Is it good idea to allow the Post Office postman to deliver to a neighbour if you are out?
| Related: | Property, Home & Garden•Stationery & Postage•Postal Services |
Many other delivery companies allow this but the PO postman takes undelivered parcels back to the office to be collected or redelivered. There are worries that some people have neighbours that they cannot trust or do not know and currently there is no proposed opt-out clause to prevent your post being delivered there.
Responses (10)
I do think it should be an opt-in arrangement. There's no reason why we can't set things up online and give the posties a pda with the information on. The pda could also take electronic signatures on delivery too.
I am having a parcel delivered next week and they couldn't tell me which day it would be delivered so reluctantly they agreed that it could be put in my greenhouse in the back garden. All the plants I send away for are done this way and it has worked out great. If they can't give you a delivery date how can they expect you to stay in for day's on end until the delivery arrives. When I'm on holiday I have a solid box in the porch which can only be entered with a key so my neighbour (very trusty) opens the porch and puts all the mail and magazines in so no one knows I'm away. This also prevents the neighbour having to come into the house and set the alarm off. One delivery company actually put my parcel in the dustbin. I often take other people's parcels in as does my neighbour but they are a good lot of trusty people so I am very lucky.
I wouldn't mind at all having things delivered to my neighbours as they are trustworthy friends, but Royal Mail frequently wrongly deliver items that never see the light of day again.
Their 'Customer Service' website is a joke. Trying to find out how to actually send them a message reminds me somewhat of the Hampton Court Maze. My last complaint took four weeks to answer and all I got was platitudes.
I used to work as a Customer Relations Manager and I would have been sacked if my department had been so laughably inefficient.
Feel better now!
Agree with you Feline! We too have great neighbours who often take parcels if we are out. As for customer relations at the Royal Mail - I got so angry with them recently that I used what I consider to be a very mild expletive at which point the person concerned said that they would not deal with an abusive customer and put the phone down on me! I was beside myself with anger and asked a friend sitting next to me whether they though I had been rude and they said certainly not - just firm! Grrrr.
Good grief, Sidesalad, I can't imagine you ever being 'abusive'! Sounds more like 'customer abuse' to me!
We've had the same posty for years, we're on first name terms, xmas cards, postcards from holidays etc. If we're not in he will leave parcels in a shed or wherever is handy. As we're rather 'in the sticks' the doors are seldom locked so he'll often put things in the kitchen. I don't know what the official line is with Royal Mail but our posty is great and saves us a lot of hassle and expense of driving to the sorting office to collect things. Delivery companies and couriers never seem to give a time for deliveries, just a day, so that can be frustrating waiting in from 7am till 7pm - but most of them have been to us fairly often and even they will leave things in the kitchen/shed ..... probably so they don't have to come all this way again to redeliver! :)
Apparently the postman is not supposed to leave items that won't fit through the letterbox if you are not there to take it in. Like you Wendiew, we have a great postie who knows where to leave things safely when we are out although he shouldn't do so. It's a nuisnce to have to go to the post office to collect as it is some miles away from us through busy traffic if in the rush hour.
Re delivery companies, I have used one several times that sends a text first thing in the morning with the delivery time within 1 hour. It saves so much time to know when they will arrive.
I've had deliveries too from that delivery company that texts...so helpful...can't see why they don't all do that!
Like several of you here, I have trustworthy neighbours, and we all take parcels in for each other. I do, however, think the PO really does need to include either an 'opt in' or an 'opt out' as not everyone has trustworthy neighbours.
Yes we're a pretty good lot around here too and often take in mail and white van delivery goods for each other.
I can imagine though if anyone had an unsavoury neighbour that it would be embarrassing or annoying to have to go round and collect it.
Our postie of fifteen years is a good old boy but a bit of a nosey parker and loves to know what he's delivering especially in any small packages,lol, we usually say it's just something and nothing.
How intriguing Lillie - small packages!!!!! I won't ask what they are (but dying to know)!! - My kind postman hangs packages on the front door handle (hidden by the long drive) but if anyone wanted to who came to the front door could quite nicely help themselves. Usually these are medium parcels but only of interest to certain people!!!
Don't worry Sabre, nothing from Columbia, normally it's something from my make up club or a paperback for hubby, so nothing much really.
Now I'm intrigued by your 'medium parcels' that are 'only of interest to certain people', Sabre! Please spill the beans, or I might have to check out every long drive I can find... ;-)
Yes come on Sabre, we're dying to know, can it be worn, can it be imbibed, is it smelly ??????
This is totally out of order Wendiew. I would be annoyed too as it's such a waste of a day hanging around. The company I ordered my parcel from kept their promise and actually delivered a day early and we were in so that was very good.
Keep smiling, I'm sure it will come tomorrow - don't tear hair out it's not worth it.
Sorry all, but I am about to launch into a raving raging rant - be warned.
(and I'm ranting here cos it's as good a place as any).
I ordered a box of stuff last Friday, 24 hour delivery they said - by courier. Courier is UKMAIL, REMEMBER THAT NAME!! Friday afternoon I got an email from UKMAIL saying my delivery will be delivered Monday. Gosh, I thought, How efficient .. email and everything!!
Monday I waited, and waited, and waited. 6pm came and went and I checked yet again on their tracking thingy ... 'Out for delivery' it said. At 10pm it changed to 'Delayed' ... like I hadn't figured that one out for myself.
Today is Tuesday. The tracking thingy still says 'Delayed', I have rung UKMAIL and they say it's on the van again, and yesterday the driver ran out of hours, but he SHOULDN'T run out of hours today and my box SHOULD be here by 6pm.
