If you aren't paying for it, please stop using it

[norrina]

About 2-3 months ago, I opened a post office box for my new business. As a brand new business, 99% of my mail is junk or bills, or for the previous owner/user of this address. As much as I might not like them, I do need to receive the bills. And my junk mail goes directly in the post office's recycle bin. But I'm getting a little tired of having to black out the bar code and write "Return to Sender; Addressee Unknown" on the plethora of misdirected mail I am receiving. It isn't particularly time consuming, but quite frankly I'm finding there aren't enough hours in the day to handle my own business, let alone waste precious seconds attending to someone else's.

I finally tracked down what I believe to be the home address of the company's president, and have drafted a letter, which is below. Am I okay to send it, or is there some other way I should be handling this?

LETTER (with identifying information redacted):

Dear Mr. You Forgot a Step:

I am the current holder of Post Office Box 12345, Anytown, USA. Since receiving assignment of this box, I have received some quantity of mail addressed to Company That Is Not Mine, most of it directed to your attention as President of the company. All such mail has been marked “Return to Sender, Addressee Unknown,” and deposited into the nearest mail receptacle. As the months have gone by, I have begun to find this expenditure of time tedious. I would greatly appreciate it if you would cause to have a proper Change of Address filed with the USPS.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Norrina

[wolfie]

Sending that to his HOME address is really creepy.  I would start by talking to the Post Office and asking them if they can stop putting letters for X company in your box. 

[bloo]

I would start by talking to the Post Office and asking them if they can stop putting letters for X company in your box.

This is a good idea and I should get around to it myself. I live in a nice rental in a business zone and I get mail for 5 different other persons. It's tiring and after doing the black marker 'return to sender' thing for a year I just dump a few months worth of the whole lot at the PO.

Since the postal carrier continuesto put all those names in my box even after I kept putting messages on the misdirected mail, I never send anything out of my mailbox and just go to the PO to send things.

I wouldn't bother sending that letter. They may very well be trying to avoid disgruntled clients or creditors and won't do anything about it anyway.

[YummyMummy66]

Can you not look up the business itself for their current address?

Otherwise, if it were me, I am sorry.  That mail would be trashed.  If it was that important to said business, they would have filled out a change of address form.

[MindsEye]

I think that it is fine to send a letter... but I would send it as a registered letter (so they have to sign for it and you know that they got it) and I would also include in the letter a deadline for them getting their address updated as well as what you will do with any further misdirected mail after said deadline.  You might also want to check with a lawyer before sending it, to make sure that it has that extra legal weight behind it.

Honestly, at this point (this has been going on for months?) I would just trash all mail for Company X that ended up in my box without a second thought.  You are more patient than I am!

[onyonryngs]

I would check with the post office to see what their suggestion is before sending the letter.

[WillyNilly]

After 2 months of having the address, I'd just chuck the stuff.  If the other guy wanted his mail, he'd take steps to get it.  He hasn't therefore its junk.

You might want to confirm with the Post Office though that they have your name and company name, so they can stop delivering the stuff to you, to begin with.

I wouldn't bother to mail anything to anyone (a letter to the former owner of the box, send the stuff back, etc) - its just not worth my time at all.

[norrina]

OP here, clarifying a couple things:

As far as I can tell, the company is no longer in business. I found a nearly $2mm judgment against the president, as personal guarantor of a loan for the business, from early 2012. The address that I have for the president, and that I believe is his home address, is the service of process address from that action. Alternatively, the corporation that this company was operating as has not been dissolved with the Secretary of State, so I could send a letter to the registered agent for the company, but he is 150 miles away.

The post office cares not one whit about me receiving this company's mail, they just want me to mark it undeliverable and toss it back into the outgoing mail. I'd love to just chuck it all in the trash, but that opens a big ole can of worms to do with federal law, so I'm not going to actually go that route. As far as checking with a lawyer, I AM a lawyer, and I'm pretty sure legally there's nothing I can do to make them fix this. 

