Neighbours keep accepting my deliveries

amandada

I'll take stuff for neighbours, and they've done it for me.

HOWEVER I stopped taking them for 1 neighbour in particular-she works full time mon-fri - when she let slip that she knew it was ok to have things delivered as she knew I'd likely be about during the day!!!!!

Another neighbour who I took a lot of parcels for gave me a couple of bottles of wine at Christmas as thanks-I still take his parcels for him

jimmo

I am afraid that whether your neighbour has stolen your goods or whether the courier did something wrong in delivering to your neighbour really doesn’t help you that much.
It just strikes me that companies who send stuff to customers by courier just seem to accept that some percentage of their goods will get lost in the system and they allow for that in their costing.
You have complained and got what I see as the standard reply from your supplier. “Your item didn’t arrive. OK we’ll send you another.”
In many ways that’s fine but in your circumstances you wanted the air purifier for a specific purpose and by a specific date. It failed to arrive on time and that has cost you money. Sorry to be picky but when you said “it almost cost me £100” do you mean that you had to spend almost £100 buying an alternative or you were so worried that you thought about spending £100 but didn’t actually spend anything?
As your seller is quite happy to send you a replacement to my mind the seller is accepting that he has failed to live up to his side of the bargain by failing to complete delivery to you and he is happy to make good his failure by sending you a replacement.
Therefore if one of your neighbours accepted delivery and has kept the item then he is guilty of theft. However he has not stolen from you. He has stolen from your supplier or the courier company.
As irritating as it is to distrust your neighbours I don’t think there is anything you can do about it because you are not the victim of his theft.
Your problem is that your supplier has failed to deliver the goods you ordered within the timescale that you required delivery. Was any timescale specified or did you simply assume that the goods would come?
I just get the feeling that if you ordered the goods and no delivery date was specified then your supplier can still fulfil his part of the bargain by delivering the goods to you.
If your supplier has actually failed to deliver on time then at the very least you should have the right to refuse to accept the late delivery when it arrives and you may well have a case to seek compensation from him for the additional cost of buying locally.
Don’t get hung up on what your neighbour may or may not have done. Concentrate on whether you can get justice from your supplier who seems to have let you down.

kentrel

jimmo wrote: »

Sorry to be picky but when you said “it almost cost me £100” do you mean that you had to spend almost £100 buying an alternative or you were so worried that you thought about spending £100 but didn’t actually spend anything?

Yeah, I badly need it for allergy purposes, and I'm tempted to just buy locally. I haven't yet though.

The buyer specified that it normally takes 3 working days, but to allow up to 14. I waited 14 before complaining. Its now been about 20, and even if they sent one out tomorrow it would still take several days to get here.

jimmo wrote: »

Therefore if one of your neighbours accepted delivery and has kept the item then he is guilty of theft. However he has not stolen from you. He has stolen from your supplier or the courier company.

Really? I always thought that once an item has been paid for and is en route its now your property, or maybe that only applies to Royal Mail.. I'm not sure

Thank you for your reply. I'll take it up with the supplier. I replied to an email they sent me tonight telling them I was glad they had investigated, but outraged that the courier would do that and will be following it up tomorrow.

IWasWondering...

Parcelforce don't leave a card to say your delivery has been left elsewhere.

missbargain

The answer to your both questions is no, it is not illegal.

I live in a small street where neighbours signing and picking up other neighbour's parcels all the time, and everyone really appreciates it, as most people work full time and it saves them the hassle of re-arraging the visit or picking it up themselves. However, they are mostly long term residents, so everyone knows each other, at least by appearance if not personally. When I pick up my nghbr's parcel, I myself put a little note through their letterbox telling them that their parcel is with me, just in case. They do the same for me.

Also, depending on the courier, sometimes they will ask neighbours to pick up someone else's parcel, sometimes not, so it is very much up to the person delivering that day and perhaps their company's policy. But it is not uncommon, and certainly not illegal, to give the parcel to the neighbour, as long as it is signed for.

One of the things you can do in future when you know you are expecting a parcel is to leave a note stuck on your door with clear instructions for delivery people NOT to leave the parcel at neighbours. I usually the other way around : I ask them to leave it at such and such neighbour (one I know is most likely to be at home, eg a pensioner), and they follow the instructions. Of course, I will have previously asked the neighbour for permission to do so, all of them are more than happy to take it. But in my street it often happens that neighbours, when they see that the coureer can't deliver, approach the coureer himself and sign for the parcel. I have never ever lost the parcel this way, but again, I know all my neighbours and they are all super honest, which is lucky.

