What to do????

dara28

My wifes brother is in Australia and for her Birthday he sent her a kind of hamper with chocolates and wine etc. Think it was done through an I rish website that you pay tem and they deliver it. Anyway he ended up putting a wrong adress on it, and it was sent to a house across the road. So we rang An Post and they said that our neighbour had signed for it, so we went over to them and explained the wrong address and could we have the present.

It turns out that they opened the present and ate everything and drank the wine etc. Our neighbour claimed that it was her birthday aswell that week and presumed it was for her, even though there was a card included from my wives brother to my wive, different names and all that. The neighbour apologised and said she would replace stuff. That was three weeks ago and nothing, we dropped in a letter to her to remind her and basically not wanting to be pushy or anything but still have heard nothing.

I dont care about the present anymore its just how can people be so mean. it really makes you lose your faith in people.

What would you do in my position now???

Snarler

Unlucky. Chalk it down to experience but do send a letter to teh neighbour proclaiming 'A pox on your house'.

shakenbake

See a solicitor.

If it was addressed to the wrong house, I'm not sure you've got many options though.

echosound

Some people really are unbelieveable. I've had that happen before, but thankfully nice neighbours dropped the gift to the intended recipient.
Not much you can really do TBH, bar dropping one more note through to them and see if they have the common decency to replace the gift. If there's still nothing, chalk it up to there being yet another git in the world.

prendy

See a solicitor.

WTF see a solicitor over a gift...this country is gone like america....

sort it out with your neighbour...let them know exactly what you think of them and let others on your street know the type of greedy selfish people living on your street.

Reku

I would have thought that when signing for it it would have had the NAME and address of the person who it's for on the slip too? As lets face it which is someone who knows it's your birthday more likely to get wrong, your name or your address?:rolleyes:

This is why I think sharing the correct surname should be a minimum requirement for signing for things, at least then you wouldn't have to worry whether the neighbour will give the item to you or come up with some excuse. Afterall if they can't get someone to sign they just leave a slip so that you'll know that you have to go to the local sorting office to collect something. I've had neighbours sign for things for me before and even though I got them in the end I still would have prefered to have had to have gone down to the sorting office, just to know that there weren't other things that may have been signed for but never passed on.

Oryx

These people are your neighbours and you will have to live across from them for the foreseeable future. So any legal pushiness or repeated hassle will only create bad feeling that, imo you can do without.

But you now have the measure of these people. And even if they need it, I doubt youll be doing them any favours in the future.

Because it was your brothers mistake, I think you may have to just suck up the loss though. An post did deliver it correctly.

shakenbake

prendy wrote: »

sort it out with your neighbour...let them know exactly what you think of them and let others on your street know the type of greedy selfish people living on your street.

Yeah, that'll sort it all out won't it? What do you expect him to do .. hand around flyers to his other neigbours telling them that the people at #12 ate his birds hamper?

Some hampers (unlike the one's you'd win in school) can be quite expensive. I think his neighbours new full well it wasn't for them and decided eat it without making any effort to fnid it's rightfull owner. If they've already been reminded twice and said they'd reimburse the man then what's wrong in asking a solicitor for advice?

briantwin

IS this not the samevas yourvneighbour getting a letter addressed to you and opening it!? i do believe that to be illegal.Addressed to the wrong house,understandable mistake. Your neighbour opening it andonsuming the contents under the pretence that it was close to her birthday too!??C'MON!!!

If i were you i'd say to the neighbours in no uncertain terms that if the goods aren't replaced....You'll let ever neighbour on your street know what a shower of b*stards are living on your road. Also mention it to the post man next time you see him..just say that stuff had been mislabeled and sent to the wrong house and never delivered to you!! nothin spreads gossip like a clued in post man!!

Electric

I'd speak to your brother-in-law and find out how much the hamper was (including VAT and delivery) and then I would send your neighbours an invoice by registered post.

