Thanks for reminding me why I love my apartment building. There’s staff in the office all day while I’m gone at work, who take packages for residents and then hold them in the office, or leave them outside your door (and I’ve seen plenty in the halls without hearing of any getting stolen), or leave them inside your apartment, per your preference.
Much better than the last place, where after I pre-ordered an album by one of my favorite artists, the delivery driver “attempted delivery” three times, all while my roomate was home but she never heard the buzzer once, which meant I had to go on a long bus ride down to the facility by the airport, on a cold and rainy night. Believe you me, I gave a manager an earful of exactly what I thought about that driver’s qualifications.
I have left large notes taped to the door asking that all packages be dropped at the office. Still getting them left on the stoop. So far only one book, under $20 from amazon was stolen. However, they left the $2,500 computer, which clearly says signature required, on the stoop. I thought about claiming it was stolen, just to make the point, but I’m too honest a person.
I have a standing sign on my door that says Fedex/UPS, HAPU (Hold for pickup). If I’m home I leave the porch door unlocked with a note to put it inside the door.
My postal carrier puts stuff inside the door and rings the bell. Note to self, tip postal guy.
Maybe not.
I lived in a neighborhood where anything out front was apparently private property. I would put “leave at back door” (btw: the back door was accessable) on every shipment. I think one time it actually left there instead of my front door.
No, not really. Not having a signature required is an issue with the shipper, but FedEx and other delivery drivers not even bothering to ring a doorbell is a distinct carrier issue.
Just dropping items on porches or in vestibules without any concern for what happens after the fact is ridiculous in itself, but to drop the item without even bothering to do the most trifling thing to announce the presence of said item, something that would take a whole whopping second of their time, is contemptible. They’re enabling criminals and inconveniencing customers and costing thousands (if not more) of other people’s dollars.
If the quota for the day is 100 deliveries and it takes a second to ring a doorbell, even 2 seconds, at each stop, that’s not even four extra minutes in the day. That’s not the time it would take to make an additional delivery. That’s negligible, not in the least bit onerous. That the carriers want to pretend that it’s more than their drivers are capable of doing is patent hogwash.
With the holiday season and living in the boonies, we’ve gotten a lot of deliveries. Please note: There is always someone home.
It is like an Easter Egg hunt. Locations packages have been left in:
In front of the garage (not visible from front door)
Back porch
In the front seat of a car.
Next to a car
Behind a car
Places packages have not been left:
Front door.
We didn’t know for 2 weeks we had a delivery because we never use the back door. The goats found it and were playing with it. Thankfully, my daughter is only 4 and while is a big fan of presents, is a little vague as to where and why she could/should get them.
I do so much of my shopping online that there’s practically a caravan route for the FedEx, UPS and the USPS package delivery guys to my door.
I’m not surprised that most deliverymen who even bother knocking/ringing the bell only wait 30 seconds or so… Because I’m sure 90% of the time or more, there’s nobody home. After all, for the most part they are delivering things to people’s homes during business hours (M-F 9-5pm), and most people in my neighborhood have left for work and won’t be back until at least 6pm.
The “signature required” stuff ends up with me getting three sticky notes on my door and an eventual trip to the post office or to the FedEx or UPS depot to pick my package up. My local Post Office is less than a mile away (I could walk there in about 15 minutes) and is open on Saturdays until 3pm, and FedEx has a dropoff/pickup location less than ten blocks away from the Post Office that’s open until 7:30pm on weeknights and also on weekends. UPS, on the other hand, has only one huge central depot which is about 20 minutes away from me with good traffic, always has a long line of people (typically a 20-30 minute wait), only lets people in until 5pm on weekdays and isn’t open on weekends: I end up having to take time off from work to get a package, or have it sent to my office.
As a result, I always pick the “leave at (back) door” option if possible for UPS deliveries. (About a quarter of the time they leave it out front anyway, inside my storm door.) Important packages, or very expensive stuff like jewelry, I have delivered to my office, or I try to specify FedEx (not UPS) delivery and then ask for depot pickup only.
I can deal with the dropped-on-the-porch bullshit out of necessity, but I went ballistic the day I took a day off from work to wait on a delivery, and watched the status go from “out for delivery” to “delivery attempt made, nobody home” when evening rolled around. (Nobody knocked, no delivery notice was left, and nobody had called from the gate to ask me to let them in.)
I must have sounded rather angry when I called to complain, because they had the driver return with my package.
I get a lot of stuff from UPS. They never even come to my front door to be able to knock/ring. They leave it in front of the garage for me to find, or on the steps to my back porch. Things have been left in the rain for me to find, and usually I was home when they delivered.
My apartment building (U.S.) has two large communal boxes for USPS packages, set into one of the walls in our little mail alcove. Each has two locks–one that can only be opened by the carrier, and one that has a key in it any time it’s not in use. If someone gets a USPS package, the carrier drops the package in, locks it, and puts the key in that person’s mailbox. The person then uses that key to unlock the large box, removes their package, and leaves the key in the lock. Anything too large to fit (or that arrives when both boxes are in use) is left at the office, who’ll then follow your delivery preferences for UPS/FedEx packages (hold it, leave it outside your door, or put it just inside your door).
When we had our ranch, the UPS and FedEx drivers would pull up into the driveway, come in the back door to the mud room, and leave packages on the table inside.
Nowadays, the UPS driver makes deliveries pretty much every day at my bookstore. Whenever she has a package for my home, she’ll stop at the store and say, “I’ve got something for the house - is your wife (who she knows by name) home, or do you want me to leave it with you now?”
I’ve actually had her recognize my wife’s car and give her something in the grocery store parking lot.
We did have a driver leave something in the garage one time, and it took us a few days to spot it.
I get most valuable things delivered to work, too, but I am so lucky to be living in the neighborhood I do. I came home once to a giant box on my porch - it must have been there all day - and no one took it. No one ever steals our stuff. Thinner things, they put behind the screen door.
I’ll let you know if they ring or knock - I’m home on Thursday and expecting a package to boot.