Often, a coureer company's can tell you, if you call them, what day they are likely to deliver your parcel, so on that day perhaps stick a note on your door for the coureer not to hand in your parcel to anyone else.

kentrel

I've just received the following email from the supplier. I have never known any supplier to have this policy. Its bizarre. It basically demands that whenever I order from them I have to explicitly state "Please don't leave my package with someone who I don't know, who didn't pay for it, and doesn't live at my address, thanks!".

I need advice on how to respond to them about this.

The courier company are instructed by us to leave with a direct neighbour if you are not in.
This is because the item would be taken back to your local depot and if not picked up the next day returned to us.
You would then have to pay for the item to be redelivered.
If you can't find out which neighbour has your item please contact me and i will sort it for you Regards

Edit: In respose to jimmo here's a quote from their Terms and Conditions

You will own the goods once we have received your payment in full. We will issue you with an electronic invoice once we have dispatched the goods to you.

So, any theft on my neighbour's part is a theft from me, not from them. Should I quote this in my response to them?

geordie_joe

missbargain wrote: »

One of the things you can do in future when you know you are expecting a parcel is to leave a note stuck on your door with clear instructions for delivery people NOT to leave the parcel at neighbours.

Didn't work for me last week. I ws expecting a parcel via parcelforce on Friday. The ebay seller emailed me on Thursday to say it was on it's way, and gave the package number. I range parcelforce on Thursday afternoon and they agreed they would deliver it to my local post office, as I would be at work.

I also left a large note on my door just in case the delivery man didn't know about delivering it to the post office.

When I got home there was a card saying the parcel was with a neighbour 5 doors down. The delivery man had ignored the sticker on it saying to redirect to the post office, ignored the large note on the door and knocked on 5 doors looking for someone to take it in!

HalfPint

kentrel wrote: »

I always thought that once an item has been paid for and is en route its now your property, or maybe that only applies to Royal Mail.. I'm not sure
.

Slightly off topic I know but where royal mail is concerned once a letter package parcel etc has been put through the postbox/post office it is effectively Royal Mail Property hence the reason why your postie will not (or should not) remove an incorrectly posted item from the post box and give it back to you.

I believe the correct procedure is to leave a card and take it back to the depot. It is then up to you to call them and arrange collection/redelivery. A second delivery attempt is usually made before returning the parcel to the sender. Before anyone shouts at me YES I know that this it not what happens in reality.

I think therefore that your issue should be with the courier company, not your neighbour or the supplier. As to whether how successful you would be in any complaint, i;ve no idea.

Good luck.

missbargain

It sounds like you got a really ingonrant, "couldn't care less" person, unfortunatelly. I find that my instructions mostly get followed, but, like with everything, it all depends on the person delivering. As someone mentioned, they are often poorly paid, and couldn't be bothered with anything that takes the slightest effort on their part.

It would be helpful if there was some kind of rule such as "only leave at neighbours if instructed to do so", but there is not. I noticed that it is totally discretionary: some coureers I know ring several doors to atempt to deliver the parcel, but some never do and just drive off. I had one that only waited 5 seconds for me to answer the doorbell, I had to chase him down the street to get my parcel, he almost drove off with it!

I am afraid that this is one of those grey areas, there are no strict regulations in place (or I am not aware of them). And ironically, some people would expect coureers to attempt neighbour delivery (like myself), but some will not, so it is also the case of "you can't please everyone". I actually get really p....ed off when they don't try my neighbour, as I have to rearrange the delivery, of which I often get just one attempt (and sometimes they don't deliver on weekends), or I have to go to some God forbidden place to pick it up.

I do agree though, that on every order, there should be a space for a customer to leave delivery instructions which would be followed by the driver. But this is not always the case, I don't know why .

geordie_joe

HalfPint wrote: »

I think therefore that your issue should be with the courier company, not your neighbour or the supplier. As to whether how successful you would be in any complaint, i;ve no idea.

Good luck.

The issue is with the supplier not the courier. The OP has no contract with the courier and the courier would be within it's rights not to talk to the OP.

The contract was with the supplier to deliver the goods. The supplier sub-contracted the delivery to the courier. The OP should go to the supplier as it is him who has the contract with the courier.