textutils.serialize() and unserialize

so im trying to send a couple of variables over rednet using textutils.serialize() and unserialize but its giving me an error every time it unserializes

"sender, message = rednet.receive()
mail = textutils.unserialize(message)

account = mail[1]
func = mail[2]
p1 = mail[3]
p2 = mail[4]
p3 = mail[5]"

any idea why?

What's the sending code look like? What does the error look like?

If it's throwing an attempt to index nil, then that would imply that whatever message is being received isn't a valid serialised table. You could try printing "message" to ensure it's what you think it should be.