Neighbour keeps getting our deliveries

The_Honeybadger

Hey folks. I’m have a hugely irritating issue where a neighbour keeps getting my online deliveries by mistake. Due to the poorly thought out layout of the estate I live in there are two houses numbered the same within 100 yards of each other and delivery drivers continuously deliver to the first one they see (my neighbour) without checking the eircode.

The owners of the house are new and deny that they have taken the delivery in each time. They usually don’t even answer the door now in fact, and the last time they did the lady pretended she had no English. We have had oil deliveries and other expensive items mixed up in the past but the people that lived in the house previously were very good and always helped sort it. The new neighbours are a different story.

We are at the stage where we dont order anything online now unless we absolutely have to but that’s becoming hard in this day and age obviously. Today I ordered €100 worth of groceries because I didn’t have time to go out for them as we had a hectic weekend. It never arrived and I am nearly 100% certain that my neighbour took the delivery in. I rang the Dunnes helpline but it just refers you to an email address.

I’m especially annoyed because I put a note on the order for the driver to double check the eircode which they obviously didn’t see.

Apart from putting a note for drivers and minimising what I order online is there any legal comeback on my neighbour? They have hundred of euros of our stuff at this stage and I am still battling with some of the vendors to replace or refund the orders.

Princess Calla

I presume while both houses are numbered the same, your address is different ie 10 fake street and 10 flower street.

Could you get a number plate for the wall of your driveway that has the address on it , just first line.

A few of my neighbours have them as the roads are named very alike , so if someone turns onto the wrong cul de sac they'll have pretty much the right address , so 10 fake lawn, 10 fake park, 20 fake grove.

It still relies on delivery person doing their job correctly though

Mail tampering is illegal so you could go to guards , not sure how far you'd get

DoctorEdgeWild

You could change your own address to something like 35A? That would demark it from the other number 35?

endacl

Put a nonexistent house number on your delivery. Eg 10000000 main st. That’ll force the drivers to check the eircode.

The_Honeybadger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121092884#Comment_121092884

That’s exactly it. Three cul de sacs named similarly so very easy to make a mistake. I might try that but the house in question is on the corner as you turn in to our cul de sac so in most cases the driver doesn’t get to us, just sees the number on the first house and drops it there.

We had a pretty expensive item go missing in August. I contacted DHL after I realised there was an issue and the driver rang me back, said the lady that answered the door acted like she was expecting the delivery. They didn’t answer the door to either of us when we went to try to sort it. Really lousy behaviour IMO

Princess Calla

If the DHL driver confirmed that they delivered to that address and actually tried knocking in with you I would have called the guards. That's theft!

Gregor Samsa

Give your house a name.

Put the name up on a plaque or sign on the house or driveway.

Use the name instead of your house number when giving your address, and continue to give the Eircode at the end.

So instead of

10 Fake Drive, Woodgrove, Somewheretown, Co. Whatever FAK 3A55

you'd have

Avondale, Fake Drive, Woodgrove, Somewheretown, Co. Whatever FAK 3A55

Just make sure no-one else around has the same house name, or you'll be back to square one.

Not sure what you can do about the existing deliveries that you didn't get, other than pursue the vendors for non-delivered orders. You know they've gone to this other house, and I certainly don't doubt you, but getting the proof that they've taken them that you'd need to go the legal route against them may be very difficult.

Like, in theory you could post a tracking device (like a Tile or AirTag) to yourself and hope that it ends up in this other house, then you ask them do they have it and they say no, then you go to the Gardaí with the tracking info as proof that they have your property. But would you actually do this? And would it actually work in real life, and would the Gardaí actually act? And if they did, it still wouldn't necessiraly prove that all the other stuff ended up there, so you might just end up with you tracker back.

Padre_Pio

The house name is a good idea. Of paint your door a certain colour and put that in the address as well.

My estate has a new section called "1 the willows, fake st." and also an older section '1 fake st." so we're always getting things mixed up.

I put " the new 1, the willows.. and it seems to work.

Str8outtaWuhan

If they are keeping your orders, You could of course order something exceedingly dodgy from silk road.

