Metropol

I must say the Royal Mail are a tedious lot at best, but at least when they deliver a package and you're not in, it's only a 10 minute drive to the office to pick it up, or they can redeliver online, or they can send it to your local post office etc.

And they DON'T randomly leave parcels with neighbours and then not leave you a card to say so.

This blog post gives an awesome account of the procedure for collecting failed parcels. (Although he neglets to mention that the parcel company is always one of about fifty massive warehousey buildings and the PARCEL warehouse is identified by a plaque the size of a business card).

However I would sooner drive to Spogtenville Industrial Park FIVE TIMES OVER than deal with my neighbours on the subject of parcels.

Now I don't know about you, but my relationship with my neighbours is icy at best. I try and pretend I haven't seen them if I notice them in the street, and ignore all their odious neighbourhood bonohomie schemes. So it's a real DEFEAT when I'm forced into going to their bloody house to collect a parcel. (My neighbours plainly love the power trip: they open the door and let their dog bark at me, and then pretend they have no idea what I have come to their house for ("Oh how lovely of you to drop by!") so I have to say that I'M JUST HERE FOR THE PARCEL).

I know the simple solution is for me to get friendly with my neighbours. But I don't want to! What are others' views on this; am I just an antisocial bastard, or are the delivery companies wrong to assume I enjoy a genial relationship with my neighbours, or both?

I have no problem with delivery companies leaving things with neighbours. Royal Mail will take things to the Post Office if I'm not it, that's fine as it's a 10 min walk from my house.

However TNT tried to leave me a parcel recently (Amazon were using them during the Royal Mail strikes) and I wasn't in. So they left a card which said they'd try and deliver "tomorrow (Mon-Fri)". Now this was a Friday and I wasn't sure if that meant they'd call tomorrow if it was Mon-Fri today, or if they'd only deliver if tomorrow was a weekday. If I wasn't in a second time I would have to drive to their depot to collect it within 5 days or they'd return it. They have one depot in Northern Ireland which is fifty miles away.

As it turned out they don't work on Saturdays so they redelivered on Monday and thankfully I was in, otherwise I'd have been getting a refund as I wasn't driving 100 miles to get a book and DVD.

The issue here is that delivery companies try and deliver when the maximum number of people are not in.

It's like restaurants closing for lunch.

They don't deliver on Sundays (or Saturdays in some cases) or in the evening. This should be changed.

I had a rant about this very topic a few years ago when I could be arsed writing a blog

http://mindofsteve.wordpress.com/2006/0 ... esnt-work/

You could have your parcel delivered to your place of work instead?

Yup this is what I do. Has never let me down. With a five day window, timed correctly, it's a safe bet.

We have enough trouble getting stuff which has been ordered by work and has been signed for at the loading bay to appear in the office, I wouldn't trust personal stuff to that system!