Incorrectly addressed mail

[75A]

I quite often send the freepost envelopes that you get with all the junk mail and credit card applications back empty. Just stuck down and in my pocket for when I go to work.

Me too.

 

[bearhugger]

Me too.

Do you have a little smile to yourself at the thought of some one some where sat at a desk with a huge pile of 'empties' and having to open and then bin them all? I'm afraid i do, it's the little things!

 

[75A]

Do you have a little smile to yourself at the thought of some one some where sat at a desk with a huge pile of 'empties' and having to open and then bin them all? I'm afraid i do, it's the little things!

Exactly.

 

[Horizon22]

Also on the back of most letters from reputable companies / agencies is a return address. I tend to put a big box around this (preferably in a coloured pen) as well as writing Return to Sender & Not Known at Address on the front (or also on the back).

 

[75A]

Also on the back of most letters from reputable companies / agencies is a return address. I tend to put a big box around this (preferably in a coloured pen) as well as writing Return to Sender & Not Known at Address on the front (or also on the back).

That's a good idea.

 

[Horizon22]

Do you have a little smile to yourself at the thought of some one some where sat at a desk with a huge pile of 'empties' and having to open and then bin them all? I'm afraid i do, it's the little things!

I used to be that person at a council! To be fair I had plenty of other jobs and this was just part of the morning mail sort which took about 30-60 minutes. My role and department actually relied on accurate address details, so any information like this was actually quite useful. I think this experience has given me lots of knowledge of address & mail issues which is why I'm so keen its dealt with properly which my housemates / partner has always found bizarre!

 

[1955LR]

I had the DVLA sending me reminders for previous owners car tax. After the 3rd time I sent it back to DVLA with a note to say any further correspondence from them to this individual at my address I would take as harassment. Didn't get anther one

 

[bearhugger]

One thing i would say about the Return To Sender if there's a address to return to, is try to obliterate your address so the machines at the sorting office can't read them, as well as writing 'not known.. etc'. I've had a letter back a couple of times that has one number difference in the begining part of the postcode.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Sep 2021 ==

I used to be that person at a council! To be fair I had plenty of other jobs and this was just part of the morning mail sort which took about 30-60 minutes. My role and department actually relied on accurate address details, so any information like this was actually quite useful. I think this experience has given me lots of knowledge of address & mail issues which is why I'm so keen its dealt with properly which my housemates / partner has always found bizarre!

It's good to know that there are companies who actually take note of things like this.

 

[Horizon22]

It's good to know that there are companies who actually take note of things like this.

Indeed in the public sector, but I'm not sure there would be the same stringent processes at some other firms.

 

[simonw]

Do you have a little smile to yourself at the thought of some one some where sat at a desk with a huge pile of 'empties' and having to open and then bin them all? I'm afraid i do, it's the little things!

Sorry to spoil your image, but they will be opened automatically and binned.

 

[bearhugger]

Sorry to spoil your image, but they will be opened automatically and binned.

Spoilsport!

 

[Inthewest]

Another thing to do is save them up.

If you get a persistent sender, save them for 6 months or so and send them back together - better if you have sticky labels with "not at this address, please remove from mail list" or whatever you fancy.
If the sender receives a whole load back at the same time that looks similar, hard to ignore.

I had between 20 and 30 of a flier advertising something.
I started by sending them back in dribs and drabs but after 4 months or so, I started saving them. A year and a half later, I had a good number so posted half back one day, the other half the other day.
Since then, I have received ZERO.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

One thing i would say about the Return To Sender if there's a address to return to, is try to obliterate your address so the machines at the sorting office can't read them, as well as writing 'not known.. etc'. I've had a letter back a couple of times that has one number difference in the begining part of the postcode.

You'll also need to obscure the multitude of small light coloured vertical lines that the RM print in two bands across the front of the envelope - that's what tells the sorting machinery where to send it, so sometimes things will come back to you for round two for that reason.

 

[AY1975]

If there happens to be an identical or almost identical address nearby (i.e. same or almost identical street name but different area and postcode), the chances are that you will often get mail addressed to the occupant of that address but addressed to your address instead of theirs.

I believe that whenever a new property or housing development gets built, it often takes quite a while for it to get added to the Royal Mail's national address database, so I would guess that where a new property hasn't been added to the database yet and the street and/or apartment block name happens to be similar or identical to an existing one nearby, mail is especially likely to get misdirected.

 

[A Challenge]

My parents used to live on a road of which there was a very similarly named road on the other side of town in a different postcode district - but it just so happened they knew the person who lived at the same number in the other road, they did quite frequently have to swap post apparently.

 

[507020]

Sorry to spoil your image, but they will be opened automatically and binned.

I doubt it is cost effective for these companies to eat away at their profits by spending money on having an automatic opening mechanism fitted to every envelope just to detect whether it has been posted without anything in it or not. Surely it must be cheaper to have someone on minimum wage doing it.

I had the DVLA sending me reminders for previous owners car tax. After the 3rd time I sent it back to DVLA with a note to say any further correspondence from them to this individual at my address I would take as harassment. Didn't get anther one

I’ve heard of the DVLA sending threatening letters saying “why have you not renewed your drivers license since your death 5 years ago” which must count as harassment to their bereaved relatives or new occupants.

My parents used to live on a road of which there was a very similarly named road on the other side of town in a different postcode district - but it just so happened they knew the person who lived at the same number in the other road, they did quite frequently have to swap post apparently.

They probably ended up getting to know each other on the first occasion when one of them went to the other address with a large pile of undelivered post only to find that there was a similarly large pile waiting for them there!

