Stopping DHL leaving packages with neighbour?

Cherrycola

Is there anyway to stop DHL( and other couriers) leaving packages with my neighbours?

Today I was actually at home, but changing the baby so i didn't get to the door in time, luckily I nabbed him coming out of the neighbours and got the package back. We've had a falling out with these particular neighbours so its annoying if we have to go over and retrieve a package, and why they accept them each time is beyond me!

Anyway, is there anyway to prevent this in the future? It's always a different delivery guy so no point saying it to him, and the retailer I purchased from didn't have an option to write in delivery preferences, though considering this guy didn't ring the number clearly printed on today's package makes me think they wouldn't bother reading delivery preferences either!
Is there any point emailing DHL?

Thanks

foggy_lad

Report them to the courier company AND the people you get the packages from and don't accept any package from your neighbour, tell your neighbour not to sign for or accept any package or parcel addressed to you.!

Next time just ring the supplier and tell them you have not received the parcel and if they produce a signature it won't be yours. It will be up to them to get the parcel back from your neighbour and to deliver it properly!

andersat2

Small example:
last week waited for a parcel via UPS.
Rang them saying, that I will not be at home on the day of delivery, so tried to rearrange that.
They said - NO, you can not rearrange delivery address until first attempt of delivery.
nonsense !!! For them it's better to drive to my house, find that no one at home, instead just to alter delivery address.

Last time DHL just throw my parcel to someone's house on the street, neighbours I even haven't seen before (foreignerd rental house) dropped me that parcel after two days.

DHL, UPS, DPD,... ridiculous service, ridiculous prices.
An Post - one of the best on the market

snaps

Don't the couriers ring you if no answer? I always get a call from a courier if I'm not home! I have got goods delivered from most of the couriers recently, they have all rung me.

codie

Dhl ring me alright to say they have the package but tell me they are in town if I want to meet them.If I can't they leave it in a local shop.Not too bad, I know I will be in town regular but all the same would prefer to have delivered to my address.

Paulw

I am very glad I have a great relationship with my neighbours. They hold packages for me, and vice versa. Works out well, since no one can be home all the time. This morning I managed to take in a delivery for a neighbour. She needs it for this evening, but was out at the shops when the delivery came.

I guess it comes down to your relationship with your neighbours, and the delivery company.

Cherrycola

GLS or DPD normally ring, but UPS and DHL are a nightmare! Depending on the delivery guy I may or may not get a phone call, today I didn't. And my number was clearing printed on the label! He rang the bell twice, by the time I got down the stairs and out the door he was over at the neighbours house! It's so annoying, you could be just out in the garden, or as I was this morning, attending to the baby, and you can't drop a baby to run to the door!
Anyway, biggest issue is the bloody neighbours accepting the package! If I got a package for them I wouldn't accept it! What's to say I sign for it, hand it over and they claim they never got it?! I wouldn't put it past them!

Might just have to start getting stuff delivered to my parents house instead I think.
I'll send an email to them anyway, see if I get anywhere.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

This sounds more like an issue with your neighbours rather than with couriers. Relationships forum rather than Consumer Issues? Thank goodness couriers leave packages with neighbours, or many of us would either never receive goods or have to sit in all day every day waiting on them.

I only get calls for directions (rural location) but once they get to know the address they don't call.

All that said - give me An Post any day. I try to purchase from suppliers who use An Post rather than couriers because it's more predicable when delivery will be made.

Cherrycola

Well actually no, I don't agree that it's more an issue with my neighbours. If a package is addressed to me I expect it to be delivered to me, not my neighbour. The same way I expect An Post to deliver my mail to me and not my neighbour, which they always do.
If I'm not at home then the delivery can be rearranged, I highly doubt I would never receive it!
I'm perfectly happy for couriers to leave packages with a nominated other party, but I would prefer to be the person choosing who that nominated party it, not some random driver who hasn't a clue who my neighbours are or if I even know them!

Anyway, for those of you interested, I emailed, got a reply to say apologies,
my request has been noted as delivery to my address only in future and details have been forwarded to the drivers manager for future deliveries, so we'll see.

keithclancy

andersat2 wrote: »

An Post - one of the best on the market

Me arse.

Half of the time the postman would be running down the path by the time you opened the front door and then would sheepishly tell you its at the depot as it was too big for his bicycle.

Depot in cork is only accessible by car :mad:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

keithclancy wrote: »

Me arse.

