Taking in neighbours parcels

I'm very slow and have to use a rollator round the house so by the time I get to the door the delivery driver has gone.

I recently ordered an item (quite expensive) for my daughter's birthday, to be delivered to her address via Evri. I rang her to warn her to expect it and she said "oh, one of the neighbours will take it if I'm not in". However, I had been given a code number that had to be quoted to the driver before s/he was allowed to leave the parcel so she would have had to give all her neighbours this code, not knowing which one might be at home. Apparently that was not allowed - she would have had to specify a particular neighbour which was totally impossible. So she had to work from home that day, and it all worked out okay - but it was a worry. Maybe Evri are introducing this system to avoid parcels going missing, but it could certainly cause practical problems.

I agree with the poster re kids' Christmas presents - we had a neighbour who used us as a storage centre. Kids have left home now, but it still grates on me.

We would always take in parcels for both our neighbours, put out/bring in Bins etc & they would do the same for us. We did the same when our new neighbours moved in, but they did not reciprocate, so we stopped.

Yes…very disobliging!

I don’t have any problems taking in my neighbors parcels. It’s called being a good neighbor. Your post shouldn’t be about your neighbors it should be about your delivery woman you can’t blame your neighbors for your bad experience

I always ask the delivery driver to notify my neighbour that I have their parcel. They always come and collect it.

As BigBertha says, most communities will do the right thing and take in parcels. However, as plenty have said, there is a sad sunset of people, thoughtless and/or selfish, who expect you to become a courier too.

These days this topic is made more complex because not all couriers do leave a card, though the various online delivery monitors tend to say that it's been delivered . . .somewhere!

Our village has a steady stream of people appealing for help to locate their parcel -- showing a plaintive picture of the bottom of somebody's front door with a parcel placed there. Or the similar "where does Mrs Blodgit live, I've got her parcel which was addressed here, but she doesn't live here" ones?!

Couriers are expected to deliver about a million a day, so will leave things somewhere, anywhere, take one of those daft pictures (WHAT USE is the picture of the bottom of a door -- sometimes with a pair of feet in shot??) - and whizz off in a few seconds. We've caught RM Parcels putting a 'not in' card through the door when they didn't ring and we were both in!

Some weeks back, a large item was left by the village hall door, a roll of material (over £100 apparently). We took it home, told the vendor that the process had gone wrong, the postcode was correct for the village hall, but the rest of the address was somewhere 10 miles away, no such roads in the village (the label postcode was one character out). They arranged to get it collected, I even heard from the courier firm they selected to do that (not the original one, who'd just dumped it despite most of the address being all wrong). The collection never happened, and a couple of days later a further (replacement) item turned up at the Hall (!!), this time taken in by the hirer that day. Exactly the same incorrect label. About 2 weeks later a van did turn up to collect two rolls of material, though I came within a whisker of selling them! (as compensation for half a dozen phone calls and about 20 emails!).

Aaaarggghhh- not "sad suNset" --- "suBset"!!!

I rather like 'a sad sunset' as a collective noun for un-neighbourly people DrWatson!

My post code spreads over a mile area. I am at the top of the list alphabetically so some delivery drivers come to my house and leave parcels on the doorstep. One neighbour had to get in her car and drive about a mile to collect her parcel.
Parcel Force will not deliver to our house. The delivery driver leaves the parcel at a local post office 2 miles away for collection and sends a card second class to tell us where our parcel is. The post office owner goes out to deliver parcels instead.
Delivery companies should go over to "What3words" or update their sat navs.

Its same here- new built homes and seemingly one certain courier(DPD) have been only going to one or 2 addresses at most and dumping other folks parcels with them when theyve given them theirs- i thought it was just the end ones as theirs were only numbers popping up on a search- but no- the lazy blighter took one of ours to one further in and had to pass our house to get to theirs! So it made no sense!- my sons parcel went missing and he was told courier left it& went back for it- not sure if that was true or not- as he never dropped it here- but after son complained to retailer item turned up after a few days mysteriously with a different driver!- i wish couriers wouldnt drop them with neighbours as ‐1.i dont like to pester them or put them to the bother & 2- we are all new here so no idea wether these neighbours are trustworthy or which are or arent(some arent as much as others i think) plus i really didnt want our names bandied about the entire neighbourhood- who knows what might happen?(once moved from somewhere and few months later it turns out next tenant had took out a catalogue in my name & run up a huge bill- i had to supply info from landlord& council tax etc to prove exactly when i had moved so they knew it wasnt me!) So i dont fancy that happening again.

We live 300 yards from our nearest neighbours and one day a delivery arrived and the driver dumped it in the driveway of a cluster of houses at the bottom of our hill. Not notifying anyone. The particular neighbour whose drive it was left in spotted our address on it and drove up the hill to inform my husband. We only know two of the neighbours living at the bottom of the hill.
I looked out of the window to see my husband getting into an car with an unknown lady driver and disappear down the road. He was gone for sometime before I heard puffing and panting as he lugged a full sized ladder up the hill ! We don’t usually get other folks delivery’s or visa versa thank goodness.

