Confidential mail delivered to wrong address twice and was returned opened by unknown neighbour!

[TillyF]

Hello, I’m writing asking for some advice. I hope this is the right place to put it, if not please redirect me to where it’s supposed to be.

I’ve had two incidents in the last year where my mail has been delivered to the wrong address. On both these occasions the letters were shoved back through my letterbox opened in the late evening by some unknown person, probably a neighbour. I can’t identify who the person was, as they were wearing a dark hoody and covered their face when I checked the door cam.

I think they only re delivered the mail back to me due to them being important. One was financial and the other was health related. Both had confidential in large bold and capitalised letters on the envelope and my address and name were clear correct on both letters. I’m feeling very violated and annoyed that some random, possibly even a neighbour living close by, now knows a lot of personal information about me due to the negligence of the postal person not reading the address correctly. Especially when handling confidential mail! I’m also angry at the people opening the mail. Opening by accident once is annoying, but could happen, but when it’s happened a second time it makes it like they’re doing it on purpose, and makes me wonder if more letters have been wrongly delivered to them and opened.

What do I do? The letters come from the NHS and my bank. I do get things emailed but official things are always mailed out. I can’t confront the neighbour as I have no idea who it is.


Thanks.

[Snaggletooth]

You need to complain to Royal Mail *in writing*. If you are not happy with their response then you would take it through their escalation process.

[BenacreNick]

Tilly, is there anything odd about your postal address, for example 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d ?

Or do you live in an apartment block, or a regular house on a regular street.

I'm just curious as I have on my delivery round this sequence :- 5, 3, 1, 1a, 1b, 1c, 1, 2, 4, 5, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 9, 1c, 1b, 1a and 2.

I usually get comments after my annual leave from the local residents.

[TillyF]

I live in a regular house so it’s one number. As far as I know it’s just a normal address although there are different streets around me which end in either park, road, row, mills, crescent, avenue and square. It’s a very old house, not a new build, so it’s been here a long time.

It happened at the beginning of the year and again in October. I’m just worried if more of my letters have been delivered to the wrong address as well.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

What may be worth doing is popping into the Local Delivery Office and asking to speak to the manager in charge of your area.

Then explain to them, or the staff what your concerns are. Ideally, they should then be able to make a note of the address and the issue and ensure that the postie double checks they have sorted (and then delivered) the mail correctly. They usually do this with what we call a Frame Notice.