Half of the time the postman would be running down the path by the time you opened the front door and then would sheepishly tell you its at the depot as it was too big for his bicycle.

Depot in cork is only accessible by car :mad:

Exact opposite here. Our postman goes out of his way to get parcels to us. He'll change the route to get here earlier if he has a parcel on the days we go to town. He leaves stuff at the back door if we are not here. If it has to be signed for he will go back on his route to a relative of ours with the item.
Can't fault An Post at all. Magnificent Service!

schemingbohemia

Cherrycola wrote: »

Well actually no, I don't agree that it's more an issue with my neighbours. If a package is addressed to me I expect it to be delivered to me, not my neighbour. The same way I expect An Post to deliver my mail to me and not my neighbour, which they always do.
If I'm not at home then the delivery can be rearranged, I highly doubt I would never receive it!
I'm perfectly happy for couriers to leave packages with a nominated other party, but I would prefer to be the person choosing who that nominated party it, not some random driver who hasn't a clue who my neighbours are or if I even know them!

Anyway, for those of you interested, [Is this code for to those who told me what i wanted to hear?] I emailed, got a reply to say apologies,
my request has been noted as delivery to my address only in future and details have been forwarded to the drivers manager for future deliveries, so we'll see.

You do realise there is a cost to the courier for having to make an additional journey? How are they to know that your neighbours - who it seems are willing to you a favour even though you have issues with them - are not in your good books? I'd have been delighted to have a friendly neighbour to help me out.

Can you not get them delivered to a work address?

deandean

OP I suggest you sign up with Parcel Motel if there's a depot anywhere near you.

P.M. Yer only man. I love the service!

Del2005

Brylee Sticky Housetop wrote: »

This sounds more like an issue with your neighbours rather than with couriers. Relationships forum rather than Consumer Issues? Thank goodness couriers leave packages with neighbours, or many of us would either never receive goods or have to sit in all day every day waiting on them.

I only get calls for directions (rural location) but once they get to know the address they don't call.

All that said - give me An Post any day. I try to purchase from suppliers who use An Post rather than couriers because it's more predicable when delivery will be made.

andersat2 wrote: »

Small example:
last week waited for a parcel via UPS.
Rang them saying, that I will not be at home on the day of delivery, so tried to rearrange that.
They said - NO, you can not rearrange delivery address until first attempt of delivery.
nonsense !!! For them it's better to drive to my house, find that no one at home, instead just to alter delivery address.

Last time DHL just throw my parcel to someone's house on the street, neighbours I even haven't seen before (foreignerd rental house) dropped me that parcel after two days.

DHL, UPS, DPD,... ridiculous service, ridiculous prices.
An Post - one of the best on the market

It's because of AnPost, and their beloved Geodirectory, that couriers are so bad in this country. We were promised post codes 13 years ago, but with AnPost in the tender process they have managed to get a completely useless system for couriers or even worst emergency services to find anywhere as it isn't going to be a location code but a system for sorting post easier.

deandean wrote: »

OP I suggest you sign up with Parcel Motel if there's a depot anywhere near you.

P.M. Yer only man. I love the service!

+1 on PM. I even use it now so I don't have to wait in, €3.50 is a small price to pay to not be worried every time you need the loo.

goz83

Del2005 wrote: »

It's because of AnPost, and their beloved Geodirectory, that couriers are so bad in this country. We were promised post codes 13 years ago, but with AnPost in the tender process they have managed to get a completely useless system for couriers or even worst emergency services to find anywhere as it isn't going to be a location code but a system for sorting post easier.



+1 on PM. I even use it now so I don't have to wait in, €3.50 is a small price to pay to not be worried every time you need the loo.

+2 on PM. Sometimes I get emails at 11:30pm to say my parcel has arrived and I can go get it right away. The text is normally sent the next morning. Those cheap UK deliveries are the dogs jewels.

Shelflife

I don't understand how they get away with this, are they not regulated by comreg as well as An Post.

every week we get 20+ parcels left into our shop by couriers who claim that the recipient asked them to drop it in to the shop. in approx. 75% of the cases its the courier that claims that they cant find they house and will drop it into the local shop.

they have been paid to deliver to a specific address yet cut corners and get away with it.

we have had people bring packages back to us that the "postman" left outside their door and it wasn't even for them.

Its a joke really that An post are highly regulated yet the couriers can seemingly do what they want.

