Parcel update

[sally_maria]

The bad news is: I still haven't got my parcel. :-(

The good news is that I came back home to find a message from PF on the answer phone, apologising for not delivering - they went to the back door too late for there to be anyone around to answer it. And since the front is more or less pedestrianised, they didn't come round that way. We get parcels via them almost every day anyway, so tomorrow they are going to include the parcel in their standard delivery and I should get it then.

Still annoying, but at least they were being active about resolving the issue, rather than just ignoring it. When the parcel didn't arrive I was expecting to have to come in from work and fight the issue again, but was pleasantly surprised by that at least.

Thank you everyone for the kind thoughts and fellow feeling, obviously this happens far too often - are there any couriers out there that don't have these problems?

Comments

[rustica.livejournal.com]

All couriers have these problems IME. Royal Mail are pretty good. ParcelLine - well, let's just say "abandon hope" and leave it at that...

Hope it arrives soon :)

[sally_maria]

It's been a long time since I've had anything delivered by anyone apart from Royal Mail - I think I've been spoilt. And of course, normally there's somebody home - because of Grandma, we don't usually all go out at once.

Fingers crossed - I think it should be ok, because the shop gets daily deliveries from PF anyway, so they can just add it to the pile. Today, one driver had to pick it up from the PO it had been left at, and hand it to another driver to bring into town - not standard procedure.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Nosy question which you don't have to answer...where did Grandma go when you went on holiday (or do you live with Grandad too)? Just...interested.

I nearly always arrange for parcels to go to his nibs' workplace, which has a postroom open all week for quite long hours & which is very good at getting things to his desk and not damaging them. Unless it's a timed delivery and I can then stay in for it.

Another issue right now is the fact that the postman likes to bend things rather than knock (and M-Sat there's usually someone here at post time), albeit not right next to the front door. Even if they say do not bend. My latest uni certificate was bent (despite being in a non-bendy envelope and saying "do not bend". Unfortunately, or rather fortunately in this case, they haven't put the correct name of the qualification on it (the mind boggles) so I need to tell them to do me a new one and I will collect it in person at their offices. The fact that I hadn't signed to receive it in absentia and was meant to get it in person this month also escaped them but I am past caring about that bit now. However, no surprise as they were administratively worse-than-useless anyway. (And I don't remember much in the way teaching either to be honest). Grrs all round. Nb. the uni in question is not the one that I am currently studying with, in case anyone was putting 2+2 together to make 5. They are near-perfect. Although their couriers still suck. Rant over.

[sally_maria]

Grandma is staying with some friends who are retired and therefore able to be around all the time - even if I hadn't been away for the first week, with me working full time we couldn't really have managed. (She's a nurse as well, so is much better qualified than I am.)

G.'s by no means completely helpless, but she is nearly 102. If she fell, I couldn't get her up by myself, and she's pretty picky about her food. She wouldn't eat my diet of pasta and ready meals. Still she's outlasted the rest of my grandparents by the best part of 30 years, so there's so good genes there.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Lynx Express were pretty good about leaving the box of Amon Hen in the blue shed outside the front door without having to be told. They annotated the delivery note which was put through the letter box. 10/10

[sally_maria]

Sounds good - I'll bear them in mind if I have to send anything that won't go by post. I'm sure some of it is down to the brains of the individual driver, though, and that's difficult to predict.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I almost always ask the sender to put on the parcel, "If out, leave by back door or next door".

[sally_maria]

They could have left it with the dentists next door, that's definitely something to bear in mind for the future.

I think a lot of people these days don't know or trust their neighbours in the way they used to, so the couriers are much less likely to think of that solution.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Oh, you are right, and I realise weare very lucky to have a very helpful, very friendly, retired lady for our next door neighbour. The only snags are (a) her social life is so vast that, even though she's retired, the odds are that she will be out anyway, and (b) she's so talkative that when she passes the parcel onto us, we need to steel ourselves for a full run-down of what she, her family, her friends and the rest of the village have been up to ;-)