Postal Mixup

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

I'm still getting the occasional piece of mail for the previous occupants of the house I own. Nevermind that they moved something like 10 years ago, still live in town, and own one of the town's largest businesses. It's tapered off quite a bit since the first year, think we've only had 3 items in the past couple months.

[Argabarga]

I feel for you, and don't hesitate to escalate, you are NOT in the wrong and it's NOT your job to fix it.

I had a similar issue a couple years back, I suddenly started getting mail for "Jane Blow: 1212 MyStreet"

Two problems.

Firstly, there is no Jane Blow living here, never has been. I've lived here for 20 (at the time) years, and prior to me, this was a vacant lot.

Secondly, I'm not 1212 MyStreet, I'm 1280.

Okay, no biggie, maybe the mailman just accidentally grabbed a handful of her mail along with mine? I'll just walk it down to her box, can't be that far.

Except her's doesn't exist.

The numbers jump from say 1200 to 1280, if 1212 existed, it's an undeveloped parcel of land with no resident.

So I took it back to the post office (no big, they're like a mile away) and told them "this was delivered to me by accident, wrong address"

"Oh, okay" they said

I thought the matter was finished.

Next day, the SAME pile of mail was back in the box with even MORE, all for the same Jane Blow, and some of it had nasty-sounding return addresses, like credit card companies, collection agencies, and one from the court.

Seeing as this was all pretty serious and both time and legal sensitive stuff, I went back to the post office and more forcefully told them "You delivered this to me by accident, it doesn't go to me, the address on it isn't even mine"

"Oh, sorry" they said. "We'll get that fixed"

The next day, the previous TWO days of mail were back in my box, with even MORE. Now I was livid. I went back to the post office and quite forcibly told them

"Look, you keep giving me this mail, this is NOT for me, Jane Blow is NOT my name and she DOES NOT live at this address, furthermore it's NOT even the right address! It's for 1212 and you keep putting it in my box at 1280!"

They seemed utterly dumbfounded as to what was wrong...

"So you say she doesn't live there?'

"NO!"

"But, this is the address on the envelope..." they said,

"And it's NOT mine, I am at 1280, I have no idea where 1212 is, but it's NOT me"

"But this is what we were given"

"And considering it's all bills and legal notices, I'm going to guess she gave you a BAD ADDRESS on PURPOSE. Whatever the case, STOP giving me this mail! She doesn't live here, she never did, she never will because she's apparently a deadbeat, and the numbers don't even match where it's ending up! Stop giving it to me! I'm just going to keep bringing it back!"

They gave me that look as they took it back, the one that says "This guy needs to calm down, he's upset over nothing"

I went home and drafted a letter to the postmaster, pointing out the problems I was dealing with and was all ready to send it the next day, but amazingly, they didn't come back for round four.

They never said it to my face, but, it's pretty clear they were operating under a similar "close enough" policy when given a bad address, and though sometimes I can see how that would work to an advantage, when it's one digit off and the carrier knows the name, there's no harm in putting it in the "wrong" box, but, when told they've got it WRONG it was clear they were complacent to the degree of just not caring until someone MADE them.

[Gerrinson]

The local PO has been great with the mail, but the UPS guys are a total mess. They kept delivering mail for 123 First Street to my address at 123 Blue Street. The street names are nothing alike, just the house numbers and First Street ends at Blue Street. In a full ninety degree left hand turn with street signs, so there's really no excuse to not know what street you're on.

Coincidentally, the guy at 123 First Street was my coworker, so I could just call him up to grab it at my place or bring it to the office.

The final straw was when they tried to deliver a server rack to my house, and the UPS guy was standing in the driveway yelling at my wife telling her that she didn't know where she lived. Really, dude? You think my wife is confused about the address of the house that she owns?