Del2005

Shelflife wrote: »

I don't understand how they get away with this, are they not regulated by comreg as well as An Post.

every week we get 20+ parcels left into our shop by couriers who claim that the recipient asked them to drop it in to the shop. in approx. 75% of the cases its the courier that claims that they cant find they house and will drop it into the local shop.

they have been paid to deliver to a specific address yet cut corners and get away with it.

we have had people bring packages back to us that the "postman" left outside their door and it wasn't even for them.

Its a joke really that An post are highly regulated yet the couriers can seemingly do what they want.

The couriers* aren't been paid enough to drive down every boreen looking for rural addresses, I've a few mates who where couriers and you won't believe the amount of people who can't give directions to their own home, so they are dropping them somewhere easy they can find.

If the customers complained then the senders, who are the ones who paid for the service, will stop using the courier company. Only issue is that no courier company can deliver effectively in Ireland as they don't know where they are going, even An Post deliver mail to the wrong people in rural Ireland, until we get a modern "Post Code" system that gives unique addresses to each property


* I'm taking about guy delivering not the companies, they are still making some money, the lads delivering aren't.

hardCopy

Del2005 wrote: »

The couriers* aren't been paid enough to drive down every boreen looking for rural addresses, I've a few mates who where couriers and you won't believe the amount of people who can't give directions to their own home, so they are dropping them somewhere easy they can find.

If the customers complained then the senders, who are the ones who paid for the service, will stop using the courier company. Only issue is that no courier company can deliver effectively in Ireland as they don't know where they are going, even An Post deliver mail to the wrong people in rural Ireland, until we get a modern "Post Code" system that gives unique addresses to each property


* I'm taking about guy delivering not the companies, they are still making some money, the lads delivering aren't.

I don't see what postcodes have to do with the OP's issue. The courier found the house, they just couldn't get to the door.

touts

I find most courier companies have no concept of customer service for the people they are delivering to but will kiss the asses of the companies sending the packages. I recently had a delivery with DPD and rudeness would not be enough to describe the attitude of the woman on the phone. She barked at me that I needed to be in the house from 2pm-6pm that day and If I was not there I would need to travel to their depot (50 miles away) to collect the package. Had DHL a couple of years ago drop a leaflet in telling me to collect the package at their depot in office hours within 3 days or the package would be returned. To be honest I think they are all exceptionally poor. No consideration for people who work. Extremely vague delivery times (even if you phone the driver the best he will tell you is a 2-3 hour slot). You can't just drop everything at work and run out for an unspecified amount of time to wait for a delivery.

Del2005

hardCopy wrote: »

I don't see what postcodes have to do with the OP's issue. The courier found the house, they just couldn't get to the door.

I wasn't quoting the OP.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Del2005 wrote: »

The couriers* aren't been paid enough to drive down every boreen looking for rural addresses, I've a few mates who where couriers and you won't believe the amount of people who can't give directions to their own home, so they are dropping them somewhere easy they can find.

If the customers complained then the senders, who are the ones who paid for the service, will stop using the courier company. Only issue is that no courier company can deliver effectively in Ireland as they don't know where they are going, even An Post deliver mail to the wrong people in rural Ireland, until we get a modern "Post Code" system that gives unique addresses to each property


* I'm talking about guy delivering not the companies, they are still making some money, the lads delivering aren't.

Oh where to begin?? Of course the couriers should charge what it costs them It's not the receivers fault if they are undercutting prices and then can't effect delivery at that price. They are contracted to deliver the parcel so let them do it. Whether we will buy from the suppliers at those rates is another question but is a matter for the supplier and couriers.
As for giving directions - come off it! Of course we can give directions to our homes. It's the delivery guys who haven't the foggiest idea of the area they are taking on with delivering to. I have had couriers who didn't even know their way out of the major town nearby let alone how to find the main route (N road) to then turn for our rural area.
An Post do not deliver to wrong addresses in rural Ireland as a whole. Indeed they deliver items that are very badly addressed because they know their routes and the people on them. We even received a card sent to our dog as a joke!
Delivery guys in general are pleasant and do find us but the delivery window (often "between 10 and 4" ) are a joke. Talking some of them through the route is a right pain though, as they just haven't a clue where they are.

chrismon

I bought a new PC online last year (€800) and was told to wait at home between a certain time and the driver would ring me when he was near.
No sign of the package.
I got a call from my brother who works in a shop saying there was a package there for me.
Driver claimed he had rang me several times but I didn't answer.
Bull $hit, driver was to lazy to look for my house which is not on his normal route.
What would have stopped one of the lads in the shop who signed for it taking it home?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

chrismon wrote: »

I bought a new PC online last year (€800) and was told to wait at home between a certain time and the driver would ring me when he was near.
No sign of the package.
I got a call from my brother who works in a shop saying there was a package there for me.
Driver claimed he had rang me several times but I didn't answer.
Bull $hit, driver was to lazy to look for my house which is not on his normal route.

