to be so riled up about someone opening my post?

[Oakmaiden]

Because I am fuming.

The situation. I moved house about 6 months ago, and arranged a 12 months postal redirection. Most of my post comes direct to my new house, but the redirection picks up the dregs that I might have missed. However - I did forget to change the address on my mobile phone (probably because they don't generally write to me!).

I needed to upgrade my contract over Christmas, and when I enquired ?I was told that to change my address and then upgrade my contract would take over a month - but if ?I did it the other way round - upgrade and then change my address - then there would be no problem. Fine - strictly not completely ethically shiny, but since I have no intention of defaulting on the payment there is not really a problem. And I have since changed the address on my new contract.

However, the provider has sent a letter addressed to me at my old address. Which for some reason was delivered there. And the new occupier took it upon themselves to open my f*ing letter and to phone me (my number was inside the letter to enquire why I has a phone addressed to their address. I did explain the situation, but she was not pleasant. When I pointed out it was actually illegal to open a letter addressed to someone else she said "you will have to take legal action against me then".

And I am fuming because 1, how dare she open my letter, 2, how dare she phone me using something contained in the letter, and 3, just how bloody dare she?

I am actually shaking...

I don't necessarily think that non-ethical is always the same as illegal though... I knew it wasn't ethical - I didn't stop to wonder if it was illegal...

Why is what illegal, Claudius? Me using my old address? I don't know. Everyone is saying it is though... I didn't mean to do something that was illegal.

Well having had someone open calalogue accounts in my name and address she was right to open it.

Why is what illegal, Claudius? Me using my old address? I don't know.

Oh leave it out. You were caught out bang to rights. Red-handed. It was a fair cop guv yadda yadda

You moved out six months ago. You do not live there any more. You can't honestly think that renewing your mobile phone contract using her address is any more legal than picking some random person's address out of the phone book.

Just draw a line and move on.

I too would have been very annoyed to have someone use my address to open a credit agreement. She didn't know you intended to change the address, did she? I don't blame her for opening it tbh. You can't blame her for trying to protect herself and her credit rating.

Glad you've apologised.

Maybe she opened it by accident? When I lived alone I didn't check whether the mail was addressed to me or not before opening it. Now I live with DH I have to check mail isn't for him so would have been more likely to pick up on the Royal Mail error.

I thought the reason they needed your address was so they could identify exactly who you are, to run a credit check. And since they would find my details associated with that address it would thus let them check my credit rating.

Is your redirection still active?

Yes. I phoned RoyalMail to check

And since they would find my details associated with that address it would thus let them check my credit rating.
how long would you use that as an excuse for using another persons address?
6 months? 12?18?2 yrs?

it was no longer your addres.
you should not have used it.

Credit checks are in some way linked to the house though as well.

I would be pissed off if someone who didn't live at my house was using my address to start a new contract and if I got post from a phone company from someone else I would open it. In the circustnces where it was a new contract to MY address I would actually have contacted the company to complain which I would imagine would have caused you more trouble.

YABU

Gosh OP you didn't think setting up a contract at someone else's address was wrong? How naive.

As for her not being supposed to have your number, well that was down to your setting up the contract at her address. So far as opening the letter she clearly did have a good reason and did not mean you harm so fell well within both of the exclusions. Think yourself lucky , if it had come to me I wouldn't have bothered contacting you but would have gone straight to your network provider.

It wasn't quite like that, though. I didn't think "oh, I'll take out a new phone contract and give an old address rather than my current one". I went to sort put the upgrade and said " oh, I think you still have my old address, indeed to change it". And they said "well, that will take a month - but we can put the upgrade through and then change it".

Oh and the "why is it illegal? " because it's fraud. You have no more right to use her address than you would have to use mine.

You still made the decision to use the WRONG address though. Surely you know that is wrong? Actually it is even worse from someone who works in that industry to knowingly allow it but that doesn't make you doing it any better

I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but I didn't realise it was an illegal thing to do. If you understand the distinction. In fact I didn't even consider if it might be illegal - I just assumed it was to do with id ing me for credit purposes and didn't really think any harder on that

Sigh. But obviously I should have thought harder.

Oakmaiden, I think you have explained yourself perfectly well and the same points are being made again and again just to give you a pasting.

The fact you have apologised clearly shows you know you were in the wrong so if I were you I would stop answering on this thread- you aren't obliged to and I presume it is continuing to make you feel crap- just hide it.

What sort of company takes a month to change an address? That is more ridiculous than anything else in this thread.

Orange. Apparently.

I know I should walk away from this thread - I have listened to what people have to say, I have apologised, and I need to move on as it is distressing me.

But it is like poking a bruise to check it hurts...

It isn't fraud. Fraud requires an intention to gain dishonestly or cause loss to another - which the OP did not have. The contract may not be enforceable, but it's not criminal.

I don't think it's even unethical. The OP thought she was simply doing things in a different order because the phone company's admin systems were screwey. A bit naive perhaps but that's not the same thing at all.

Nevertheless, it is also neither illegal nor unethical for the woman to have opened the OP's post in the circumstances.

Ah, Orange. They mixed up my bank details so that the money came out of someone else's bank account. Then blocked my phone so I couldn't use it.

And they said "well, that will take a month - but we can put the upgrade through and then change it".

They'd deny having said that, sure as eggs is eggs, if it ever came to the bit. And yours would miraculously turn out to be one of the calls they didn't "record for training purposes".

Emmeline the OP also stated she thought using the old address would give her a better credit rating, she and the sales person were providing information which was not correct in order to get a contract. If I were her I'd ask for this thread to be deleted.