Why don't you open your mail?

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It has come to light that some of you punters never open your mail when it comes and leave unopened envelopes lying around for years on end - only to get surprised when you have lost you postal vote/has your gas turned off. This seems to me to be highly disorganised behaviour. Is it fear of letter bombs?

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I feverishly open all mail addressed to me. If it is junk mail, then I put it back in the envelope and leave it lying around. I like mail, I could not understand the motivations of a person who doesn't open it. Responding, that's a different story.

― jel --, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I wuv my mail and check it every day, carefually studying everything and anything for CLUES. I often open the mail meant for last year's tenants for the THRILL.

― Graham, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I do open some of it as soon as it arrives. But when I basically know what's inside and it's a bill or bank statement or blood donor reminder then why bother? Also I have a policy of not opening my montly cable statement till rent&bills day cause it's a direct debit and the opened/unopened status of it acts as a reminder or whether I have charged my flatmate for that month's cable or not.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

So few nice things come in the post these days that I am starting to consider cancelling my mail.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

opening mail meant for last year's tenants = classic!

exploring cellars/lofts in shared houses and finding things wot the other folk left behind is similarly classic. I found 70 years worth of sheet music in a house I lived in on Chequers Road, Chorlton. Mountains of the stuff - it was ace.

― misterjones, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Living in N1 I never get any

― dave q, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

N doesn't the fact that you have possibly not been able to vote + been threatened with the LAW over Council Tax make you more inclined to want to open your mail?

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I *have* to open mail for previous tenants now, as they are all being pursued by BT and the like for unpaid bills. The letters are no longer from BT but from debt collection agencies and lawyers, so I live in fear of the bailiffs turning up even though I have stated many times that I AM NOT MISS L FRENCH!!!! Our address has been credit-blacklisted now as well. Where does being a model citizen get you these days, eh?

The other crap thing is that I'm not officially on the list of tenants for our building as the lease isn't in my name, so if I don't get to my mail sharpish the cleaner throws it away. GRRRR.

― Archel, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

when i moved into my current flat i by mistake left in the old loft four binbags jam- packed with hideous papier mache heads (40-50, lifesize) which my friend rae had made for an operetta she set-designed (= master peter's puppetshow) => i am v.sad i did not see the faces of the next owners when they explored the loft

i never open my mail

― mark s, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Isn't it against the law to open someone else's mail without their permission? In our old house the tenants scarpered without paying for loads of stuff + they nicked the rented telly. We got tons of letters from bailiffs etc. but as it wasn't anything to do with us we ignored it. Pete tried to wind me up one day when I had the day off by ringing me and saying he was a bailiff and they were coming round to seize our goods later that day. How I larfed when I found out it was him (i.e. very quickly).

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bet they weren't as good as the faces of my friends who managed to open a locked doctor's case they found in their attic, which turned out to contain a steel vibrator, a box of condoms and many many 'soiled' tissues...

― Archel, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

TOM!

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am the Noel Edmonds/wind up telephone scam master of ILE. I am k- proud.

It is illegal to interfere with the royal Mail, but I don't think this counts after its been delivered correctly and the addressee is wrong. (Easy defence in court of law anyway, you thought it was fgor you cos it had been posted to your house).

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That reminds me of being away for a few days last year with mates. We'd booked a restaurant and they rang back twice, once to say we had to sit in smoking and a second time to confirm our name. So my friend Domhnall picked up his mobile phone (after a beer or two it must be said) and rang the house phone. He proceeded to put on a ridiculous Irish country accent and say our table had been booked already. Our friend John was going mental on the phone and Domhnall said "oh for fuck sake there's a chipper next door, it's lovely". It was great.

I don't open my mail, all I ever get are bank statements saying there's nothing in my account. My mother always fucking opens my stuff.........the interfering hussy.

― Ronan, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is opening mail all part of the umbrella, watches etc. continuum?

― jel --, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It looks like it, jel.

Pete, your defence of 'oh it came to my house so I thought it was for me' is pathetic. If you opened my mail I would batter you with a blunt instrument.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

N doesn't the fact that you have possibly not been able to vote + been threatened with the LAW over Council Tax make you more inclined to want to open your mail?

Well the problem with the Council Tax fiasco was that didn't send me things to open. So no.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am with Emma on post-opening etiquette. I once made an exception when there were nasty looking baliff letters and opened it and rang the heavies concerned. I told them that the person they were after hadn't lived there for at least three years and I had no idea who or where they were. Didn't stop the letters coming though. So now I just throw things in the bin instantly, which is surely illegal, but I can't be bothered anymor

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I usually only bother to open bills or things that might be bills. Or correspondence from real people.

