Postcode Mix-up Resulted in Scaffolding Put Up at the Wrong House

April 12, 2012 - PRLog -- Well this is exactly what happened to Bob Sadler, a 63 year old coach driver who arrived home to find that scaffolding had been put up at his house after a postcode mix-up saw workers sent to the wrong address.

Bob Sadler was "absolutely livid" when he came home to Windmill Close, in Barkway, Hertfordshire.  The scaffolding had been intended to help fix taxi driver Artur Da Silva's leaky roof, in Windmill Close, in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire.

The problem occurred because both addresses share an SG8 postcode but live eight miles apart in separate counties, but there are two Windmill Closes.   Mr Sadler said this was just the latest in a series of errors. Over the past year, the Barkway residents have had take-aways, post, cookers, computers, a television, a mattress and a Christmas Turkey wrongly delivered.  

The men believe delivery drivers not entering the full postcode of their respective addresses into their sat-nav systems have caused the fault.  Mr Sadler said: "The trouble is the delivery people put the address into the sat-nav and the postcode gives them the right area - SG8 - and it brings them here.

To solve the problem once and for all they need to change the name of the street in Bassingbourn. Windmill Close, in Barkway, is made up of housing association semi-detached bungalows and two-bed semi-detached homes. The newly-built Windmill Close, in Bassingbourn, is also a housing association road with over 20 semi-detached homes.

The men checked with their boss but were told they were at the right location and carried on with their work.  Mr Sadler said: "I was absolutely livid when I came home and saw what had happened. I stood there with my arms folded.  It felt like I had been invaded."  He added: "This was the final straw. It has been going on for too long.

Workmen later went to the correct address, in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, where Mr Da Silva, 30, had taken the day off work to wait in for the scaffolders who never came on Monday. He said: "I waited in all day and they never came. We had a leak caused when the snow came and the tiles are going to be fixed.

Royal Mail said it was the responsibility of sat-nav providers and companies to update their records.  This mix up goes to show that postcodes (http://www.simply-postcode-lookup.com/geographic_data.htm) are more important than ever with today’s online marketplace, and one way to ensure you have your customers correct postcodes is to use a postcode software package.   Simply Postcode Lookup offers software packages for postcodes on the web (http://www.simply-postcode-lookup.com/for_web.htm).

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