How do you handle misdelivered snail mail?

[Summer of George]

I think this happens to everybody once in a while. A postman mistakenly leaves you a letter or parcel that's obviously addressed to somebody else. Usually intended for a neighbor down the street or something.

The obvious solution is to just correct the mistake yourself, and bring the piece of mail to the place where it belongs. But that approach can come with some pitfalls. I never ring the bell or expect to greet the neighbor face-to-face. Sorry, even if you're friendly, I've got better shit to do. But all the same, there has been more than one occurrence of someone meeting me at the box unprompted, as if they had been lying in wait for their next victim. An awkward, banal, and inappropriately long conversation has necessarily ensued, which has inarguably made my life just a little bit worse.

So, those types will never again successfully get their mail through the George proxy, and in fact I secretly hope that I come across something important of theirs in future, just so that they miss it.

Speaking of importance, that's another consideration which gets involved in the misdelivered mail scenario. If the letter is very obviously junk mail, is it worth the effort? The companies who send that stuff out are necessarily insulting our intelligence by thinking we'll buy something from them on the sole basis of a shitty brochure. I don't want my neighbor (even the annoying one) to get wrapped up in all that nonsense, and I don't want to be associated with delivering it. Into the bin it goes.

Packages are a difficult call. It feels especially obligatory to correct the delivery, because it's implied that someone spent some real money to buy and ship whatever's in the box. But then again, we live in an age where refunds or reshipments are often approved without so much as the need to deal with a human CSR. The cost of such mistakes is considered ahead of time by the manufacturers, delivery companies, and insurers; the prices they charge for their products already have these considerations baked-in. Basically, we're all being ripped off all the time as it is. So if a little "good luck" should come your way, should you consider indulging in it, or do you automatically put such an idea right into the same bin with the junk mail?

 

[Gangstalker #32194]

I throw it away without reading it, because it's none of my business

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

if it is a neighbor i just take it to their mail box. if it isnt a neighbor i say open it, see what it is and if it isnt worth anything just throw it away. it isnt your job to make sure some stranger gets his mail.

 

[Character from a movie]

You sprinkle salt on the postsnail. That will teach him.

 

[Febreze 💨💨]

Regular mail and packages get walked over to correct address
Junk mail goes into the bin or shredded for bird cage

 

[gorgoroth7134]

I don't even read my own mail. It all goes on the kitchen table until it's time to clean up the house and then I just toss it all.

 

[analrapist]

In rural Canada, there are local banks of mailboxes. Misdeliveries don't happen much because everything's right next to each other, but it happens. So we go pick up mail. Bring it home. Sort it out. And then if there's something for someone else, it's an excuse to take a walk (or drive, or whatever) over to the neighbour and say hi and give them their mail. Works out great. Builds community.

 

[Aunt Carol]

I redeliver neighbors' mail; they've done the same for me. Old, retired neighbors are a valuable resource because they're bored and nosy. If you humor them with small talk and let them make dumb jokes, they'll be disposed to keep an eye on your place when you're at work.

Mail for former residents gets trashed if it's junk mail, otherwise I mark it up and throw it back in the mailbox, or hand it to the mail carrier if I'm going to be at home the next day when they come by. If you're marking a mailpiece "return to sender," you have to black out the computerized bar code at the bottom or it'll keep coming right back.