An Post: mail sent to my address by mistake

Worztron

Hi.

What is the exact procedure if mail is delivered to your home by mistake. Did An Post make a change recently whereby the onus is on us to pay to post it back to them? Or can I just write 'posted to wrong address on envelope' and put it in nearby post box?

Also if someone's post box is sealed/closed. Is it the procedure that the post man/woman is supposed to put it in the next door neighbors letter box?

Thanks.

Guill

Open it, read it, bin it.

You're worried about the price of a stamp? Put it down as your good thing to do in 2011.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Worztron wrote: »

Hi.

What is the exact procedure if mail is delivered to your home by mistake. Did An Post make a change recently whereby the onus is on us to pay to post it back to them? Or can I just write 'posted to wrong address on envelope' and put it in nearby post box?

Also if someone's post box is sealed/closed. Is it the procedure that the post man/woman is supposed to put it in the next door neighbors letter box?

Thanks.

"Return to sender" drop in nearest mailbox. ow are they going to know which wrong address it showed up at?

JonathanAnon

When I was living in a shared house in Dublin, we got a letter through the door for a lad that lived in the place ages ago.. It was a request for a paternity test... No wonder he left so quickly..

Badgermonkey

Guill wrote: »

Open it, read it, bin it.

You forgot scan and publish on Boards.

OP just give it to postie if possible.

number10a

The recent changes by An Post only prevent you from re-addressing it and putting it back in the post without a new stamp. Makes no differenece to writing "undelivered" or "no longer at this address" on the envelope and putting it back in the post.

Or else you could open it. In the last place I lived, I got about €40 of Tesco Value Club vouchers by opening the last tenant's post. :D

KeithM89_old

Open the letter with the steam of a kettle so it doesn't tear, replace the letter with something else (a ransom demand, fake subscription to granny porn monthly, an envelope full of glitter etc..) and seal it back up and stamp it.

Tahuti

Could you not post it where it's supposed to go, assuming that's nearby?

biko

Don't open it. Just write No such Person or similar and stick it in a post box.
An post will send it to National Returned Letter Centre where they'll deal with it.

Dionysus

Worztron wrote: »

Hi.

What is the exact procedure if mail is delivered to your home by mistake. Did An Post make a change recently whereby the onus is on us to pay to post it back to them? Or can I just write 'posted to wrong address on envelope' and put it in nearby post box?

Also if someone's post box is sealed/closed. Is it the procedure that the post man/woman is supposed to put it in the next door neighbors letter box?

Thanks.

The latest on this is that somebody pointed out that An Post was in contravention of the Inland Post Warrant 1939 and consequently An Post admits ending free post redirection was illegal

Just put a forwarding address on it without a stamp - they'll still have to deliver it.

number10a

biko wrote: »

An post will send it to National Returned Letter Centre where they'll deal with it.

:pac::pac::pac: I love the sound of that. It makes it sound like a massive building (and for some reason it's also a little bit Harry Potter-ish). But knowing An Post, it's probably a room in a sorting office overflowing with dusty envelopes stuffed into the stolen Royal Mail postbags.

Captain_Generic

Just hoard it away like I do all mail, leaflets, local newspapers and lost children

Plazaman

biko wrote: »

Don't open it. Just write No such Person or similar and stick it in a post box.
An post will send it to National Returned Letter Centre where they'll deal with it.

Those fellas in the NRLC are some craic I tell ya. Terry, I still have that ferret you sent me, please collect it asap or it'll be returned by post.

emanresu

I think the OP is asking about mail delivered to the wrong address by the postman (possibly because there is no useable letter box at the correct nearby address).
If this is the case, it is not the same as forwarding mail for a family member who has moved away from home, or mail for a previous owner or tenant, so there should be no charge for returning the mail to the sender or An Post.

bleg

I got a birthday card in August with a tenner in it that said "Congratulations, you're 11!"

My birthday is in May...

I'm 23...

Free tenner!!!

Cookie_Monster

write "not to be found at this address" on it
and into the nearest post box

or just bin it.

sbsquarepants

The procedure around my house is to open it to see if it's worth keeping, then if it's not bin it!

Miaireland

Happens where I work all the time. We often get letters that the right address on them but are still delievered to the wrong place. I just write deliever to wrong place on them and either pop the back in the post or hand them to the postman.

pow wow

Just throw it back in the mail. They'll attempt delivery again hopefully to the right address if you put it back in a postbox.If you put no longer at this address or whatnot it gets sent back to the sender.

df1985

if they got in wrong, surely the correct address isnt that far away??

Worztron

Guill wrote: »

Open it, read it, bin it.

I'd never open someone else's mail.

Worztron

How about dealing with junk mail? Can I write "'Return to sender" on the envelope, of lets say mail offering me a credit card. They have the correct address but I don't have nor want a credit card.

mikemac

Open it and steal their identity to get credit cards which you then max out

They will have learned an expensive lesson

donvito99

We call it post in this country OP

ScumLord

Just bin it, I brought a letter back to the post office saying the guy doesn't live at this address when I moved into my new place and twice they sent it back to me.

GerardKeating

donvito99 wrote: »

We call it post in this country OP

Not all of "us" do.

lecker Hendl

We got a letter in the post years back that was meant for a neighbour a few doors down. The mother opened without looking at the name (she says) and there was a nice court summons. Don't know how she passed it on. I wouldn't have gone to the door with it.

Max Power1

Open it (blast it with p!ss) and send it back

Wetbench4

I would just drop it back to my local an post depot.

