I ordered some clothes for the kids – It’s from a placed I’ve ordered from recently. What I didn’t notice when I ordered was that the address had defaulted to one I’d used 12 years ago!

I contacted them within 4 hours, but they said it was already being dispatched (Saturday) by Royal Mail and that they couldn’t do anything to stop it…I contacted RM who say they MUST deliver it to the address despite knowing it’s wrong…

The address is 300 miles away, I have no idea if it’s even occupied and there’s seemingly nothing that anyone can do?

Me>JohnLewis>RM>Ulverston Arrgh!

I know it’s my fault, but why something can’t be done to correct it when noticed before it’s even left the building is beyond my comprehension.

Any ideas?

Are you still friendly with any of your old neighbours? A bit of a long shot for 12 years ago. Failing that maybe someone here lives nearby and could knock on the door or drop a note through the letterbox asking the current occupant to reject the parcel. That’ll send it back to JL and you should be able to sort it out. Since Covid parcels seem to just get left on the doorstep without even knocking so even that is a long shot.

but why something can’t be done to correct it when noticed before it’s even left the building

would be a really easy way to commit fraud, I guess is the obvious answer!

Kind of sounds like you’re stuffed unfortunately, unless there’s no-one there so the parcel gets returned (although they might try to deliver it 3 times?) in which case you’ll probably be able to pick it up from the sorting office 300 miles away 😃

Otherwise it’ll either just be left on the doorstep, or handed to the resident (who probably won’t even look at the name) and then as far as JL/RM is concerned, the job has been done!

Write a letter to the address, post it first class, say you’ve accidentally sent a parcel to their address and if they get anything addressed to Daffy, write on your address as forwarding (or return to sender) and give it back to RM?

It’s fairly straightforward to change a delivery address before dispatch with Amazon, and most couriers will allow online address changes.

Are you sure that you can’t do this with Royal Mail and do you know what service is being used? You could well have spoken to someone on a helpline who doesn’t really know all the ins and outs.

If you have a tracking number I’d say your chances improve significantly.

Info. here suggests that what you want is perfectly possible depending on the service used – https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/change-your-delivery-options

Hope you get it sorted.

Sadly not @pjay – you can only redirect to an address in the same local postcode. I’ve now spoken to two people at JL and two people at RM. All are saying “tough”.

Is there local STW’er who can doorstep – perhaps with enough detail to retrieve parcel/persuade owner to return to sender?

I did this with a christmas`wine order (special offer from a company I obviously hadn’t used in 19 years!). They sent a courrier to try and collect the wine from the old address (not sure if succesful) and then resent the order to my new address.

Virgin Wines – great customer service

Can you put a paid RM redirect service in place for the month? (the sort you possibly used years ago when you moved)

Otherwise cancel the order with JL and make it their problem, I imagine they’ll either write it off or find a way to stop dispatch at that point.

Might be able intervene, local to Ulverston. Although if it’s down the ‘pot I’d want danger money

It’s a long shot but, ring your old landline phone number and ask them to refuse delivery?

How do they stand if they take in a parcel that’s not addressed to them?

Not sure where each party stands from a legal point of view here – JL have done everything you asked of them, but RM have handed / will be handing over goods to the wrong person albeit at the right address. I guess that will only be proven if proof of delivery is obtained.

Mrs M did this with a delivery the other day, luckily we’d only moved a few miles so popped round and left a note.

I like the idea of sending them a letter and asking for their help. That’s gotta be worth a shot.

@thestabiliser – Thank you! I’ll PM you and let you know if I manage to arrange something.

Once the tracking goes fully live, I might see if I can get it delivered to the Farmers Arms as it’s just down the road.

How do they stand if they take in a parcel that’s not addressed to them?

I would guess that it’s legal for them to accept it but illegal to open it.

Whats their policy on sending to non-credit card addresses? If yuo’ve not ticked the box for ‘deliver to other address’ then possibly its a long conversation between JL and the credit card company…

I didn’t tick the box and it is most definitely a different address. Looking at the last few orders, I previously paid with Paypal, whereas this one I used the card directly.

Surpised the credit card didn’t bounce that request if the addresses didn’t match.

2FA seems to trump address matching now. My work address is where I get everything delivered and this often gets used as my billing address too by accident.

I’d send them a letter and include a prepaid label and hope they forward it on to you.

Someone scammed Mrs DB’s John Lewis account a few years ago – order a top range MacBook and had it delivered to a different address. We only noticed as we got a delivery alert (payment was taken on someone else’s – probably fraudulent card) and contacted them to say it was obviously a fraudulent transaction. JL did nothing and the transaction is still shown on our account.
OP I hope you get your parcel but I’d put zero faith in JL for sorting this.

JL have shocking cs but yh phone your old number would be my first port of call (scuse pun)