How Honest Are You?

[Jdsk]

: - )

I never passed one without trying.

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

I suspect that the idea that you can keep something delivered to you which you didn't order dates back to the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971, which was intended to tackle "inertia selling." IIRC, typical example of that were in the days of almost universal doorstep milk deliveries and some of the big dairy companies started delivering stuff like yogurt and charging the customer with their regular bill.

The relevant section of that act was deleted long ago, although inertia sellers still cannot legally pursue their accounts/ charges / bills / whatever.

Briefly, I think what you are left with in law - with all sorts of twiddly bits - is that if you act dishonestly it's likely to be theft and in any event, the owner retains the title to the goods.

That's against a background of the police being likely to write this off as a civil matter and vendors often not being geared up to sort it out, combined with a cautious attitude to customer relations.

I was surprised by a loud banging on my door last week and it was a courier with a parcel. As soon as I opened the door he plonked it down and leapt back. It was the the correct address for our house but even reading it upside down when it was at my feet, I could see the name was our next-door-but-one neighbour who I knew was not at home. I explained to the courier and we agreed that the best course would be for me to accept it on their behalf and pass it on when they returned. The mystery of our address being used was the simple mistake of her friend who had got the address wrong when ordering the gift. All's well that ends well, but at no stage was I entitled to keep the package, except looking after it for our neighbour. FWIW, the gift was a quantity of gin and the courier never checked to ensure I was over 18.

[Oldjohnw]

Hi,
Sent parcel of to seller. 1ST recorded signed for.
Sent as it was received, IIRC its insured to £30 default, item is £83, not my problem anymore.

So the law says any parcel miss sent (wrong address) you can keep, no wonder royal mail don't waste time tracking parcels down that they posted in wrong holes.

Where did you get that idea?

[peetee]

About 4 years ago when I was regularly buying bike parts from wholesalers I was sent an electric bike battery in error. It had arrived from Raleigh, a company I hadn’t previously dealt with, along with the four freewheel bodies I was expecting and had been waiting for some time for them to be restocked. My initial reaction was to send it back and so it was that on the day the courier was due to collect it I did a bit of research to find out it’s value and was, frankly, stunned and almost annoyed I had been so honest. They had, after all, no idea I was the recipient. RRP WAS £450.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

Hi,
Sent parcel of to seller. 1ST recorded signed for.
Sent as it was received, IIRC its insured to £30 default, item is £83, not my problem anymore.

So the law says any parcel miss sent (wrong address) you can keep, no wonder royal mail don't waste time tracking parcels down that they posted in wrong holes.

Where did you get that idea?

When you get compensation it may well be less that the shoe leather / head scratching trying to find mislaid parcel by RM.
Not sure which bit you are asking?

[Ride-sleep-repeat]

About 20 years ago we bought a Sofa from a well known chain who have a never ending 'sale'.We took advantage of the 'pay nothing for 12 months then 4 years interest free'.A couple of years later my wife notice that no monthly payment was going out.After many phone calls,emails and the company doing every check possible they could categorically say that we had never ordered nor received a Sofa from them!We tried to be honest but to no avail.
These days I'm not so honest.If a company sends me duplicates it's their mistake.

[Oldjohnw]

Hi,

Hi,
Sent parcel of to seller. 1ST recorded signed for.
Sent as it was received, IIRC its insured to £30 default, item is £83, not my problem anymore.

So the law says any parcel miss sent (wrong address) you can keep, no wonder royal mail don't waste time tracking parcels down that they posted in wrong holes.

Where did you get that idea?

When you get compensation it may well be less that the shoe leather / head scratching trying to find mislaid parcel by RM.
Not sure which bit you are asking?

The law does not say that you can keep something miss sent. They are not yours and you could be taken to court. If unsolicited, as opposed to error and meant for someone else, you can keep them. Various posts with links above are pretty clear.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
From the bbc link up post, I apologise for my lack of clarity
"Items that firms send to you, but you didn't actually order are called "unsolicited goods". You're well within your rights to keep them.
You have no obligation to send them back to the company or to pay for them. If a company demands payment, that's a criminal offence.

