Neighbours and Parcels

I was once handed a parcel for a neighbour and I ended up leaving it on their doorstep which is directly on a busy town pavement. Odds are it would have been nicked within minutes but idgaf. Neighbour must be one of these weirdo Mumsnetters who doesn't open the door unless you're expected because I knocked and could see her clearly through the window tidying up. She saw me but ignored me.

I doubt she got her parcel and I refuse to take any of hers in now.

Stop taking in parcels completely. Play hardball. They'll get the idea. Even if the courier gets to your front door refuse to take anything. Putting your address on as their safe place without asking is such fuckery. Take a stand and refuse everything.

I’ve never had a problem with taking in parcels for neighbours, and there have been occasions when others have taken parcels in for us, but I’m now refusing to take them in for our new next door neighbours.

There was one occasion when I had a notification that an Amazon delivery was a few stops away so I was watching for it when the neighbour went out with her dog, I saw her walk past the delivery van which was a few doors along the street. They came to me next, a minute later the doorbell rang again and I was asked to take in an Amazon parcel for next door.

One of them works from home while the other is a night worker and they have a fancy ‘do not disturb, night worker sleeping’ sign hung beside their front door but it’s left there pretty much all of the time so couriers see that and automatically knock on our door which is right next to theirs and this has been happening several times a week.
I’ve started telling them to ignore it and deliver to them, but obviously it doesn’t stop them disturbing me beforehand. And of course it means that if I’m ever out when a parcel for us gets delivered they won’t reciprocate because of this sign.
I was out last week and my son took a parcel in for them but they didn’t bother to come round for it. After four days I ended up taking it to them and made a point of saying that we’d had it for that long.

I’d put a sign on the door saying I’m not taking in parcels for neighbours but for a start I don’t want to cause bad feeling as it’d be visible to them and also I don’t mind taking them in for other neighbours who don’t take the piss.

If they're parcels that are being directly delivered to your address, tell the delivery driver nobody of that name is known at your address.

It's a rigmarole to get your address changed on a parcel if it's been sent to someone else's address so hopefully they'll soon learn.

Unplug your doorbell

That was meant to be a reply to someone saying should they stop ordering if they can’t be home for delivery!

Yes. Go to a shop.
Its inconvenient for you, but you want it. Why inconvenience a virtual stranger?

id be doing return to sender if stuff kept turning up and interrupting my day!

I WFH and a woman down my street kept getting her parcels delivered to my house and using my address. She said she did it because I was at home and she liked to go out visiting friends. I asked her not to but it kept happening.

She even had the cheek to message me when I was on holiday to ask me when I would be back. She was annoyed I hadn't told her I was going away as she had a delivery scheduled to come to my house.

It came to a head when her friend started using my address as well. I refused all their deliveries which annoyed the couriers but I had had enough. She hasn't spoken to me since.

@SecretsIWouldNeverTell This use to happen before photos became standard. Due to opening the door and telling them to go away, they would leave it on your doorstep.

Luckily in my case the items felt soft so I use to walk to the gate of the address and just throw in the direction of their doorstep.

I think people expecting neighbours to take their packages in have got the cheek of the devil. There's so many places you can use as a 'safe space,' or you can use an Amazon locker. Say at Morrisons, Asda, Sainsburys, etc..

There's a neighbour of mine who moved into my street about 2 and a half years ago. After a few months, I kept getting packages for her. I took them in to start with, but when I tried knocking on the door to give it to her, (because she never came over for it!) she didn't bloody answer .. Sometimes, because her music was playing so loud she couldn't hear. So I had to watch out for her coming out onto the drive.

A package came this one time, (about the 5th or 6th one,) and yet she was in! I said to the delivery driver 'no, this is for number 6, not for me. And she is in!' He said 'yeah, but she's not answering the door - and your house (number 7,) is given as a place to drop it off if there's no answer.'

So the stupid lazy bint actually couldn't be arsed to answer the door (probably because her music was so loud that she couldn't hear it,) and she'd given me as a designated drop off point. Really pissed me off. AND as I said before, she couldn't be bothered to come round for it. I had to take it.

I took it round and knocked for ages, and couldn't get her to answer. (I tried 3 times!) And even when she did answer (on the 3rd attempt,) she kept me talking for half an hour.

So after this happened about half a dozen times, I actually started saying to the delivery driver 'this package is not for me' and refused to take it in. I used covid as an excuse, and started saying I'm sorry, I'm vulnerable. I can't take any packages in because of COVID.'

After that I stopped doing it for anyone - as I had been used like a servant by people who think it's OK for me to take their packages in - for some years at this point. So I got to the point where I just stopped answering the door unless I was expecting someone/knew the package was for me. And people on here wonder why people don't want to answer the door?! It's because of absolute cheeky fuckers like my neighbour (and the OP's,) who use you as their personal servant.

