I usually turn comments off so my ego doesn’t get damaged but I’ve never seen the comments themselves get damaged 
Spidey, you funny.
If Amazon truck driver buzzes the gate, we open it let them thru.
Everytime, EVERYtime when they get to porch they holler “Amazon!”.
It’s like they are nervous we’ll think they are not them or something.
Hmm 
, maybe we do look like an armed compound of weirdos.
And, I try so hard to be welcoming. Read the door mat. BIG letters.
(Actually the rug says “wipe your paws” not WELCOME. 
)
Small city (pop ~115 k) in Southwest Germany:
The major players by far are DHL (part of the same group of companies as the formerly state owned letter carrier Deutsche Post; the two companies share some resources), and Amazon’s own delievery service.
DHL and Amazon are both pretty reliable, but sometimes they both do not wait until one answers the doorbell. Typically I buzz them into the building, then quickly go downstairs to collect the parcel (or get it inside for other people in the building).
For some parcels DHL and Amazon ask for a signature; in this case if you are not at home they redirect to the next DHL parcel shop, or the next Amazon locker, respectively.
I for one avoid the problem of not being at home by ordering all DHL deliveries for pickup at the nearest DHL parcel shop (at a gas station about 600 m distant - they have more DHL business than gas station business), and all small to mid size size Amazon deliveries to the nearest Amazon locker (at another gas station about 500 m distant). DHL leaves me 7 days to pick up at the counter (which only operates weekdays 9-18, Saturday 9-12); Amazon only leaves me 3 days for pickup at the locker which is accessible all the time - usually Amazon pickup is a leisurely 20 min evening stroll for me. Both services work pretty well, but DHL pickup is practically only possible on the day after delivery as the delivery driver only hits the parcel shop as the last stop of the tour, when the counter is already closed.
That leaves parcels arriving by the other services, mainly DPD and Hermes. These are more of a hassle if you are not at home. The major disadvantage is that in case of returns I have to bike to obscure DPD or Hermes stores to drop the parcel - usually immigrant supermarkets, nail studios etc. - DHL’s parcel shops are definitely more professionally run, and I can also post registered letters and pick up stamps there due to their cooperating with Deutsche Post.
If you track the shipment on the shipping company’s web site, it will often say “shipping label created” or something similar, so it’s easy to tell if it’s actually been shipped or if all they’ve done is make a stupid label. Once the item actually ships, it will be updated with a location.
I personally have never had a shipping label created for something that then proved to be out of stock. YSMV (your shipping may vary).
Quite right. Which is why I said the same thing in my next paragraph. 
I read your entire post, but my brain somehow skipped that part.
I’m in Chicago proper. I’ve rarely noticed any sort of problem from any of the delivery services I use (FedEx, UPS, USPS, Amazon, etc.) The only thing that comes to mind is a year back a package saying it was going to be delivered today, but the day came and went and it was delivered the next day. I think that was FedEx. I don’t particularly care. I don’t really get anything that needs to be received in such a timely manner. I still remember the days of 4-6 week delivery.
I should add on the subject of bell-ringing, maybe one in 25 deliveries the driver might ring the bell. I would prefer they not, even though I live in an urban environment. I’ve had package left out in front for hours and nobody’s nicked one yet.
USPS is fine. They packages show up at my front door and since I’m home all day, I can get them before they’re out too long.
UPS leaves things at my side door. I don’t usually check there, but it’s less visible from the street.
Haven’t used FedEx in a while.
Same here - very few ring or knock and I’d just as soon they not. I’m very used to keeping odd hours due to decades of shift work, so I’d just as soon not be bothered in case I’m in bed asleep at noon. Amazon and some others will e-mail you on delivery (even if they mis-delivered it), which is good enough notification for me.
A friend asked me how much I tip the Amazon guys and I said never, I never even know they’re there 
. He’s in a rather different situation where he has to buzz them in and usually receives the delivery fact-to-face so he feels compelled to give them a couple of bucks. Which is nice, but the Amazon guys delivering to me are generally as stealthy as ninjas. As noted with my building they’re usually in a rush and they probably don’t have patience for the potential of time-eating chit-chat.
