Parcel deliveries

Is it possible that you could have parcels delivered to a pick up point?
Or if you lived in my close my porch is the pick up point 😊

In your situation OP I would opt for using a pickup point rather than risk deliveries being stolen.
As for Amazon, more often I can actually track my delivery, even to the number of drops away from me. Can you do that?
Amazon don’t seem to be the problem here though, it’s more DPD, Evri, that leave packages in silly places…….like in my shed (I don’t have a shed on the front of my property and they cannot access the back) . What they actually did was leave the package on an outside windowsill in full view of anyone walking up my driveway.
However, my main grievance is the speed that they drive along our very narrow road where houses are obscured by high hedges and shrubbery. Bloody idiots springs to mind!!

Its a difficult one.
Which is worse - would you prefer to have to trek into town, sometimes not your nearest town, to collect your parcel from a pick-up point?
My friends in Australia have a lockable box by their gate with a rather complicated opening to take large(ish) parcels. But even that isn't foolproof because with a bit of determination you could prise the top off and take the contents.

I have just the same problem Sadgrandma. However, I have a parcel box by my garage and a note on the front door indicating same (I also indicate on the order form my ‘safe place’) but some delivery drivers choose to ring the bell, abandon the parcel on the pavement and run. This happened yesterday. Luckily on this occasion I was home. I answered the door within seconds of the bell ringing in time to see driver jumping into the van - parcel chucked on the ground. I had an expensive item stolen from the pavement in January (I hope the offender likes skiing!) The company luckily sent a replacement after I complained about their delivery ‘arrangements’. I know drivers are expected to fulfil deliveries in a certain time, but not when it’s at our expense. Grrrrgh. 😡

My latest is Evri - As ever (not Meghan!). This time on 3 separate occasions I have had parcels put in a parcel box. The last photo proof of delivery shows the previous parcels underneath. That’s great you might think, a safe place. Except I don’t have a parcel box and I have no idea whose parcel box it is! It’s either a dishonest person or more likely the owners are away.
Evri say they will investigate but to put in a claim to the seller.

We had a delivery early evening yesterday. Plain white van and the delivery guy looked like he came from Eritrea and spoke no English at all. I thanked him but he didn’t reply just ran to the van.

We get a lot of parcels left in wheelie bins or the wrong doorstep according to our local FB page.

This is why I have stopped buying things on-line. I have found 3 parcels in my garden which were intended for my next-door neighbour. The driver just throws them over the wall and they land in my garden, not next-door. Sometimes it's possible to have parcels delivered to a shop but if it's a large, heavy item, this might not be convenient.
The best thing would be if someone designed a secure bin which could be placed outside for parcels to be left in.

Medication in particular should never be left anywhere. It is supposed to be handed to a person to prevent anyone else getting their hands on it, especially children or even animals.

mum2three

This is why I have stopped buying things on-line. I have found 3 parcels in my garden which were intended for my next-door neighbour. The driver just throws them over the wall and they land in my garden, not next-door. Sometimes it's possible to have parcels delivered to a shop but if it's a large, heavy item, this might not be convenient.
The best thing would be if someone designed a secure bin which could be placed outside for parcels to be left in.

There are plenty of this type of box, not cheap but practical

A few months ago, I had a parcel delivered. It was OK for a small/medium-sized padded envelope and to be able to go through my letterbox. I'd ordered special delivery, and within 24 hours of the order, and paying a forfune for the item and extra charges!

I recieved an email saying it had been delivered and also a card through the letterbox, but the parcel wasn't through MY letterbox!

I checked my order to make sure I'd got my name, address and postcode right thinking I might have made a mistake, and it was all correct.

My flat is not the ground floor but the next one up and the front door is a huge black one with the house number and street name clearly displayed.

I made a few enquiries with a couple of neighbours who said it hadn't been delivered to them so I was totally confused.

The next morning about 5am as I was just leaving for work my next door neighbour, a builder who was also on his way out, handed me my package! It was delivered to his house the previous morning, totally different number and one single green door with his number and street address clearly showing! He didn't arrive home until about 9pm when he saw it on his indoor mat.

I thanked him for being so honest! We often end up taking each others parcels becauuse some delivery drivers can't be bothered to drop it at the actual address and seem to be illiterate so they can't read the address and can't work out the details of ''house 1, house 2'' etc. and also colourblind because they're unable tell the difference between a huge black door and a small green one!

I wouldn't have minded so much but my parcel was medical and I needed it with those first 24 hours!

I emailed the company and gave them a hell of a mouthful! They emailed back all blaming each other!

TheWeirdoAgain60

A few months ago, I had a parcel delivered. It was OK for a small/medium-sized padded envelope and to be able to go through my letterbox. I'd ordered special delivery, and within 24 hours of the order, and paying a forfune for the item and extra charges!

