Theft of Amazon deliveries

[figworthy]

I think I've only had two parcels go missing.

 

Firstly ~1987/8, it turned up several weeks late, looking like someone had opened it to see if it was worth having, and having decided it wasn't, stuck it through my letter box.  I was in a flat at the time with some interesting neighbours.

 

Second was a few years back.  I got home from work to find a Royal Mail card, so a couple of days later I called in at the sorting office to collect it.  They couldn't find it.

 

Adrian

[Ruffnut Thorston]

We suffer from our postcode being shared over an area.

 

Amazon’s system marked our location as at a neighbouring property.

 

The delivery drivers were navigating by their sat nag, which led to parcels going astray.

 

We found out when the second delivery attempt driver actually phoned the supplied number.  And we worked out where they actually were!

 

It didn’t matter what address was on the package, the system took the driver where it said... 

 

 

[TheQ]

Our post code is a two mile long road with about twenty houses on it.

Deliveries have improved since Amazon took over instead of Hermes and yodel.

 

I built a cupboard by the gate with inner and outer doors, the outer keeps the rain out, the two inners are push to lock. Sadly on few occasions do they push to lock, but at least it keeps parcels from being seen.

We have found the cupboards with both locked , I suspect someone was hoping parcels would be left outside. This was in the summer, when we get a lot of furriners****  visting the area down to the beach or caravan sites.

We notice when there is a delivery if we are in, the road is six feet from the front of the house, we check the box twice a day, lunch time when we take Ben for his walk, and late afternoon when I return from work.

 

 

**** Furriners... Norfolk for someone from outside the village...

 

Only had one parcel go missing it was a small item and i suspect it was lost in transit somewhere..

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, Ruffnut Thorston said:

We suffer from our postcode being shared over an area.

 

Amazon’s system marked our location as at a neighbouring property.

 

The delivery drivers were navigating by their sat nag, which led to parcels going astray.

 

We found out when the second delivery attempt driver actually phoned the supplied number.  And we worked out where they actually were!

 

It didn’t matter what address was on the package, the system took the driver where it said... 

 

 

 

Our last two parcels which were delivered by Hermes were delivered by Hermes, Whilst every delivery firm uses a satnav to find properties the agent must make a final check they are at the correct address

 

The first of the two were delivered to the same house number in the next road. Different postcode, no satnav would take you there, the second was to my neighbour, both house numbers clearly on show

 

In the early years of my previous employment the main bulk of my work was home deliveries for 3 years, using a basic satnav not the far more accurate modern versions. I assume the fact is Hermes has very sophisticated telemetry at its disposal but the agents are not up to using it to its maximum all of the time. The final human interaction is the weak link. 

 

Just because the satnav does not stop outside your house, is no reason not to deliver it to the wrong address

 

I have done a similar job as they do, clearly its very easy to make a mistake by being careless and not following a simple process 1 Are you in the correct road. 2 are you at the correct house. Hardly rocket science, especially as you have a machine taking you roughly to the correct place 

Edited November 29, 2020 by hayfield

[Limpley Stoker]

The problem would be solved if customers and couriers used the What Three Words application - it works on some satnavs already ( Navmi)

[ejstubbs]

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

The first of the two were delivered to the same house number in the next road. Different postcode, no satnav would take you there, the second was to my neighbour, both house numbers clearly on show

 

One courier firm (can't remember which one) managed to do that with a car battery I'd ordered.  When they got no reply at the address they were erroneously trying to deliver it to they went the next door house the other side and left it with a frail 90-year-old lady.  And of course they left a "sorry we missed you" card at the original wrong address i.e. not mine.

 

I only found out what had happened when I got a "your parcel has been delivered" e-mail from the courier company.  Fortunately that did state where the parcel had been left, so I popped round to pick it up.  Unsurprisingly, the parcel was too heavy for the little old lady to be able to lift, so I had to go in to her hall to retrieve it.  Presumably the courier had done the same when he left it there.  It seems likely that the driver was so desperate to get rid of the parcel and move on to the next delivery on the list that they never stopped to consider whether what they were doing was a reasonable course of action.  Which does rather make me wonder whether they apply similar lack of consideration to their driving.  (I can't be the only one who finds it worrying that people are being paid piecework rates to deliver packages by motor vehicle.)

 

As a final coda, the neighbour they'd tried to deliver the parcel to (who we don't really get on with) later came around brandishing the "sorry we missed you" card and seemed to want to suggest that I'd ordered something to be delivered to his address (which I would do...why?)  Only when I showed him the address label on the package did he accept that the courier had been an idiot.

