Another Engineering firm opening my mail 6

[fasboater]

OK, I ran into an issue and I didn’t pursue it any further. Maybe that was a bad decision but I don’t like confrontation.

I started consulting about a year ago.

Here is what happened.

At the very beginning I started cultivating a relationship with a local manufacturing company. I did a lot of work over a period of time just to get me into the system. About six months after I started working with them I final got to the stage were I started getting paid for projects. During this time I created a pretty good relationship with the group.

My first two checks were sent out, and I waited. A couple days after the checks were sent the company I am consulting for got a mysterious call. Someone called and said they had my checks and had accidentally opened up the envelopes and then proceeded to let them know they are an engineering firm and asked them what kind of work I was doing for them (never gave them their name. Well the person they talked to was in accounting and she didn’t know anything. She tried to forward them on to my contact and the gentleman said he would send my checks back and no he didn’t want to talk to him and hung up. At this time I had no idea who had the checks. the company I was working with called me and told me what they new and that if they don’t receive the checks back they would cancel them and reissue new ones.

They didn’t show, I waited a week and then went and talked to the post office. Come to find they were delivered to the wrong engineering firm. The shopping complex I am located in there is actually two engineering firms. So the company reissued new checks and were pretty freaked out with the whole situation. About 3 months later the old checks finally showed up. They showed up with the other consulting companies name and advertising brochures all included in the return mail.

I was pretty shocked with me being a new start up and this happened.

What should I have done? I did nothing!

Obviously the other engineering company really screwed up opening my mail. But then they didn’t return the mail for three months and also called my customer.

http://www.bowerseng.com

 

[zdas04]

I just read that people often make political statements on the "To" portion of their tax checks. It has apparently become popular to make tax payments out to "Thieving Bastards". Feels good, but the IRS has no problem cashing them.

David

 

[btrueblood]

"Accidentally opening someone's mail is one thing. Reading it and then trying to poach someone else's customers is something else. "

How would you know the mail was mis-addressed, having not checked the envelope, unless you read it?

So the real problem is that the guy put his brochure in the envelope, and paid 39 cents to mail it and some worthless paper back to the original sender. Look at it from his point of view: he's being a nice guy by cleaning up somebody else's mess. He could have done nothing and tossed the checks. He could have cashed them (knowingly or unknowingly) and made a bigger mess, and you could have waited a lot longer than 3 months before the mess got sorted and you got your money. Instead he stuck the equivalent of his "business card" in the envelope, as a way to say "this is who is sending your crap back to you"

But, if his intentions were as bad as you SUSPECT them to be - since when is soliciting customers an evil thing to do for a business?

Let's say the guy really did poach the job you wanted away from you - can you prove it, if the company didn't actually offer the job to you in the first place? And why would you want to work for a company that would play that kind of game, wouldn't you say good riddance to the both of them?

The only way to find out if the guy is a sleazeball is to meet him and talk to him, or wait for him to steal your job, then your truck, wife, and dog...at which point you are primed to write a country-western song.

 

[patprimmer]

Here, even if the recipient countersigns the back of the check with a pay to XXX the bank will not deposit it in any account except the recipient. The person signing the cheque over to you has to personally go to the bank with you with photo ID and sign it over at the counter in front of the teller. Thank god they will still use obvious alternate names, like my account is Patrick J Primmer. They still deposit cheques made to Pat Primmer or PJ Primmer or P Primmer, but that's about it.

Regards
Pat
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[Ron]

I have been in my present office for almost 4 years. The previous tenant moved 3 bldgs down in the same office park. We have the same mailperson. I got almost all of their mail for the 1st couple of months I was there. I took it to them on a weekly basis and asked them each time to make sure they had filed a change of address/forwarding form.

I spoke with the mailperson and told her to please not deliver any mail to my office that wasn't addressed to my firm, myself or my partner and gave her all the names.

The short of it...I still get their mail routinely.

As for your issue...the engineering firm acted unethically, but zdas04's solution is the proper way to handle it. If you really want to dig a little, take their brochures with you when you go in person to thank them for returning your checks, give the brochures back and tell them that you don't need them and you know they cost money to produce so you brought them back. They will get the message that their ploy did not work.

 

[btrueblood]

"the engineering firm acted unethically"

How? By doing what exactly, returning some mail?

"They called the company too" > from the OP...

Right - but were they just trying to confirm an address, or were they actively soliciting work? And were they soliciting for YOUR work? How can your know what their intent was in calling, unless somebody at the original (paying) company told you so, and isn't that a bigger breach of ethics?

 

[btrueblood]

Oh and I love this:

"I was pretty shocked with me being a new start up and this happened."

So the rules of business (and life in general) are different because you're a newbie? Yes, the money was important to the OP, and cash is tight when you're starting out. It's the same way for everybody starting a new business, and enough books have been written about the problem that you should've known what to expect, and planned to eat beans and rice for awhile. If cash was that tight, you probably could have arranged for a second check after the first 30 days had passed, by visiting the shop owner and pleading your case with the owner - he was there once too, and you could have played that card.

This is the real world. Mistakes happen. People here are awfully quick to assume evil intent over what amounts to (in any business I've ever worked in) a pretty ho-hum matter.

 

[KENAT]

How about, walk the 100 paces over their, introduce your self, say you understand there had been some mix up with the mail and give them you phone number/business card so they can call you next time to come pick it up as it's apparently difficult for them to come over to your side of the parking lot.

Also give them a wad of your flyers/business cards etc. for them to mail out with their out going mail.

Then see what happens.

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[CANPRO]

I'm not 100% sure about the laws, but I agree with btrueblood, he probably could have just done nothing and prolonged your problems. And looking at what you posted about his company, and looking at your website (excellent website by the way) it seems you two aren't offerening the same services, so him sending info to your client doesn't seem like that big of a deal. You say he has a gaming store where he runs his business...makes sense why it took 3 months for him to send the cheque, he was probably distracted by all of the flashing lights...anyway, you should probably just go have a friendly conversation with him, the longer you let 'what you think will happen' build up in your head the harder its going to be to talk to him. Goodluck!

 

[chemebabak]

Opening mail is not illegal. Stealing mail is.

For clarification, it is illegal to steal mail from another person's (entity's) mail box (18 USC 1702). It is not illegal, however, to open mail addressed to someone else delivered to you. It even is not illegal to open mail addressed to someone else, with that someone else's address on the envelope, accidentally delivered to you. The law concerns only the opening mail taken prior to legal delivery.

For example, it is not illegal to open mail addressed to John Smith at 22 Main St if it is delivered to Jim Jones at 22 Main St. It is not illegal to open mail addressed to John Smith at 22 Main St accidentally delivered to Jenny Smith at 322 Main St. It is illegal, however, for John Smith to open the mailbox and 122 Main St and take any mail, even if that mail is addressed to John Smith.

Ethics are different than law. It is not unethical to open someone else's mail legally delivered to you. It is not unethical to keep an envelope accidentally delivered to 25 Main St addressed to 22 Main St, but that is common courtesy. Folks do not have any ethical obligation to make an effort to mark an envelope "Return to Sender, Addressee does not live here", but it is common courtesy. It most certainly would be unethical to open the mail and try to cash those checks or steal private information, such as date of birth and social security number. Not only would that be unethical, it most definitely would be illegal under fraud and identity theft laws.