Sports club keeps using my address

[TeddySunflowers]

Help! There's a sport club near my house, they have a building in an field nearby and I guess my house is the closest to it.

They keep using my address for all their deliveries and pick ups to the point now where I'm getting delivery people knocking on my door every morning sometimes twice a day and it's becoming really invasive and stressful because it's constantly disturbing my day, quite often they come early and wake me up, or hammer on the door while I'm in a meeting, and when I explain that I'm not the sports club and they've used my address without my permission, they argue with me as if I'm wrong! Then insist on showing me the order with my address on it as if that'll somehow convince me I'm not standing in my own home. It never used to be this bad and I used to try and be helpful when I first moved in but after accepting a parcel for them they turned up and we're immensely rude and I decided screw that I've just done them a favour for no reason. So I don't accept parcels, I don't even redirect the drivers any more in hope that it would deter the club from using my address but they still do it.

I know it's not the fault of the delivery person but I am slowly losing my patience with it. We've told the club to stop I've also contacted the delivery company to tell them to stop but it makes no difference. I don't know what else to do 😫 hellpp!

Open an upstairs window. Invite them to put the parcel back in the van or leave it at the end of your front driveway. Shut window before they respond.

I know it can be tough but you need to be assertive.

Genius. I would do this, no joke. And make I a unilateral offer. If they continue to use yiur address, that constitutes acceptance of the offer. Then send monthly invoices!

We have had a slightly similar thing. We ordered 5 items from a n International (Swedish) furniture store. Delivery arrived and the guy said there were 15 boxes. There was no itemised delivery note. We were not counting and thought maybe there could be 3 boxes per item.
When he left we realised that there were 26 boxes that were not ours! I have gone on the online chat and phoned them 5 times each, including reading them the item number. This was 3 weeks ago; now we are thinking of keeping the things as they are effectively refusing to collect. (We are in France)

I would be inclined to collect them all and then take them all to the tip. It's easier with letters as you can just dump them or put them back in the letterbox when you go out, but parcels are harder to get rid of.

However, just stick a sign on the door saying this is not Name Sports Club. If a delivery driver still knocks just say "this is a house not a sports club, it's over there" and shut the door. Even better, shout it down from an upstairs window.

Mind you, if it's an Amazon delivery they often don't knock anymore and just leave it outside the door. Do you have a box you could put the stuff in and just leave it there if that happens?

I would not be doing them any favours at all given their attitude and rudeness. If they come round to collect I'd refuse to open the door. Definitely worth writing to any national governing body or county body to complain and ask if they can have a word in their ear.

This is the best idea yet 🤣

Or keep the parcel and refuse to give them to the sports club. Or maybe even forcefully drop them and give them a kicking before the sportsclub get them.

Basically be an awkward cow.

Eventually they will get pissed off and change the delivery address.

We had an order from a Swedish furniture company and got an extra 2 boxes and when we rang them They couldn't have cared less. 12 months on and they never came for it or got back to us

But, if they are using her address as a business, doesn't she have the right to charge for the use of her address, acceptance, storage and pick-up of parcels?
Doesn't she have the right to charge whatever she wishes as it's her house, her rules?

Make them pay out of the pocket and they'll stop. Refusing the packages isn't helping as they just call the number and get told where to "really" take them. Putting up a sign isn't going to help because they are still using her addy on their website. She needs to make it hurt and hurt bad, where it counts, the wallet.

You’re right I think they must be phoning them. A couple of people have mentioned this but I would try to stop that, don’t give any indication that it’s not for you or that it’s nearby, I would simply say I don’t want to accept the parcel, please return to sender, and that will create more hassle for them

Some great ideas above. We had a similar but reverse in that a sports business changed Google to attach their phone number to our business. The owner was supremely thick and tried to claim we had taken his number. Given he did it before he moved into premises on the same site and we didn't know his number or him it was laughable. He was then going mad because he was getting a lot of calls for us. In the end I was able to restore our number through Google.

Also check if your rude and arrogant sports club is a registered charity. The charity commission would be interested in the giving of known false details on a website.

What sports are they doing? Why are they getting so many parcels.

someone from the club drove up to my house and started honking their horn, wound down their window and started yelling at me to go get their parcel.

Really?

I'd definitely see a solicitor

I actually have no idea if this is legal (although I’m pretty sure she would have to notify them of the fees before she started charging if it is) and I assume the OP doesn’t want to pay for legal advice to find out, she just wants it to stop.

OP you seem adamant they have their own address, how can you be certain? It just seems so unlikely they would do this for no reason and risk not getting their deliveries? It must be a right pita for them especially when they get so many. There has to be a reason that they are doing this.