[hayfield]

37 minutes ago, ejstubbs said:

 

One courier firm (can't remember which one) managed to do that with a car battery I'd ordered.  When they got no reply at the address they were erroneously trying to deliver it to they went the next door house the other side and left it with a frail 90-year-old lady.  And of course they left a "sorry we missed you" card at the original wrong address i.e. not mine.

 

I only found out what had happened when I got a "your parcel has been delivered" e-mail from the courier company.  Fortunately that did state where the parcel had been left, so I popped round to pick it up.  Unsurprisingly, the parcel was too heavy for the little old lady to be able to lift, so I had to go in to her hall to retrieve it.  Presumably the courier had done the same when he left it there.  It seems likely that the driver was so desperate to get rid of the parcel and move on to the next delivery on the list that they never stopped to consider whether what they were doing was a reasonable course of action.  Which does rather make me wonder whether they apply similar lack of consideration to their driving.  (I can't be the only one who finds it worrying that people are being paid piecework rates to deliver packages by motor vehicle.)

 

As a final coda, the neighbour they'd tried to deliver the parcel to (who we don't really get on with) later came around brandishing the "sorry we missed you" card and seemed to want to suggest that I'd ordered something to be delivered to his address (which I would do...why?)  Only when I showed him the address label on the package did he accept that the courier had been an idiot.

 

 

At least he tried to leave it with someone after trying the correct address, buy you neighbour a peace offering for looking after your item !!

[ejstubbs]

19 hours ago, hayfield said:

At least he tried to leave it with someone after trying the correct address

 

He didn't try to leave it at the correct address.  If he had I'd have taken delivery of it: I was in the house at the time.

 

Maybe I didn't explain it clearly.  My address is number X on a perfectly ordinary suburban street with odd numbers on one side of the road and even numbers on the other.  The courier mistakenly tried to deliver the parcel to number X+2 and got no answer.  If he'd then turned left out of X+2's drive he'd have tried to leave it at number X i.e. my house - and I'd have got the parcel.  Instead he turned right and left it at number X+4, and left a "sorry we missed you" card at number X+2.  At no point did he come on to my property, and he apparently never noticed during his to-ing and fro-ing with a heavy package that he'd mis-read the house number on the address label.

 

I did of course profusely thank the old lady at number X+4, and apologise for the disturbance to her day.  I didn't feel any need to apologise to Mr-number-X+2 because (a) the problem was not of my creation, and (b) his initial approach had his usual charming semi-aggressive edge to it.  I don't believe he would understand a 'peace offering' if it fluttered down in front of him with an olive branch in its beak (he'd probably just demand to know why my pigeon was on his lawn).

[EddieB]

In fairness to the delivery drivers (though I’m sure it doesn’t apply here), there are many properties where the house number is not displayed, or cannot easily be seen from the street outside.

[Reorte]

Had one left on my doorstep for a different house at the weekend. I don't know how long it had been sat there getting damp (I use the back door, only saw it because I was doing a bit of tidying up outside at the weekend). It would've easily fit through the letterbox too.

 

I've also had an Amazon order "unable to access for delivery" - when it was supposed to be sent to an Amazon locker.

[caradoc]

I have occasionally had drivers leave parcels in a 'safe' place, ie one of the wheelie bins; I was at home but no-one knocked the door. That has been the only real issue. 

 

I feel it's only fair to give credit where it's due too; I ordered four books from Nottingham on Friday morning and they were delivered to me near Glasgow on Saturday morning; Well done Booklaw and DPD !

 

[hayfield]

3 hours ago, EddieB said:

In fairness to the delivery drivers (though I’m sure it doesn’t apply here), there are many properties where the house number is not displayed, or cannot easily be seen from the street outside.

 

I have done a similar job, so easy to look at the numbers that are visible to work out which house is which. The exception are roads where the houses have no numbers but names !!! 

[Joseph_Pestell]

12 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

I have done a similar job, so easy to look at the numbers that are visible to work out which house is which. The exception are roads where the houses have no numbers but names !!! 

Especially if one of the houses is named "Forty-Two" but located where 16 should be, as there was in Challow.

[Reorte]

12 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

I have done a similar job, so easy to look at the numbers that are visible to work out which house is which. The exception are roads where the houses have no numbers but names !!! 

Many years ago there was something in the news with someone saying that it's about time every house was referred to by number and street name. Apparently without thought about how that would be completely irrelevant for a great many non-urban addresses even if it would work for the majority overall.

 

I've got a number but no street.