This exact scenario is very commonplace. I have lost track of the number of times I was told they had phoned when they did not. Was told they were at the house when they were not - indeed having supposedly tried to deliver with nobody home, then had to be talked through directions to that same house the next day!

Play To Kill

Brylee Sticky Housetop wrote: »

indeed having supposedly tried to deliver with nobody home, then had to be talked through directions to that same house the next day!

This is not so unusual, with anything up to 50 deliveries a day over a vast area you can easily forget how you found your way to a property the previous day. I did deliveries for a while and packed it in because it was a nightmare.
We had 2 hour delivery windows and it was in the UK where there are postcodes. The day was scheduled and the route planned, this gave us exact times to be at addresses, we also had doorstep times which was the maximum length of time we could spend at an address. These varied depending on the size of the delivery.
I lost count of the number of people who thought a 2 hour delivery window meant that they could come home anytime between those 2 hours and we would be waiting for them, they seemed to think they were the only delivery in that 2 hours. Then there were the people in summer who didn't answer the door because they were in their back garden, people who had their phones on silent or switched off during the delivery time, people who thought we could leave deliveries with their kids etc etc. These people caused so much frustration and you just ended up under pressure trying to keep to the schedule. The majority of people were fine but the few that caused the above problems were the reason why everybody elses deliveries got messed up.
Having said that, there is no excuse for leaving deliveries with neighbours, company policy for us was that only the person or organisation named could sign for the delivery unless in exceptional circumstances where another person over the age of 18 was authorised to sign for delivery on their behalf.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Play To Kill wrote: »

This is not so unusual, with anything up to 50 deliveries a day over a vast area you can easily forget how you found your way to a property the previous day. I did deliveries for a while and packed it in because it was a nightmare.
We had 2 hour delivery windows and it was in the UK where there are postcodes. The day was scheduled and the route planned, this gave us exact times to be at addresses, we also had doorstep times which was the maximum length of time we could spend at an address. These varied depending on the size of the delivery.
I lost count of the number of people who thought a 2 hour delivery window meant that they could come home anytime between those 2 hours and we would be waiting for them, they seemed to think they were the only delivery in that 2 hours.

Hang on a minute! I can only speak from personal experience and I can honestly say that each time we had a so called re-delivery because of the fictional "nobody was home" the driver admitted he had not been there the day before at all. As for expecting the delivery man to be there waiting - what rot! Given a delivery window any reasonable person knows delivery could be at any time during that window and waits home.

mdebets

touts wrote: »

I find most courier companies have no concept of customer service for the people they are delivering to but will kiss the asses of the companies sending the packages.

They do this, because it makes business sense. They have to please the people who are paying them (the sender). If they would provide a very good service to the people they delivering too, they would be more expensive then the rest, so no sender would choose them and they would go out of business.

mathepac

I'm very lucky.

An Post (in the persons of my local postman & postmistress) 5* service

DPD (in the person of my regular driver / collector) 5* service

The rest, with the exception of the Parcel Motel which I must try soon, are best not commented on.

mdebets

Brylee Sticky Housetop wrote: »

Oh where to begin?? Of course the couriers should charge what it costs them It's not the receivers fault if they are undercutting prices and then can't effect delivery at that price. They are contracted to deliver the parcel so let them do it. Whether we will buy from the suppliers at those rates is another question but is a matter for the supplier and couriers.
As for giving directions - come off it! Of course we can give directions to our homes. It's the delivery guys who haven't the foggiest idea of the area they are taking on with delivering to. I have had couriers who didn't even know their way out of the major town nearby let alone how to find the main route (N road) to then turn for our rural area.
An Post do not deliver to wrong addresses in rural Ireland as a whole. Indeed they deliver items that are very badly addressed because they know their routes and the people on them. We even received a card sent to our dog as a joke!
Delivery guys in general are pleasant and do find us but the delivery window (often "between 10 and 4" ) are a joke. Talking some of them through the route is a right pain though, as they just haven't a clue where they are.