Also, I quite often put a note on the door now saying 'unless you are specifically coming to this house. (number 7,) then please do not knock this door.' And sometimes put 'shift worker asleep. Do not knock unless it's an emergency or you have something specifically for this house - number 7.')

Seems to have worked so far. Don't get bothered now. But the woman at number seems to be using the woman at number 8 now.

Obvious cheeky-fucker is obvious. I don't allow it now. I work from home, but even if I am not working that day, I refuse to be used by people who think it's OK to get their packages dumped on me!

Addressing it to your flat without asking is incredibly cheeky.

Tbh I'd just stop answering the door.

A delivery driver asked me to take in a parcel for a house 3 doors away. It was a bloody gaming chair! It was huge! I refused, he asked why I couldn't and I opened the door wider and said 'where exactly am I supposed to put it........?!' Not exactly blessed with space and with pushchair and scooters in the hallway there was no room 😂😂

Tell the postman to mark it 'not known at this address' and refuse to take it unless it has your name on it.

When I was on maternity leave, my dickhead downstairs neighbour saw it as a great opportunity to use me as the local sorting office. They would always seem to knock when I had both boobs out, baby breastfeeding and settled.

I put a BIG sign on my front door saying 'FLAT A WILL ONLY ACCEPT PARCELS FOR FLAT A'.

Didn't care if my neighbours saw it, because I wanted them to get the 'hint'.

I went back to work after a year, and bumped into him in the hallway. He said "I just wanted to say that I think we should take in parcels for each other, as I've had to go to the sorting office a lot recently".

And I said, with white hot fury in my chest "Yeah, I've gone back to work, so I guess you'll have to sort your own post out, won't you?"

But if you don't answer, why would the courier just dump it on YOUR doorstep? Why not just dump it on the doorstep of the neighbour who isn't it/isn't answering? I would take NO responsibility whatsoever for any package dumped on my doorstep that was not addressed to me! I would leave it exactly where was dumped.

Oh and the delivery guys will swear at you about the first half a dozen times you do that but then the parcels will stop coming.

I had that.

So when I answered the door I would ask the address on the parcel.

If it wasn't a couple of neighbours, who I know don't take the piss and haven't for over a decade, I simply said I can't take the parcel in and shut the door on the delivery guy.

You do risk them dumping it on your doorstep but most of them have to take a photograph of the item being delivered to someone.

If someone put me as their delivery address without asking, I would be handing over the package with a note attached saying that I would not be accepting any more parcels for them, and that if any others are delivered with your name and address for delivery, you will be not accepting the delivery. Take a photo of the note.

The company kept the guys on in the mail room, (who were just about to be made redundant,) because SO many personal packages were being delivered to the employees, that it 'gave them something to do?!' WTAF?

This is the most batshit thing I have ever heard. It's tantamount to the company thinking of getting rid of someone, as they don't seem to have enough work to do, but keeping them on because they have started spending half the working day on the phone talking to their friends, their husband, or their mother.

No I wouldn't be happy about them putting you as an alternative address without checking with you first.

Speak to them but say you have a baby and can't access the door easily.

It's difficult with our street as we don't show up on maps properly as Boris Johnson blocked off half the street. Neighbours are pretty good about parcels.

It's rude though if they didn't ask your permission first.

Absolutely. But there are also loads that have a thousand employees and just perhaps lalalalalalaleeee is the one that works on the 10th floor. Do you think the Amazon guy is going to wait for someone to call her and get her to come down and take the package personally when he's got another couple of hundred to deliver?

I know I'm generalising, but it does happen.

My place stopped it completely when the postroom was looked at and found to have loads of personal packages in at any one time, and then some people were even expecting them to go and hand courier drivers returned goods which was totally taking the P.

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea, I do take your point, if you work in a shop employing half a dozen people, fine. But it doesn't always work that way, and now there are so many pick up point places, it's probably not necessary.

You know not every job has a mail room or staff specifically for receiving/sorting out post?
In many jobs, people can easily walk to the door and receive their own parcels.

DH works from home now, but when we both worked in an office I'd get all my Amazon deliveries to a nearby locker. In some ways it's more convenient than getting them delivered to home as you can truly collect them when it's convenient for you, rather than disturbing you at home.

Other deliveries you can't necessarily choose, but having some sort of pickup location is becoming more common. Choosing your neighbour's address as an alternative or main delivery address is total CFery and sheer laziness!

I had this with my ex-neighbors. I was constantly taking in parcels and often popping them around to them. But when I wasn't in twice for my own parcels they didn't take mine in! I then just stopped taking them in. Answer the buzzer and refuse.

This. You're being unreasonable for doing it!