Missing postage

[aand2136-voqfz8yx]

Has this or something similar happened to anyone else?

Over the last few weeks I have not received a couple of expected letters from Royal Mail. I've worked around it, but last week I telephoned the company I was expecting the letters from. The letters relate to a financial investment and so contain personal financial information. They told me they had been sent and to report it to Royal Mail, because they had actually sent 4. This I did. Then I started to work out that I have received very few letters over the last few weeks - in fact I can only recall 2. I also remembered that a neighbour with the same postcode and surname as me, moved recently.

I telephoned Royal Mail again and mentioned this and have now been informed that the person had set up a mail redirect 6 weeks ago and not only has the same surname as me, but the same initial.

It seems highly likely that my mail has been mistakenly redirected to this person for weeks. This mail not only contains financial information amongst other bits and pieces, but also very probably medical information.

The case is still ongoing in Royal Mail and it is not yet proven that my mail has been mistakenly redirected, but it seems very likely given that I've had very little mail since they moved. I should find out next week.

What I'd like to know is what course of action, if any, can I take for careless loss of my personal and highly confidential data

[angelah1847]

You could report to the ICO - Information Commissioners Office.

https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

[aand2136-voqfz8yx]

Thank you, I'd not heard of them.

They seem to deal with organistaions that hold your info rather than those that 'transport' it. But I'll certainly try them next week if the outcome of the Royal Mail investigation is as I expect

[angelah1847]

It seems that RM are regulated by Ofcom and yet Ofcom won't deal with complaints about them according to this

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/postal-services/complaints-about-postal-service

[aand2136-voqfz8yx]

Thank you again. I'm learning something about things I never knew I needed to

It appears all I can do is moan. A very careless mistake by the sorting office (ie they haven't checked the house number) and my data can be sent to all and sundry.

[angelah1847]

It is pretty bad that there are no checks in place to stop this from happening.

About 15 years ago I suddenly realised I hadn't received an electricity bill from my supplier for quite a while and when I contacted them they initially weren't very helpful. I tried again only to be told that the address of 'my meter' had been changed and the bills had been going there   They then blamed me for this, I must have contacted them and told them to make the change! Why on earth would I have done that?

They changed the address back and then sent me a bill for the full amount which was a ridiculous amount. I asked for a payment plan, they refused. I got the energy regulator involved and they were about as helpful as a chocolate teapot.

Managed to scrape the money together to pay off the bill and then switched to a different supplier.  I would never go back to that supplier and if anyone asked me to recommend one to them I would tell them which one not to use.

[aand2136-voqfz8yx]

It is bad. I am aware that some meters have duplicated reference numbers; because someone keyed in a wrong digit, and you can be stuck with your existing supplier because they think you are trying to change the address of a meter at another property.

I was stuck paying a high tariff in Shetland when this happened and even sending them a photo of the meter with that days newspaper wouldn't convince that it was my meter. In the end in had to switch to Scottish power as they owned the meter. Apparently the duplicated meter was somewhere in the South of England