OT: And finally . . . .

[fred]

A couple have been sending a Christmas card to my Mum's place for the last 20 years, not to her, just to some unknown name at her address.

Over the years the writing has got more and more spidery so we wondered if they had long for this world and would the mystery of the unknown sender ever be solved.

This year, for the first time, the card has a return address so we'll probably put them out of their misery (by replying).

Votes are welcomed on the tone of the reply, from:

Thanks for the comedy moments

- to

How come you never visit

- to

How could you be so f'ckn stupid . . . .

[ARW]

Not the last one.

I get a Christmas card delivered every year (last eleven years) for someone who lives on a road in Barnsley with the same road name as mine. Every year I just repost it, add the correct postcode to the card (no postcode on what I get) with the words "delivered to wrong address" on the envelope.

[GB]

Well, it is quite possible that the intended recipient is sending your senders a Christmas card every year, so they don't realise theirs is not getting through.

Maybe the reply address was a hint.

Just be pleasant and let them know the position. It's supposed to be a time of kindness and good cheer, after all, and binning these cards has hardly been a big job for you.

[Nick]

The year my mother died my father got a Xmas card with the message 'To Ron and Pat', with the 'and Pat' crossed out. Luckily he saw the funny side.

[fred]

In article , ARW writes

Awwww!

I suppose, "I am sorry to advise that Mr & Mrs Blah, who you have been writing to for 20 years, have died . . . " is out of the question too?

Don't get me wrong, I've done the research, there's been no-one with that name in the vicinity in recent memory (25 yrs).

[fred]

They're certainly patient ;-)

It has been a rather frustrating affair though, after 10 years and still no return address I was having a few ffs moments, a bit like the genie who lost it after 20,000 years in the bottle.

[Dave W]

That's not good enough. The recipient will think it's the postman's fault and take no action. You need to add a command like "Please tell the sender your postcode".

[Bill Wright]

For many years we got a Christmas card from the widow of a man who died in our company in a very remote place. Then they stopped.

Bill

[Nick Odell]

That'd probably be me, then. So I'll look forward to receiving your reply when you've finally decided what to write.

For years I've been sending a Christmas card to an old chap. If he is still alive, he'll be in his late nineties. He's deaf as a post so attempts to phone would only alarm the poor old boy and the address is in a part of the country that is so remote from where I am now that I'll probably never visit again. Specially putting an address on the back is a bit like writing "Are you dead yet?" so I just carry on, writing a brief message inside, notifying my changes of address when they happen and figuring that the quid or so it costs me is a small price to pay to remind someone that I'm thinking of them and a small amount to lose if the card is simply getting lost.

Nick

[Adrian]

Idly, I wonder if there's a point at which you'll decide that he definitely isn't receiving them any more and stop?

[Nick Odell]

Idly, I wonder the same, every year. But each year I decide that this isn't the year.

Nick

[Broadback]

Last year we had a note printed saying that we were no longer sending cards, but instead would donate the saved money to charity. We still got a number of cards, so are wondering if they did not see the note or decided not to show their ass!

[Peter Johnson]

I have just, today, received the second card this year addressed to a similar road the other side of Leicester because the sender didn't put the post code on, and the postman didn't use the Mk 1 eyeball. My neighbours have had the same thing this week. I put the first one back in the post marked 'Not LE4'. The second one I'll put back in the post this afternoon marked 'Not LE4 - tell your friends to use the post code' or similar.

And a few years ago, for several years I received cards from 'David and Joan' and I had no idea who they were. I didn't recognise the handwriting and the postmark was usually illegible. Several years later I realised that I was sending a card to David but I didn't know that his wife was named Joan and I didn't know his handwriting.

[ARW]

Well if they cannot work it out for themselves when it arrives than tough.

And I sometime get mail for the same people but with my postcode.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I had the same, for about 15 years. They were post cards from one couple to another, often a few per year. What's more, they often seemed to meet up and do things together ("It was lovely to meet you again on holiday this year", etc). There was no way to tell them they were all going to the wrong address, and it would seem that nothing in their conversations when they did meet up triggered any realisation of the one-way postcard conversation.

They had never lived at my address, and the newsagent at the end of the road who knew everyone who had ever lived in any of the houses for that last 30 years had never heard of them.

[Dave W]

Yes, tough on you not them, as the post will still keep coming to you.

Like you, I get post for the same number as mine but in a different street in a different postcode although correctly printed on the envelope. I think next time I get a wrongly addressed card, I will forge an extra line inside as if from the sender, saying "by the way, what is your postcode?".

[damduck-egg]

For years my missus has been sending a present of some tea to a former work colleague who moved to France,only last month did they send a note mentioning that they moved to another address there five years ago. Some Frenchman isn't going to get some surprise English Tea this Christmas.

In our youth some friends and I always sent a mate a Postcard apparently from a girl who signed "from your dearest Fifi" whenever we went away on a trip or Holiday. Caused a few rows with his missus.

G.Harman

[F]

In a similar vein, my Aunt has received a small cheque each Christmas from someone for whom she worked for for a few years. Her employer had said that she would send the cheque each Christmas as a way of showing appreciation for 'good service'. I can't help but think that this act of kindness may have backfired: my aunt has just celebrated her 100th birthday!

[The Natural Philosopher]

For years I used to get email for a company with a similar domain. I duly forwarded it for a year and a half occasionally pointing out that they were either giving the address out wrongly or had it wrong on their website or were sending out malformed email.

Eventually I had a conversation with the nearest thing to an IT person they had . she was adamant they were doing nothing wrong and it was all my fault.

Now I simply bounce them all to the sender. Fuck em.

[Ramsman]

Same thing happened to me at my previous address. I actually knew the real recipient as we commuted together.

Last week I received a letter to a person with the same uncommon surname and the same house number in a different Close here in the village.

The worst(?) example was last year. A delivery driver dumped a parcel on our doorstep but neither knocked nor rang the bell. A day or two later, when I had the time, I took the parcel to the correct address (different name, different number, different post code but similar street name). Told the story, and the chap said "Are you Mr Smith?". I said I wasn't, and he explained that he'd rung the courier company and they said a Mr Smith had signed for the parcel. I don't know what happened to the delivery driver as a result of this.