I recieved an email saying it had been delivered and also a card through the letterbox, but the parcel wasn't through MY letterbox!

I checked my order to make sure I'd got my name, address and postcode right thinking I might have made a mistake, and it was all correct.

My flat is not the ground floor but the next one up and the front door is a huge black one with the house number and street name clearly displayed.

I made a few enquiries with a couple of neighbours who said it hadn't been delivered to them so I was totally confused.

The next morning about 5am as I was just leaving for work my next door neighbour, a builder who was also on his way out, handed me my package! It was delivered to his house the previous morning, totally different number and one single green door with his number and street address clearly showing! He didn't arrive home until about 9pm when he saw it on his indoor mat.

I thanked him for being so honest! We often end up taking each others parcels becauuse some delivery drivers can't be bothered to drop it at the actual address and seem to be illiterate so they can't read the address and can't work out the details of ''house 1, house 2'' etc. and also colourblind because they're unable tell the difference between a huge black door and a small green one!

I wouldn't have minded so much but my parcel was medical and I needed it with those first 24 hours!

I emailed the company and gave them a hell of a mouthful! They emailed back all blaming each other!

There we go! It’s because many of them cannot read, write or speak English. It’s like “guess where my parcel is” on our FB Page lately.

Photos of wheelie bins containing parcels but not at the correct address, hedges with parcels thrown in them, porches with parcels etc

It drives me mad. I do understand that drives have terrible T&Cs but these days people get a lot of things delivered, and the least the drivers could do is ring the bell.

The problem for me is that we are away a lot, If I could, I would order things to arrive when I knew someone would be in, but that's not always possible to specify a guaranteed date of delivery, so things arrive as and when - sometimes even before the website suggests. I ask for things to be left at the back of the house, but that is less convenient for the drivers, so they often leave them on the front doorstep in all weathers.

When we are here I sit in a room at the front of the house next to the door, and we have a loud doorbell, yet I've often waited all day for a delivery only to find a card or get a email saying nobody was in - they haven't tried the bell. Almost worse is when Amazon say the item was handed to resident, when I've been the only one in and don't have it. This must happen a lot, as their customer service bot always says to leave it for a while as drivers often scan to say things are delivered ahead of time. It's exasperating.

I don't drive, and the nearest collection point is too far to make collection of a heavy item convenient - and anyway, if I pay for delivery I would like things to be delivered.

I am considering a lockable box, but am not sure where to put one, as I assume they need to be concreted in?

ExDancer

Its a difficult one.
Which is worse - would you prefer to have to trek into town, sometimes not your nearest town, to collect your parcel from a pick-up point?
My friends in Australia have a lockable box by their gate with a rather complicated opening to take large(ish) parcels. But even that isn't foolproof because with a bit of determination you could prise the top off and take the contents.

I was just going to suggest a delivery box too.

I'm guessing maybe they could manage to prize one open - but:
a. It would take time and effort to do that and, if it's that public a place they might not want to be seen stealing from you.
b. How would they know there was a package in there anyway? They're not likely to try and pry their way into one every day on the offchance there might be.

I believe I recall there's a selection of these boxes on Amazon for sale.

It was all a part of a list of reasons as to why I had a (lockable) porch erected round the front door of my house anyway - ie so they could leave deliveries for me in there (which the vast majority of them do and I catch up with any new ones that don't yet know there isn't a "1950s housewife" living in my house ready to do their bidding and take in my post and inform them there's only a "person" (ie me) living there and I don't stay in specially for deliveries.

The porch also serves other purposes - as a mini-greenhouse, as somewhere to leave wet/muddy clothes (this is West Wales - ie lots of rain/lots of mud). Worth it - as I'm used to lots of shops to choose from and easy walking distance away on routes I go along just "whilst I'm living my life". Hence I've had to buy loads of goods by post since moving here...

Primrose53

TheWeirdoAgain60

A few months ago, I had a parcel delivered. It was OK for a small/medium-sized padded envelope and to be able to go through my letterbox. I'd ordered special delivery, and within 24 hours of the order, and paying a forfune for the item and extra charges!

I recieved an email saying it had been delivered and also a card through the letterbox, but the parcel wasn't through MY letterbox!

I checked my order to make sure I'd got my name, address and postcode right thinking I might have made a mistake, and it was all correct.

My flat is not the ground floor but the next one up and the front door is a huge black one with the house number and street name clearly displayed.

I made a few enquiries with a couple of neighbours who said it hadn't been delivered to them so I was totally confused.

The next morning about 5am as I was just leaving for work my next door neighbour, a builder who was also on his way out, handed me my package! It was delivered to his house the previous morning, totally different number and one single green door with his number and street address clearly showing! He didn't arrive home until about 9pm when he saw it on his indoor mat.

