I’ll make an effort to find the person. And I don’t want to sound like I’m totally indifferent, but really it’s Amazon’s problem to solve. And if they don’t want to come get the packages, they really don’t have a leg to stand on when the intended recipient complains. Of course, I don’t know how the error occurred, but generally people do know their own addresses. And yes, my street exists as a rd, st, ct, terr, ave, etc.
Fair enough, and it’s highly unlikely I want what’s in it. But I’m not obligated to leave it on my front step until someone decides to steech it as they walk by.
It could be sellers trying to scam the reviews system:
In a statement to Business Insider, Amazon said: “We are investigating inquiries from consumers who have received unsolicited packages as this would violate our policies. We have confirmed the sellers involved did not receive names or shipping addresses from Amazon. We remove sellers in violation of our policies, withhold payments, and work with law enforcement to take appropriate action.”
There are other verified instances of this happening, including reports from several students at a Canadian university.
Experts who talked to The Globe said the couple was probably the victim of a scam intended to game the reviews system on Amazon’s website.
Here’s how the scam works: A seller has something listed on the website, then a fake account created by them or someone close to them buys the item and sends it somewhere random. That account can then leave a glowing “verified review,” which is worth a lot to sellers.
Assuming the person ordered the item for theirself. It’s relatively common for people to order gifts from Amazon and have them shipped directly to the recipient, especially if they live far apart. So it’s plausible someone sent someone a gift, but the giver messed up the recipient’s address.
Make a good faith effort to contact Amazon and have them retrieve the package. If you know the recipient or can easily find the recipient, you should do that as well. If after that Amazon doesn’t want the package back, it’s all yours as far as I am concerned.
I had something similar happen once. I won a very nice, $1200 barbecue from a corporate sweepstakes. The delivery truck arrived with two of them. I told them I should only get one, but they said ‘nope - the waybill says they are both yours’. So they wheeled them both into my garage and left.
The second barbecue clearly had a shipping label for another customer - who was across the country. It looked to me like the shipper made an error and sent them both to me, then didn’t want the hassle of trucking one back across the country, so they dumped it on me.
I called the original company and told them what happened, and they said they’d get back to me. They never did. So I called the guy who was supposed to get it. He was pissed that he hadn’t gotten his barbecue. I told him if he wanted to pay for shipping I’d do the work of getting it to a shipper and on a truck. He said he’d look into it, and I never heard back from him either. Inassume he called the company and they sent him a replacement.
After a week of this giant, 150 lb box sitting in the middle of my garage I called the company again. They said they weren’t sure what was going on, but they’d get back to me. I never heard from them again.
After waiting for three weeks, I sold the thing to a friend for peanuts, explaining the situation and that if they came for it he’d have to return it.
I never did hear from any of them again. That was about ten years ago now. I guess even a $1200 product wasn’t enough to get them to care about dealing with the return.
Could be a transposed digit. Is there an X1X on a different block?
Several times we got something at our house number 2109 that had the name of the resident at 2019. A little internet sleuthing helped me figure it out the second time it happened from a different company.
The funny thing is that when I got in contact with her and asked if she was at that address, her way of saying her address aloud was “twenty one nine” and I was like, geez, of course you’re going to get stuff misaddressed if that’s how you say “2019”.
Best part was that the first misaddressed delivery was like $150 of steak. I put it in the freezer while I called the company and they told me to keep it. It was only the second time that I realized that there was some systematic error occurring and tried to track it down.
As Fiendish_Astronaut mentioned above, I wonder if it might be a “brushing scam” used to artificially inflate a vendor’s reviews. Are the packages all lightweight and cheap to ship? If you eventually open them and find them to be low-value items, that would match the theory that they are by-products of a scam. The numerous reports over the last year of mystery packages of seeds or beads from China being delivered to people who didn’t order them were mostly attributed to being the results of brushing scams.
One good conclusion to draw - you apparently don’t have a neighborhood plagued by porch pirates!
I have no legal advice to offer but I’d strongly suggest you keep the packages dry and not let them get soggy, as you said they were. Regardless of whether the items need to be returned to Amazon, or given to someone, or kept for yourself, it’s best that they be kept dry and in good condition.