Because there's nobody in during the day when the parcels arrive. Much easier for them to use OP's house as their own personal 'sorting office' than have to travel further afield to the actual one (during very limited opening hours). Plus, if it's Amazon, they just leave them outside anyway, assuming that you'll collect them immediately - which is probably what OP should be doing.

They're going from the pov of maximum convenience for them and they couldn't care less about OP or anybody else.

I would have shut this down from the first parcel. Surely these “posh paws” have a home address where the sports club parcels can be delivered too. Sign on the gate, big letters “unable to accept parcels for sports club”. How dare they be so bloody rude. You sound a lot more patient than me OP.

Ridiculous suggesting OP invoices the club, she doesn’t want the parcels being delivered/collected full stop. It needs to stop.

Have you written to them about showing your address on their website? They can't possibly justify that.

Sorry but it’s a bit weird to assume a typo for an email address and change it tbh?? Emails all have to be unique so of course people will leave out letters / add letters or numbers. A sensible person would have double checked the email rather than changing it tbh!

Lawyer up and get a letter before action sent for removal of your address. Check with companies house too to have it removed. Mark any banking mail as not for that address and return but keep a record of doing so. You need to be proactive otherwise it is a nightmare to deal with further down the line.

The idea is to make is too expensive to use OPs address so that they stop - not for OP to make money

Have you tried the parish council?

I was guessing cricket too, cricket clubs are attended by such arseholes.

Just to pick up on some posts regarding GDPR...

An address on its own is not personal data. To be personal data, it must be linked to an identified or identifiable living person. The fact you can identify who the address relates to by knocking on the door is irrelevant. If all that is held is an address, that is not personal data. Publishing an address on a website is not a breach of GDPR, otherwise sites like Zoopla, for example, would not be possible.

Similarly, you can't do a subject access request for an address as someone seems to have suggested. You can only do an SAR for data related to an individual.

The sports club may be guilty of fraud and possibly harassment, but they do not appear to be in breach of GDPR.

MN never fails to disappoint for the number of bad/illegal suggestions and advice given in a thread like this. Maybe some people forget to add the smilie, or are so many people really that legally naïve? You can't withhold the package after accepting it, you can't casually discard it or throw it over the fence after accepting it. Or even after it's been left. Once you have the parcel you either pass it to the Club or Return To Sender.

Keep it simple.

• refuse deliveries that aren't yours. Return To Sender any that aren't for you (if it's Amazon, for example, report the parcel as misdirected and request they collect it - once you've made that request to Amazon then you can refuse to hand it over to anyone else)).
• put up the sign stating that you will refuse all deliveries for Sports Club.
• contact the relevant delivery companies (Amazon, Evri, DPD, etc - make a note of which ones attempt deliveries) advising you that Your Address is incorrect for Sports Club and that you are refusing to accept any deliveries on their behalf. Use their Customer Service contact details. I would expect the majority of parcels will be just 4-6 companies so you don't need to contact them all, just the ones that are trying to deliver most often.
• report the misuse of your address to Action Fraud.
• state that you have done all of the above actions in a simple letter to the Chair and Club Secretary (separate copies) of the Sports Club sent Recorded Delivery. CC this letter to your local councillors (Parish/Borough, and County), and to any national body representing the Sport that the Sports Club is a member of. Also copy in the website developer if their details are given on the bottom of the Club website.

Keep the letter simple, it only needs four paragraphs:

• Description of what's happening, the deliveries and the mis-use of your address on the company website. That you are refusing deliveries. State that you are not accepting deliveries and that you're not accepting any responsibility for deliveries left at your property without your knowledge. State that you've contacted the delivery companies, and that you've reported the misuse of your address to Action Fraud.
• State that it's making you angry and frustrated. That the regular deliveries are interrupting your day. You feel like an unpaid receptionist for an uncaring Sports Club that is acting as a bad neighbour.
• State that you require the Sports Club to remove Your Address from their website within 7 days and cease all deliveries to Your Address within 14 days.
• State that if they do not comply with this request you will be instructing legal counsel to take up the matter on your behalf.

I would write a very clear email stating that you have asked them to stop sending deliveries to your address on numerous occasions but they have continued.

You will be treating any further deliveries from [date about a week from now so it doesn't affect any items already in the postal system] as a gift and will be reselling them on eBay / Facebook marketplace.

Alternatively, you're now charging an admin, storage and collection fee of £10 per item which will have to be paid prior to releasing the item. Items will be disposed of as you see fit if not collected after 7 days. Sending further deliveries to your address after [date about a week from now] constitutes acceptance of these terms.

Keep a copy of the email printed out by your front door.