Royal Mail And Postcodes Again - How!

[Playbill]

I posted a question about this a few days ago after I had received an envelope where the only similarity to my address was the same house number and first letter of road name. The actual destination and postcode was several miles away.

I circled the postcode (as, I believe one of the replies here also suggested), wrote delivered to wrong address and put in a post box. Came home today and guess what I found amongst my mail? Yes, it has returned!

It is already franked and the stamp cancelled so I do not understand how it was able to go through the same process again and now has two lots of cancellation.

I will have to take it to the local sorting office otherwise it may go round in circles until next Christmas (it looks like a Christmas card)

[Iluvspikey]

I would actually re-post it, and if it's mailed to you, keep on reposting it until somebody knocks on your door and asks for the postage to be paid as it's been round the block a few times - then you can point out it's not your name, nor road name, nor post code. Or write return to DLO on bottom of envelope (Dead Letter Office)

[windywillow]

Rather than take it to the local sorting office, how about looking in the phone book and if the people are listed, ringing them to ask if they want you to open it and tell them who it is from?

Not an answer to the misdelivery problem, but it is what I'd do.

Or maybe the address as it is written doesn't exist and the postie is taking a guess and delivering it to you. Have you looked to see if there is such an address?

[windywillow]

Sorry, just looked at your original post and see that there is no surname on the envelope. You will still be able to ascertain whether the address exists by looking on the internet though.

[Playbill]

Yes, windywillow I did that and it does exist. I am just intrigued both by how it can arrive at an entirely different address twice, and how a franked stamp did not cause it to be ejected during the sorting process.
I am assuming it is a Christmas card because it feels like a card inside and came just before then; but it may be an invitation to a New Years eve party! It was posted from somewhere about 90 miles away with a first class stamp,

[windywillow]

Yes, that is very strange. Would be interesting to get a response from a RM employee.

[boxtops]

I've always understood that letters re-posted for redirection are manually sorted, so they don't go through the franker twice (although the number of Christmas cards I received this year with unfranked stamps made me wonder if the system's not working as it should!)

Just keep reposting it - I write on the outside "delivered to wrong address" and the date, so when the recipient eventually gets it, they can see why there is a delay.

[AlwaysConfused]

When I get mail sent for previous occupants, I cross through and put Return to Sender, Not as the Address' I don't know how true it is, but I was told by an ex postie that the letters are not returned.

[diddlydo]

Boxtops - yes the unfranked christmas stamps are great - I'm soaking them off for re-use to deny the Post Office some of their monstrous income.

[Tuvok]

Physically hand it back to your posty.

[spudqueen]

diddly do - you mean Royal Mail?

[Playbill]

If I do see the postman between now and Monday I will do as Tuvok says.

Though Iluvspikey's suggestion is tempting - just to see how many times it will come back. If it does I will let you know.

Thanks again all.

[Buenchico]

When the letter was first sorted (either by Optical Character Recognition or, if that wouldn't work, by a postal worker) a series of machine-readable dots was printed onto the envelope, representing the postcode which the OCR device (or postal worker) thought was typed/written on the envelope. From then on it's those dots, rather than the typed or handwritten postcode, which the sorting machines read.

If you re-post the envelope the first sorting process sees those dots and assumes that the envelope has already been sorted on its current journey, so no new attempt is made to read the actual postcode on the envelope. You could re-post it a hundred times and exactly the same would happen, since nobody would ever read your message.

If you want to force the system to re-read the postcode, you need to cover up those dots (which can often be hard to see by eye).

Chris

[Playbill]

Chris:
I see the lines of dots you refer to. I compared them with other mail I have received and, without actually counting them, the patterns do look the same.
First line is already partly over the address and if I DO repost I will run a highlighter over the second line to obscure it.
Thanks.

[windywillow]

I read Chris's reply with interest as I get lots of post intended for the previous occupier, who died nearly 3 years ago.

I always put a line through the address and write on the envelope "Addressee deceased, please return to sender". I've never had the same envelope delivered back to me so am I right in presuming my message does get read?