But this doesn't apply to items sent to you by mistake (as happened to Robert); if the order was sent to you twice; or if there's extra stuff on top of what you ordered.
If a firm has left goods with you that weren't unsolicited goods, they still belong to the trader and you should try to give them back.
Firms can take you to court to recover their goods."
Mine falls into the second camp.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-30294748

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Must now be a month ago, and some firm has delivered to my address two parcels (very heavy and have probably aggravated my bad back moving items as I was also waiting to receive large parcels in my porch.
I eventually contacted the firm from the label on the parcels, the address on parcels is wrong address but same number house, as same estate which shares first word of street but wrong name and very similar postcode.
Like - noddyland way - noddyland avenue - noddyland close - noddyland rise - noddyland cloud
You get the picture why I receive so many mis delivered parcels

I gave firm the address on label and my postcode and number house.

They want more info.................

I dont intend to give them my name or telephone number.

All they have to do is come to my address pick up parcels and deliver two hundred yards down road.

I have given up taking parcels which are not mine to other addresses on my estate!
Why?
Because many of my one off items have disappeared into the mist, which I reckon have been miss-delivered to other addresses on my estate, my house shares same number with two other houses.
No doubt they do not know the law and found items free and useful........................

[thirdcrank]

All they have to do is come to my address pick up parcels and deliver two hundred yards down road.

Over several years I've had something similar with Royal Mail. To begin with, it was only occasional - when our regular postman of many years was off - but when he retired it became quite frequent. It can be annoying, but it's not the fault of the true addressee. In our case, it seems it was happening more often the other way round. Unless it's something you are expecting, there's no way of knowing if something has been wrongly delivered.

My own saga came to a head last Summer, when I needed to access my National Savings account pronto. It's an online account but I was locked out. Unfortunately, NS&I was completely and utterly disorganised by the epidemic and I was unable to get through on the phone as instructed by the account. I never really got to the bottom of what had happened but it was something like the people at the other address had received something personally addressed to me that I was not expecting and put it back in the post box endorsed with something misunderstood by NS&I as meaning that I no longer lived at my address.

Whatever the other considerations, it seems to me that anybody who receives in error something intended for somebody living within a couple of hundred yards should take it to the correct addressee and if for some reason such as weight that's not feasible, then they should at least tell them where it is.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
OK so I am just assuming that the other xx houses are getting my lost post too!

I am just getting a little weary of spending the last 30 odd years wiping the other xx addressees behinds....................

Call it frustration if you want

Some of my stuff has been sent recorded post and as a result of it disappearing.....twice...............the seller refused to trade with me anymore.

[thirdcrank]

Re the thread title, I cannot see that this is anything to do with honesty. I think the underlying problem is caused by careless/ inexperienced/ rushed-off-their-feet couriers etc. If something addressed to A goes in error to B it's not normally the fault of either. I cannot see how either A or B benefit from either being awkward

[ambodach]

Hi,
OK so I am just assuming that the other xx houses are getting my lost post too!

I am just getting a little weary of spending the last 30 odd years wiping the other xx addressees behinds....................

Call it frustration if you want

Some of my stuff has been sent recorded post and as a result of it disappearing.....twice...............the seller refused to trade with me anymore.

In my case there is a glitch in the address software. When I enter my postcode it comes up as the same house number but on a different street which is also part of my address. [ If that makes sense ]. Our local postman and couriers will deliver anything with my name on it to my house regardless of anything else on the package so in my case it is not important. However when we have strangers doing deliveries packages do get misdirected.
The glitch has been corrected on newer software but many companies have not changed for years.
Perhaps in larger more anonymous communities that is why some parcels are misdirected.

[ClappedOut]

I was given a pressure lantern for a present, I had quite a nasty accident as it said suitable for petrol and it turns out the ancient design was stopped from petrol use by German Army and paraffin only. (fireball on patio and burnt arm)
Contacted trading standards and they forced retailers to remove petrol claims, and Item from sale.

Weeks later a replacement with a zero invoice turned up and months later a call from abroad threatened court action, said see you in court with trading standards chap as a witness- never heard a thing more.

Banking error had a free holiday and kept the money to return, never heard a word and never returned money - banks can swallow it.

Seen wallets etc dropped and handed back.

Found rings and watches with inscription and handed in to police, got a letter for a watch I found.

Generally try to treat people as I would like to be treated.