Mystery deliveries
 

Delivery people (UPS, FedEx) no longer knock on the door or ring the bell. They just drop the package and bolt. Almost nightly on the news they report about packages being stolen. My chair is about 3 feet from the front door and I never know when a package is dropped off. It would only take them a second to press the doorbell. Is this now standard operating procedure?

It might be the local guys in your area. They do ring here. Sometimes.

As far as the news giving stories about stolen packages... that just gives kids ideas. There’s a few scumbags that follow the trucks, etc. but I suspect most of it is kids (like I was) seeing a truck pull off and thinking about what they saw on the news...

Only once had I anything delivered stolen. It was just before Christmas. And the thieves feet print were all over the snow. Their efforts got them a couple of wheel chair batteries.

I’ll be they were disappointed.

Maybe a Connecticut thing. Same for me. I can't recall the last time UPS, USPS, FedEx rang the door bell. I guess the time study engineers don't give the drivers an extra 10 seconds for door bell ringing. Even with the latest tracking technology... It would still be nice for an ole' fashioned "Ding Dong".

My son ordered some electrical equipment from Amazon and the policy of the delivery company was to leave packages out of sight. The only place out of sight at his house was in the rubbish bin (trash can) so that's where they left it.

If they had not put a note through his door to say where it was he would have never known as it was bin day and the parcels had gone to landfill.

Probably a directive from head office to enable delivery of more packages per day .Drop and run saves a lot of time over the long haul. They'll allocate other employees to deal with loss and/or complaints.Some time-motion bean counter figured out the logistics on this.Same for damage claims; they consider a percentage of breakage the cost of business. We're simply numbers, people.

The delivery services are severely time-pressed and knocking takes time -- that's why they do this. They are not being rude; they are actually saving you money. Unless, of course, you paid for the "knock or ring" and "greet me" options and didn't receive them, lol.

When I worked for UPS in college (70s) as a "pre-sorter" of packages, they actually had a special clipboard that had a series of stopwatches embedded in it for each separate task for the drivers. They are hyper-efficient and are a delivery machine.

Unless a signature is required, that's all they do here, too. USPS, too - they'll throw it on the back steps, no plastic bag, even if its raining.

That's before the USPS misdirects it all over the country or sits on it for a week. Below is the actual tracking record for my recent purchase of Pederson Tuners from Musician's Friend. Look how long it took. It stayed in the DFW area for FIVE DAYS! Moral of the story: if you have a choice, do NOT use the USPS.


Date/Time Event Name Location
06 Dec 2017 12:45 Package delivered by post office China Spring, TX
06 Dec 2017 07:29 Package out for post office delivery China Spring, TX
06 Dec 2017 07:19 Package sorted by post office China Spring, TX
06 Dec 2017 07:08 Received by the post office China Spring, TX
05 Dec 2017 19:06 Package processed by post office Fort Worth, TX
03 Dec 2017 14:03 Package processed by post office Dallas, TX
30 Nov 2017 16:08 Shipment Info Received by Post Office Dallas, TX
Nov 30 2017 Package transferred to Post Office Dallas, TX
Nov 30 2017 Package enroute to USPS for induction Carrollton, TX
Nov 30 2017 Package enroute to USPS for induction Carrollton, TX
Nov 30 2017 Ready for post office entry Carrollton, TX
Nov 30 2017 Package received by dest MI facility Carrollton, TX
Nov 29 2017 Package transferred to dest MI facility Kansas City, MO
Nov 28 2017 Package processed by UPS MI Kansas City, MO
Nov 28 2017 Package received for processing Kansas City, MO
Nov 27 2017 Shipment tendered to UPS MI

Had a Christmas present go missing from a UPS delivery this month - first time it ever happened.

The house was unoccupied so I am pretty sure it was taken from the porch.

I got a refund but the product was limited run and no longer available. I paid extra for one from a reseller. :(

Why not log on their websites and sign up for email delivery info updates?

You can also request that UPS packages are left somewhere besides the front door.

Same story here, except that it was a dog bed cover with my dog's name on it. :rolleyes:

For expensive stuff I redirect the delivery to a depot or office. Adds a day to the gotcha, but at least I know I got it.

I guess they made their bed, and with a wrong name, lol. Unless your dog's name was John or Jane or something very common that matched the name of the DBT (dog bed thief). Hopefully, its name was Poopsie or something like that

1. time is money: the extra seconds to find and ring the doorbell add up when multiplied by the number of drivers making deliveries.
2. doorbell ringing, or door knocking is only useful when someone is at home at the time of the delivery. So it's not practical to make it SOP for all deliveries, IMO. (see #1)

A UPS driver comes to our facility every day, and rarely does he have even a minute to exchange pleasantries with the crew here if he expects to complete his route within the 8 hour work day.

If the OP lives in a crime-heavy neighborhood, there are alternatives to help increase security of packages left on the porch until the homeowner arrives home. Ship to the office where you work, if it isn't prohibited by company policy to receive personal items at work; ship to c/o general delivery at your local post office and pick it up there; direct the package to the rear entrance of the home where it is less likely to be seen as a temptation to steal.

my 3 cents.