What happens if I refuse delivery of a parcel from the royal mail?

I had a box/parcel trying to be delivered to me today. I know who it was from and didn't want to accept it. I told the postman to return it to sender. It had the senders name on the box. Will they definetly get this back? I'm hoping they will get the message this way.



Royal Mail UK have nothing on website that I can see. Thanks xWhat happens if I refuse delivery of a parcel from the royal mail?
Royal Mail is actually quite different to most postal services around the world in terms of the effort put into returning items and it is legally obliged to do so.



If there is a returns address, it will automatically be returned there.



If there is no visible external returns address it will be sent to the Belfast National Returns Office. They are one of the few offices that are authorised to open mail under tight security standards (the only other offices allowed to do this are offices that receive international mail, and certain staff are allowed to open mail for a customs inspection under supervision of Customs/Police Officers). At the Belfast office, they will examine the contents and try to determine the origin. This can be done by any details inside the item, and they will do a bit of detective work. If they still can't find the origin, they log the contents until someone puts in a complaint about lost mail, and they cross-check the database. If they match an item to its sender, they will send it back to them. The item will have a standard Royal Mail returns sticker and the reason given on the sticker will be "refused by addressee".





I hope this helps!

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