Items Delivered To The Wrong Address

[Sir Stinkalot]

I just had a courier come up to the door with big box and Nespresso plastered all over it. He whips out his electronic signature pad thing and turns the package over so I can see the label. Immediately I notice that it is addressed to the previous owner of our house (who hasn't been here for 4 years) however the address is correct. I let the courier know that the address is correct but the person is long gone ...... I also added that I would never consider the purchase of a Nespresso .

As quick as a flash he scribbled something on his electronic tablet, said "this happens all the time, don't worry about it, I will take care of it" tucks the box under his arm and then he is off.

Now given I have no idea where the previous owner is now and the item wasn't for me I have done the right thing by not accepting it. Perhaps just a passing comment from the courier but I do wonder exactly what "I will take care of it" means. Was the quick scribble and acceptance of delivery and the courier will now be chocking on Nespresso over the weekend or am I just being a little suspicious and he will be taking it back to the depot to contact the sender and advising them of their error?

[rrich]

Sir,

The overwhelming odds are that the package will be return to sender. If the delivery driver becomes involved in a few deliveries addressed incorrectly and not RTS he'll probably get sacked. He would be throwing away a career over some unknown junk.

[Pearo]

I had a package go to our old house the other day. The new owner contacted the real estate agent who sold the house for us, then with our persmission passed on our details. Its nice when people are honest.

FWIW, The package was a Winston, the mascot for the Black Dog Ride for depression. I have lost a lot of mates to depression,so its something thats close to my heart. Made it even more special when he turned up after the little journey! Now he gets to journey around on my motorcycle when I head around Australia in the not to distant future!

[Mulgabill]

I had a package go to our old house the other day. The new owner contacted the real estate agent who sold the house for us, then with our persmission passed on our details. Its nice when people are honest.

FWIW, The package was a Winston, the mascot for the Black Dog Ride for depression. I have lost a lot of mates to depression,so its something thats close to my heart. Made it even more special when he turned up after the little journey! Now he gets to journey around on my motorcycle when I head around Australia in the not to distant future!

You're a good man! enjoy your ride and pass on the good message!

[BobL]

We still get mail for the owner two times before the previous owner (i.e. 3 owners back) and we have been living in our house for 36 years. When we first moved in we were getting a couple of items a month. I wrote "RTS no longer at this address" on the letters and posted them back again. This gradually dried them up but some still kept coming. A regular once a month plain envelope is still coming. A few months back I decided to open it and see if there was more info inside it and it turns out to be a real estate newsletter so that just goes in the recycling.

[doug3030]

My wife passed away nearly 13 years ago. I still own the house we were living in at the time but I do not live there now, my son does.

We used to get heaps of mail addressed to her for about a year but most of them finally got the hint after several returned envelopes marked "Addressee Deceased". We still get mail from Weight Watchers addressed to her. Nothing seems to stop those leaches! I even phoned up their head office and told them that her weight is not a problem since the cremation but still they post out the monthly letter.

Cheers

Doug

[Bob38S]

My wife passed away nearly 13 years ago. I still own the house we were living in at the time but I do not live there now, my son does.

We used to get heaps of mail addressed to her for about a year but most of them finally got the hint after several returned envelopes marked "Addressee Deceased". We still get mail from Weight Watchers addressed to her. Nothing seems to stop those leaches! I even phoned up their head office and told them that her weight is not a problem since the cremation but still they post out the monthly letter.

Cheers

Doug

Had a similar problem years ago with a company which specialises in condensing books - the final solution was a registered letter to the management stating the case and that any further correspondence was to be addressed to our solicitor. Never heard from them again - an apology would have been appropriate but in light of their business practices it was neither expected nor received.

[Opelblues2]

I lived in a flat in the back area of Brisbane for 6 months. years ago. I got a package delivered one day checked the name, I asked the delivery driver to wait and rang the police. yep it was what I thought it was. the previous tenet was in jail for suppling

[Sturdee]

Had a similar problem years ago with a company which specialises in condensing books -

I used to have that problem and my final solution was to sent them a letter back saying that as they were as thick as a brick I hereby enclose a house brick to remind you that i'm not interested in further letters.

Securely wrapped up with a lot of tape and I used their reply paid envelope.


It did the trick immediately.


Peter.

[Bob38S]

Love your work Peter.

[malb]

I used to be an AusPost Parcel delivery driver a few years ago, and we handled the Nespresso deliveries then, but don't know who does now. The Nespresso ones were fully tracked then though.

If it was AP, the scanner system has a number of options for attempting delivery. These include;
Delivered, must enter recipients name on keyboard and obtain signature.
Recipient not known at address, can enter an explanation via keyboard, but not via signature pad.
Address not found, explanation by keyboard not by sig pad.

If an item is incorrectly addressed it should be endorsed on the label with a basic explanation. In your case it would be endorsed RTS (return to sender) and UNKNOWN (adressee unknown at address).

If it was another organisation, who knows, but for AP it would have been very unusual for the driver to scribble on the sig pad to legitimately describe why something was being returned to depot. It is a Federal offence (Fraud) for the driver to actually sign their or anyone else's signature at any field on the machine, as the system does not require the driver to sign for goods on acceptance at start of run, they are signed to his care by management. Similarly, they are accepted and signed for by the customer on delivery, or accepted and signed for by collection centre staff if they are returned to depot.

However, sleep easily, at least you know that you refused the item because it was not for you.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I don't think that it was Australia Post. It was a decent sized delivery truck that I saw pull up. I actually thought it had something to do with the construction happening two doors down. I also had a package left from earlier in the day from Australia Post so I doubt that they would do two deliveries.

I'm sure it's all above board. It just got me wondering what the protocol was. Given that it was delivered to the correct address it would have been easy enough to say that it was accepted by the occupant. If I hadn't seen the label I might have accepted it thinking it was something I had ordered.

I agree that it would hardly be worth risking your job and future job prospects on a random package. It would become fairly clear something was up if a handful of packages started to go missing on one drivers route.

[Evanism]

Had a similar problem years ago with a company which specialises in condensing books - the final solution was a registered letter to the management stating the case and that any further correspondence was to be addressed to our solicitor. Never heard from them again - an apology would have been appropriate but in light of their business practices it was neither expected nor received.

In the cases where a previous RTS return is ignored and another spam comes in, I get a cardboard box from the recycling, put two old house bricks in it and tape it closed with the latter taped to the front.

Never get a repeat. No doubt the excess return postage costs draws their focus.

[Enfield Guy]

I though I was the only mongrel who did such things!! How wrong I am.