Rants

Posted on 2 Jul 2009 at 16:29

Sod's law and poor observational comedians say that the second you step out of your house a parcel will be delivered.

This often seems to be the case, and the problem is getting worse as the number of packages we have delivered increases thanks to online shopping.

The biggest problem is that online stores typically look for the cheapest delivery option and often end up using a courier company. It may seem that anyone can stick a parcel in a van and drive it to its destination, but it's what happens when you're out that counts.

A typical courier company will tend to do one of three things. It may leave your parcel out in the open for anyone to steal. Second, it could leave it with a random neighbour you've never spoken to and then forget to tell you what it's done. Third, and most commonly, it'll take your parcel to a depot and ask you to phone to rearrange delivery.

This would be fine, but the courier company usually won't deliver on a Saturday and, if it reschedules the delivery, it could turn up at any time on the agreed day of delivery. Usually it's any time on the day after the agreed day, so you have to go through the whole thing again.

You can ask the courier to redeliver somewhere else, but that's beyond the scope of most companies' thinking, and the parcel will be returned to sender. Sometimes the courier company lets you come and pick the parcel up, provided you don't mind driving miles and miles to the middle of an industrial estate.

All in all, it's a pretty poor experience. So, why don't more online stores use Royal Mail? If you miss a delivery you can pick the parcel up in person from a nearby sorting office, pay 50p to have the parcel delivered to your nearest post office or have it redelivered on a day that suits you. Whichever way you look at it, it's a more flexible and less annoying way to get your stuff.

Author: David Ludlow

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