Wrong address on parcel, unresponsive neighbour

July 30, 2023 12:12 PM

A parcel with my name on it had the address of the house five doors down. I have a picture of it delivered to their doorstep by the courier. I've knocked on doors several times, with no answer (but their house is bristling with cameras, so they saw me). I left a note, which has gone from their mailbox. I know someone's around, as their car has moved and their bin went out on trash day. Is there anything else I can reasonably try?
posted by scruss to Society & Culture (13 answers total)

Take it up with the sender and the carrier, documenting number and manner of attempts to retrieve, with the dates. You’ve made more than enough reasonable attempts and there isn’t anything else a reasonable person can be expected to try. It was the courier’s mistake, and their or the sender’s responsibility to correct it at this point (depending on the arrangement between the sender and carrier.) If that doesn’t get you anywhere and this was a purchase you made, you can try to get the charge reversed with your credit card.

Who is the carrier and what is the value of the items of the package?
posted by kapers at 12:21 PM on July 30, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: → It was the courier’s mistake

No, it was mine. I don't know how the vendor's credit card verification accepted a typo in the address, but I managed to key "26" when I live at 36.

The vendor is a friend who is having a last-ditch sale to avoid having to close a well-loved company. I don't want to cause him a loss when he's already hurting financially.
posted by scruss at 12:43 PM on July 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

I agree with kapers, except:

It was the courier’s mistake

The courier delivered it to the correct address (as marked on the package). The mistake was in the address that was put on the package, and was presumably the fault of the sender (or, I guess, possibly OP, but that seems less likely).

Edit on non-preview: Or maybe not less likely.
posted by Flunkie at 12:45 PM on July 30, 2023

Ah, got it. In this case I really don’t think there’s anything more you can try with the neighbor. They either stole it or they legit don’t have it (porch pirate took it, their kid took it and won’t fess up, they threw it in a bin.) I do think taking it up with the carrier, sender, or card will result in your friend having to refund.

So maybe now it’s just a donation to help their business instead of a purchase?
posted by kapers at 12:52 PM on July 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

A nearly identical scenario was discussed in /r/legaladvice last week.
posted by jdroth at 1:32 PM on July 30, 2023

Response by poster: → Do these people strike you as prosocial and...reasonable?

I have absolutely no idea who they are. Some of the houses on the street are short-term rentals, some multiple occupancy, some the same owners since the mid 1950s.

The /r/legaladvice thread was unhelpful at best.
posted by scruss at 2:32 PM on July 30, 2023

I think that last question was asked sarcastically. They are clearly not prosocial or reasonable. It doesn't matter if they're renters or owners.

At this point, all neighborly options have been exhausted. If you came here asking for advice about how to get them to talk to you and to be kind and reasonable, I can't think of any suggestions. You're not dealing with neighborly people.

At this point, you really only have two options. Give up, or talk to a lawyer.
posted by Leontine at 3:37 PM on July 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

You could try another note offering to pay for the item (this worked for someone I know in a misdelivered situation where the recipient was not answering the door). Annoying, I realise.
posted by paduasoy at 4:11 PM on July 30, 2023

Given that you have not actually seen the people coming and going, it's possible their schedule is just very different from yours and also that they are... well, lazy and inconsiderate and haven't gotten around to answering your note.

Before taking any kind of legal action, consider coming at a different hour. Leave a note saying "I will come by at 9 PM tomorrow night, I hope you can make yourself available to turn over my parcel, or leave it outside the front door at that time." Maybe add something like "don't worry if you opened the box by accident" or something. Show up at the appointed time, knock clearly for several minutes.

If they are still unresponsive, you may consider getting in touch with the landlord or owner, there may be a way to contact them through the HOA or some such.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:35 PM on July 30, 2023

Best answer: Okay, so I resolved this. It turns out that the vendor didn't put an address label on the package*, nor did they put a packing slip inside the box. The day the package arrived, my neighbour freaked out, called the police, who opened the package as if it were suspicious. When they found innocuous STEM-like stuff inside and no way to return it, the police advised them to throw everything away. Which our neighbours, in the absence of any other reasonable course of action, did.

I put a note through our neighbour's door this afternoon. Their neighbour (who we know) saw me do it, and came out to ask if everything was okay. Just as I was leaving, our neighbour's son drove up and told me about the police thing. Our neighbour then called me (my number was on the note) saying how scared he'd been to get an unmarked box.

Moral of the story:

1. check your shipping address is correct before clicking;
2. make sure you only buy from vendors who knows the basics of how to ship stuff.

---
*: some kind of local, possibly community, courier was used who apparently don't need address labels.
posted by scruss at 5:57 PM on July 30, 2023 [19 favorites]

This resolution is bonkers! Thank you for the update, and I hope you have some new neighbor friends now.
posted by Bottlecap at 1:19 AM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

The arc of this whole saga is amazing. Of course the police where like "toss it" and of course the camera folks where like "wtf weird box".

I will need an update for how the sender is going to resolve this or your CC/payment folks, mainly because it feels like anything is possible now.
posted by zenon at 7:34 AM on July 31, 2023

Response by poster: Not sure I made friends with the neighbours: they seem angry that this could have happened to them.

I checked with my vendor friend: he did put a return address and phone number on a label. Did my neighbour and Toronto Police check that? No, they didn't. The vendor is very upset by this, and is refunding me, plus will hold back one of the items for me that he still has in stock.

Maybe I should add a third moral of the story:

1. ACAB

posted by scruss at 11:39 AM on July 31, 2023 [7 favorites]