Hey, you look trustworthy. Here ya go!

The BBQ Pit
1

What the fuck, UPS?? You try to deliver an unexpected package yesterday. I’m not home; I’m at work. Since my signature is required in person, there’s nothing I can do about it. Usually I sign my name and write for them to leave it at the apartment office, where I can pick it up later. But not this time, whatever this package is, it’s OH SO important to have my name.
I figure I’ll call them and ask to hold off on delivering, just leave it at the center where I’ll pick it up, but I forgot to take the tracking number with me. No sweat, they usually try twice, I’ll call tomorrow.
No, I get home and there’s a yellow slip waiting for me. “Package has been dropped off with neighbor - #26”

I’ve never fucking met my neighbor! How the hell is that appropriate? I never signed a release allowing my neighbor to receive packages on my behalf. I never okayed UPS to just leave it with anyone. I feel sketchy enough having the office take my packages, but a fucking neighbor? A random person I share a wall with and nothing else? The hell kind of privacy rules are they following? My neighbor could very well deny he got whatever it was and make off with a shiny new whatever-it-is. The hell do I do then?

So, I have no idea what the package is or who sent it. Said neighbor isn’t answering his door, and I have no idea where he is, when he’ll be back, or even his fucking name.

I filed a complaint via UPS.com. They’re gonna know how pissed I am. Whether they care is another story.

2

Accepting packages for one’s neighbors is part of the social contract of apartment living. If you can’t deal with it, move to Montana.

3

[QUOTE=friedo]
Accepting packages for one’s neighbors is part of the social contract of apartment living. If you can’t deal with it, move to Montana.
[/QUOTE]

Did you even read the OP?

4

[QUOTE=friedo]
Accepting packages for one’s neighbors is part of the social contract of apartment living. If you can’t deal with it, move to Montana.
[/QUOTE]

Not handing someone’s belongings to a complete stranger is part of the delivery contract of UPS. If you can’t deal with it, move to MySpace.

5

If it makes the OP feel better (and it probably won’t), this happens to me at my apartment all the time.

6

Yesterday I came home to a DHL package sitting on my front porch that contained my new passport. The envelope also had a LARGE sticker on the front that declared that the courier was NOT to surrender the envelope without obtaining a signature.

Ugh.

I am grateful that I live in a rural area but all it would take is one person noticing an unprotected package and decide to help themselves to it. Also, I was not expecting the passport to be there so soon so it could have been missing for a month or more before I started to wonder where it was.

7

[QUOTE=Swampwolf]
Not handing someone’s belongings to a complete stranger is part of the delivery contract of UPS.

[/quote]

I don’t even know if they have a contract, per se, as opposed to general guidelines. In any case, it is a simple fact of life: whether you want them to or not, UPS will avail themselves of the easiest way to get rid of your package in your general vicinity.

I have no idea what this means.

8

[QUOTE=friedo]
I don’t even know if they have a contract, per se, as opposed to general guidelines. In any case, it is a simple fact of life: whether you want them to or not, UPS will avail themselves of the easiest way to get rid of your package in your general vicinity.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, you can keep thinking this is ok. Maybe you’ve never lost a package. Maybe you have and decided, oh well, I guess they’re just going to keep delivering my shit to random strangers, and that’s just the way it is. For most people though, having your crackhead neighbor you “met” just that one time when you had to step over his passed-out ass in the hallway sign for one of your packages is pretty far from a “simple fact of life.” You better believe that when UPS (or was it FedEx?) delievered one of my packages to someone who signed with a horizontal line, they sure as hell heard about it.

So just keep taking it in the ass, friedo. You’re doing your part to make the world slightly worse.

9

Dang. I was hoping that the OP came home and found a baby on the doorstep or something.

Deliverymen not following procedure, of course, is annoying at best and leads to theft at worst.

10

[QUOTE=Gulo gulo]
Yesterday I came home to a DHL package sitting on my front porch that contained my new passport. The envelope also had a LARGE sticker on the front that declared that the courier was NOT to surrender the envelope without obtaining a signature.
[/QUOTE]
UPS also specializes in the “who cares” front door dropoff.

C’mon, it’s work lugging that package back to the truck if no one answers the door. Just drop it off (or better yet, just drop it) on the porch. It’ll be OK, probably.

