Parcel delivered to a PO Box in error

[Glasscollector]

Hi,

I’m working through an issue with Royal Mail where a parcel was delivered to a PO Box in the sorting office in error (tracked 48), rather than my residential address (130 miles away). The proof of delivery photo on the tracking is of a York trolley, and the item is marked as delivered. The escalated customer resolution team are speaking with the manager of the branch to try and understand what happened, as there’s no dispute that the address was a residential address, and no similarity to the PO Box address.

The parcel is marked as having been delivered a week ago and this is the last entry, so there’s no indication the person has sent it back to the sorting office yet (I understand that if it had been returned, it would be scanned, and show up on the tracking page ?)

In anticipation that they are not able to recover the parcel, may I just check a few points ?

In theory will the RM system record which PO Box the parcel was delivered to ?

If I ask for the PO Box number, are they obligated to tell me ? On its own it doesn’t identify the underlying person (so no GDPR issues), but as a last resort it would then enable me to contact the recipient.

Is it reasonable to expect that RM would contact the recipient and ask for the box back ?

I appreciate that this isn’t a forum for legal advice, but it will help understand what is possible should I need to take this further.

Cheers

[Snaggletooth]

Just to eliminate the obvious, but necessary as you haven’t provided any tracking: is this PO Box at the National Return Centre in Northern Ireland?

[Glasscollector]

Fair question, but no. Parcel came into Heathrow from US, then through Jubilee and Greenford before ending up at Slough DO. I’d only not provided the tracking info as the escalated customer resolution team are still looking at it, but if it helps:
https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-it ... 0941B664C1

Comments re PO Box re from my last discussion with the escalated customer resolution team.

[SpacePhoenix]

Fair question, but no. Parcel came into Heathrow from US, then through Jubilee and Greenford before ending up at Slough DO. I’d only not provided the tracking info as the escalated customer resolution team are still looking at it, but if it helps:
https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-it ... 0941B664C1

Comments re PO Box re from my last discussion with the escalated customer resolution team.

Parcels from abroad don't come in as Royal Mail Tracked. Normally if an item from abroad ends up as Royal Mail Tracked it will have gone to a warehouse (probably somewhere around Heathrow), normally as a container load along with other items, where the importing company put a Royal Mail Tracked tracking number on it, then it enters RM's system

[Snaggletooth]

From your recent answer it appears that you bought this from an online retailer, so going back to questions in your first post:

If I ask for the PO Box number, are they obligated to tell me ? On its own it doesn’t identify the underlying person (so no GDPR issues), but as a last resort it would then enable me to contact the recipient.

Is it reasonable to expect that RM would contact the recipient and ask for the box back ?

As the recipient, I don't think they will give you this information or make any moves to get the parcel back. The sender (i.e. Royal Mail's customer) *might* have more luck if they try to do this.