I put the wrong postcode on an online order. Where will it end up?

[fortyfifty]

I ordered some photos and wondered why they haven't arrived yet. I checked the order details and I've absent-mindedly put my parents postcode instead of mine! They live 200 miles away.

What will likely happen to the order? Would the post office return it to the company? Or will it go to my parents street but to the house with the same house number as mine, even though the street name and town are not correct for that address?

Argh. I have no idea how I managed to do such a silly thing.

So it had your house name, street and town but your parents’ postcode?

I guess if there is a house with your house name and your parents’ postcode that could be where it ends up. Could your parents call in and ask? It can’t be far.

Sadly they could go into a great ether that they may never escape from.

I did something similar once (managed to put my work postcode but home address) with a tracked parcel so I could see it bouncing around the various sorting offices in our city in the online tracking thing.

After a few days I emailed both sorting offices explaining what had happened and the first couple of replies weren't promising as they were just jobsworth responses about how it was 'illegal to interfere with the mail' which is how they categorised mis-addressed mail and they would not change the address or deliver the item anyway to either address.

Yours may be returned to the sender or it might just hang around the sorting office, it's probably down to whether they end up with what seems to be the minority of post office staff with actual common sense, or the majority with a 'computer says no' attitude.

Plus if either of you or your parents live in the sort of place where the postie has done the round for 40 years and is able to deliver post with addresses such as 'Mrs Green at the house at the far end of the village just behind the butcher's' type addresses as opposed to a large city where every postie is a temp on the round and doesn't know any of the thousands of people they deliver to it increases the chances greatly.

If they don't come within a couple of weeks after they've been ordered you could try the sorting offices near your house and parent's house but assuming that it's online print from files type photos, the easiest thing might be to buy them again, assuming they don't go back to the supplier - obviously email them again before paying up again, but again depends what resources their returns department has - some will try and sort things out, others will just bin returns and expect you to order again if you still want the item.

Contact the company you ordered from and tell them what has happened.

If there is a street named the same as yours in your parents town then it may well end up there otherwise it may get bounced about local offices where they have the same street name or simply returned to sender. It may take a wee while though to go through the process. I would email the company you ordered from but giving Royal Mail customer services a call wouldn't hurt.

It might arrive. I get a junk catalogue from Go Outdoors all the time and I've moved house over 150 miles away. Its sent addressed to
New house number Old street address.
New area,
Old county,
Both postcodes.
I've no idea how it manages to find me.

Somehow it is managed