You could also make the argument that you should not bring them into your house because that prevents the delivery service from picking up their erroneous delivery.
And Amazon & other services have been more than happy to leave packages on my front step during a downpour, so I’ve come home to many a soggy box in my time.
This happened to me once. A few years back I bought something on Amazon (of course I can’t remember what, it was something small, I buy way too many things there). Anyway my package arrived on time and I take it indoors, and open it up… And it is a set of knobs for cupboard doors. 
So now I’m trying to figure out why I received this package and where my product is. Amazon’s site claimed that the item was dropped off at my door, but I didn’t order cupboard knobs. Then I take another look at the package and realize that there is another shipping label on the other side. (This was a padded yellow envelope, not a box.) It’s for a different person in a different part of the country.
I call up Amazon customer service and explain what I found. They confirmed that what likely happened was that this package was prepared for a different purchase and somehow got flipped over, my label was put on it, and scanned, and then shipped to me with the assumption that my order was in it. I asked them if they wanted me to send it back since someone somewhere wanted their knobs but they said no, keep it, and they’ll expedite a new package to me and the other person as well.
Of course I threw the stupid knobs away.
i live at 123 main st west. i get packages for 123 main st east occasionally. i tried being an honest citizen the first few times, with amazon, ups, fedex, etc. but they dont care, they will ship a new item to the proper address and chalk it up to the cost of business. my guess is sending a truck out to pick a package at 123 main street west and taking it to main street east isn’t cost effective.
Yeah, they don’t make it easy to do the right thing even when you try. Per-package, how long do you estimate you spent calling, in phone trees, on hold, transferring between reps, etc. trying to get a package returned?
I’ll make a good faith effort to contact the person who was supposed to get it. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll make a good faith effort to contact whoever sent it (Amazon). But if they don’t get back to me, I’ll keep it or throw it away or give it away.
I try to be a good neighbor, but it’s not really my problem if Amazon won’t pick something up, or won’t get back to me. And I’m not going to works really hard to make them do it.
(I would keep the package out of the rain, though.)
Yeah, probably not.
And welcome to the straight dope message board!
You shouldn’t be contacting Amazon; it’s the carrier that screwed up by delivering it to the wrong address. If the address doesn’t exist, it should have been sent back to Amazon, not dumped on the doorstep of an address that’s “close”.
I get mail for my address number on a different street across town. The first couple of times, it was junk mail so I just posted on Nextdoor and tossed it back in the mailbox after a few days because I never heard back.
Then I got a package. I had stuff going on all that day, so didn’t have time to take the package to the proper address until the next day. I was fully intending to ask for a phone number so I could call or text the next time I got their mail, but the woman who answered the door was a real bitch who lit into me for not getting off my ass and getting her package to her right away.
Now everything goes back into the mailbox the next day. I haven’t gotten any packages from the other shippers, but I see them on at least a weekly basis so could force them to take the package back if needed.
Its always nice to try to be a good doobie and all, but sometimes its just too much bother.
OK, I have an update. And so help me, this is true. Because it feels a little “After School Special”
I found the person and she lives across town. Street names are similar.
My wife spoke to Amazon again, and they said that the items had been re-shipped to the person and they didn’t want the packages back.
We were curious, so we opened the packages. The items were all related to dealing with the loss of a dog. As dog lovers ourselves, this didn’t feel like fun anymore. I’d been hoping for something salacious, like a sex toy, and instead I felt like a jerk because I’d been complaining about them for a week. Hence why I said it felt afterschool special.
They make so much money that it isn’t worth the time and effort to retrieve the package. About a year ago, my UPS croaked, and I got another one through Amazon. It was defective, so I contacted them and asked that they send a replacement. I asked that they include a packing slip so that I could dutifully and immediately repack the box with the defective unit and ship it out to them. They told me not to bother and to just dispose of it correctly.
You might want to check on that.
Urban Dictionary says steech is either a sexy woman or smoking marijuana.
I saw that, but my usage dates to ca. 1990. So I claim it as my own.