Tamebay reader Simon popped out for a few hours to watch the latest Star Wars movie at the local IMAX, but while he was out Amazon made a delivery that he wasn’t expecting to receive until Monday.
Simon left home at lunch time and didn’t return until the evening, so he was somewhat surprised to be notified that not only had the parcel been delivered, but it had also been personally handed to him by the courier – Amazon Logistics.
He found the package leant up against his front door a little wet as it’s been raining. There’s a small overhanging porch over th front door which was this little parcels saving grace, the item was not affected by the water – luckily the outer amazon packaging had soaked up the water.
Simon has a security camera so decided to check the footage and see just which “Simon” the parcel had been handed to and of course it was no one. The courier hardly waits long enough for someone to come to the door even if they had been at home.
What would have happened had the parcel been stolen from the doorstep? How many times can a parcel be stolen before Amazon decide that they don’t want to deliver to you any more? On telephoning Amazon, Simon says that they were apologetic and added a courtesy £5 credit to his account, but why don’t the couriers just mark parcels as “Left on the door step” instead of handed to the resident?
We all know that they’re busy people and have a ton of parcels to deliver and everyone accepts that in general a parcel left on the doorstep may be better than a missed delivery, but it would save everyone a lot of time and worry if that’s how the delivery was recorded.
9 Responses
I’m pretty sure they’re not meant to door step items – the options seem to be ‘mail slot’ ‘neighbour (NAME and NUMBER)’ and ‘handed to resident NAME’. For obvious reasons most of these items clearly cannot fit in the letter box, and since your name is clearly on the front of the package lots of couriers just leave them right on the doorstep. There may also be a safe place option on the HHT – but I’m guessing it only shows up if you have specified one at time of delivery (I always specify neighbour – but often it ends up in the porch and ‘handed to resident’)
I will say that I’ve had Amazon Logistics attempt to call me on at least 3 occasions – haven’t always been able to answer, but when I have they asked where they should leave it. Other times, left on doorstep or neighbour. I’d say about 50/50.
Very widespread reading around online. Only way to reduce this (to some extent) would be signature, I guess. But their pay is ridiculously low and they have a stupid number of drops, I’ve heard £70/day and 150+ drops on some forums – you pay peanuts you get monkeys!
Has anyone had a signature required item on delivery from Amazon Logistics (alcohol, knives maybe?), or do they just send them unsigned anyway?
This exact situation happened to me at the start of December – Parcel was marked as handed directly to resident yet it was left on the doorstep.
It was also raining heavily that day, but unlike Simon I don’t have any overhang over my door, and the package contained several books intended for Christmas presents, which were utterly destroyed by the rain.
Amazon quickly sent out replacements, however it does make me worry that this could count as a black mark against my account, as the delivery drive has marked it as being handed to me personally, and it could start to look like consumer fraud. At the very least its my word against his, so what if this happens again and Amazon decide not to take the chance on my account anymore?
Just before Christmas I was checking the Amazon website for a Prime delivery and was surprised to see that it had been “delivered” half an hour previously. I had been in all day and no one had been at my door. After checking with Amazon support they suggested that the courier might have been busy and it would probably be delivered the next day, It wasn’t. In fact it was a week later before it actually arrived.
Well, it looks like I am on a run of these.
Just had a courier turn up and pop a packet through the door.
Strange, I thought, as I haven’t ordered anything else.
The address on the front is to someone different but a few doors up and over the road.
No problem to drop into them but I take it this would be another one that is “DELIVERED”.
I thought I would try to phone amazon and let them know.
So it is not linked to me and flagged somewhere down the data trail, I thought I would make it as anonymous as possible.
With held and not from my account etc etc.
The woman on the phone said she would need an email address.
I wasn’t prepared to give any of mine that are linked so I gave her another old one.
She told me that it was not linked to an Amazon account.
“I know”, I said.
“All I am trying to do is let you know that the courier in this area is FAILING”
I told her that I realise all she could do is push the buttons and advised her that she should contact Amazon tech to allow for someone to report an unwanted packet.
If I had been a little old lady that hadn’t heard of amazon then I take it there would nothing that amazon could do.
They could not collect or redeliver or anything.
A billion Dollar organisation and they cannot help me or the real recipient without a linked email to an amazon account.
So in the end the Amazon rep had to call off as she could go no further and I said I will pop up the road and deliver to the correct house and advise them to complain.
Anybody a late delivery to DN39 6** area last month, the hermes driver was dismissed when they found 600 (thats right – that many) parcels at his house, he could not cope, it was too busy, they only looked into him after he stopped collections due to being too busy to cope and people were complaining that parcels were being taken off the big lorry but then went no further, 2 drivers spent 3 days to clear his back log out of his house, one person got from him a large pile of parcels in their safe place which belonged to the whole street, she worked at the post office so acted as postwoman for them
Are any parcels every “handed to resident”? Unless a signature is required all courier agents who deliver to our household, including Royal Mail, ring the bell, leave the item in the porch, and then walk back to their delivery vehicle. I am guessing that all porch owners are treated in a similar way and in general they leave their porches unlocked to be used as delivery safe place.
I looked at the tracking for a Parcelforce delivery- the signature had my surname misspelt.