11

friedo, you know that not everyone follows social contract, right? Not everyone is as fine and upstanding as you, and would see nothing wrong with sneaking the package for themselves. Must be nice to live in a world so rosy.

Anyway, the neighbor just knocked on my door. Turns out a woman lives there, and she signed for it. I thanked her and apologized, said it wouldn’t be happening again.

Sorry, no baby. It was a gift card. To Victoria’s Secret. And because they had to throw in a few catalogues, it was in an 11x14 envelope. :rolleyes:

12

[QUOTE=Lionne]
… the neighbor just knocked on my door. Turns out a woman lives there, and she signed for it. I thanked her …
[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a case of no harm, no foul.

When the UPS guy left the package without obtaining your signature, he was effectively taking responsibility for the ultimate correct delivery of the package - if it had gone astray, UPS would have been on the hook. (Yes, getting them to step up might have been interesting.) As it turns out, his judgment about the neighbor was correct (no doubt he has some experience here), so all ends well.

13

[QUOTE=Lionne]
friedo, you know that not everyone follows social contract, right? Not everyone is as fine and upstanding as you, and would see nothing wrong with sneaking the package for themselves. Must be nice to live in a world so rosy.

Anyway, the neighbor just knocked on my door. Turns out a woman lives there, and she signed for it. I thanked her and apologized, said it wouldn’t be happening again.

Sorry, no baby. It was a gift card. To Victoria’s Secret. And because they had to throw in a few catalogues, it was in an 11x14 envelope. :rolleyes:
[/QUOTE]

What’s the rolleyes for? Of course it was in an 11x14 (you mean 8.5x14, maybe?) envelope. Even there wasn’t a catalogue it’d be in a big envelope. UPS isn’t set up for handling tiny little letters.

Honestly, you didn’t even lose your package. And let me tell you, I’ve worked for two years at a UPS Store and a summer at UPS proper before that, and you know how much stuff actually gets delayed? Maybe half a percent. That’s delayed, mind you. About half the time it’s because the address was written wrong. I know, I know, maybe only .01% of packages get lost, but yours was 100% lost, but look at the bigger picture. It’s a freaking gift card to a luxury store, not your insulin!

And seriously, Its not like UPS doesn’t take responsibility. If they lose it, they’ll pay out. Thing is, they don’t often lose it, so it’s not a big deal for them. Iono, I’ve just had to deal with so many customers with entitlement problems that they all run together.

14

[QUOTE=Aioua]
What’s the rolleyes for? Of course it was in an 11x14 (you mean 8.5x14, maybe?) envelope. Even there wasn’t a catalogue it’d be in a big envelope. UPS isn’t set up for handling tiny little letters.

Honestly, you didn’t even lose your package. And let me tell you, I’ve worked for two years at a UPS Store and a summer at UPS proper before that, and you know how much stuff actually gets delayed? Maybe half a percent. That’s delayed, mind you. About half the time it’s because the address was written wrong. I know, I know, maybe only .01% of packages get lost, but yours was 100% lost, but look at the bigger picture. It’s a freaking gift card to a luxury store, not your insulin!

And seriously, Its not like UPS doesn’t take responsibility. If they lose it, they’ll pay out. Thing is, they don’t often lose it, so it’s not a big deal for them. Iono, I’ve just had to deal with so many customers with entitlement problems that they all run together.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but **Lionne’s ** issue is clearly not one of an overgrown sense of entitlement. The issue is UPS’s giving her package to someone they weren’t authorized to give it to. And so what if the package contains VS catalogs and a gift card or insulin? The point is, UPS doesn’t know what **Lionne’s ** relationship to that neighbor is or what kind of person the neighbor is, and unless **Lionne ** had given them permission (which she didn’t), they shouldn’t have left her package with a total stranger.

15

[QUOTE=Li’l Pluck]
Yeah, but **Lionne’s ** issue is clearly not one of an overgrown sense of entitlement. The issue is UPS’s giving her package to someone they weren’t authorized to give it to. And so what if the package contains VS catalogs and a gift card or insulin? The point is, UPS doesn’t know what **Lionne’s ** relationship to that neighbor is or what kind of person the neighbor is, and unless **Lionne ** had given them permission (which she didn’t), they shouldn’t have left her package with a total stranger.
[/QUOTE]

Now, if Lionne could tell me exactly what service was used I could tell you all the ins and outs, but nothing wrong with leaving it with the neighbor.
Oh, and, going to bed ^^ i’ll be back tomorrow.

