Sh!te courier thread

[Wowbagger]

A friend tells me that my 58th birthday next week is marked by the delivery of poo sticks. Does this mean that I'm going to need a shite courier?

I had a letter yesterday telling me mine will be arriving soonly. I think this will be my 5th vintage.

[hellymedic]

That's early!
Isn't your birthday towards the end of June?

[De Sisti]

Some DPD delivery drivers ask for a name before handing over a parcel (damhikt), but yet, the
one who delivered a parcel to my next-door neighbour whilst I was getting stuff out of my car just
left it at the front door and took a picture of the door ajar when she answered.

A few minutes earlier, a guy delivering an Amazon parcel just left it at her front door and then
tapped out something on his phone before moving on.

[rafletcher]

90% plus of the deliveries we get don’t ask for names. If they do, we give them. <shrugs>

[Wowbagger]

That's early!
Isn't your birthday towards the end of June?

Yes, but then I'll be an odd number again by then. I think it's more likely to be late.

[hellymedic]

That's early!
Isn't your birthday towards the end of June?

Yes, but then I'll be an odd number again by then. I think it's more likely to be late.

I think that's right. I was losing track. I know your age is me+4 but forgot I have an odd birthday this year.

[Basil]

90% plus of the deliveries we get don’t ask for names. If they do, we give them. <shrugs>

90% of our deliveries just get left in the side door porch. No knocking or ringing involved.  Which is exactly  how we like it.

Previous occupant of our house was a very old and infirm woman.  Took us some time to train deliverers not to just let themselves in.

[hellymedic]

Royal Mail.
Due to a misunderstanding, D had to produce an orchestral score and make sure the conductor had a bound hard copy for a rehearsal on Saturday 4 February. (A .pdf was OK for the other players.)
D worked his **** off to print, bind, pack and post this score, taking it to a local Post Office at around 5pm on Monday 30 January.

This was sent Tracked at some expense and placed in a sack.
D tracked it on Tuesday. 'Received.' 'We'll let you know when we attempt delivery'
Wednesday: 'Received.' 'We'll let you know when we attempt delivery.'
Thursday: 'Received.' 'We'll let you know when we attempt delivery.'

By last night we were rather worried.
D HATES phoning people.

D's a Astrofest all day today, staffing the BAA stall.

Asked him if there was any update on the score's progress. Apparently it was shoved under conductor's doormat on Tuesday.

Tracking just didn't happen.

[quixoticgeek]

A common problem I come across is applying assumptions that (generally) work for UK addresses, to addresses outside the UK.

For example the UK address "123 London Road" would in the Dutch format become "London road 123".

What this notation means is that you can truncate the address quite a lot without losing much information. "123 London ro" still contains enough information for a halfway competent delivery company to deliver it. Esp if there's a postcode. But the same level of truncation on a Dutch format address it becomes "London Road 1". Which at best puts the package 100 addresses up the street.  Alas when you get to "123 London R" by Dutch format were at "London road". And no idea which house to deliver to..

2 weeks ago I order a sleeping bag from alpkit. Only to realise in horror that they've truncated the address line to effective "London road" completely removing the house number. DPD got it to the depo 10km up the road. Decided it was too hard. And returned it to alpkit.

Alpkit to their credit have sent me a new bag. Internationally... With royal mail... We await it's arrival...

Similarly a lot of Dutch addresses are not just a number. So for example the 6th flat in the building at 134 London road would be "London road 123-6". That - is important. A lot of systems don't like hyphens in addresses so it might show as "London road 123 6" the space is important. And often missing. As such a lot of us will use Roman numerals for the flat number. So 123-VI. Cos then if the space or hyphen disappears, then 123VI is mostly identifiable.

I ordered some bike parts from Canada. Canada post says "house number can only be number. That V has to go, and we'll make the I into a 1, oh and no spaces or hyphens" so my package gets sent (at least in all the tracking) to 1231. Fortunately the label as printed by the company I ordered from had the correct number on it. So it did get to my mail box eventually.

But it was slightly worrying.

This post is brought to you by the falsehoods programmers believe about addresses...

J

[Kim]

UPS's tracking system needs to make up its mind.  It's spent all day SMSing me about the parcel that would be delivered today, with a link to a tracking page that says it should be delivered on Monday.

I've just had an SMS conceding that it will, in fact, be delivered on Monday.

[robgul]

Not exactly a complaint but . . . .  we seem to have quite a few Amazon deliveries (both purchases from there and as delivery service from others)

Looking at the tracking it seems that almost everything goes to the mega, mega new-ish warehouse at Redditch . . . . is then taken to the older and not quite as mega warehouse at Banbury for delivery (it's usually between 90 and 120 minutes between them on the tracking times) - seems rather odd that as Stratford-upon-Avon is nearer to Redditch than Banbury that the transfer is made? 

Presumably it's to do with the "last mile" network . . .  but even that's odd as Redditch is far more accessible to SuA than Banbury.

Not that it usually matters one jot but deliveries are usuall ahead of date given when ordering (free option, no Prime) . . .  order yesterday listed for Tuesday, then Monday and now going to be delivered today (Sunday) - Tuesday would have been fine!