Mike 1972

When I lived in 9 Dirthole Street Ballygobackwards I used to regularly get mail for whoever lived in 9 Dirthole Street Bally$hitville

Used to chuck the letter back in the post with nice little hand drawn map on the back on the envelope showing where Ballygobackwards and Bally$hitville were.

Worztron

feelingstressed wrote: »

Open it and steal their identity to get credit cards which you then max out

They will have learned an expensive lesson

"Steal their identity"? What on earth are you on about?

Worztron

Wetbench4 wrote: »

I would just drop it back to my local an post depot.

But I'd still continue to get junk mail. There must be a way send junk mail back to those credit card companies and the like in a way that irks them so that they leave people alone.

slimjimmc

Worztron wrote: »

"Steal their identity"? What on earth are you on about?

It's not that difficult. Things like utility bills are often accepted forms of identification, so you can use that to open other accounts thereby legitimising your forged identity. Once you have sufficient legitimate id to prove your fake identity you can obtain bank loans, dodge speeding/parking fines, all in the name of someone else, but you still have your own true id to deny any link.

pow wow

You could try returning it with 'not known at this address' but tbh it's really not worth the hassle. Just use it to start a fire or something.

Worztron

slimjimmc wrote: »

It's not that difficult. Things like utility bills are often accepted forms of identification, so you can use that to open other accounts thereby legitimising your forged identity. Once you have sufficient legitimate id to prove your fake identity you can obtain bank loans, dodge speeding/parking fines, all in the name of someone else, but you still have your own true id to deny any link.

Anyone who steals someone's identity should be locked up for a very long time. They are utter scum.

Ruu_Old

Whatever post you get is fair game. :P

Tar.Aldarion

give it to the post man

Worztron

pow wow wrote: »

You could try returning it with 'not known at this address' but tbh it's really not worth the hassle. Just use it to start a fire or something.

But I hate waste and the extra litter it creates. Since these companies post people stuff they don't want; perhaps it is best to shoot the junk right back at them. There should be some sort of agency where you can say that you are getting junk mail continuously from xyz_corp. and want them to stop it. Then that agency would contact xyz_corp and instruct them to stop sending me mail (just a thought).

sdanseo

We got a letter in the shop addressed to a former manager (now touring some foreign land never to be seen again) but none of us had the wherewithall to open it because we thought it was a summons for theft :P

Then we realised he'd have to sign for that so we just binned it. Nothing exciting.

Mike 1972

Its actually highly illegal to open mail addressed to someone else.

Last place I lived in though the amount of post addressed to previous occupants was unreal as was the length of time it continued for. Putting "not known at this address" on them and chucking them back in the post did little to stem the flow (From the return addresses it was obvious that much of it was coming from the same few companies) given that much of it was from banks, credit card companies and wotnot I suspect the people in question did a runner owing a load of money. Over the course of one week we got over 100 letters addressed to them and four years after we moved in it was still coming.

alejandro1977

Worztron wrote: »

But I hate waste and the extra litter it creates. Since these companies post people stuff they don't want; perhaps it is best to shoot the junk right back at them. .

yep, best to send it back. Too much junk increases the chance you you missing some important piece of post. Even if it is junk they won't want to waste the stamps - in my experience 'Return to Sender' works - eventually

pow wow

Worztron wrote: »

But I hate waste and the extra litter it creates. Since these companies post people stuff they don't want; perhaps it is best to shoot the junk right back at them. There should be some sort of agency where you can say that you are getting junk mail continuously from xyz_corp. and want them to stop it. Then that agency would contact xyz_corp and instruct them to stop sending me mail (just a thought).

Think of all the extra energy needed to process your return though, and don't assume the junk-sender would actually take any notice. Does ROI not have anything similar to these people?. I still get junk from a charity I donated to whilst I lived in the US - 4 years later. After the post office forwarded their junk I sent them a letter saying I'd emigrated and to stop...instead they just started sending it here.

alejandro1977

pow wow wrote: »

Think of all the extra energy needed to process your return though, and don't assume the junk-sender would actually take any notice. Does ROI not have anything similar to these people?. I still get junk from a charity I donated to whilst I lived in the US - 4 years later. After the post office forwarded their junk I sent them a letter saying I'd emigrated and to stop...instead they just started sending it here.

Tape a brick to it and send it to them. They have to pay the postage. They'll pay attention then; I've head about people doing this for Time and Readers Digest, not sure if true...

Dionysus

Worztron wrote: »

Hi.

What is the exact procedure if mail is delivered to your home by mistake. Did An Post make a change recently whereby the onus is on us to pay to post it back to them? Or can I just write 'posted to wrong address on envelope' and put it in nearby post box?

Also if someone's post box is sealed/closed. Is it the procedure that the post man/woman is supposed to put it in the next door neighbors letter box?

Thanks.

number10a wrote: »

The recent changes by An Post only prevent you from re-addressing it and putting it back in the post without a new stamp. Makes no differenece to writing "undelivered" or "no longer at this address" on the envelope and putting it back in the post.

They don't actually. As I posted elsewhere in Afterhours in the past two months, An Post went back on the proposal in question because somebody pointed out that a law in the 1930s makes it illegal for An Post to charge somebody for putting a forwarding address. The link in that post of mine was to an article in The Irish Times.

In other words: put a forwarding address or return to sender on the mail. It will cost you nothing and An Post will have to deliver it.


/end thread.