The case of the mail mishap

April 5, 2010 3:27 PM

I just realized that I gave the wrong address when I ordered some things, now these things are on the way to this address. Whats a boy to do?

The incorrect address has the wrong house number, but the correct street and apartment numbers, so it is probably a house just down the street.. The package is on its from the UK. What can I do to make sure I get my stuff?

posted by cirrostratus to Shopping (4 answers total)

Do you have the tracking number? You can change the address on in-transit shipments by calling the shipper. There is usually a fee for this, and you may have to get the sender to call for you. But it's possible and common, from what I hear.
posted by jrockway at 3:29 PM on April 5, 2010

I've done this in the past, and went to the home in question and simply asked them if they'd mind holding the package if it arrived, and when it would be convenient to them for me to pick it up. I've never had anyone say no, and even if they did, I'd ask them to just refuse shipment on it, and I'd deal with the vendor.

Contacting the vendor to see if they can do some sort of intercept may work - it'll be complicated by it being a UK shipment, though.
posted by Rendus at 3:32 PM on April 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

nthing intercept/redirect. I used to have packages redirected from my apartment to my office, but that usually only worked if they had tried to deliver to my apartment, rang the front buzzer that connected them to my cellphone, and I verbally instructed them to redirect.

Last summer I sent a package to the house across the street accidentally. The FedEx lady knew it wasn't for them, so left it at my front door. It did get stolen, sadly.

So maybe talking to the people who will accidentally receive the package would be a good idea.

If you ordered it online, make sure you didn't accidentally save the wrong address into auto-filled forms in your browser.
posted by MonsieurBon at 3:51 PM on April 5, 2010

It really depends on the shipping company. Is it UPS? They have a service called Delivery Intercept for just this purpose. The shipper (the company that paid UPS to ship the item) must contact UPS. In any event your best bet will be to contact the company you purchased from as soon as possible so they can try to deal with it before it gets returned to them as incorrectly addressed.
posted by reeddavid at 10:16 PM on April 5, 2010