[L CC]

Some DPD delivery drivers ask for a name before handing over a parcel (damhikt), but yet, the
one who delivered a parcel to my next-door neighbour whilst I was getting stuff out of my car just
left it at the front door and took a picture of the door ajar when she answered.

A few minutes earlier, a guy delivering an Amazon parcel just left it at her front door and then
tapped out something on his phone before moving on.

It depends on the service requested by the sender.
If I'm sending stuff out (this is generally work) I want a name from the recipient, at least partly because of the number of times we've 'not received' something from a supplier, and on chasing, discover that it was signed for by "Dan Brown" and then the warehouse admit that o yeah, that's that box in Dan's office, wondered what that was.

[The Family Cyclist]

Possibly not courier, may have been the seller but wife's uncle ordered a sofa, courier rings ask can't find the house. Courier can't work out what is being described. After a while it came to light courier was in Manchester. The first letter of the postcode had been missed off putting it in Manchester rather then near Chelmsford

[quixoticgeek]

Latest in the alpkit bag. Royal mail handed the package to post NL. Postnl scan it and promptly send me a €60+ bill for import costs. The same import costs that alpkit claim are all covered...

Fortunately alpkit have promised to reimburse me the costs. I now await postnl realising that the bills been paid and actually deliver the parcel.

For another package (from China), it seems FedEx deliver the package first then send you a bill for the import costs a few days later

J

[Beardy]

Evri are still crap.

Email at 14:35 Were sorry we can’t deliver your package to the collection point today.

Email at 14:50 Your package is read for collection at the collection point.

The question is, do I beleive the second email and walk down to the collection point, or the first one and leave it until tomorrow 

[rafletcher]

An honourable mention for the Useless Parcel Service.  I bough what is essentially a power bank (albeit for a car dash cam) from an ostensibly British based company (but knew the product would come from Germany).  It was collected, spent 3 days at the Bendorf depot, then got returned to sender.

ETA: Apparently UPS lost the shipping docs so UK customs refused it. A second attempt is underway.

[Jaded]

Amazon.

I deliberately didn't use next day delivery. on account of

a) I don't want Prime
b) I didn't need it
c) I knew I was out this afternoon
d) Free delivery was tomorrow or Friday.

So they delivered it today. Soaking wet box on highly visible doorstep.

[robgul]

Amazon.

I deliberately didn't use next day delivery. on account of

a) I don't want Prime
b) I didn't need it
c) I knew I was out this afternoon
d) Free delivery was tomorrow or Friday.

So they delivered it today. Soaking wet box on highly visible doorstep.

Similar experience with free delivery etc and when I was going to be here . . .  delivery today, 24 hours early - by chance my wife was back (but box was dry!) - then about 10 minutes after delivery an email apologising that "because of a delivery delay" my order will be delivered 2 days later than advised.  WTF?

The constant pressure to have Prime is really pissing me off - all sorts of sly tricks and hard-to find "no I don't want it" tick boxes . . .  and even after that it appears in the checkout panel to have to reject again.   I'm perfectly happy with Amazon free delivery that's specified as n days  (I remember the old days when Scotcade et al had standard delivery for mail order "allow up to 28 days" . .  and you sent them a cheque with your order)

[Basil]

Mrs B wanted some books a couple of weeks ago.  I explained about being careful not to fall for the prime trick.  However, her books arrived the very next day. As did a folding litter picker I ordered on Monday.   

[Kim]

It's very easy to fall for the Prime trick - barakta does on an irregular basis.

But sometimes they do randomly deliver things early, presumably for the convenience of their logistics operation.  I like to think it results in fewer van miles or someone getting an extra nanosecond on their toilet break or something.

[Basil]

Oh.
I'll check my next cc statement very carefully.

[robgul]

It's very easy to fall for the Prime trick - barakta does on an irregular basis.

But sometimes they do randomly deliver things early, presumably for the convenience of their logistics operation.  I like to think it results in fewer van miles or someone getting an extra nanosecond on their toilet break or something.

Everything I order seems to be delivered earlier than they specify - that could be   a) exceeding customer expectation as a marketing policy, or b) the fact that I live midway between 2 very large warehouse sites (Redditch and Banbury) . . .  what is odd that most deliveries are either in stock at Redditch or arrive there from elsewhere but are then taken to Banbury for the delivery leg?

[quixoticgeek]

Alas prime round these parts seems to have a habit of marking everything as delivered, then the package appearing a few days later.

J

[hellymedic]

Amazon.
I deliberately didn't use next day delivery. on account of
a) I don't want Prime
b) I didn't need it
c) I knew I was out this afternoon
d) Free delivery was tomorrow or Friday.
So they delivered it today. Soaking wet box on highly visible doorstep.

I likewise don't want Prime and won't pay extra for next day delivery.

Amazon delivers most stuff next day whatever here in outer Londonton.

[andrewc]

I've just had an email from DPD saying my parcel has been delivered to the local Co-Op as I wasn't in to receive it....    I've not left the flat all day and no one has rung the bell or phoned me.  Now I'm going to have to collect a fragile parcel & carry it back to the flat