Dear madam, your parcel is in the litter tray

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.surreyherald.co.uk/surrey-ne ... -26155950/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

THIS week, I have mainly been riled by Royal Mail. This is why: Obviously when I buy something new and expensive, I leave it on my doorstep waiting for an opportunist pilferer to make away with it. In fact, I order stuff online specifically for this purpose.

Well, actually, I don't, but I might as well. This week, two parcels have been left outside my front door, both containing around £100 worth of goods. For some reason, Royal Mail thinks 'delivering' a parcel means dumping it on the doorstep and driving off.

On both occasions I was in. But the postman didn't know that as he did not knock or make any attempt to actually hand the parcels over.
Fortunately, neither item was stolen, but probably only because I was alerted to the presence of one by a neighbour and discovered the other by tripping over it when I opened the front door.

The practise of cards being left for 'attempted deliveries' that have not been attempted at all has been well documented throughout the press, with Royal Mail responding with threats to discipline staff who carded householders unnecessarily (as in they never had the parcels in the first place, having left them back at the sorting office), but what about this new trend for just abandoning stuff on the doorstep?

A friend has been experiencing the same problem, and one of her neighbours came home one day to find someone actually going through the parcels left outside the door of her block of flats and making away with the goods he fancied.

Lovely.

In some ways I prefer their 'sorry we missed you (even though we didn't)' carding scam, and would much rather trek round to a sorting office and collect my post myself than risk having the whole lot nicked from my doorstep.

What next? 'Drive by' deliveries, maybe, where they won't actually get out of their vans at all, but just wind the window down and fling the packages in the general direction of the recipients house? Or maybe just dump them all at the top of the road for customers to rifle through and stake their claim?

I have to admit though that a parcel on the step is preferable to the 'hiding' techniques of one courier who used regularly to deliver to me - obviously on a bit of a mission to find the best hiding place ever for packages, I'd have notes through the door with 'parcel under rose bush' or 'packet in bin' and even 'box down side behind bag of coal'. All amusing until he started throwing them over the side gate instead, where unbeknown to him my cat's litter tray lived. What fun retrieving a beautifully wrapped and packaged delivery from the depths of the cat's toilet... probably a good theft deterrent though. Perhaps I'll install one on the front step.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

For once I agree with Royal Mail

DO NOT DOORSTEP ANYTHING

[smarterdarter]

£100s worth each, and the sender didn't require a signature

[DGP1]

What next? 'Drive by' deliveries, maybe, where they won't actually get out of their vans at all, but just wind the window down and fling the packages in the general direction of the recipients house? Or maybe just dump them all at the top of the road for customers to rifle through and stake their claim?

Don't be giving the bosses anymore ideas on how to cut costs

[Postman Plodd]

Names RM and yet only refers to "one courier" without naming them.

[Straight4ward]

“This week, I have mainly been riled by Royal Mail” !!!!!

Now here’s a woman who keeps a timetable for getting riled.
Perhaps last week it was those dreadfully common types who are supposed to repair the roads around Virginia Water or St.George’s Hill or wherever and maybe next week it will be the oiks who deliver her Fortnum & Mason hampers.

“ - - -mainly riled - - -“. So there were others who fell foul of her petty bile this week but she didn’t get around to castigating them in print. Who? Oxfam? I mean they give help to poor people. What about the NHS? Here she is taxed to the hilt to support people who can’t even arrange private health care!

Clearly there isn’t enough to read in The Daily Mail these days to keep her occupied.

[mazza111]

Here we go again, all posties getting a bad name because of a few bad apples.

I will name and shame another one. Hermes home delivery brought me a lovely new cocktail dress, all ready for a night out in a very posh casino, only to put it in the bin, needless to say I don't live in the best part of town and the dress wasn't there by the time I got home from work. Needless to say, I didn't pay for the said dress either, and contacted the catalogue company directly.

Really bl00dy annoying when something like this happens

[NWpostie]

I totally agree, its yoru job on the line if anything goes missing, for what ? an extra hour at home ? they will get more than an extra hour if they lose their jobs.

i had this done tome, as much as I hated it, I had to complain in order to stop it, I have been door stepped 3 times, one is a very rare and valuable item from Canada, which got touched by rain but not soaked, I suspected one item didn't get delivered, possibly door stepped as I was out most of the day.

Simple answer do NOT door step, you will lose your job, RM is looking to cut staff for the slightest thing..

[Wiggins79]

The truth is, you simply can't win. As a day-off relief, I refuse to leave any packets or parcels, no matter how well hidden. I also will not get a neighbour to sign for any recorded or special delivery items. You can be sure though that the day after all I will get is moaning from the regular going on about how "you could have left that parcel there" or "you could have got their neighbour to sign for that." As far as I'm concerned, unless there is a written agreement from the householder with their signature on it saying the postman can leave packets in certian places or get a nieghbour to sign for stuff I will not do it. A classic example recently was this: A householder used to regulalry complain about a postman who took over a round from someone else who retired. She used to say that the old postman would leave parcels for them under a boat outside the front door. They were still clearly visible by anyone passing by so they refused to do it. Eventually, sick of the complaining (and the amount of parcels they were getting lumbered with from the same address week in week out, they started to do the same. Then, the other week when the regular postie was on holiday, the holiday cover postman left a parcel for this house under the boat becuase the regular had told them they could do this. A week later the householder comes into the PO with his parcel which was wet through (he hadn't bothered to open it) and went ballisitic about his parcel being left under the boat to get soaked. When he was told that you told us you wanted parcels leaving there he said yes, but I was on holiday last week! By the way, he hadn't put in a keepsake, so how the hell was the holiday relief supposed to know they were on holiday?
As others have stated, the simple solution is never to doorstop anything. I hate it as much as the next postie when you are lumbered with countless packets you are unable to get rid off- each bag getting progressively more awkward as you try to juggle them, but at least you can't be accused of letting someones goods get nicked.