Do I keep the voucher

[skipperjonce]

We’ve lived in our current house for nearly 2 years. Very rarely we receive mail for the previous owner. As I don’t have a forwarding address I normally return to sender.

Last week we received a Christmas card for her containing a £20 m & s voucher. I opened it as it felt bulky and there was no return address on the envelope. The card was from Uncle and Aunty whoever and again no return address, just the voucher and a short message.

So AIBU to keep the voucher and spend it. It’s already paid for after all?

So it’s better than you steal it than a postal worker?

I think after 2 years, they can't be that close to these people if they haven't told them they've moved.

People usually do a mail redirection for 3/6/maybe 12 months at a push. 24 months is taking the piss so if you haven't bothered to tell people in that time your new address then it's unreasonable to expect a new owner to try and find you if you get their mail!

Well, there are some bloody perfect people on this thread, aren't there...

I would make some effort to find the recipients, though I don't think M&S will be able to help. Hang on to it for a couple of months. If still no luck, then I would spend it. What's the point in it going to waste. If, by some teeny tiny chance, someone does turn up to claim after it's spent, just give them £20 cash.

Apparently, stuff that can't be returned to sender goes to a central Royal Mail office and, if it's not claimed within 21 days, it will be destroyed.

OP...Post that arrives at your address without your name on: cross out address, write 'not at this address please return to sender' on the envelope (without illegally opening mail that doesnt belong to you) and put it in a postbox...Royal Mail does the rest.

How do people not know that what you decided to do is against the law? I cant believe you are not only opening letters not belonging to you but also stealing the contents.

Spending it without even going to the slightest effort to try and track it is shitty, IMO.

We’ve got a local fb group and stuff like this goes up all the time and surprisingly often it makes it’s way to the right person. Making a fb group post would have taken exactly the same amount of effort as posting on MN.

It also would have taken very little effort to ping off an email query to the solicitor or M&S on the off chance that they could be tracked that way.

Or even keeping it for longer than 25 seconds to see if someone realises they’ve made a mistake and pops round to collect it.

I’m lazy as fuck and even I would bother to do any/all of the above.

There are plenty of ways to try and reach the owner-via the estate agent or via M&S to track the buyer first

Except neither of these companies are able to tell OP how to contact the previous owners, even if they know. All that's actually likely to happen is they might agree to take the voucher off the OP to "pass it on" and then spend it themselves

Twice a year we get post from Lloyds Bank for someone we've never heard of. We've lived here 14 years. Occupants before us were here 6 years. Not their name either. I have been writing not known at this address please return to sender in increasingly bigger letters for 14 years!

@GlitterandBalloons

OP...Post that arrives at your address without your name on: cross out address, write 'not at this address please return to sender' on the envelope (without illegally opening mail that doesnt belong to you) and put it in a postbox...Royal Mail does the rest.

How do people not know that what you decided to do is against the law? I cant believe you are not only opening letters not belonging to you but also stealing the contents.

How many times... THERE IS NO RETURN ADDRESS ON IT

@monkeypeas you wouldnt know that fact as the OP if the letter hadnt been opened in the first place as it should not have been... for all anyone would know when receiving a letter not addressed to them there could be details inside the envelope/letter/card. The key point you dont seem to have grasped from my post is that it is not for anyone BUT the Royal mail to investigate as the contents of any letter informal or formal may well be confidential or valuable and as the carrier of that mail it is their duty to follow this up even if it leads nowhere.

How many times... THERE IS NO RETURN ADDRESS ON IT

Do you know that the post office has a department (called DLO?) that deals with mail that is sent in this manner? They will open it to see if they are able to process it further. So no need for the shouty caps, because the PP isn’t wrong in saying that.

You arent supposed to open it and make your own investigations in first place

I open mail that comes here, we have lived here for ten years and still get post from the people that lived here before us, most I send back, any Christmas cards get opened and I have even put them up to make it look like I have extra friends 🤣, if I came across any money or vouchers I would probably donate them to a local charity or food bank. If there’s no return address then you can’t “return to sender”. All OP can do is try and find the person it was meant for through social media.

they have an investigations dept, i believe it is near belfast, where undeliverable items are returned to; and they often find ways of delivering or returning to sender. that is their job. they are the experts, and they take a pride in it.

Bloody hell, have a word with yourself. They might investing major mail fraud/theft, but 20 quid’s worth of M&S vouchers? It could cost five times that in terms of manpower to try to trace them (and probably fail).

If the voucher was bought online, there’s a vague chance the M&S call centre could link the redemption code to an online account; in which case they could cancel the physical voucher and send a new one to the purchaser. However, it’s more likely it was bought in one of their hundreds of stores, or even another store - the likes of Wilko and WHSmith sell M&S vouchers too.

OP - put the voucher in a drawer and, if no one has been in touch in three months, spend it. Despite all the hysterical posts about the long arm of the law coming down on you, or angry villagers with pitchforks and flaming torches turning up at your door demanding restitution, the worst that could happen is that someone turns up and says ‘Did any post turn up here for me?’ You either just say no, or ‘Leave me your number and I’ll ask my husband’ - then you can always send a voucher on if you feel guilty.

Don’t be scummy, at least donate it.

Prison's too good for the likes of you, OP!!!! [haha] (Some of these replies are hilarious)

(donate the voucher to the food bank?)

[quote GlitterandBalloons]@monkeypeas you wouldnt know that fact as the OP if the letter hadnt been opened in the first place as it should not have been... for all anyone would know when receiving a letter not addressed to them there could be details inside the envelope/letter/card. The key point you dont seem to have grasped from my post is that it is not for anyone BUT the Royal mail to investigate as the contents of any letter informal or formal may well be confidential or valuable and as the carrier of that mail it is their duty to follow this up even if it leads nowhere.[/quote]
It’s perfectly reasonable to open post to find if there is a way of returning it.

As for the RM investigating this...
Get real

FYI, M&S cannot track the buyer of the gift card - whilst they can prove that a specific credit or debit card was used to purchase it, they are not privy to the address of the cardholder if it was bought in store, which it most likely was.

@Hadjab

FYI, M&S cannot track the buyer of the gift card - whilst they can prove that a specific credit or debit card was used to purchase it, they are not privy to the address of the cardholder if it was bought in store, which it most likely was.

They can if the buyer earned Sparks points during the transaction.

Ha! Royal mail are too stretched to even keep up with deliveries!

After two years the previous owner really should have changed their address everywhere and you’d think relatives would know they moved house too...

I’d attempt to find out their new address first but if that fails then sure, spend it.

I thought about this thread today as I collected my post. There was a card for a previous occupant. We’ve lived here 7 years and the people we bought from at least 3-4years. It was for the people Before them. So at least 11yrs out of date. There is a return address so I’m sending it back with a message they haven’t lived here in a decade!

What did you decide OP?

You could do a nice thing with it, such as put £20 of food into a food bank.
That way M&S don't get it, and the kind aunt and uncle made a charitable donation at Christmas.

I'd spend it on food & put it into the food bank trolly if M&S do that.