Here is the situation. I bought my house 5 years ago. Prior to this, a nice couple lived there. Before them (at least 7-8 years ago) the original owners lived there. I occasionally get junk mail adressed to a name I don’t recognize who I assume were the original owners. The post office says they have no forwarding information for these people. Today, I found a package on my doorstep, presumably left by the UPS, addressed to these presumably original owners. The return address is The Popcorn Factory. What do I do? My first thought is to schlep it to the post office and ask them to forward it, but I have had trouble before as they have said that they don’t forward items after this length of time. I can ask UPS to return it to sender, but I have tried this in the past and they refused as it was delivered to the address listed. That time, I insisted that they take it, and I think the UPS people ate it. I can leave it out in the rain to rot, or I can eat it.
My feeling is that I need to bring it to UPS since it is not my mail, but others are telling me that I should not have to take time out of my day to lug a big package (at least 2 feet square) to UPS when they are going to refuse to send it without a forwarding address.
Donate it to a food pantry if you feel conflicted about it. Otherwise if you just feel exasperated by the situation and don’t particularly care about the morals of it rent a movie and enjoy the popcorn.
Open the package and see if there is any indication as to who ordered the product in the first place. It may be a gift from a cousin of the original owners who is really out of touch. If you find such, contact the sender. If not, eat your windfall popcorn.
I’d eat it. You’ve made a good faith effort but you shouldn’t hove to completely inconvienence yourself, particularly after five years.
Just had a thought, can you find an online address for The Popcorn Factory? Maybe you can write them and tell them the addressee’s no longer live there and they can find a way to inform their customer.
I say it’s yours now. If they ordered and paid for a package that they never received at the new address my guess is that they’ve either completely forgot about it, reversed the charges, or got a new one delivered to their new address.
If nobody is going to forward it, then I say enjoy the goodness that the Popcorn Gods have blessed you with. Don’t forget to throw some in the back yard to appease those same Gods, for they are vengeful.
Don’t believe me? The last time the gods were not appeased properly grocery stores started stocking microwave popcorn.
I’ve gotten several UPS packages for people that don’t exist at my address, and UPS always takes them back. The address is correct, but those people aren’t here and I have no idea who they are.
I don’t bring it to them either; I’ve called and they come back.
If you think it’s just some sort of promotional thing, enjoy your popcorn.
If, on the other hand, you can determine that it was a gift or something ordered specifically for the previous occupants you should make at least a good faith effort to locate them or let the sender know that they’re no longer at your address.
My wife’s cousin (my cousin-in-law) had about 30# of nuts delivered to her house accidentally recently. The place that sent them simply sent out a new batch to the correct address, and told her to keep them.
Worst case, I’d contact the sender, they’ll probably tell you to keep it, as it’s food, and they really can’t take it back in good conscience. (what if you were evil and tampered with it?) That’ll assuage your conscience, and make it all legal-like.
The former owners from twelve years ago? That’s totally your popcorn. If there’s a card saying who sent it, you might drop them a note to say that the person doesn’t live there anymore, but I wouldn’t go so far as to return their popcorn.
A lot of those mail-order gift-box companies put the gift info inside the little envelope with the packing slip outside the box, so you wouldn’t necessarily have to open it to see who it’s from.