Prize delivered to wrong address

brooke68

Moved house last year and updated my address details on what I thought was all my competition accounts. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Bauer Media advising that some of my address details may not be up to date. I checked and, sure enough, there were two accounts which I had missed. A few days later I received a letter from Bauer Media, which had been returned from my old address and subsequently sent to my new one, to say I had won a De'Longhi vintage coffee machine from an Arrowords competition.The prize was to be delivered by Electrical Promotions within 28 days...to my old address. The following day I phoned Electrical Promotions and when they checked their records,they could see that the parcel had been taken in and signed for by the new tenants. They suggested that I contact the new tenants at my old house to ask if I could call round to pick it up, which I did, giving my number for them to text me back. I then received a really rude text from the people at my old house, informing me that they would not allow me to collect the parcel as they were going to contact the company to come and collect it (they had had the parcel for ten days at this point). I have spoken to Bauer Media and Eliectrical Promotions since but, although sympathetic, they don't seem to be able to do anything.
I absolutely know this is my fault for not updating my details but it was a genuine mistake and I would happily forfeit the prize and learn a lesson from it but I fail to see why these people should be allowed to simply keep a prize which I believe to be worth around £180, when it was my name on the label.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

glentoran99

get a mate to call round and say they are a courier to collect on behalf of bauer media

tranmereforever

I would not let it lie, at the end of the day it was in your name and they have text you to effect that it has arrived and acknowledged it was for you, seems odd to me that they would not want you to collect it, it happens commonly when someone moves out

I would personally find out if they have contacted the company and if they have not go round and say you have spoken to the company and nothing has been arranged

They will either then

A- give it to you
B- They wont which suggests they have opened it

At the end of the day its in your name and your item

toniq

Contact the landlord and say they are withholding your mail.

Surely they can't allow them to keep it, it isn't theirs to keep.

Custardy you are needed here, he knows the regs on this type of stuff, or maybe asking morningpostie.

toniq

I've sent both a pm to ask them to have a look at this thread, they should have better ideas on what you can do, good luck.


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custardy

Regs wise for RM (and likely couriers).
THe item has been delivered as addressed. Theres really no recourse left outside legal action.
A small claims action maybe possible given you can prove the item was delivered. However I suppose the residents could say you (or at least a person) came to the door asking for the parcel.

morningpostie

custardy wrote: »

Regs wise for RM (and likely couriers).
THe item has been delivered as addressed. Theres really no recourse left outside legal action.
A small claims action maybe possible given you can prove the item was delivered. However I suppose the residents could say you (or at least a person) came to the door asking for the parcel.

This.

Might be worth 101'ing the Old Bill, if they haven't sent it back, would probably come under Section 84 of Postal Services Act (not sure if that applies to couriers), or theft by finding, or obtaining by deception (if they've kept it). Wouldn't hold hopes out though, as custardy said, they can easily say someone came to collect it on your behalf and drag it out.

Either way, if you move, always double/triple check the name and/or address on all your accounts if you move. I've just been involved in a situation where I've been delivering small parcels to an empty house as the divorcee occupier has moved, set up the redirection for her maiden name, but not added her married name...

Good luck though, hope you get some sort of recourse from it.

brooke68

Thanks for all the advice. I'll let you know how I get on.

hannonle

Cheeky !!!!!!s! Bet they thought their luck was in!

brooke68

Ok, I have sent several texts to the person holding onto the parcel, none of which were acknowledged. I have also spoken to both Bauer Media and the fulfilment company and both confirmed that they still hadn't heard from this person. The fulfilment company said they may involve the police (the last thing I want really) so I sent another text today and mentioned that it might be construed as Obtaining by Deception under Section 15 of the Theft Act 1968 (I'm hoping this is correct). Lo and behold, two minutes later they were in contact, accusing me of abusing and bullying them (all my messages are saved on my phone and anyone is welcome to see them; I was deliberately formal and polite throughout). They now claim that it was a neighbour who signed for the parcel (I don't know their name so I don't know if this is true or not) and that it's up to me to contact the company to collect it and they will "leave it out for them".
Am I mean spirited to think that the package will be mysteriously stolen or damaged outside the property before the courier collects it?
At a bit of a loss as to what to do next...

Inkling

I'm not knowledgeable on this sort of thing so I can't really offer any advice, but I did want to say I'm so sorry this has happened. Even if you didn't care about the prize, I can only imagine how rotten this must feel... it certainly does sound as though they *could be* being a tad shady about it.

I hope it gets resolved soon and am sending lucky thoughts your way. :A