Gumbyman

In fairness, I can see your point but I got a box of chocolates or whatever delivered to my address to a name I didn't know I'd eat them. If the owner then called over I'd be pretty p*ssed off as I now have to spend my own money to buy something I never even wanted in the first place.

It's like getting a gift then being told you have to pay for it. It's not entirely their fault and now they have to shell out for your brother in laws mistake. I bet they're just as p*ssed as you if not even more. I'd say write them a note saying that you have thought about it and realised it isn't really their fault and that you'd be happy if they called over with a bottle of wine which you would then share with them. Along the lines of ".....sure bring over a bottle of wine some evening and we'll have a toast to forgetting this whole thing. Your neighbour, John." Or better still call over and say it in person. You can't put a price on having neighbours as friends as opposed to neighbours as emenies.

There are no winners here - sorry man!

Gumbyman.

Cathmandooo

No way that's mad! I'd try get a copy of the invoice from your bro in law and put it in their letterbox, I wouldnt bother with registered post, I dont see how that will help you if you know you've dropped it into the letterbox yourself!

Very cheeky of them, dont bring solicitors into it though, I think that's a bit OTT

dara28

for the responses,

I dont want hassle from them and not going to bring solicitors into it, just annoyed that they opened something that was plainly not belonging to the them, think the hamper was around 50 or 60 euro, They know my wifes name and who we are so im sure they knew it was intended for us.

Just disappointed that neighbours are like that, i was brought up to never open or tamper with mail not belonging to you, I suppose I just have to realise that other people dont hold the same principles.

Im sure ill pass them on the street in the coming weeks and I hope its an extremely awkward situation for them.

bullpost

Found this on another thread - not sure if its still law and I wouldn't personally be in favour of pursuing this legally but it does seem that legally the onus is on them to prove the delivery was theirs!

from the POSTAL AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES ACT, 1983



84.—(1) A person who—

( a ) opens or attempts to open a postal packet addressed to another person or delays or detains any such postal packet or does anything to prevent its due delivery or authorises, suffers or permits another person (who is not the person to whom the postal packet is addressed) to do so, or

( b ) discloses the existence or contents of any such postal packet, or

( c ) uses for any purpose any information obtained from any such postal packet, or

( d ) tampers with any such postal packet,

without the agreement of the person to whom the postal packet is addressed shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to any person who is acting—

( a ) in virtue of any power conferred on the company by section 83, or

( b ) in pursuance of a direction issued by the Minister under section 110, or

( c ) under other lawful authority.

star-pants

dara28 wrote: »

for the responses,

I dont want hassle from them and not going to bring solicitors into it, just annoyed that they opened something that was plainly not belonging to the them, think the hamper was around 50 or 60 euro, They know my wifes name and who we are so im sure they knew it was intended for us.

Just disappointed that neighbours are like that, i was brought up to never open or tamper with mail not belonging to you, I suppose I just have to realise that other people dont hold the same principles.

Im sure ill pass them on the street in the coming weeks and I hope its an extremely awkward situation for them.

If it had no name - fair enough - accidents.
But if a hamper (or anything for that matter) came to our house, with someone elses name on it, whether we knew it or not - we'd either give to the right person (save them having to go back down to the PO) or wouldn't have signed for it if it was someone we didn't know.

It's not rocket science. As you said the name was on it & they know who you are.. that's just not on. I'd be very disappointed myself.
But I guess not a whole lot you can do, they'll only think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. It's the principle of the matter anyways. Respecting peoples things.

Sorry to hear about that - I'm sure your brother in law was disappointed too, after sending such a lovely gift to his sister.

