A solution to the scourge of couriers

Flack88 said:
UPS does this, used it to pick up my last OCUK delivery on my way home from work. Nice and simple and no messing about having to drive to the depot.
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My local convenience store is a UPS hub. I recently popped out 'for a bottle of milk' and stealthed a new CPU back in without her indoors knowing! :D
 
I've seen these popping up in a few places. Might have to give them a go, although I don't work Fridays and so normally just get things delivered there.
 
Ah, the joys of working from home.

... except when it's the wife getting deliveries multiple times a day and interrupting my workflow.

When it's stuff for me, I'm all "Yaaaaay!" *skip to the door*

More stuff for her? Gorilla rage down the hallway.
 
MadMossy said:
As a "delivery" driver myself, the number of times Ive had to leave a card because someone wasn't in at the specified time they were notified of up to 24 hours ago is staggering and it ****** me right off.

Why order something if your not going to be in to receive it.
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You may be surprised to hear that there is a whole stack of things that are more important than being in for a delivery. Going to work for one. I doubt I'm the only mug who has taken a day off work for a delivery that just didn't turn up.

You may also be surprised to hear that a specified time of 9am through 7pm just doesn't cut it. Sitting around at home for an entire day, unable to go out, in case by a minor miracle a delivery actually turns up and actually has your parcel, is just not a good plan. Life is too short.

I don't want to wait for you to turn up. You don't want to drive around looking for individual buildings with approximate addresses. This is madness. Just take it to a local business instead.
 
Pestilence said:
Ah, the joys of working from home.

... except when it's the wife getting deliveries multiple times a day and interrupting my workflow.

When it's stuff for me, I'm all "Yaaaaay!" *skip to the door*

More stuff for her? Gorilla rage down the hallway.
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Working from home doesn't help if they don't even bother to ring/knock :S

Wall of text:

Had one yesterday with FedEx - was in the front room and not doing anything particular so would have heard a ring at the door or knock for definite when I heard the letter box go - went out to find a "sorry we missed you" card. As the driver was still sitting in the van outside my drive writing something I went out to try and find out why he hadn't delivered the item (half thinking it wasn't on the van) he did everything possible to avoid me getting his attention but when he could no longer ignore me muttered something about "left it with <house number that doesn't even exist on my street>" and drove off. I then notice the number he said was hand written on the back of the card (with no other notation).

Mum happened to be walking down the road at the time and said she'd seen him delivering to another house further up the road so went up and knocked on a couple of doors and found it had been left with one of them (who were equally bemused but fortunately understanding).

We can only assume from the fact that he didn't try to leave it with either of the immediate neighbours (who are both retired and almost always in) that he'd accidentally delivered it to the wrong house, then was too lazy or wasn't sure which house he'd left it at and just reversed the number system of the houses around ours back to get the house number he'd left it at as that would have worked with the number he left only the houses on that side of the street are on a different sequence to the ones at our end and also offset due to some houses being a and b of the same number.


EDIT: Oh and I've mostly solved the problem as per the topic by using DPD as much as possible as so far they managed to get it right 99% of the time. Unfortunately not always an option.
 
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MadMossy said:
As a "delivery" driver myself, the number of times Ive had to leave a card because someone wasn't in at the specified time they were notified of up to 24 hours ago is staggering and it ****** me right off.

Why order something if your not going to be in to receive it.

Oh and if your doorbell doesn't work and you miss the delivery because your house is built like fort knox and you can't hear me knock. GET IT BLOODY FIXED!

And if you live in the middle of no where, or have a property with no actual number and just a name or live on an unnamed road, yet leave no indication of this. IM NOT A ******* MIND READER and won't find you.

Our sat navs are no different than yours, if you can't find your house on yours, we won't find it on ours either!

/rant over
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Well said. Im a delivery driver too.
Maybe people should have a go at doing our job and then they can see what an pain in the backside, poorly paid, sometimes hazardous job it is
 
Vindaloo2 said:
Well said. Im a delivery driver too.
Maybe people should have a go at doing our job and then they can see what an pain in the backside, poorly paid, sometimes hazardous job it is
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Its not just the delivery drivers though - some companies next day delivery by and large is next day, others your lucky if "next day" turns up in 2-3 days and isn't uncommon it is 3-5 days.
 
Vindaloo2 said:
Well said. Im a delivery driver too.
Maybe people should have a go at doing our job and then they can see what an pain in the backside, poorly paid, sometimes hazardous job it is
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I don't think anyone is having a pop at drivers in general, fact is most things are bought with a 3-5 day delivery window, that's going to get delivered to a residential house during working hours with no realistic chance of someone being in to answer the door.

I think people take issue when they've taken time off work for a specific AM/pm window, and left a contact number, and then get carded without a phone call.
 
Rroff said:
Its not just the delivery drivers though - some companies next day delivery by and large is next day, others your lucky if "next day" turns up in 2-3 days and isn't uncommon it is 3-5 days.
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Indeed, I've paid for next day a few times (yes before the deadline) only to have it turn up the day after and get carded so I generally go for the cheapest option and/or get it delivered to work if its important.
 
Collect+ points/Fedex drop off points should be everywhere really.

I agree that if you order something big you should probably be in for it, but not everyone's going to take a day off everytime they order something to their house. I'm surprised couriers don't offer evening delivery more

I'm quite lucky with Sorting offices/Collect+ point/Fedex points as their all within a 3minute drive for me! (Collect+ is pretty much across the road 200m from my flat)
 
doddle.it

Almost by each rail station, with very reasonable working hours. For a fiver a month you get unlimited collections and free returns. Works very well for me.
 
Yodel seem to have a bad name but my local courier is fantastic, much better than Parcelforce or the Royal Mail to be honest. Yesterday we missed a parcel (weren't expecting it) and not only did they leave it somewhere sensible round the back of the house, they re-built my daughters playhouse and put it inside!

It had fallen over in the wind the day before, must have spent about 20mins fixing it!

Not the first time they've gone out of their way in the past year or so for us, never ever leave it in a daft place.
 
mattyfez said:
Funnily enough, my old man who live in Spain has a local restaurant who rent out drop boxes that are very similar, it works very well.

You can rent them by the week/month for very little so it's perfect for the occasional delivery.

I imagine a supermarket could do the opposite and charge the courier for a finite amount of permanent boxes. Would save carriers money on redelivery attempts.
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That's actually what happens in most non city locations in North America (and I assume places like Australia) for normal post. Ironically couriers deliver to the door.
 
I guess I'm quite lucky really, stuff I've ordered has always turned up when stated, with drivers always knocking loudly, or if I'm not in been left with neighbours or clear instructions of where it's been left.
 
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