Fortunately for UPS guy, it got cleared up before I got back to the house because my co-worker had seen the truck go by his place and he walked over (only about 500 ft. as the crow flies). I got there as the truck was turning around to leave and deliver to the correct house. My coworker has since moved, and the apartment vacant, so the problem has stopped for a while.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I got mail for the previous owner for a while, and would just write on it that she had moved. One day I got a few things, and put it back in the box. They didn't take it, so I put a bright green post it note on the stack. They left it there for three or four days, and finally I just called the woman (she moved about 10 minutes away) and said I had mail for her and the mailman just kept leaving it, so then I put it in a bag and hung it on my doorknob inside the storm door and she picked it up the next day while I was at work. A few days later my dad was doing some stuff in my place and he happened to catch the mailman and mentioned it to him. Apparently he had been out and the sub was too lazy to bother dealing with it. I haven't had a problem since; and at this point anything I get for her is usually obvious junk and I just toss it.

[Tama]

Same here, bookstore. We get mail for several houses on our street but as it is junk mail we figure we've saves them some annoyance.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Same here, bookstore. We get mail for several houses on our street but as it is junk mail we figure we've saves them some annoyance.

I'll occasionally get something for one of my neighbors, clearly just a matter of accidentally putting it in the wrong box (it's a bank of 12 that the carrier just opens from the back). Since I can't open it to put it in the right box, I'll just knock on their door and if they don't answer I leave it inside their storm door for them.

I do occasionally get stuff about school pictures and whatnot for the previous owner (and several months after I moved in I was getting stuff that appeared to be related to special ed services for her son; you'd think she'd make sure those people updated their address). That stuff I write return to sender on. Solicitations from a local tax lawyer looking for clients and postcards from the MMA gym down the road (or anything that says "[her name] or current resident"), not so much.

[Kanalah]

Went to the local post office today and dropped off a large grocery sack with a week's worth of misboxed mail. Crossing my fingers that it won't come back.

[Argabarga]

That should do the trick, they usually wake up when someone makes it clear they will not be an uncompensated annex to the dead letter office.

[Kanalah]

Well we've had this problem for over a year now. Fedex and UPS understood after the first time they delivered to my house.

I try to go once a week to return their mail to the post office. It's four miles out of my way, so I don't go every day. Generally I get about half of it back at my house. When they ordered checks from the bank we got those 3 times in the mail before they made it to the right place.

[BookstoreEscapee]

A year? That's ridiculous. I think at this point I'd go have a chat with whoever's in charge at the doctor's office. They're really the ones who should be telling the post office that their mail needs to be delivered properly. This shouldn't be your responsibility, especially when it's things like medical records and financial information. If some patient's information gets into the wrong hands, and they knew there was a problem and didn't even try to do anything about it, they might find themselves in some real trouble.

[Kanalah]

The first order of prescription drugs that came to my house (big big bubble mailer). We drove it over to the office and talked to the receptionist. This was last September, I explained to her that we'd been getting their mail and that we'd talked to our mailman and nothing had changed. I told her that I used to own a business and that she (or her boss) needed to talk to the postal people or this wouldn't change. She laughed me off and said that talking to them wouldn't fix anything, so why bother.

Maybe she already knew that they didn't care. >.>

Edit: I should add that at first my mom said to just hand deliver their mail to them every day. After a a year of this, she's now telling me to just throw their mail away.

[mathnerd]

I agree with your mom. Mostly. I'd call them and tell them you've had enough. They have one week to corrct the problem or show you proof that they've attempted to do so. If they don't, you will send all mail directed to you, particularly the items that are HIPPA violations, along with a formal complaint to the appropriate medical board. See if that lights a fire under their asses. I could maybe be more forgiving of them if they were actively trying to correct the problem, but since they are not, then it's time to get bitchy. I'd also consider posting about this on Yelp and any other site that has doctor reviews. Patients and future patients deserve to know that the office doesn't care who sees their personal and medical information.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

A year? Prescriptions etc and the PO isn't fixing the problem?

At this point, maybe your local news would like to do an investigative report?

[morgana]

A year? Prescriptions etc and the PO isn't fixing the problem?

At this point, maybe your local news would like to do an investigative report?

Oooooh, good idea!

[Shangri-laschild]

If you're willing, it might not be a bad idea to try and get a hold of someone else at the doctor's office. It could be that someone other than the secretary might take it more seriously and want to know that she handled it like that. I also agree with the suggestion of talking to someone higher up at the post office because it sounds like this is getting fairly ridiculous on their part. Or go with the return to sender idea if none of that works