I didn’t know that was a thing.
We have stealth-ninja deliveries too though our dogs usually manage to detect them.
My doorbell cam notifies me when someone is on my doorstep. Doorbell ringers are nearly always someone trying to sell something (including their faith) or political canvassers. If I don’t know who it is, I ignore it.
USPS is pretty damn good, we even have a regular mail carrier we are friendly with. Amazon is also pretty good, but once in a while if we are getting a couple packages and so is the neighbor, we might get a box misdelivered- which is okay, as they take pictures and it is easy just to walk over and fix it.
UPS and FedEX have delivered to another town, sometimes hundreds of miles away. Not much FedEx, but yeah I kinda dread UPS when that is how it is being shipped- UNLESS it is one of those where UPS does the long distance then hands it over to the US Mail.
They used to do a lot of things pre-COVID that they no longer do. They used to ring my bell - no more. They used to leave a slip and I could call for re-delivery or they would bring the package to a pick-up location. Maybe they’d deliver to a neighbor. What they didn’t do is what they do now - just leave the package on my stoop wuthout me signing a form. Which wouldn’t bother me as much except for their policy of “we put it on your stoop, not our problem”. I wouldn’t care as much if it was a $10 item, but the one that went missing wasn’t.
Although if people don’t ever want their doorbell rung, I wonder why they don’t disconnect it.
Fed Ex is the worst delivery service in my opinion - Fed Ex has forced me to have a package returned to the sender because it was shipped to me at my mother’s house because there’s more likely to be someone home there. I couldn’t pick it up at the pick-up location because I didn’t have ID with my name and my mother’s address. OK, that’s not unreasonable. What was unreasonable is that they also wouldn’t attempt delivery again. Most recently, I asked for a package to go to Walgreen’s because I wasn’t going to be home at the scheduled delivery time - they left it on my stoop anyway. Another time, it went to the pick up location but it didn’t get scanned in and calling customer service just got me " It was loaded on the truck yesterday, no idea what happened after that." Which makes me not so confident that they would ring the bell even if I could figure out how to notify them.
You should be able to specify that you want a doorbell ring or a signature. The default seems to have changed.
That’s a fair question. I do want it rung if it’s a neighbor who needs help with something. Maybe if it’s a friend who just showed up for something we planned although in most cases they just walk in.
When I went to install my doorbell cam, I took a look at the old doorbell which was there when I bought the house almost 30 years prior. It didn’t work. I have no idea how long it had been broken. Possible a couple of years. It turned out that the transformer in my closet had gone bad which is very rare. It was certainly original to the house so almost 60 years old. It was easy enough to replace. I think more people knock that ring the bell anyway.
Where does one do that, I don’t believe that I’ve never seen on any web site the ability for me to choose the courier or type special instrux. Even if I got someone to print on the label
*Peter Parker *
Ring the doorbell
20 Ingram St
Forrest Hills, NY
then it’s up to the courier actually reading & following the instrux.
If you have a UPS or FedEx login you can add instructions when looking at the tracking. I think Amazon too. It includes things like leave with a neighbor or require a signature.
The instructions will be on the little handheld device. They do read it. You’ve now insinuated that delivery workers are lazy and stupid twice.
We live in an apartment building, so all packages of any size are placed in a spare office room off of the lobby. If you leave it there long enough, staff will bring it to your door, but I usually go down and get them. I’d say USPS is the slowest at getting a package delivered (and the most expensive), and I generally avoid ordering things from companies that utilize it, but that’s not always possible.
Some of them definitely are. The aforementioned boxes flung at my doorstep not only had prominent labels indicated which way up they should go, but also large printed instructions to ring the doorbell. I think out of the six times I’ve had that product delivered, only once were the boxes right way up and the doorbell rung.
Well they’re people so of course some are. As a whole they are just doing their fucking jobs as instructed. Most people would rather have the packages left on their porch without being annoyed with signatures or doorbells if this thread is any indication.
The only reliable service is the Post Office, locally.