Would you steal someone else’s post? Poll Results/Discussion

jennyo

I would phone the company and say the person no longer lives here, then unless they asked for me to return the magazine, I would open it and read it.

V_tricky

I would open it, use the account details on the slip inside and ring the magazine and tell them they no longer lived at the address.

There's no way on gods green earth that they'd request the mag back, so I'd read it and enjoy it.

If I was sent another one the following month I would be annoyed that they hadn't heeded my call and I would MAYBE call them again.

They definately wouldn't get a third crack at the whip.

If it was a mag I wasn't interested in, I'd return to sender

laughing_cow

laughing_cow wrote: »

I have also opened letters addressed to my flat which are not for me. I've lived there for 8 years and I know the previous owners name, so I'm suspicious when bank statements or mobile phone bills for someone else suddenly come to my home - in these cases I've opened the post and phoned up the company to tell them someone is either mistakenly or fraudulently using my address. This happened quite a few times when we had builders working on our communal areas who had access to the post in the hallway :rolleyes: .

As an update to this, I've just been on the phone to Virgin mobile for the 6th time in 2 years about someone who is using my address for his mobile bill (and I've also had credit card application forms for him in the past :rolleyes: ). It stopped for a while but has started up again. I've never heard of him and he certainly hasn't lived here in the past 15 years. The woman at Virgin called him on another line while I was on the phone to ask him for his correct address. She then came back to me and said "he wants to know your name" - bloomin' cheek! Why would he need it unless for more dodgy activity? :rolleyes: He was apparently saying that he had two addresses, one being mine. I refused to give my name and I told her to get him to prove it by checking electoral roll/council tax/mortgage etc. I said I'd go to the police if I get any more mail for him because it seems a bit iffy to me.

It may be illegal, but sometimes you need to open other people's mail to protect yourself.

lavendergirl

We have lived at present address for 20 years and we still get the odd Christmas card for the previous owner (from an aunt would you believe!!) No return address of course

groovychick2007

ive moved into a property about 6 months ago and am having mail for last tennant which i post to them as i know where they are ...im also having mail for same tenants but different surnames ive started to return them to sender saying no longer at this address as dont know what else to do with them like catalogues etc

jgriggle

When I moved into my new house, for the first month I made sure any of the previous occupent's mail was returned to sender. After this it went in the recycling bin on the assumption that if it was important he would have let the relevant companies know. I would have no hesitation in reading the magazine. It would have gone straight to the recycling in otherwise.

custardy

mjhatcher wrote: »

I'm really glad that I moved from my previous flat, because we were constantly getting bailiff demands for parking fines and loan default letters from previous residents.

It's not particularly nice to get these threatening letters through your door, even if they are not directed at you. After that I had no qualms about opening every piece of mail addressed to previous residents, including bills, so that I could sort it all out.

My new house seems to be largely free of this problem, although I am getting very sick of forwarding on credit card statements. How people can be so foolish as to not change their address for these important accounts is beyond me!

you maybe wasting your time.
if you are unofficially redirecting then these items are most likely returned to sender

custardy

neiljmac wrote: »

Junk mail should always be returned to sender. Just put "Return to Sender" on it and pop it in the letterbox.

That way, the sender will have to pay for it twice, thus supporting our wonderful Royal Mail :j

how do they pay twice?
most is sent via mailsort and is sent for secure destruction thus costing RM more money
if you send an item of mail and its returned to you,do you repay the postage?

dumpty

I will return the first few magazines back to sender, but if they persist in sending them to me, after about 3 months I will just bin them (recycle)!

vetfred

The fact that I haven't bought it to read probably suggests I can live without it in the first place so I would return to sender and mark it "no longer at this address."

We've paid for mail to be redirected and still some of it is being dropped through the letterbox at our old address. Thankfully they are passing it on when it happens but even when you pay it can still be misdelivered. I would hope my misdelivered mail is dealt with as I would deal with someone else's regardless of what the letters or magazines may relate to.