 

[swt_passenger]

I’ve heard of the DVLA sending threatening letters saying “why have you not renewed your drivers license since your death 5 years ago” which must count as harassment to their bereaved relatives or new occupants.

You can preempt that problem when someone dies though, by telling them. IIRC the info they give you when registering a death does remind you to do that, but I suppose a few people will miss it at the time.

 

[GusB]

I’ve heard of the DVLA sending threatening letters saying “why have you not renewed your drivers license since your death 5 years ago” which must count as harassment to their bereaved relatives or new occupants.

You can preempt that problem when someone dies though, by telling them. IIRC the info they give you when registering a death does remind you to do that, but I suppose a few people will miss it at the time.

Instances of this (in theory) should become less frequent as more people use the "Tell Us Once" service, which notifies all the relevant bodies in one go. On a personal level, I found it to be invaluable as it removed much of the hassle of dealing with bureaucracy at a time when I needed it the least.

 

[swt_passenger]

Instances of this (in theory) should become less frequent as more people use the "Tell Us Once" service, which notifies all the relevant bodies in one go. On a personal level, I found it to be invaluable as it removed much of the hassle of dealing with bureaucracy at a time when I needed it the least.

I think that came in a few years after my father died, I remember having to spend quite a while ringing round and then writing to various official bodies, they all wanted a certified death certificate back then, but it was in place by the time my mum died a few years later.

 

[Typhoon]

You can preempt that problem when someone dies though, by telling them. IIRC the info they give you when registering a death does remind you to do that, but I suppose a few people will miss it at the time.

Instances of this (in theory) should become less frequent as more people use the "Tell Us Once" service, which notifies all the relevant bodies in one go. On a personal level, I found it to be invaluable as it removed much of the hassle of dealing with bureaucracy at a time when I needed it the least.

I was just compiling a post about 'Tell Us Once', I have checked that the DVLA is on the list. Unfortunately, after I used it, an organisation on the list as being notified needed telling twice (so that could be the cause here). I would join @GusB in recommending it as there are inevitably government departments that you don't consider needing to be told. Not only does it take pressure off the bereaved, but I have found that some call centre staff that you are put through to haven't got a clue about dealing with anyone who is bereaved. I felt sorry for some of them, it is not their fault that the organisation has failed to provide the training or specialist team.

 

[507020]

Instances of this (in theory) should become less frequent as more people use the "Tell Us Once" service, which notifies all the relevant bodies in one go. On a personal level, I found it to be invaluable as it removed much of the hassle of dealing with bureaucracy at a time when I needed it the least.

I was just compiling a post about 'Tell Us Once', I have checked that the DVLA is on the list. Unfortunately, after I used it, an organisation on the list as being notified needed telling twice (so that could be the cause here). I would join @GusB in recommending it as there are inevitably government departments that you don't consider needing to be told. Not only does it take pressure off the bereaved, but I have found that some call centre staff that you are put through to haven't got a clue about dealing with anyone who is bereaved. I felt sorry for some of them, it is not their fault that the organisation has failed to provide the training or specialist team.

What you’re missing is that what I said in my post “why have you not renewed your drivers license since your death 5 years ago” was me trying to condense down what the letter said, which was effectively acknowledging the person’s death and that the DVLA had been informed of it but was still for some stupid reason attempting to demand that they renewed the drivers license of a deceased person over 5 years after receiving their certified death certificate, which is even more incredibly distressing than anything you have mentioned.

 

[simonw]

I doubt it is cost effective for these companies to eat away at their profits by spending money on having an automatic opening mechanism fitted to every envelope just to detect whether it has been posted without anything in it or not. Surely it must be cheaper to have someone on minimum wage doing it.

A letter opening machine can do several hundred letters an hour. Not sure a person can match that.

 

[Gloster]

What happens if the envelope is additionally sealed with sellotape (other brands are available, but I don’t use them). As envelopes often don’t seem to seal at the ends of the flap, I often sellotape them up, particularly if there is a cheque or important form in them.

 

[ta-toget]

What happens if the envelope is additionally sealed with sellotape (other brands are available, but I don’t use them). As envelopes often don’t seem to seal at the ends of the flap, I often sellotape them up, particularly if there is a cheque or important form in them.

I imagine it still cuts through it. I don't think they generally slice straight through the envelope, they normally sort of grind the top edge, and I imagine it would still cope with sellotape. I found a video on YouTube demonstrating one.

 

[Wearhead]

I moved to my current address in 2001. Every year around Christmas time a letter would arrive from Sun Life offering Life Insurance, addressed to the previous owner. For the first five or six years I would dutifully return it to Sun Life with “moved away - no longer at this address” but to no avail. Still they kept coming.

And they still do. In our house they are now known as the Sun Life Christmas fire-lighters. It’s become a tradition, twenty years of pointless wasteful junk mail.
Christmas wouldn't be the same without it.
I’m hoping to live long enough to achieve some sort of world record, I hope the people at Guiness are reading this !

 

[507020]

What happens if the envelope is additionally sealed with sellotape (other brands are available, but I don’t use them). As envelopes often don’t seem to seal at the ends of the flap, I often sellotape them up, particularly if there is a cheque or important form in them.

While other brands imitating sellotape are available, the adhesive they use is so ineffective that it will make no difference to the opening of the letter, whether automatic or not, but genuine sellotape on the other hand may cause problems unless simply slicing through the envelope.

 

[Bevan Price]

Not totally relevant here, but the postperson has to deliver to the address shown on envelopes, even if they know the addressee lives somewhere else.

I generally cross out the number and write something like "wrong address" or "not known here" on the envelope.