16

I live… not quite in the ghetto, but not a real great neighborhood either. Thefts of opportunity (leave your bike outside, umbrella, etc) are pretty much expected. Last week, Frikkin UPS delivers my christmas LAPTOP, in a large tempting box, right to my doorstep. A signature was required, I can only assume the driver signed for it himself, since I don’t know any “T. Brown”, and any wandering neighbors surely would have made off with it after signing for it. I was pissed. 500 bucks sitting on my doorstep, and they can’t take the time to try and redeliver.

17

UPS left a note that I had a package that didn’t fit in my mailbox, so I waited around the next day to intercept it. But it turns out they couldn’t tell the difference between a 12 and a 17, and it wasn’t my package at all. I signed for it, not knowing this, but all I could do was leave it at my neighbour’s door. We’ve got a secure gate, so it was safe-ish to do that, but it was not an ideal situation, and it was pretty much UPS at fault.

18

[QUOTE=UPS ToS]
delivery to a reasonable alternate address or location, delivery in accordance with trade custom or usage,
[/QUOTE]

Wow, that’s totally messed up. I’m supposed to trust some UPS employee to be able to determine what a “reasonable alternative” to my actual address is? I’ve never lived there, so I’m curious: how does this play out in NYC? There are apt buildings with hundreds of people living in them, many of whom I’m sure have no clue who they’re living next door to. What constitutes a “reasonable alternative” to the address? The lobby of the building they live in? Someone on the same floor? Unless the UPS person delivers it to someone who opens the actual door of the apt, or a doorman, I don’t see how anything else can be considered reasonable.

ETA- Maybe other shipping companies have this in fine print, I don’t know. But finding this out makes me never want to use UPS ever again.

19

[QUOTE=Aioua]
Now, if Lionne could tell me exactly what service was used I could tell you all the ins and outs, but nothing wrong with leaving it with the neighbor.
Oh, and, going to bed ^^ i’ll be back tomorrow.
[/QUOTE]

I’ve been buying Christmas presents via Amazon, and now I would have preferred to pick the carrier. UPS hired a bunch of temp workers for the holidays; normally I know our area’s driver (not so unusual, my husband is a letter carrier in our neighborhood and knows the other services’ delivery people in the area) but he’s seen some new faces out there delivering for UPS lately. If they’d shipped USPS, at least they put packages in our foyer, and my husband knows exactly who to talk to if tracking info says a package was delivered but we don’t have it.

Monday late, I get one “we’ve shipped a package” E-mail from Amazon. Since I ordered the Super Saver shipping I expect it’ll take a while to arrive and don’t check further. Yesterday morning I walk outside and there’s a package out there from the night before. I checked the UPS delivery info and the notation under “Delivery status” is “Delivered to female adult.” No, no you didn’t. You dropped it on my porch and left. Which I can deal with typically, just don’t lie about what you did with it.

Tuesday another “we’ve shipped” notice goes out. Yesterday the Amazon tracking page claims it was delivered to the front door. I get worried, since my husband had just caught a couple teenagers in our driveway, leaning over/into the open trunk of our car between our trips into the house to unload groceries. (He gave them The Look and they took off running.) Then I check further and the city isn’t quite right; the package is only nearby and there’s no “Delivery Scan” location. The tracking number plugged into the UPS website gives the delivery date as sometime last year and the location as being delivered to Georgia, but the more detailed tracking “path” shows the proper information and that it’s merely gone out for delivery - oh great, UPS is recycling tracking numbers and didn’t clear that one’s history.

(Checking the original package’s info on the UPS site, it has the accurate date and tracking info, but the delivery location blank says, “Met cust wom.”)

Where I used to live before this, I wouldn’t have trusted most of our neighbors farther than I could throw any of them, so I’m sort of glad that the delivery companies never left our stuff with them. Since we lived in an apartment building, there was no concealed area that packages could be left for us - at one point DHL left a package full of laserdisc films leaning against our apartment door, and I flipped out - so I had most packages shipped to my work address. That worked fine until I started getting catalogs at work. :smack:

20

Is there some incentive for the drivers to leave packages at the door or with a stranger or lie about giving it to someone? Do they get in trouble if they bring back too many packages? Or is it just laziness and not wanting to have to keep going back to the same place or unload the undelivered packages back at the depot?