― Jeff W, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is it legal to credit-blacklist a whole address on the strength of the behaviour of its previous tenants, that's what I want to know. (Not that my boyfriend was *desperate* for a Debenhams store card, but still...) And if *I* apply for new credit cards/mortgage etc, will they take account of my current address or my previous (impeccable!) credit history?

― Archel, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

there isn't actually such a thing as credit blacklisting; you can get yr credit files from equifax/equiplan (i think these are the two names...) and request that they remove past occupants from yr file. not that i can ever be bothered.

― toby, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No - you cannot credit blacklist an address, addresses don't pay bills, people do. If someone tells you that you are blacklistedthen follow it up and make them (and whoever is running the database) that this was previous tenants. New Data Protection Act will help you massively in this task (they must show you the info, you can then show them it is wrong).

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Perhaps they think you are the same person as it's the same address but you have cunningly changed your name in an effort to snap up loads of Debenham's goodies.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh Christ, I am awful. I can never pay my bills on time, or answer my mail. It just piles up and up until I feel like I have something heavy clipped to my heart and hanging there. I open personal mail for me, but I cannot get to anything 'official' -- I guess it's some aversion to the encroachment of the 'real world' and all the responsibilities it represents. I'm a horrible procrastinator in general.

― Dare, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

CAN not or WILL not?

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dare describes my outlook perfectly. I used to have contempt for people who said they never opened their bank statements. Now I have joined their ranks. Keep it all away from me. It's also something to do with my not having a user-friendly official correspondence filing system. Or a secretary

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I fear bank statements. And credit card bills. Although I am getting better at opening them. I have a half-way filing system, that is I put them in my handbag with all the other random junk and lie to myself about opening them. Eventually they get eaten by the monster at the bottom of my bag that eats everything that stays in there too long.

― Anna, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Next time I go for a job interview I will be sure to mention my letter opening skillz on my CV as clearly this is a valuable secretarial attribute, on a par with 60 wpm or a perky phone manner.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am such a insane / anal / mental person that I keep all my receipts / slips from cash machines & check my statements every month. My dad always did this when I was little so it is his fault. However after my bag was stolen this proved to be v. useful as despite having called to cancel my cheque book the stupid bank didn't bother & the bastard thieves had nicked loads more money off me.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am such a insane / anal / mental person that I keep all my receipts / slips from cash machines & check my statements every month.

I do all that too, Emma except the statement cross-check bit! I am the mental one.

― Jeff W, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What's the point in keeping all that shit unless you're going to check it against your statement? Emma - have you found that the bank makes mistakes? The Consumers Association says they do, and I've always been mildly interested.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't keep my receipts but I do have a fantastic memory which is what allowed me to remember that I only spent £16.20 in a restaurant once rather than the £26.20 that was on my statement (3 years ago this is). I got straight on to the bank, and they refunded after two days.

Dodgy "fill in the amount" slips in restaurants you need to be careful of. Mind you the consumers association are bunch of greedy pigs.

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The only mistake the bank has made was not cancelling my cheque book after I told them to and then taking FOREVER to refund the money not to mention the charges they made for going over my overdraft limit not through any fault of my own but because the bloody thieves put me over it.

I nearly changed banks but the useless bastards are all as bad as each other.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

actually i changed to Co-operative a few years ago and Co-operative are LOVELY and helpful! i recommend them.

― katie, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Pete, do you mean you noticed the error after 3 years and still remembered (impressive but why so slow to read your statements?) or just that this all happened 3 years ago (not so impressive - the numbers are now etched in your memory because it became an issue). I'm sure most people would remember whether a meal the happened last month cost them £16.20 or £26.20.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It happend three years ago and I am aware that this is not a major feat of memory but of course if people don't open their statements or look at them then they would never know.

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I check all my mail immediately with the exception of the obvious junk mail codswallop. I try and pay all bills immediately as well, don't want them lingering.

When Young and Foolish (as opposed to Old and Foolish), a friend and I mailbombed an Odious Person we loathed by subscribing him, via those subscription postcards you can randomly find in magazines, to about two hundred different magazines. Oh how we larfed -- until he figured out it was us and we had to apologize to avoid prosecution.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I go thru all my mail every day, carefully. Because I just really like mail. I mean, I like getting junk mail because it's something to throw away. Seriously. But I mostly get bills and junk and magazines, sometimes I get 5 cards in a row from an old friend in like one week, then I'm like what the hell? But generally bills and junk and magazines.

― Ally, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The one letter I got today was crappy.

― jel --, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

five years pass...

I just got owned by e-mail:

"I have read article 86 several times,are you satisfied it makes sense?"

― czn, Friday, 25 April 2008 10:12 (seventeen years ago)

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