Parcel delivered, our address but not our name on parcel.

[rushingriver]

Delivered by Royal Mail in a pile of small parcels held together with a rubber band. What do I do? I don't know any of our neighbours with the name. It's from overseas. So do I hand it back to the post office for them to return to sender? You hear of postal scams but usually when someone has used your own details.

Do you have a local fb page you could ask on? It is probably the correct name with wrong address.

Quite a few of these on our local fb site - if anyone knows XXX, please let them know I have a parcel for them.
Obviously it works better if the name is Balonz Herstiugh-Jones than Bob Brown!

(Surprisingly) I'm not on Facebook!

But thanks for replying it does show this is quite common which sort of sets my mind at rest.

Yes facebook local page/group or ask the postie if he recognises the name.

Give it back to the postman. The Royal Mail are very good at sorting this kind of thing out. They recently got something to me that had the wrong address on it.

You could try giving it back to the postman, although the last time I did that, it came back through the door two days later

I accidentally did this last Christmas...I bought something online and got the address wrong. It was in a drop down field and I managed to choose "1 Our Road" instead of "46 Our Road"
Luckily I was able to track delivery on the website and even more luckily, my neighbour had held onto it.

But yeah, I would advise handing it back to the postie, they may well recognize the name

Please hand it back to the post office. A few weeks ago I ordered an expensive Christmas gift. Their website was one where you start typing your address and it shows a drop down box with the possible ones. I accidentally clicked the next one down from mine and didnt notice.

It was only when I checked tracking as it had not arrived that I realised instead of posting it to 20 My Street, My Town, middle of England, it has gone to 20 My Street, village in Scotland! Luckily nobody was home when delivery was attempted a d they never claimed it so it sat at their sorting office for 18 days when it was returned to sender.

Only at the point it was confimed to be travelling back to sender would the company send one out to my correct address, which of course I understand. But somebody very nearly got a surprise Christmas gift at my expense!

Have you tried the phone book? (I realise that this won't help if the addressee is Mrs M Smith...)

A mis-directed Christmas card was how we found out the names of the older couple opposite. (And the people down the road, come to think of it.) Carried on for several years - obviously someone had written down 23 instead of 13 and never visited.

Thanks. Yes, I tried the phone book. No look. I did try 192.com which showed there is someone of that name in our area. However I cannot get the full address without paying for the service.

I think I'll hand it back to the post office when I am next going past.

Give back to post office - they are usually good at reuniting things like this

We often re-deliver parcels and letters to the people in the next road, same number that are delivered to us.

The roads are parallel, street names very similar. If there is another road with a similar name it might be for the people at the same number as yours.

I did have contact with them on FB until they were hacked so now have to traipse round to their house. They sometimes bring mine round but we seem to get most of the wrong ones.

Also have their visitors pop round and not believe me when I say they don't live here...

My nan had this once.

For years and years a Christmas card arrived, the correct address, just a first name. (Not hers)
With money in it.
No return address, a postal stamp from far away.
Went on years. The sender must of wondered why she was never thanked.
After about 6 or 7 years this stopped. Maybe the sender got fed up of sending money that wasnt thanked for or maybe she finally realised that she had been sending to the wrong address

Is there a house near you that has a similar address?

I'm 1 hillview Road
And the next street is 1 Hill View mews

Both same postcode and its a nightmare.

*not my address

I’ve just had this, luckily the parcel packaging displayed the company who sent it. I contacted them and within 2 hours a courier arrived to pick it up!

I wouldn't be surprised if some random turns up in the next day or two to collect the parcels and tells you they put your address 'by mistake'

overthinking, yes, that was my suspicion. Hence why I am thinking it is best to hand it it back to the Post Office fairly promptly. However on checking 192 there is definitely someone of that name in the area, thankfully. On the little form on the box (sent air mail) it shows the sender's address and they have ticked 'gift'. So I think, on reflection, it is probably an innocent mistake.

people tick 'gift' to avoid paying import duty all the time...

there are parcel scams with people ordering to 'good' (and quiet during daytime) areas and then intercepting it.

Ah well I'm giving it back to the post office. I should be covered then, shouldn't I?

Do you live in London? My not on the high street parcel has been sent to london instead of up north!!

Score out the address and write Unknown at address on it before you had it back as that's how you end up on it coming back through the door. You can just pop it in a postbox you don't need to hand it in to the post office.

Do you live in London? My not on the high street parcel has been sent to london instead of up north!!

No.

On a positive note, I guessed the exact address and put that and the name into 192.com. Came up with the owner of the parcel! The printing just was not very clear on the address so I can see how a genuine mistake could have been made.