Money Moral Dilemma: Should our neighbour pay us for taking in his parcels when he's out?

Ed264

One thing came straight to mind - what happens if you're on holiday for a week or more? As has been mentioned, he should consider arranging a safe storage area at his home.

Bigphil1474

You should do a Sheldon Cooper - produce your own form for the end receiver to complete for every parcel you take in for them. They'll probably get fed up of the extra admin.

Seriously, the etiquette round here is that you take in each others parcels now and then, leave them just inside the door so when the end receiver comes to collect their parcel it's on hand. None of this taking it round for them. The rare exception might be the old lady at no. 47 who you know has trouble walking. The only person my house is the alternative delivery place for , is my immediate neighbour, and they reciprocate. Anything else is taking the michael. 

onesixfive

Buy yourself a secure parcel drop box (google search), demo it to your neighbour - that will avoid your parcels being stuck in his house - and then tell him (firmly), why & that he must get one too as you can no longer accept his parcels.

[Deleted User]

Personally, I don’t think charging him is the way forward. He is even less likely to come over to collect the parcels if he knows he will be charged when he gets to you. Besides that, you are not likely to come to an agreement over exactly how much he pays you for each item (be it large or small), the method of payment, or when he will pay you. He is clearly unreliable and would no doubt say he hasn’t got cash on him and will pay you “later”. Do you then refuse to give him the parcel(s) that day? You’d then need to factor in a storage charge as well and the whole thing becomes far too messy and complicated! You also mention that he takes in parcels for you (although you collect these yourselves); therefore you would likely be stuck with paying him too! 

Basically, even if your neighbour does agree to pay you, it sounds as though you would rather not continue with the arrangement. It is understandably inconvenient. Just explain to him that you cannot continue delivering his parcels and that if he hasn’t collected the next one(s) within, say, 48 hours, you will refuse any future parcels on his behalf. Also explain this process will operate on a rolling basis - ie each time he fails to collect from you, you will refuse his next delivery.

Hope this helps.

Nannabess

Find yourself a “designation safe place” for your own parcels and let all companies you buy from know this. 

Then stop accepting his parcels. If he asks why, explain. 

Or just go and have this conversation with him. You can joke that you feel like an employee thus a wage would be nice.

Lowry1986

Clearly you don't want to fall out with your neighbour and you both help each other by taking in parcels. Just irritating that he expects you to do all the fetching and carrying.  It's simple really, just message him to collect his parcels and patiently but firmly wait for him to do that.  Inconvenient for a time, but he will soon get the message. No collect no parcels!

Pollycat

Marcon said:

Our neighbour runs a business buying and selling online. He gets deliveries every day and when he's out, we take them in. Yet he never comes and picks them up, so I always end up taking them over. When we're out, he takes in parcels for us, but never drops them round. The last delivery for him was four big parcels that sat by our door all weekend, waiting for me to take them over. Should I tell him that if he wants to keep using our house as a delivery depot for his business, he's going to have to pay us?

Have you actually spoken to him and explained how you feel? I suspect not. You certainly need to make it clear that he has to come and pick up his parcels from you, rather than reinforcing his behaviour by giving in every time and taking the parcels to him. 

Most 'dilemmas' wouldn't be dilemmas if people actually talked to each other.

I would tell him that you expect him to come and collect his parcels as soon as he gets home.
If he doesn't like that, stop taking the parcels in.

I took a large parcel in for someone who lived over the road.
I put a note through her door asking her to come and collect it as soon as she got home.
It sat by our front door even though she was in and out of her house all weekend.
She eventually came to collect it after I put a reminder through her door.
When she collected it, I told her that I wouldn't be taking another parcel in for her.

northwest1965

Be a great neighbour and take them in. If there are lots, tell him, to come round and collect so you don't need to keep checking if he is in. 

salvationsangel

I'd agree with the others who have said to stop taking the parcels in and speak to the couriers.

jedav

FlorayG said:

Don't take them round, just leave them until he collects

Agreed, although you'd need to have the space to store them.  In the short term that would be irritating for you.  Probably not a good idea to ask for payment as you don't know where that would lead.  Would your neighbour then expect payment for taking in your parcels?  Having had a boundary dispute with a neighbour, being at odds with someone in such close proximity can be a nightmare.  The neighbour might impose their own unilateral tariffs.

Or have a conversation.  Do the couriers leave notice of the location of the deliveries (so many couriers have online tracking, surely the neighbour must know)?  Set some parameters about what you are prepared to do to help out and what your expectations are.

Perhaps the neighbour could get a safe space for parcels to be left?