[admiles]

All those sing the praises of Ring doorbells (and similar) would do well to note the slight issue with them that a good few of my neighbors discovered.  They get nicked too!

 

We had a spate of thefts recently of Ring doorbells.....

Edited November 30, 2020 by admiles

[big jim]

They do have special screws to secure them so you have to have the ring tool to get the unit off the bracket but I suppose if you really wanted one and were that way inclined you could get a tool and do it 

 

would have to be pretty brazen (or stupid) to nick something while being videoed doing it though! 
 

can’t see there being much of a black market for them though as the serial number is registered to your home/owner (as long as you have the ring subscription) and if it does get stolen then they can blacklist it and block its further use 
 

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by big jim

[teaky]

Are the screws controlled remotely too? 

 

Perhaps they wear face masks?

[MyRule1]

Two observations from recent posts:

 

I once carried out deliveries in Harlow where the house numbering system for the new town was allegedly devised by Royal Mail but it made no sense to most people. I once got mixed up and delivered to the wring estate which just happened have close numbers to the correct one but on the other side of the road. Luckily I was only delivering free newspapers.

 

As to the theft of Ring devices there was a recent report that said people were not bothering to use the security screw and using one of the fixing screws. Apparently this perforates the battery which can either lead to a fire or someone pressing the button getting a shock!

[admiles]

39 minutes ago, big jim said:

They do have special screws to secure them so you have to have the ring tool to get the unit off the bracket but I suppose if you really wanted one and were that way inclined you could get a tool and do it 

 

would have to be pretty brazen (or stupid) to nick something while being videoed doing it though! 
 

can’t see there being much of a black market for them though as the serial number is registered to your home/owner (as long as you have the ring subscription) and if it does get stolen then they can blacklist it and block its further use 
 

 

 

Not sure how it was done tbh. Happened overnight in my nextdoor neighbors case. With the streetlights being switched off at 11pm it gets pretty dark so easy enough to do. Like you say can't imagine there's much of a market for them but when has that ever stopped anyone??

 

 

[Nick C]

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

I've got a number but no street.

 

That's even more fun in some other countries - my mother-in-law, in Poland, has an address that consists of  "house number, village, county... " - but the house numbers aren't sequential geographically, but in the order they were built - so number 231 might be in between 75 and 162 (numbers picked from thin air).

 

1 hour ago, big jim said:

would have to be pretty brazen (or stupid) to nick something while being videoed doing it though! 

 

I remember a case about 20 years ago of someone stealing a speed camera - what they hadn't spotted was the CCTV camera on the other side of the road...

[Reorte]

15 minutes ago, Nick C said:

 

That's even more fun in some other countries - my mother-in-law, in Poland, has an address that consists of  "house number, village, county... " - but the house numbers aren't sequential geographically, but in the order they were built - so number 231 might be in between 75 and 162 (numbers picked from thin air).

Sounds a nightmare! At least mine's reasonably logical - it's the number, in order, and the name of the row of houses (it's down a track off the road which is why there's no road name). And it's a hassle enough getting stuff delivered even then, probably because most people just stick in the postcode in to a satnav, which inevitably leaves them stuck on a nearby dual carriageway.

[Nick C]

7 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Sounds a nightmare! At least mine's reasonably logical - it's the number, in order, and the name of the row of houses (it's down a track off the road which is why there's no road name). And it's a hassle enough getting stuff delivered even then, probably because most people just stick in the postcode in to a satnav, which inevitably leaves them stuck on a nearby dual carriageway.

Yep, especially when my wife (who now has my, English, surname) had a parcel delivered there - so the courier couldn't even ask the neighbours where the addressee lived!

 

If you just use the postcode for my office in many satnavs, you end up in the middle of the M3 motorway.

[beast66606]

All this talk of numbers and street lights - luxury.

[Fenman]

10 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Sounds a nightmare! At least mine's reasonably logical - it's the number, in order, and the name of the row of houses (it's down a track off the road which is why there's no road name). And it's a hassle enough getting stuff delivered even then, probably because most people just stick in the postcode in to a satnav, which inevitably leaves them stuck on a nearby dual carriageway.

 

There was I thinking you must be the Duke of Wellington, and you live in Number 1, London...

 

Which just has to be the best address in the country, doesn't it?

 

Paul

[Reorte]

35 minutes ago, Fenman said:

 

There was I thinking you must be the Duke of Wellington, and you live in Number 1, London...

 

Which just has to be the best address in the country, doesn't it?

I doubt that address has the suspension-wrecking track to get to it that I've got!