Well, he's pushing his luck, because it's now 5.30pm and not a damned peep. TWO days waiting and waiting ....... I'm going dimented (more so than usual) with all the waiting. How hard can it be to phone or email or anything to let me know if or when the flippin' thing is ever coming?!?!?
AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggh.
UKMAIL. Remember and AVOID !!!!!!!!!!!
Update at 6.25pm The driver is out of hours again, so it isn't coming. I had to ring them to find this out. Pathetic, useless, hopeless waste of space company. They don't deserve to stay in business. Looks like another day in waiting tomorrow. Someone cheer me up with a funny discussion PLEASE. Is Omendata back on UK soil yet? Surely he can come up with an amusing discussion of his Slovakian exploits?!?!?
This isn't funny but I thought these courier drivers were paid according to their delivery results. So to read that they had run out of hours appears a pathetic excuse. I am noticing a company called YODEL, where they will deliver when you want and not when they deem it appropriate.
So many company's are looking to reduce their overheads and sadly a number of mailorder companies are opting for delivery companies that promise much and deliver little.
Nightmare, Wendie, the rant is fully justified!
Just had a look at Yodel, Parchester, sounds good!
How annoying is that Wendi, waiting and waiting oh I too start to implode with frustration.
Yes we could do with a good dose of Omendata where is he?????
Hi Wendiew has your package arrived yet?
Well Sabre, thank you for asking and for caring (unlike UKMail might I add).
I rang them again this morning, several times and was eventually informed that the parcel would be delivered by lunchtime. It wasn't. I phoned them at 2pm and again at 3pm to ask where the hell it was. They said it'd be with me 'within the hour'. Finally at 4.15 the van and driver and package arrived. Oh the joy of de-stressing!! I have been offered a free delivery for my next order as well as an upgrade to 'guaranteed delivery by 10.30am' - well, I have no faith in that guarantee as they took 3 days to deliver a next-day package, but the free delivery might be worth having, IF I don't have to be here to receive it and the driver will leave it in the shed without being signed for. My advice to all is don't use UKMail, just not worth the grief. I've aged several years this week :(
Glad it to hear it finally arrived, Wendie...I would say better late than never, but you'd probably hit me! ;-)
If the postman is to deliver your goods to another address, then the very least they should do, is post a card through your door informing you of where the package has been left.
I have had parcels delivered to neighbours but until they knocked on my door, I was totally unaware of a delivery. As for my treasured money.co.uk mug, that was left outside of my front door for all to see and, if so inclined, take!!
Thank goodness, no one took it then, Parchester, it will be worth a fortune one day! ;-)
Oh I'd better stop using mine then Fruity.
In fact I had to rescue it the other day from the dishwasher as Hubby inadvertently placed in there, ooh it was a close thing....
How dare he, Lillie! Doesn't he realise how special it is?! And how few exist on the planet?! :-)
He does now Fruity, I doubt he'll do it again as his 'Biggin Hill' plate might find it's way in there.
That's the way, Lillie, fight fire with fire! ;-)
Is 'Biggin Hill' rhyming slang? Swill!
Lol, no Parchester, it's Hubby's limited edition plate featuring the last, sad day that RAF Biggin Hill ceased being an active RAF station owing to cut backs etc. during the 90's.
If my new found heirloom should end up in there again I've said that his will be scrubbed with a Brillo pad:)
Do they still make Brillo's, I wonder?
Yes, they do, Lillie, I would suggest you invest in these special 'Hotel' sized ones for that 'Biggin Hill' plate...
http://www.alexshanks.com/index.php?option=shop&page=shop.product_details&product_id=617&l=uk&utm_source=google&utm_medium=base
Ah thanks Fruity, I shall get a pack in and get armed up as a deterrent.
Just hope he doesn't call me a scrubber in the aftermath.....
Lol, Lillie, he'd be a 'mug' to do that! (Sorry, rubbish joke...long day!) :-)
Oh dear, I've been putting mine in the dishwasher and it seems none the worse. I'm sure it would be more likely to come to grief if I dropped when washing by hand!
Depends if you have a good neighbour I guess is the answer.
So few people do these days though although my new neighbour is tops great couple couldnt do enough for me so I reciprocate and have done numerous little and big jobs for them - if only all neighbours could be so good - whats the problem with people these days - the rest of my neighbours are so lazy and selfish its just not true - my new neighbours are of course foreign not British so that perhaps explains it (SADLY).
Just took in a parcel for my neighbour from the postman signed for it, as it was recorded delivery cant see a problem with this myself as the delivery can be traced.
What a good neighbour you are Noddy,
Yes often deliveries these days have to be signed for and are traceable so that should avoid any discrepancies. All's well as long as the neighbours are in agreement and get along ok.
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Sounds expensive!
I don't know ... all those DHL types have them already!
Good idea, G-Man, unfortunately I suspect my postman can't read...judging by all the mail that's not mine that he puts through my letterbox, which I then have to deliver!
I'm the last house in the road...so I guess he just throws it in my letterbox rather than look for the correct address. :-(
That sucks!
Managed to catch him in the act a few days ago, G-Man, gave him a taste of the sharp side of my tongue! ;-)
Good for you, fruits. Sisters Rule, OK!
Hmmm sounds intriguing what does it taste like - the sharp side that is?
And did he enjoy it!!!
Bad man!!!!
Well, now, my dear Omen, I don't know what it tastes like...being the giver and not the receiver...you'd have to ask the postman! ;-)