Online shopping is so convenient. Shopping 24 hours a day from the comfort of your own home? Wonderful. But there’s a flaw: dodgy deliveries can cause more trouble than you bargained for.
The postman stands on your doorstep clutching a parcel. He rings the doorbell – but you’re not in.
Does he take your package back to the depot? Leave it with a neighbour? Hide it in the wheelie bin? Or stuff it behind the garden gnomes?
It’s something that almost all of us have experienced after ordering products online. But different companies have very different policies when it comes to deliveries.
Your parcel has bin delivered
Some retailers offer you a chance to let the postie know where would be best to leave your parcel. Others say they will leave your precious package in a ‘safe or secure’ place if you’re not around.
But what exactly does this mean? It’s hard to find any decent definition on any of the major retailers’ websites.
We’ve heard from online shopping customers who have had parcels thrown over their fence, left in a gas meter box, dumped on a rainy doorstep or left languishing in their recycling bin. That certainly doesn’t sound safe or secure to me.
Unwrapping the problem
If you’ve popped to the shops in your lunch hour, you wouldn’t leave your new purchase on a park bench or by the side of the road until you’re ready to go home.
And nor should any decent delivery driver leave your parcels where they could be damaged or stolen unless clearly agreed in advance.
Of course, it’s just as annoying to be forced to trek to a far-flung depot to pick up a parcel that could easily have been hidden out of sight in a nice dry shed or left with a friendly neighbour. It seems to come down to common sense.
The online shopping revolution has brought with it many benefits, but it risks being undermined by bad delivery firms. Have you had parcels thrown into your garden, stolen from your doorstep or left in a wheelie bin? Which retailers are getting it right, and which ones are failing to deliver?
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