things delivered when I'm not in

chrisw99

I've started to notice recently that most things that will not fit through the letterbox are just being left somewhere at the front of my house. Occasionally hidden, with a note saying where, but mostly just left outside the front door in plain view.

Royal Mail are getting worse for this - almost anything I order from Amazon that will not fit through is left leaning against the front door with no note put through. It would be amazingly easy for a passer-by to just walk off with this.

Is this just sheer laziness, or a new policy of not to take things back to depots any more?

Another example - I ordered a bed headboard from Next online, it even asked for a mobile number to be contacted on by the courier. They never rung me, just left it outside the house last week.


My question though - who is responsible if something was to go missing? And how would I even know???

jockettuk

chrisw99 wrote:

I've started to notice recently that most things that will not fit through the letterbox are just being left somewhere at the front of my house. Occasionally hidden, with a note saying where, but mostly just left outside the front door in plain view.

Royal Mail are getting worse for this - almost anything I order from Amazon that will not fit through is left leaning against the front door with no note put through. It would be amazingly easy for a passer-by to just walk off with this.

Is this just sheer laziness, or a new policy of not to take things back to depots any more?

Another example - I ordered a bed headboard from Next online, it even asked for a mobile number to be contacted on by the courier. They never rung me, just left it outside the house last week.


My question though - who is responsible if something was to go missing? And how would I even know???

no doubt when you thought you hadnt received it you would contact the company.. this is when the fun starts as to whos fault it was..

ive had things thrown over a 6 foot fence and left for days on end when on holiday. contacted parcel force and told them that if the item was broken they would have to pay for it .. luckily it wasnt they full of apologies..

what i have done now is leave a note on my door saying if it wont go through my letterbox do not leave it outside to let burglars know im not in. Take it to my neighbours or take it back to the depot. please.. doesnt always work but does abt 8 times out of 10.

chrisw

On the other hand, I usually end up traipsing into the depot in town to discover it's one of the freebies off the Freebie board.

zacspeed_2

The courier firm (one of the biggest) I used to work for warned us that disciplinary action would be taken if we were caught leaving items at the request of a letter or note. Apparently, some poor delivery guy left a DVD player "around the back" as per the note pinned on the front door. A couple of days later, the supposed recipient of the DVD player phoned the depot, screaming & shouting, wanting to know where his purchase was. The courier explained that he had done as requested on the note, to which the bloke replied "What note?"
Unfortunately, there are some devious sods out there, spoiling it for everyone else

Dee123_2

Hmmm....about six months ago I had ordered a package from a catalogue company. About 3pm one day I was getting ready for work (I work evening shifts) and couldnt answer the doorbell. I went downstairs a few mins later and as I got to the bottom of the stairs, I was amazed to hear a key turning in the door and the door opening. Amazing as I live on my own and only one person has a spare key, who would always call before coming over. I was totally terrified and in a split second all sorts of thoughts went through my head - primarily that as I had moved into the house the previous year and it had previously been rented, maybe one of the previous tenants had taken to letting themselves in when I was out. Then I saw a mans outline through the door and thought I was going to be attacked. I was petrified of what was going to happen. Suddenly a package was thrown across my floor and the door closed again. When I eventually calmed down a little, my brain cleared enough to open the front door and there were my door keys. I had left them in the lock outside and the courier had decided to pretend he had been able to fit the package through the letterbox as he thought I was out. He has no idea how petrified I was, it took me hours to calm down - and it was difficult to communicate this to the cheery voice at customer services who said she would "pass my comments to the courier company".

jockettuk

zacspeed wrote:

The courier firm (one of the biggest) I used to work for warned us that disciplinary action would be taken if we were caught leaving items at the request of a letter or note. Apparently, some poor delivery guy left a DVD player "around the back" as per the note pinned on the front door. A couple of days later, the supposed recipient of the DVD player phoned the depot, screaming & shouting, wanting to know where his purchase was. The courier explained that he had done as requested on the note, to which the bloke replied "What note?"
Unfortunately, there are some devious sods out there, spoiling it for everyone else

oh yes i can agree thats why my note says leave with neighbours or take back to depot but do not leave outside.. I have great neighbours who i tell im going away etc and they look out for parcels being left..

vaisala

i have had the same thing with quite a lot of prcels, anyway enough was enough, i wrote to royalmail and complained they apolgised and said the depot resposible will be told the consequences of continuing doing this. we shall see shall we??

basill

I`m never in, it is possible with some delivery companies to request the the parcel is held at depot, you just get a card through the letter box.

B

CrazyIndianZA

Why don't you get stuff send to work ? We used to have loads of guys getting amazon type deliveries at work. I remember this one South American girl who had a huge box from John Lewis over at Christmas time. To be fair, it was not actually allowed but we had tacit permission on the basis that most of us worked 10-12 hour days anyway so it made sense to send stuff to work. if a signature is needed, in most cases, it seems that the courier company is quite happy for the post room to sign.

chrisw99

CrazyIndianZA wrote:

Why don't you get stuff send to work ? We used to have loads of guys getting amazon type deliveries at work. I remember this one South American girl who had a huge box from John Lewis over at Christmas time. To be fair, it was not actually allowed but we had tacit permission on the basis that most of us worked 10-12 hour days anyway so it made sense to send stuff to work. if a signature is needed, in most cases, it seems that the courier company is quite happy for the post room to sign.

I have changed to getting a lot of things delivered to work, but a lot of companies will only deliver to the registered credit card address.