Overheal

bullpost wrote: »

Found this on another thread - not sure if its still law and I wouldn't personally be in favour of pursuing this legally but it does seem that legally the onus is on them to prove the delivery was theirs!

from the POSTAL AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES ACT, 1983



84.—(1) A person who—

( a ) opens or attempts to open a postal packet addressed to another person or delays or detains any such postal packet or does anything to prevent its due delivery or authorises, suffers or permits another person (who is not the person to whom the postal packet is addressed) to do so, or

( b ) discloses the existence or contents of any such postal packet, or

( c ) uses for any purpose any information obtained from any such postal packet, or

( d ) tampers with any such postal packet,

without the agreement of the person to whom the postal packet is addressed shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to any person who is acting—

( a ) in virtue of any power conferred on the company by section 83, or

( b ) in pursuance of a direction issued by the Minister under section 110, or

( c ) under other lawful authority.

Do nothing rash - speak with a solicitor. Hopefully the mere scent of legal action will be enough in this case.

Your Brother hopefully will be able to find his shipping receipt or retreive a record from the Australian Postal Service as to the name adressed on the parcel. I assume the actual packaging is tossed. Still have the card?

JohnnyBadEye

The old saying 'fight fire with fire' comes to mind in this instance. If a Neighbour of mine decided to be nasty i'd simply get them back.
Just sneak over during the night and slash their car tyres. They'll know its you but how can they prove it. If they retaliate by slashing your tyres then thats when you contact solicitors. That way not only do you get them back - but you also set them up if they decide to retaliate as you can prove why you suspect them of slashing your tyres but they cant prove why you would have slashed theirs.
The perfect crime

Go get the bastards!

starlight07

Theres only one solution... Judge Judy.

l3LoWnA

Do the neighbours in questions know your full names? (ie. First AND surname?)

Was the parcel/hamper addressed to you wife using her full name (which neighbours definately know) ?

Was the neighbours address on the parcel?

Are the neighbours renting or do they own their house?

You have to consider all the facts. To be honest, if I was in a house and a beautiful hamper arrived to the door I'd be delighted although the first thing I'd say was "that's not me" to the postman when I checked the name. How and ever maybe the postman didn't give them a chance and just asked them to sign, which they did. Then they saw the name and possibly hadn't a clue who the person was. (may have thought it was for a previous tennant?!) They thought, what the hell, if we send it back to An Post the postmen will probably devour it and they had at the hamper. Granted if I had done that and THEN realised the neighbours across the road were the rightful owners and now wanted a replacement I'd be MORTIFIED, so much so I'd get myself into debt in order to buy a replacement if I had to.

I think it's cheeky of them for sure not to have replaced it or offered your wife an alternative or at the very least apologised especially now that you've asked them for same.

However, if that happened to me, I'd have called over to the neighbours and had a right old laugh about the fact they'd been so greedy, I wouldn't even expect them to pay me back when the parcel was delivered to their address in error. This is obviously your pillock of a brother in laws mistake, for getting the address wrong, not your neighbours. They were following the advice - don't look a gift horse in the mouth, like I'd have prbably done aswell (unless I truly knew who the parcel was for - although maybe they just dislike you and your wife and found it hilarious so ate all before them?!)

whiskeyman

l3LoWnA wrote: »

This is obviously your pillock of a brother in laws mistake

Whoa, a bit harsh. He made a typo on the house number. It happens! No need for insults.

l3LoWnA wrote: »

if we send it back to An Post the postmen will probably devour it and they had at the hamper.

I presume you mean AND. See how easy a little typo is? :rolleyes:

sodrisc

I think that while you would probably have a good case, legally, could you actually be bothered going through that amount of hassle for something worth that little in monetary terms? If it were me I'd just blacken their name by telling all the neighbours what happened and giving them icy glares whenever they cross my path....

dudara

JohnnyBadEye banned for one week for advocating illegal acts.

Please contact me or another mod in one week to rescind the ban.

dudara

TantraKat

Just write it off as a bad experience. The package had their address on it I presume, as your brother had put the wrong address on it? If they didn't know your name they'd have no way of knowing you lived across the street.

Granted they could have waited a few days to see if anyone came to collect it, but perhaps the curiousity got the better of them and they opened it, and once opened they couldn't resist.

Maybe they can't afford to replace it? Whatever the reason let it go. Its not worth the hassle. They have to live with their own conscience.