Previous Entry | Next Entry
- The UK's Royal Mail has an ingenious way of making money on the side. It will distribute fliers on behalf of other companies to anyone who has recently changed their address. They must charge a pretty penny for the service: it doesn't breach confidentiality, since the companies don't get the addresses to which their brochures are being sent; at the same time, it still effectively targets lots of people who have recently moved who may be in the market for furniture and DIY-related products. They charge enough that in the month since we're changed our address, we've received all of two brochures this way. Bonus: It's possible to opt out from this serivce.
- Something which bothers me about deliveries in this country: it's regular practice to leave deliveries with neighbors, if th deliveree isn't in. This has only happened once to me so far, but the general practice of it disturbs me greatly. Why presume that neighbors get along? That they'll ever see each other? That one won't go on vacation leaving the other packageless? It's an alien experience to me, but C. laughed at my worries over it; it's standard practice in the UK.
owlfish
Comments
It never happened when I lived in a rural area, though. The houses were too far apart for that to be convenient for anyone, I think.
I always get a card shoved through the door saying they can be collected from sorting office.
Though Selfridges once left a delivery on the doorstep - but as it was a huge heavy crate-load of Le Creuset I suppose they thought no-one was likely to make off with it.
The one delivery from the post office I missed was left at a sorting office. The one delivery from DHL I missed was left with the next-door neighbor - no accompanying note was left with me to know it had been delivered.
Edited at 2008-08-18 08:33 am (UTC)
The neighbour should refuse it if they're going away or something. On our road, one neighbour never takes in a package whereas another is happy to take everyone's and usually brings it round when she sees someone is back!
The post office varies, having words with your postman can usually mean that he'll default to taking it back to the depot, but where I live that process takes 48 hours, so I prefer to have it left with a neighbour.
The worst one i had was where a furniture company turned up a day early with 3 wardrobes and 3 chests of drawers and my kind (but daft) neighbour took the delivery! Getting the huge, heavy boxes from her place to mine was an adventure.
I find couriers tend to be less consistent. I've never had one leave a parcel with neighbours but I've had them occasionally leave parcels on the doorstep (thankfully, not in an area with a high probability of vanishment), behind the bins, etc. with no note. In some cases, for example where the nearest depot is half an hour's drive away and only open office hours, that may be the most convenient option - on the other hand, it's decidedly risky.
I suspect that if your neighbours thought there might be a problem getting the parcel to you (if they were going on holiday imminently, for example) they wouldn't have accepted the parcel. There is the possibility of deliberate malice, of course, but in that case when you rang the Post Office to find out why the parcel hadn't turned up there would be a piece of paper saying that it had been delivered to the neighbours'.
Another time I had a whole crate of wine nicked - the courier said he'd delivered it to our neighbours but all the neighbours in our corner of the cul de sac denied all knowledge of it. I'm pretty sure which set of neighbours it was, but cos the courier was so vague about who he'd left it with, we couldn't prove anything.
Now I have a big sign in the window of my door, telling people not to leave things with neighbours...
We've had parcels left with neighbours, but no note. And then notes, but then wrong neighbour listed.
We've also had "please pick up from the depot within 72 hours or it will be returned to sender", when the depot is 15 miles from anywhere and no option of a redeliver, and we don't drive.
We've also had notes saying it must be picked up from the depot with ID of the recipent, but no indication of who the recipient is.