How do you get your packages/parcels?

[Fluffdaddy]

As I sit here waiting for the UPS guy with my HD extender the thought hit me, how do most people get their parcels if they work the regular 9-5. I work a weekly rotating shift so I have a 75% chance of being home for one of the 3 delivery attempts. The other 25% I take my chances with my stuff being left at my door or at a Neighbors house, a neighbor of(the parcel guy choosing. ) Both back-up options I hate. The parcel guy once left a $800 laptop sitting in front of my door for 5 hours

Poll time

[cslatt]

I still live in an apartment building so my concierge takes care of all the packages for me. I expect it is the only thing besides maintenance issues being "someone else's problem" that I will miss about living in an apartment. (Hoping to buy a house next year)

[vhurst]

I ship everything to my work address. Someone's always there. Be carefull though. I did have a complaint from the staff when UPS delivered my ammunition from Cabela's.

[JUC]

I live in the middle of nowhere so i have a few hurdles. IF UPS/Fedex finds my house they leave it on the porch. If its the winter I have a large box attached to my mailbox at the bottom of our private road that they can leave packages in. Pretty much AWD/4WD required in winter. For some reason, sometimes they decide to leave it at a neighbors house and i usually have to go figure out who it was and track it down (but this is pretty rare). Large packages go to my work.

Juc

[zoundz]

So my HD extender arrived UPS yesterday. Woo Hoo. Well, not really UPS. My neighbor from 631 Other Street, walked a block over and brought it to me at 631 My Street because UPS had left it on her doorstep. The moral of the story being that you shouldn't have UPS deliver anything that someone else could use or recognize. Either that or you need honest neighbors.

[Opus4]

I guess the shippers have different policies in different areas -- I was told a while back that neither FedEx nor UPS will leave packages at a neighbor's house any more. And, I have to leave a note on the door telling them to leave it w/o my signature or else I just get a delivery attempt notice. Hmmm... I didn't think my neighborhood was that bad, but maybe there's something I don't know.

- Andy

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I guess the shippers have different policies in different areas -- I was told a while back that neither FedEx nor UPS will leave packages at a neighbor's house any more. And, I have to leave a note on the door telling them to leave it w/o my signature or else I just get a delivery attempt notice. Hmmm... I didn't think my neighborhood was that bad, but maybe there's something I don't know.

- Andy

I've had both happen to me. The normal route driver will leave stuff on my doorstep, but every once in a while I'll get one of those delivery attempt notices. When I get one of those, I'll leave a note on the door the next day if I am not home.

I'm lucky, I live out in the burbs and my house sits way off the road and my door doesn't face the street so I don't usually have a problem.

Now the post office........ I live on a dead end street and way down at the other end there's someone with the same last name. Routinely I get their mail and they get mine. We've just gotten in the habit of self-delivering to the correct mailbox.
Then there was the time that I was out of town for a couple weeks so I had the post office hold my mail. I came home to a bunch of mail in my mailbox and a not saying they were holding the rest at the post office. When I went there to figure out what happened I found out that they had stopped the mail for the people at the end of the street and not mine. They had just found out when the other family showed up wondering why they hadn't received any mail for the past week and a half.

[Yooper]

I live in an extremely rural area. Until a few years ago the nearest stop light was over 100 miles away. Now we have four lights.

Nobody locks their houses. In the past, I would come home and the package would be on my kitchen table. They do not do that anymore - even though the houses are still unlocked. They now put them on the front porch.

I once ordered a gateway computer and the gateway box was visible on my front porch from quite a distance away!

[malore]

In my experience it is the shipper that determines whether or not a signature is required. Unless it is something expensive, I just take my chances. For the most part the delivery person can't be bothered do more than ring the bell and run, let alone check to see if a neighbor is home.

One of my favorite experiences happened a while back when cd burners cost a couple hundred dollars. I ordered a burner and some cd-r's. I found a box in my garage alone with a note indicating another package required a signature. I was surprised to discover upon opening the box that the $200 drive was left but the $20 worth of cd-r's were what needed a signature.

[Opus4]

The pharmacy that sends my cat's prescription can tell the shipper to leave it w/o a signature.

I always ask how many boxes I'm signing for... years ago, they left 1 box & later adamantly insisted that I had signed for 2. Maybe the driver wanted the UPS that was supposed to have been the 2nd box?