All these problems you mention are direct results of privatisation and the way the delivery industry is run these days.

In the good old days (and it's still this way today with letter services) you had a postman, who covered a relatively small area, which he walked/cycled every day, probably going through every street at least once a day. Obvious, he would know his area very well, even houses that are hard to find (that's the reason why you still get letters delivered today correctly by An Post, which addresses that have only a small resemblance to the real address). Of course this is expensive and requires a high volume of mail, too employ enough postmen to keep the areas small.

Come on privatisation and you suddenly have a few additional companies, which deliver only a fraction of the volume An Post does. Obvious, they have less employees and thereby larger areas, through which they not only don't walk, but drive in a van and probably have certain areas, they only visit once every few months. Therefore the delivery drivers don't know as well as the postmen did, which means they have to search longer for house that are out of the way (Postcodes would only help to a certain extent with that).

An additional problem is the way delivery drivers are paid (normally per delivery, not per time). If a delivery driver gets paid 10€ per delivery and he would on average take 10 minutes per delivery (figures plugged out of thin air), he would make 60€ per Hour on average. If he now has to search for a house for 30 minutes, wait another 10 minutes for the recipient to get to the front door and take the package, he would have lost half his wage for this hour. It's therefore easier just to pretend to have rung the recipient, not reached him and left the parcel with neighbours or in a shop. The delivery company would probably also ok with this, as they have already received the money and the sender would be unlikely to switch for future deliveries, as probably not too many people would switch their business to another company, based on their choice of delivery company (and the others wouldn't be any better anyway).

There is no easy solution to this problem.
Possible approaches would be that more people need to complain and make it clear to a shop that they only buy from them if they have a reliable delivery company (hard to get the numbers up for this and it would probably mean either solution 2 below or a huge increase in delivery costs).
Another approach would be to go back to the old days of a monopoly for deliveries.
A totally new approach would be to split the delivery in two parts. The sender selects a delivery company that delivers to a center (could be in larger cities) and the receiver can then decide if he wants it delivered from a second company (where he can choose the service he wants) or collect it himself.

Play To Kill

Brylee Sticky Housetop wrote: »

Hang on a minute! I can only speak from personal experience and I can honestly say that each time we had a so called re-delivery because of the fictional "nobody was home" the driver admitted he had not been there the day before at all. As for expecting the delivery man to be there waiting - what rot! Given a delivery window any reasonable person knows delivery could be at any time during that window and waits home.

I've no doubt that some drivers do as you described and even with scheduled routes and post codes these things will still happen. Drivers get fed up with the hassle from a minority of customers and take short cuts in order to complete a days work within the time they are being paid for. You would be surprised by the amount of people who are not at home when you call and when you ring them they say they are in work but will be home in 15 mins, you then tell them that you can't wait because your doorstep time is only 7 mins and they loose the plot, there is only so many times you can be told all about how they are going to complain to your manager etc before you will start taking shortcuts because the job just isn't worth the hassle of listening to people who fail to see that it's their own problem that they can't answer the door at the time they agreed to.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Play To Kill wrote: »

I've no doubt that some drivers do as you described and even with scheduled routes and post codes these things will still happen. Drivers get fed up with the hassle from a minority of customers and take short cuts in order to complete a days work within the time they are being paid for. You would be surprised by the amount of people who are not at home when you call and when you ring them they say they are in work but will be home in 15 mins, you then tell them that you can't wait because your doorstep time is only 7 mins and they loose the plot, there is only so many times you can be told all about how they are going to complain to your manager etc before you will start taking shortcuts because the job just isn't worth the hassle of listening to people who fail to see that it's their own problem that they can't answer the door at the time they agreed to.

None of this is the fault not the receiver. If couriers have problems with schedules and routes then they need to sort it out. We could all start a business and not fulfil our end of the service if we got a way with it.
I have never agreed when buying something that I would be there at a given time. That said, I have always waited at home when I know something is due. The basic fact remains that many couriers don't know where they are going and take short cuts and lie about trying to effect delivery.

hfallada

I used parcel motel a few times and found it great. But thought I would use An post and get it delivered to my house. The guy that delivered it, didnt ring the bell( my brother was 3 meters from the bell) and it took 20 mins of wandering around an industrial estate to collect the package as there was no An Post signs anywhere. Parcel motel is a bargain at €3.50