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Original poster

Unsolicited mail following family death

17 replies

Buttybach · 01/09/2020 23:46

A fortnight ago we lost my beloved dad. It was very sudden and we are still coming to terms with the massive loss.
We registered the death for my mum and we had the certificates sent to her home. She is retired but isn't particularly elderly. Three days after the death certificate she received a large brochure in the post for a retirement community company. There are none local to her but they are national. She has never communicated with them or requested this info. It upset her quite a lot.
I believe that this company got her address from the registrar and rather unethically are preying on widowed people when they are at their most vulnerable. Has anyone else had this issue?

OP posts:
Original poster
Buttybach · 01/09/2020 23:48

This is the booklet

Unsolicited mail following family death
OP posts:
Original poster
Buttybach · 01/09/2020 23:49

This

Unsolicited mail following family death
OP posts:
ozymandiusking · 01/09/2020 23:56

To Be honest I don't think the registrars would be allowed to do this.
?Data protection.
Was the funeral posted in the local paper. Maybe the funeral directors
were conned into giving the address out.

cabbageking · 01/09/2020 23:58

Anyone can purchase copy of any ones death, marriage or birth certificate as they are public records.

I would do return to sender.

Original poster
Buttybach · 02/09/2020 00:03

There was an obituary but there were no address details or even funeral details due to covid. The funeral parlour is extremely well established and we have dealt with them a few times as a family. I know when I had my daughter, the access the bounty people had to the hospital was extremely concerning. Yet the government allow this.

The phone book is in my dads initials only so they couldn't have got my mums name from there.
There are no flats built by their company locally at all so I can't see them targeting a funeral parlour in a county where they have no flats

OP posts:
ItsTimeToPlayTheMusic · 02/09/2020 00:08

In the gentlest possible way, I think you need to chalk this up to unfortunate coincidence.

It will not be collusion with registrars. It’s more than jobs are worth and councils can afford for GDPR breaches.

Most likely your DM’s details have been sold on by another party previously. Coincidences of timing do happen and ones like this are shit. I’m sorry you’ve lost your dad Flowers

GooseberryJam · 02/09/2020 00:15

Sorry about your dad Flowers I lost my dad some months ago and it's awful. I have to say that I didn't have this issue when my mum died. Also, three days after getting the death certificate actually seems too soon for it to come from that anyway, as well as the restrictions on registrars. It will have come from something else, though I know that doesn't make it less painful. As @ItsTimeToPlayTheMusic says, it's a shit coincidence.

Pobblebonk · 02/09/2020 00:16

It may well be coincidence. These companies routinely mailshot people over a certain age and could have picked up your mother's details from anywhere.

Polly2345 · 02/09/2020 00:40

Bounty have access to birth register details so it's possible it could be the registrars. Can you contact them and ask?

GeorgiaGirl52 · 02/09/2020 02:50

My father and mother passed away 15 years ago and I still get mail addressed to them (at MY address, where they Never lived) from people wanting to buy their house, re-roof their house, and asking for donations to various charities. Lists get sold from one group to another all the time. If your name is on any list - magazine subscription, etc. - then it will be sold to other related groups. Same thing when you give out your e-mail. Someone will buy it and send you ads.

lyralalala · 02/09/2020 05:40

It could be co-incidence, but I wouldn't rule out the funeral directors.

A company round here, well established and who sells itself on not being a chain, were responsible for people getting mail from another company linked to them.

Sciencebabe · 02/09/2020 05:40

Could another friend or family member have maybe put her details in to it online and got it sent to her?

Original poster
Buttybach · 02/09/2020 08:23

I think as some have said it may just be a coincidence with very bad timing. She said the only thing in her name only were hotter shoes and JD Williams.
This catalogue came in my mums name only when all mail normally comes to the pair of them.

OP posts:
CaffeineInfusion · 02/09/2020 08:35

Sorry for your loss.

I suspect unfortunate timing with this. A few years ago, someone spelt my name incorrectly on the electoral register. Ever since then, I have have endless mailings with this incorrect name. It's quite obvious where the mailing list originated from.

It's marketing. It's a thing.

Frankley · 02/09/2020 09:39

I often get marketing information on retirement properties, some built near me and some miles away. Not sure how l got onto the list for them, no funeral from here

Eve · 02/09/2020 09:42

or once you are over 50 you start to get mailings from SAGA - how I laughed at DH!

Xiaoxiong · 02/09/2020 09:52

I also suspect bad timing, and would also think that the Hotter mailing list might be to blame - I ordered something from Hotter for my mum years ago (she was abroad, needed shoes that worked for plantar fascitis when she got back) and then got a brochures for a cruise, a bathroom company that sold walk-in bathtubs and funeral directors. They clearly had profiled Hotter customers as being ladies of a certain age!

So sorry about your dad Flowers

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