with HSBC.
I called, and was assured nothing came up on the system for either of the names, the references or our postcode, and she also said the PO Box wasn't HSBC's. Rang HFC again, but was told the reference didn't resemble any format they used and the PO Box was not on the list she had of their addresses.
Tried from another direction then, calling Royal Mail Business to ask if they could say who the PO Box belonged to. No they couldn't, under any circumstances (no less than expected, but worth a try).
I'm out of ideas. Then blow me, yet another envelope turned up in today's post, this time addressed to just one of the parties. It's clearly not a one-off blip but becoming established.
Whether it's either of my "suspects", or if I'm wrong and it's another organisation altogether, do any readers have mail coming in envelopes with this exact return address on the reverse? Could you confirm the sender/origin, please? Then I can call whoever it is with some certainty.
Many thanks
~cottager
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Comments
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It's HSBC. I have an envelope with that exact postcode on the rear.0
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It's HSBC. I have an envelope with that exact postcode on the rear.
Tragen, thanks to you I now have a result!
Phoned HSBC again straight away after seeing your post, and the guy could not have been more helpful or obliging. He couldn't understand why on earth whoever I spoke to at HSBC earlier could find no trace of either name, as he found the first in two clicks and the other one later. It will now be dealt with, and I have the correct address for the right section to write to and return the latest mail, along with very full and precise reference details to quote about the conversation.
Very many thanks indeed for the help.~cottager1 -
This is a myth, albeit a common one, the law is basically that you can't seek to benefit from doing so - the Postal Services Act 2000 states thatIt's unlawful to open someone else's mail so we didn'tA person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him0 -
It's HSBC. I have an envelope with that exact postcode on the rear.
and if the OP had punched it into Google......
https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=opera&q=PO+Box+5012+Coventry+CV3+9ED&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-80 -
and if the OP had punched it into Google......
https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=opera&q=PO+Box+5012+Coventry+CV3+9ED&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
I did, but for some reason did not see anything like those results from your link, or I wouldn't have written - what I saw was very sparse (and fewer a month ago than I saw earlier today). But even when I rang them the first time today, the adviser told me it was not one of their addresses.~cottager0 -
This is a myth, albeit a common one, the law is basically that you can't seek to benefit from doing so - the Postal Services Act 2000 states that
Fair cop
But it would feel unlawful and wrong to me, even if it strictly isn't, so something I'd try hard to avoid in any event.~cottager0 -
This is a myth, albeit a common one, the law is basically that you can't seek to benefit from doing so - the Postal Services Act 2000 states that
And what's more, if it's get your address on it, it's been correctly delivered, because the Royal Mail deliver to properties and not people.
That provision of the PSA 2000 is designed to discourage nosy bar stewards from opening a neighbour's mail that some overworked postie has inadervtantly stuck through the wrong letterbox.0 -
...All marked Private and Confidential, and on the reverse If undelivered, please return to:
PO Box 5012
Coventry
CV3 9ED
along with Please do not use this address for any correspondence.
Why all the pallaver? Just stick it in a letterbox, and scawl 'not known at this address, please return to sender'. There is no need to include any correspondance; it's not like the sender needs any further explanation.0 -
And what's more, if it's get your address on it, it's been correctly delivered, because the Royal Mail deliver to properties and not people.
Of course they were correctly delivered: the letters carried our address so postie quite rightly delivered them here, and I never said otherwise. But the people they were addressed to do not and have never lived here.~cottager0 -
There is no need to include any correspondance; it's not like the sender needs any further explanation.
I'm not sure why you felt the need to correct what was already the correct spelling of correspondence to an incorrect version.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/correspondence0
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