Address mix-ups & impending bad karma...

Yesterday morning when someone rang my doorbell I ignored it as usual, waited for the dogs to settle down, and then descended the stairs to the front door where I found a neatly folded invoice on my welcome mat. I knew what it was for before I opened it. You see, the people who owned my house before me didn’t have the sense to forward their mail, much less to cancel all of the regular services they had scheduled. So their exterminator service continued for more than a year after I moved in – the occasional invoice left at the door but no payments made whatsoever by me, as not one of those invoices had my name on it.

Then for about 8 months nothing, then the invoices started popping up again, but this time with the wrong address on them. I live in a cul-de-sac, with another cul-de-sac on the opposite side of the cross street. (To prevent myself from being found out by the neighbor, I am changing the street names, but all you need to know is that the street names are similar). My street is Dobson, the opposing street is Dobb’s Way. The intended recipient of the exterminator’s services has the same numerical address as I do, so this is an obvious error on the part of the exterminator. Now let me tell you why I’ve let this continue for so long (although I’m starting to feel guilty about it now that it has been going on for more than a year).

The mix-up between myself and the same neighbor occurred with annoying frequency with respect to packages delivered by DHL. I consistently received packages that were neither addressed by name nor physical address to me. They were always addressed to my numerical twin neighbor on Dobb’s Way. Every time I received one of his packages, I immediately delivered it to him in person or left it on his porch. On one occasion he was home so when I introduced myself and explained the situation, he replied with, “yeah, I think I have some mail of yours.” After sifting through a huge pile of crap on his counter, he handed me a mangled Blockbuster envelope containing a movie I should’ve received more than a month before. (I had reported it as “lost in the mail,” and they sent me another copy, weeks before this incident).

Assuming (likely correctly) that he had no intention of making an effort to return my mail to me on his own, I felt no guilt the first time I realized my house had mistakenly been given his perimeter treatment. I mean really, who knows how much of my mail has been delivered to the Bermuda mail triangle that is the house on Dobb’s Way? I recall one likely instance in particular, which cost me a late fee on a credit card and a huge headache to boot. On top of that, it took 4 phone calls and my insistence to speak with a manager to stop the DHL deliveries - more time than I like to spend correcting an error that really doesn't severely impact my life, and it irritated me that said neighbor NEVER contacted DHL about the problem. Of course most of these errors were facilitated by the mailman and other delivery men, etc rather than my neighbor, but he’s guilty of a far more loathsome thing – sheer laziness, as well as a lack of common courtesy!

So what do you think? Am I a terrible person? No matter what you think, if you utilize any services that do not require your personal signature, I suggest you occasionally confirm that the services are being carried out. After all, my neighbor might not realize his house isn't getting sprayed until he's overrun by roaches!