Just under a year ago, I sold my house to my son and moved to another house. I informed everyone I could think of, but several letters were still going to my old address, so I set up redirection of post with the Royal Mail for a year, and it has all gone very well. Until today.
I received 3 pieces of post this morning that had been redirected. On all the letters, the redirection sticker had been stuck across the window on the envelope, completely covering the original name and address. My new address is the only thing printed on the redirection sticker, no name.
The first letter was junk mail, addressed to me by name and correctly redirected. The other 2 however are letters addressed to my son (who bought my old house) and they contain personal financial information. Long story short, I am now in possession of private information relating to my son.
I called the Royal Mail redirection service, stayed on hold for 45 minutes, and spoke to an adviser whose response is that they will notify the sorting office involved and pretty much tell them to be more careful in future.
Is this a satisfactory response? Or is there someone else I should be reporting this to? I can see how it happened - my son and I have the same surname, but I am Ms, he is Mr, and our forenames and initials are very different. That said, surely the only way I should have information relating to anyone else’s financial affairs is if the person chooses to share that information with me, and that person has the right to expect their private information to be kept private. It just doesn’t sit well with me that this can happen and the only response is ‘we’ll try not to do it again’.