Royal Mail redirection in wrong name and unable to talk to someone at Royal Mail

Lukash

Hello, I recently moved house, and I filled in and paid for a 3-month redirection. I had the first post today, but it's in my sister's name (!) and not mine. There was no room for error on the form I filled in, and of course I filled in my name. I rang Royal Mail customer service today and had to wait for over an hour to get through. When I did, I gave my reference number, name, and was asked security questions which were standard. To my surprise, the person I was speaking to said I'd failed the security questions and she was unable to carry on with the call. I explained I'd been waiting for an hour, and asked if I could at least explain the problem. She just said I'd failed security, and when I asked again if I could just tell her the problem as I'd been waiting for so long, she hung up. I couldn't believe it. I've looked all over the Royal Mail website, but have found nowhere that will help me. When I logged onto my account, it said that it was unable to provide details of payment for redirection. Whichever way I turn, I hit a brick wall, and I can't explain to anyone what the problem is because I clearly won't pass security because of the problem that I don't know about. I'm going round in circles, and wonder if anyone has any advice? It seems very unfair that I've paid for redirection and a mistake has been made but I'm being denied the opportunity to talk to someone about it. Many thanks.

born_again

Has you sister just moved as well? Or live in the same postcode as you previous house.

is the redirection payment showing in your bank account?

Okell

1.  Does your sister know anything about a mail redirection?

2.  Have you kept a copy of the form you filled in?

3.  If you did keep a copy, is all the information you gave on it correct?

TELLIT01

Can you go into your local sorting office an speak to somebody there?

eddddy

Lukash said:

Hello, I recently moved house, and I filled in and paid for a 3-month redirection. I had the first post today, but it's in my sister's name (!) and not mine. 

How similar are your and your sister's names?

Redirection is a mainly manual process. A Royal Mail person looks at all the letters being sent to your old address, and picks out the ones with your name - and sticks a redirection sticker on them.

If your sister's name is similar to yours (or the Royal Mail person isn't paying close attention), they might put stickers on the wrong person's letters.

As it's only the first day, maybe wait a few more days to see if it's a constant problem.



(Or did your sister also arrange a redirection as well, to a different address - and perhaps Royal Mail have got confused? In that case maybe your sister could call Royal Mail and pass security, and get it resolved.)

user1977

eddddy said:

Lukash said:

Hello, I recently moved house, and I filled in and paid for a 3-month redirection. I had the first post today, but it's in my sister's name (!) and not mine. 

A Royal Mail person looks at all the letters being sent to your old address, and picks out the ones with your name - and sticks a redirection sticker on them.

The RM person in question being your (old) postie. They do this when they're sorting the mail for their walk. So the process is only as accurate as they are, and I suspect things are more likely to go wrong if there are seasonal temp workers involved.

Aylesbury_Duck

If you're failing the security tests then it seems that for some reason they're not your details.  The person most likely to pass that test is your sister.  Can she call, get through the process and then either deal with it for you or pass the phone to you having told the operator that she's happy to do so?

Lukash

Hi,

Many thanks for your responses, I do appreciate them. My sister is still in the previous house (we shared it), and the redirection payment has gone out of my account. I filled in the form online, but there's no record of it in my Royal Mail account (I looked everywhere). I do have the email they sent confirming the redirection, and there aren't any personal details - where it says Total Applicants, all that's filled in (by Royal Mail) is '1 adult'. I made a complaint about it via RM online, and have just had a generic email saying that they've passed it to my local sorting office (without asking me for any details) - you can't reply to the email. I'm not able to get to my local sorting office because I'm housebound due to my health, unfortunately. It feels very much as if you're blocked at every turn, when I filled in the form correctly (I'm sure of that) - it was very straightforward. So I'm not sure what to do now, or who to contact. If you have any thoughts I'd be most grateful - I just want it sorted out.

Lukash

PS I've just seen the latest responses, thanks. Our names are very similar, yes - I think what I'll do is wait a few days as suggested, and see what happens. I hadn't realised it's mainly a manual operation. Thanks again for your help.

TheComplaintGuy

Royal Mail should be able to correct a redirection that’s been set up in the wrong name, but you’re right that getting hold of them is difficult at the moment.

A few points that might help:

1. They can’t ask you to keep a redirection active with incorrect details if the information is wrong due to their error or a processing issue. They have to amend it or cancel/refund it.

2. Try using the “Help with my Redirection” form rather than general customer service. It goes directly to the redirection support team and usually gets a response within a couple of days:

   https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/webforms/redirection

3. If you’ve already done that, ask them for written confirmation of the name and address they currently have recorded for your redirection. That protects you if any important mail goes missing.

4. If you keep getting generic replies or no response at all, you can escalate it through their online complaints route:

   https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/webforms/complaint

If you can share the exact wording Royal Mail sent you when they said they couldn’t change it, people here can help you work out what to do next.

sheramber

Do you and your sister have the same initial? 

What security questions could you not answer? I don’t remember being asked for any security questions/ answers when I set up a redirection.