I thanked him for being so honest! We often end up taking each others parcels becauuse some delivery drivers can't be bothered to drop it at the actual address and seem to be illiterate so they can't read the address and can't work out the details of ''house 1, house 2'' etc. and also colourblind because they're unable tell the difference between a huge black door and a small green one!

I wouldn't have minded so much but my parcel was medical and I needed it with those first 24 hours!

I emailed the company and gave them a hell of a mouthful! They emailed back all blaming each other!

There we go! It’s because many of them cannot read, write or speak English. It’s like “guess where my parcel is” on our FB Page lately.

Photos of wheelie bins containing parcels but not at the correct address, hedges with parcels thrown in them, porches with parcels etc

Why on earth do companies employ people who aren't at least reasonably fluent English speakers?!!!! Thankfully not a problem I have in this area - but I guess some parts of the country they take on staff who simply are not suitable for the job.

Though yep.....we do still frequently get people putting up posts on local FB pages saying "This is a photo of where my parcel got left - anyone?" and the parcel and owner often get reconciled. But that's a thing of itself - because local FB groups in some parts of the country function at the whim of the person who started them or did a takeover bid on them and people may/or may not actually be able to read an FB page they are, of course, supposed to be able to read (because the admin has had a personal hissy fit at them).

Amazon regularly just ring the doorbell, dump the parcel outside, and scoot off. However it’s not a problem here, since we’re at the back of a close, with hardly ever any random strangers passing.

It was the Royal Mail Click and Drop collection service I had an issue with recently. Having booked a collection, it never happened, and I had an email from them saying they were unable to collect, since the parcel was not in my specified ‘safe place’!

I had specified no safe place, a) because I knew I was going to be in, and b) because I don’t have one!
As I soon pointed out to RM.

I send a lot of bulky parcels to a charity via this service, and until then it had been utterly reliable. I knew it wouldn’t have been our usual lovely postman, who was on leave. I did eventually receive an apology from RM, saying they’d told the local office staff to be more careful in future.

Primrose53

We had a delivery early evening yesterday. Plain white van and the delivery guy looked like he came from Eritrea and spoke no English at all. I thanked him but he didn’t reply just ran to the van.

We get a lot of parcels left in wheelie bins or the wrong doorstep according to our local FB page.

Wow, that’s very specific! What do Eritreans look like compared to other nationalities?

Why on earth do companies employ people who aren’t at least reasonably fluent English speakers!?

Why indeed? Cheap? Not too fussy about references? Do they check if they have valid driving licence?

No idea, I try not to order any more online than I need to, prefer spending a bit more and shopping local, if possible.

Calendargirl

^Why on earth do companies employ people who aren’t at least reasonably fluent English speakers!?^

Why indeed? Cheap? Not too fussy about references? Do they check if they have valid driving licence?

No idea, I try not to order any more online than I need to, prefer spending a bit more and shopping local, if possible.

They employ foreign drivers because they get rubbish pay and poor working conditions and British people won't do it.
Until recently we had a brilliant English Evri driver but he's given up because his pay per delivery had been halved

I have absolutely no problem with Amazon or Royal Mail deliveries, they are usually within the time frame indicated on their Apps. Amazon leave on the doorstep which is currently not seen from the road.

Evri and DPD are absolutely flipping useless. I have had a valuable parcel left on the roadside outside my office on a Saturday lunchtime, fortunately it didn’t rain and was still there on Monday morning. I have had texts with photo showing me things have been put through my home letterbox, unfortunately it wasn’t my letterbox. I could go on but you all know the stories…

We moan about the shops closing down and the death of the high street.
We moan about Amazon and their monopoly.
We moan about the delivery companies and their haphazard ways.
We moan about the immigrant labour that deliver the parcels and work in the warehouses.

We have created the monster.

I get my prescriptions delivered, and the delivery driver is brilliant, he told me if I wasn't in when he delivered it ( A.M.)
he would bring it back in the afternoon, but I 've had a lot of problems with Evri lately, parcels not being delivered at all..

I think the parcel delivery situation in this country is well out of control.

Companies will just leave parcels wherever they want to. I think putting the in bins is definitely bwyond the pail

Why isnt somebody taken these companies to task.

Also this may not be politically correct but l really think some of their staff
including food delivery people who cannot speak. word if English are illegal immigrants or asylum seekers working on the side.

I do not buy on line, just twice and I regretted it.

Delivery drivers work all hours for poor wages.
I said I’d never buy from the evil empire but our town centre is grim and Amazon deliver within hours. I’ve had no problems with drivers, whatever nationality they may be. If I’m not in my parcels are left in the greenhouse, back garden.