When my daughter was a student she lived in a fairly transient area, with just a few permanent residents. I sent her several parcels that ended up delivered to a particular neighbour who denied all knowledge of them. I tried to time them to arrive on Saturdays so she could be in, but it doesn't always work out like that. It turned out that the neighbour was well-known by the students as being a thief, who had taken in parcels for everyone who had lived in the street for years, and never admitting it. When she moved out, my daughter left a note for the girl who took over, warning her. I don't know what she could have done though - you can use RM to deliver on a Saturday, but a lot of retailers don't offer a choice of deliverers and just give a vague idea of times.

Last week i told Royal mail just to REDELIVER my parcel next day instead as i wasnt going to be in- did they take notice of that?- No they did not and left it with neighbour just so they wouldnt have to trail back next day!- i was mortified as the same neighbour had already been given 2 parcels for me before we even moved in! (Not my fault) and we were out most of day as i knew we would be- so poor woman must have been thinking i was expecting her to bring it to me all day!

I actually ask for my LANDSEND parcels to be put over the side gate as they well wrapped in plastic and soft clothes

It comes down to you and whether or not you feel doing a favour for your neighbours is how you want to live
If you want to live in splendid isolation, that’s fine. Alternatively if mutual help for and fro your neighbours is your attitude. Then equally fine.
I just think back to occasions when my neighbours went above and beyond on my and Paw’s behalf ( neighbours on both sides offering beds for the night for family members the night he died for instance) and am hugely grateful that I have lovely neighbours!

What's the point of asking if we want them REDELIVERED on a certain day if we need to for the actual driver to totally ignore that and just do what they feel like, as they cant be bothered to come back another day.

I take in parcels and my neighbours reciprocate. I did once have to take an uncollected one because the dog had chewed up the delivery note. I guess the recipient could have knocked on every door to find her parcel but once in four years isn’t a big deal. The previous owner of our house wouldn’t take in parcels so we got brownie points from our new neighbours when we moved in.

I take in parcels for some neighbours but not others
If you know that your not going to be in when your ordering have it delivered to a lock up in a shop and pick it up on the way home.

We have lived next door to our neighbours for over 30 years and they have both retired now, like we have, but they only speak to us when THEY feel like doing so, in fact, female neighbour walks around outside with phone to ear, so she's not spoken to..... parcels are left with us, cards are put through their door to tell them, but they already know because they have asked for parcels to be redirected to US.
That really annoys me because if she said before she goes out, that a parcel might be delivered to our address it wouldn't be so bad, and we could tell her if we would be in,or not, but she just presumes that we will take in her parcels.
And as it's coming up to Christmas it's probably going to be a few times a week. I just don't like being taken for granted !

I live in a condo complex where some of our front doors are close together. We always look out for each others packages. We text each other as soon as we notice a delivery at a door.

Trying to keep one step ahead of the porch pirates!

After living next door to the neighbour from hell - I very happily take in parcels for my nice neighbour .
I water her plants in the summer .
I replant the pots as well .
I've tidied and replanted her back garden .
Recently , we cut a tree down .
I've swept up her drive if she's entertaining .
I've cleaned maggots out of her food bin .
She's take in my parcels .
Put my bins out and back in again . Collected my prescriptions . Shopped for me ...
We sometimes go out to the cinema , for tea or shopping .
I'm invited to all her social occasions .

Having lived next door to Mr Hitler for years - it's sheer bliss .
He spied on me .
Eavesdropped on private conversations in the garden .
Interrogated me .
Reported me to council for nothing .
Threatened me and finally tried to drag me into his house .

Royal Mail recently knocked our door with a parcel addressed to our son (who lives 5 miles away).

They had already tried to deliver correctly but there was no one in and as the postie was coming to our village he asked us if we would take it.

We were glad to receive such excellent service.

sweetcakes

I take in parcels for some neighbours but not others
If you know that your not going to be in when your ordering have it delivered to a lock up in a shop and pick it up on the way home.

You can do that if (a) you know when it is coming, and (b) have a car. The reliability of deliveries* is such that we really don't know when smaller items are going to arrive. Furniture etc is one thing, as they know you have to be in, but even then, I recently ordered a dining table and chairs, and specified a Friday delivery. They arrived in three separate parcels between Monday and Thursday! Luckily we were both in, but if we'd been working it would have been a different story.

My NDN is away on business a lot, and the nature of his business is that he gets quite a lot of parcels. It's no hardship for us to open the door to a deliverer now and then and drop them in the hallway until he gets back. Sometimes it's a few days, but usually he calls for it the next day, or if we see that he's in we take it round. If I needed a reciprocation for a small good deed it is that I know that when we are away he will take things for us.

*Having said that, it's not long ago that mail order catalogues asked customers to allow 28 days for delivery . It's hard to imagine that now, when we expect next day or sooner.

tattygran14

We used to take lots of parcels for next door, our doors are adjacent, small Victorian terrace. It became obvious that the son was listening behind their door, and not answering, we could hear his feet! (Supposed to be at college)
We stopped taking them, and his mother came and complained that we'd stopped, saying we know you have because 'George heard you tell the courier.'

Good grief! The sense of entitlement of some people is astonishing!

I hope you told the mother to tell George to open the door and take in their own parcels in future!