- Andy

[davephan]

Another option is to have the package delivered to a UPS Store. You can then pick it up from the UPS Store without the risk of having the package stolen. I checked with my local UPS Store, and they charge $5 per package to receive a package.

Dave

[BobPhoenix]

FedEx use to take the package back to the warehouse for me why I liked newegg FedEx shipments but UPS never has they knock once and sprint back to the truck. FedEx has started doing this too now but thankfully DHL at least won't leave a package without a signature. I prefer to drive down to the warehouse with the delivery attempt notice and get it!

[zoundz]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I guess the shippers have different policies in different areas -- I was told a while back that neither FedEx nor UPS will leave packages at a neighbor's house any more. And, I have to leave a note on the door telling them to leave it w/o my signature or else I just get a delivery attempt notice. Hmmm... I didn't think my neighborhood was that bad, but maybe there's something I don't know.

- Andy

I guess it wasn't as obvious as I thought. UPS left the package at 631 Wrong Street instead of 631 My Street. This wasn't leaving it at a neighbor's house. This was the UPS driver being on the wrong street and not knowing it. This was UPS total incompetence and irresponsibility with a $200 package. If it had been a box of money with a "Contents Negotiable" sticker on it, I would never have gotten it.

[lovingHDTV]

Originally Posted by zoundz

I guess it wasn't as obvious as I thought. UPS left the package at 631 Wrong Street instead of 631 My Street. This wasn't leaving it at a neighbor's house. This was the UPS driver being on the wrong street and not knowing it. This was UPS total incompetence and irresponsibility with a $200 package. If it had been a box of money with a "Contents Negotiable" sticker on it, I would never have gotten it.

If it had been dropped off on my door step you wouldn't have gotten it either

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by zoundz

I guess it wasn't as obvious as I thought. UPS left the package at 631 Wrong Street instead of 631 My Street. This wasn't leaving it at a neighbor's house. This was the UPS driver being on the wrong street and not knowing it. This was UPS total incompetence and irresponsibility with a $200 package. If it had been a box of money with a "Contents Negotiable" sticker on it, I would never have gotten it.

This happened to me once. As soon as I realized they said they left it and it wasn't at my house, I called UPS to see what happened. The driver immediately came back over, picked it back up from the wrong house, and brought it to us within an hour of calling.

I'm not sure how they realized that it was delivered to the wrong street, but they knew immediately and fixed it.

Now, California Overnight isn't quite so transparent. I ordered a new HDMI cable from them for my HD extender, and it was listed as "out for delivery" for 3 days. It finally showed up on my doorstep yesterday. So "overnight" ended up being quite a bit longer...

[95TBird]

We have a "lock box" on our front deck. It's 6' wide x 3' deep x 3' high, has 2 lids that each lock with a padlock. When we are expecting a delivery (or 2) we leave 1 or both unlocked & our delivery folks put our goodies inside & lock the padlocks!! It has cushions on top & doubles as a bench.

Once we told all our delivery folks about it, they love it!!

- Bruce

[pez]

We have a large pilar holding up the front entry way porch. The FedEx guy and UPS guy will leave packages behind it, but the DHL guy places them in front of the door visible from the street. I guess DHL doesn't pay their workers enough to think.
-pez

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by pez

We have a large pilar holding up the front entry way porch. The FedEx guy and UPS guy will leave packages behind it, but the DHL guy places them in front of the door visible from the street. I guess DHL doesn't pay their workers enough to think.
-pez

For my area DHL is the best! They never leave a package unless you sign the slip they leave. UPS and FedEx just dump the package off with UPS guys seting world records for returning back to the truck.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

For my area DHL is the best! They never leave a package unless you sign the slip they leave. UPS and FedEx just dump the package off with UPS guys seting world records for returning back to the truck.

Are you sure the UPS driver even gets out of the truck? From the look of most UPS packages I think they just stand in the doorway of the truck and drop kick the package to your door.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Are you sure the UPS driver even gets out of the truck? From the look of most UPS packages I think they just stand in the doorway of the truck and drop kick the package to your door.

Well the last package I got to the door in what I thought had to be just a fraction of a second and saw the delivery guy sprinting around the front of the vehicle. So they at least came part of the way plus I heard the knock on the door. However I think he could break the world record for the 100yrd dash!