[wolfie]

In that case I wouldn't bother sending him the letter. He doesn't want the mail (which I am guessing is a lot of bills) and has no incentive to do anything to make it easier on you. I would just collect the mail and dump it at the post office when it is convenient to you.

[WillyNilly]

The post office cares not one whit about me receiving this company's mail, they just want me to mark it undeliverable and toss it back into the outgoing mail. I'd love to just chuck it all in the trash, but that opens a big ole can of worms to do with federal law, so I'm not going to actually go that route. As far as checking with a lawyer, I AM a lawyer, and I'm pretty sure legally there's nothing I can do to make them fix this. 

Really?  I know you can't open someone else's mail, but I never heard you couldn't throw it out.  After all its your address, and the addressee is unknown (to you, officially).  It is trash.

[onyonryngs]

There is a 99.99% probability that after sending the letter, you will still have this issue.  It's frustrating.  I know.  In the meantime, I would just write "bad address" on the envelope and drop them in the outgoing mail.  No need to write out the whole "return to sender, addressee unknown."  But thank you for getting Elvis stuck in my head anyway!

[CakeBeret]

OP here, clarifying a couple things:

As far as I can tell, the company is no longer in business. I found a nearly $2mm judgment against the president, as personal guarantor of a loan for the business, from early 2012. The address that I have for the president, and that I believe is his home address, is the service of process address from that action. Alternatively, the corporation that this company was operating as has not been dissolved with the Secretary of State, so I could send a letter to the registered agent for the company, but he is 150 miles away.

I'd just trash the mail, then. I doubt the company president cares at this point. If you're concerned about the legalities (though I personally wouldn't be) I'd invest in a rubber stamp that says "Return to sender: addressee unknown" so you can at least stamp the envelopes instead of having to write on each of them.

[wolfie]

The post office cares not one whit about me receiving this company's mail, they just want me to mark it undeliverable and toss it back into the outgoing mail. I'd love to just chuck it all in the trash, but that opens a big ole can of worms to do with federal law, so I'm not going to actually go that route. As far as checking with a lawyer, I AM a lawyer, and I'm pretty sure legally there's nothing I can do to make them fix this. 

Really?  I know you can't open someone else's mail, but I never heard you couldn't throw it out.  After all its your address, and the addressee is unknown (to you, officially).  It is trash.

No - throwing it out is also considered tampering with the mail. I once opened a christmas card without realizing it wasn't actually addressed to me and once I realized it there was no way to put it back together nicely.  I asked the PO what to do with it and they told me I had to send it back - that throwing it out was a federal offense and I shouldn't have opened it in the first place.

[norrina]

The post office cares not one whit about me receiving this company's mail, they just want me to mark it undeliverable and toss it back into the outgoing mail. I'd love to just chuck it all in the trash, but that opens a big ole can of worms to do with federal law, so I'm not going to actually go that route. As far as checking with a lawyer, I AM a lawyer, and I'm pretty sure legally there's nothing I can do to make them fix this. 

Really?  I know you can't open someone else's mail, but I never heard you couldn't throw it out.  After all its your address, and the addressee is unknown (to you, officially).  It is trash.

No - throwing it out is also considered tampering with the mail. I once opened a christmas card without realizing it wasn't actually addressed to me and once I realized it there was no way to put it back together nicely.  I asked the PO what to do with it and they told me I had to send it back - that throwing it out was a federal offense and I shouldn't have opened it in the first place.

This is my understanding as well. It should be noted, I am a family law attorney, so it isn't like the US Code is really my area of expertise. I found a section though that says that, "Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both." (18 USC § 1701, for anyone who cares) I'd rather not taking my chances that throwing the mail away is going to be considered "obstructing" or "retarding" the passage of it.

I don't want this to get into a legal discussion and have the thread closed. Suffice it to say, I personally am not willing to throw away the company's (non-bulk) mail, so I need to find another solution.

I do like the suggestion to get a rubber stamp (or I was thinking I could just print labels). At least that would reduce the time I spend on this nonsense.

[mrkitty]

I know it is inconvenient as all get out, but if the volume of mail is way too much, perhaps it's best just to move to a new mailbox?