couriers giving parcels to Neighbours?

Bob Z

I have had a couple of couriers asking me to take stuff for my neighbours. Are they allowed to do this?

afatbollix

last time they did this for me they asked me over the phone... But its also up to you...

pokerface_me

I'd rather the neighbour accept it for me or getting sent back to sender which some courier companys do.

mikemac

I've had neighbours take packages for me. And I've done it from them.
One neighbour accepted a IR£700 computer for me. Back in the days when Gateway were big in Ireland

I've no issue with it but if I moved recently and had scumbags for neighbours, they may end up getting an expensive package and it'd take me weeks to prove my case and get a replacement.

If I didn't sign for it, I didn't get it!

Agent Smith

Got a laptop for my sister for christmas 2 years ago. People across the street signed for it. They had just moved in about 2 weeks before. Thank god they were the honnest type!


I can understand why they want rid of it. I'd rather they rang me first.

rubadub

It is very common, better than it left on the doorstep like some fools do, I think there was a thread where it was put in a bin and not noticed and was taken away. If I had scumbags of neighbours I would specifically say not to leave with neighbours, often there is a message request box. I get all stuff sent to work anyway, but recently littlewoods ignored my delivery address and sent to the CC address, it was left with my neighbours (who are fine!)

Miaireland

We were plagued with couriers dropping in parcels for one of our neighbours for a while. I didn't really mind them dropping them in but the neighbour thought nothing of calling for them at 1am or 2am. He worked away from home most of the time and always locked his security gates.

I have been lucky with couriers I use in that they ring me before they deliver and I can tell them where to put them if I am not in or else if I buy something online I arrange for someone to be in for the next few days.

My major gripe was with An Post. They used to hand parcels into the man across the road even though I asked them a number of times not too. He felt that once the parcel was in his house he was entitled to open it.

mcaul

Bob Z wrote: »

I have had a couple of couriers asking me to take stuff for my neighbours. Are they allowed to do this?

I don't think there's anything that stops them asking you to do this. Its for you to either accept or reject the request.

If you get on well with the neighbours, then its the neighbourly thing to do but theer's no onus on you whatsoever to accept the parcel.

theblueirish

I am a manager of a courier company, while it is not best practice to leave with a neighbour most drivers will try this. Most people would rather it be left with a neighbour than be returned to the depot. If the driver attempts delivery twice then he returns it to the depot where it is held for a further three days then returns it to sender.
I have seen cases where a card has been left at the front door but the people only use their back door and never seen the card, when it was realised the goods had been returned and they had to re order and were out the cost of shipping.
Most courier companies now have GPS locators that give you an exact location of where the goods have been delivered to, I have been able to tell people that their parcel was signed for at the local shop or post office and they were more than happy to only have to walk a few yards rather than wait for redelivery.
If you have a problem contact the courier company and tell them that under no circumstances will you accept deliveries to any other address rather than your own.
one thing to bear in mind is that there probably will be an extra charge usually 50% if you are not in or available to accept goods.
Try and put your mobile number on all orders as the courier will phone you for an alternative address before leaving with a neighbour.

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

Whilst it is common practice for couriers to try this it can leave them exposed to a non delivery claim from the sender. There are some retailers and ourselves included who specifically ban this, not so much for the scenario of a neighbour signing for it and then claiming to never have but for other reasons. Take this ..

Scenario is that we get an order with a phone number attached asking us to ring for directions / give 30 min notice of arrival so that someone can be home. Appears innocent enough until the driver rings and customer asks him to meet in local town outside work / can't leave for too long etc. Stolen card details of a local person have been used to pay for the goods, delivery address matches the card so we ship in good faith but the goods never arrive. We've even had to specify that access to the house must be provided. ie waiting in the driveway is not good enough, the driver must hand it to a person physically inside the building. Any deviation from this which is subsequently claimed as a non delivery has our carriers liable.

The bin incident happened to us - not sure if I posted it here before so it may be it is ours that rubabub is referring to but basically a courier in the UK delivered a Wii Fit to a house, found nobody in, put the package in the blue recycling wheelie bin outside and left a card in the door to say so. Customer comes home from being away 4 days later to find card and wheelie bin emptied. It may have been taken by the binmen or somebody else or could have ended up in the back of the bin truck but either way package was gone.