Jim_Hodge

Go with a house name and drop the number. It's what people in rural areas, with just townlands and several shared surnames, do. Coupled with Eircodes it ensures problem free deliveries. Get your address changed to the Name version on Eircode too.

apache

That's lousy. I'd be raging! The fuckers

The_Honeybadger

Thanks all. Going with a house name over a number is a good suggestion I think I will try that.

Not much I can do on the items already misplaced except to chase the vendors, I don’t think the Gardai would be remotely interested

riffmongous

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095823#Comment_121095823

How about a bit of revenge at least? Post something foul and put a nice note in there for them if they open it

Hell have one of your friends deliver as a 'courier'. If they take it and open it they deserve it

listermint

No ones mentioned the obvious one. Move ! I'd just sell up and get somewhere that already has a house name, life's too short for misplaced deliveries

riffmongous

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095853#Comment_121095853

I think there's maybe one or two good reasons no one mentioned that 'solution'..

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095865#Comment_121095865

Brighten up a Monday 😁

Smee_Again

Time to start ordering glitter bombs.

riffmongous

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095959#Comment_121095959

Ah :D I've just seen that posted so many times on boards it's impossible to tell if someone is being serious or not

homer911

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095852#Comment_121095852

Glitter bomb!

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095823#Comment_121095823

The drivers going to use your Eircode to find your home, they won't bother looking for a house with a name in a housing estate when a house number comes up on their sat nav/phone/tablet.

CPTM

I'm just imagining the rival house putting up a plaque with the same or similar house name on it, saying as they're getting lots of free stuff. I mean surely not, but they do sound crappy enough to do it!

The_Honeybadger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098397#Comment_121098397

Quite possible, I think the drivers may be checking the eircode as they leave their previous drop off, get to the estate and see what they think is the right house number and just drop. The two houses are a stones throw from each other.

The house name might make no difference but it’s worth a try

legend99

https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2011/act/21/section/53/enacted/en/html

Someone mentioned earlier that it is illegal. I'd assume the same based on the above - a report to the Guards and a reference to this part of the act and they are surely obliged to investigate?

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098774#Comment_121098774

Yeah, but they get to determine the speed of the investigation. I suspect it might take a very long time.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098774#Comment_121098774

Are packages delivered by courier post? Post is items with stamps and delivered by post office staff. Couriers aren't post office staff, it they where they'd have decent pay and would care about where they deliver.

It's hard to get the Gardaí to turn up when a burglary is happening due to lack of resources, getting them to act on someone keeping parcels is going to be at the end of a long list.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098735#Comment_121098735

The drivers aren't paid enough to care and are under huge pressure to get their deliveries done. They won't look for a house name in an estate when they've a house number.

Peregrinus

Would a parcel locker be of any help here? If you live or work near a parcel locker depot you can collect your packages whenever suits you. This solves both the problem of the acquisitive neighbours and the problem of there being no-one at home if, by some miracle, they try to deliver the parcel to the right house.

This would drive me insane, bet those freeloaders aren’t paying their way in life in other ways, maybe like rent. They are rotten neighbours.

Addmagnet

When I worked in Amazon customer support (quite a while ago now, tbh), we were told that with online purchases the legal onus was on the seller to ensure delivery, so claims of "we sent it, if it dropped into a black hole before it got to the buyer that's not our problem" were bogus.

*opens new Google tab*

Here:

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/consumer/shopping/delivery-rights/#:~:text=Because%20your%20contract%20is%20with,or%20lost%20and%20additional%20costs.

Get back on to the seller for all the stuff you're missing and insist on your rights.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121099785#Comment_121099785

The neighbour might have a different perspective about "the lazy f**** next door who expect me to staff a reception desk for them".

The_Honeybadger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121099798#Comment_121099798

Yes I’ve followed up with the vendors it is their responsibility to ensure items are delivered but the process of getting a replacement or refund with a lot of them is so slow that you’d wonder is it designed to get you to give up.

The_Honeybadger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121099872#Comment_121099872

Come off it. It would be clear to anyone that it’s a genuine error on the part of the delivery company and the neighbours in question have actively avoided me when I’ve tried to sort it. The delivery driver of one item told me that they accepted one parcel and pretended that they were expecting it. Anyone with any decency would have said it’s not theirs, it’s actually less effort than taking it.

Im not expecting anyone to man a reception desk and as I stated in the OP I have cut out online ordering as far as possible at this stage .