to think i was right?

[badmummy101]

we have lived in our house for over 6 yrs. we STILL get post for the old owner. stuff from barclays and scottish widows and some other company.
everytime we get it, i mark it return to sender, and put that the person has moved. this is about once a month.
we just got another one.
so i opened it, to find a number and give specific details to the company that this person, with xyz reference number etc no longer lives here and to give them the last known address.
the woman on the phone was SOOO rude to me.
spouting that i had broken the law, that it was up to the named person to inform them of change of address, and that i couldnt make changes.
now i KNOW you dont open other peoples post.
but this has been going on for 7 yrs come sept!!
they ignore the letters being returned and send them out again!!
i have had loads.
was i totally in the wrong? should i just bin anymore letters?

Just say 'oops sorry I just ripped it open I didn't read the envelope'
sorted

you aren't supposed to open other people's mail. THAT is how we ended up with the bailiffs on our doorstep looking for the previous tenant, and had to all show our passports to prove we weren't her. since she had fraudulently registered her car at our address more than 1 year after she moved out.

Have you tried registering with the mailing preference service?

mailing preference service

We started to get wrong number calls from someone saying it was urgent Karen Smith called them back about her account. They started calling three or four times a day leaving messages so I rang them back to tell them they had made a mistake.

I got the same thing you did. Unless Karen Smith rings us to tell us we are calling the wrong number for her we can't take it off the contact details we have for her and will keep calling it.

They kept banging on about the data protection act. So despite the fact that I had just told them several times that I was not Karen Smith, didn't know Karen Smith, Karen Smith didn't live at our address and they had not called Karen Smith's number they were quite happy for me to say "Okay, I changed my mind, I am Karen Bloody Smith, and I just want to tell you that this XXXXXX is not my telephone number so stop calling it."

They took the number off the file there and then.

I've had the same trouble when British Gas made a mistake with a house number and changed our account from another supplier to them without our consent (think meaning 16 but typing 61 by mistake) and refusing to let us change back because the people who had signed up with them hadn't been in touch to say they weren't us.

And e-on did a similar thing too. We don't have much luck with utility companies really.

Anyway, the mailing preference service and the telephone preference service have been a big help in stopping a lot of unwanted mail addressed to previous owners and unwanted calls from random call centres etc.