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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to not really want to help delivery men deliver the package.

27 replies

NinjaBunny · 29/12/2013 11:39

A while ago I had a 52" telly delivered.

Delivery man told me I'd have to come out and help him bring it in. I was a bit as I'd paid a hefty delivery charge and have the upper body strength of a kitten. But I got on with it.

Had a garden hammock delivered yesterday (was in the sale and we've just moved, am aware it's a weird time to buy one).

Again, the driver insisted I helped him bring it in because it was heavy. This time I have a broken finger which is really painful and honestly couldn't help lift it. Came in a box so nowhere to grip so couldn't just use one hand.

Got 'hmmphed' at and I felt all .

Is this weird? Surely if we pay a delivery charge they deliver it to your door? They sent quite detailed receipts/delivery advice a it didn't mention anywhere that the driver would need help (or I'd invite a muscular male friend round for a cuppa so they 'happened' to be here when the delivery turned up ).Plenty of parking outside so it's not as though his van was miles away.

Or are we supposed to help now and I'm being a total knob?

Am curious!

OP posts:

citruslemon · 29/12/2013 11:44

When I bought my new house, some delivery men refused to bring items into the house because they are not insured once in your property. Others, like Ikea, were fab and took the different items into whichever room I wanted them to.

WaitMonkey · 29/12/2013 11:44

Very strange. Never heard of this before. I wouldn't be happy either.

Original poster

NinjaBunny · 29/12/2013 11:48

Not insured I can understand.

I mean I they wanted me to lift stuff off the van..!

OP posts:

citruslemon · 29/12/2013 11:50

Lifting stuff of the van is odd - was never asked to do that!! They should send more than one person if the items are heavy. What if you were physically incapable of helping them lift a TV, would they then not brought it inside?!

Clunch · 29/12/2013 11:51

I ordered a bedside cot from the NCT, which arrived after a lot of kerfuffle via courier. There was only one man in the van, the quite elderly driver, who couldn't manage the big, heavy box up the steps to the front door. As I was almost nine months pregnant, I had no intention of helping out, so he had to manage, but I thought it was a pretty poor show to assume there would be someone capable of wrestling a massive box at the address.

Dawndonnaagain · 29/12/2013 11:52

That's ridiculous, my dh is disabled and couldn't possibly do this.
I'm sure it's not standard practice.

DisneyAddict88 · 29/12/2013 11:52

I wouldnt help most places charge extra for delivery if the item requires 2 people to carry it. if not surely u should be told beforehand

yummychocolate · 29/12/2013 11:54

I got my travel system and cot delivered admittedly I live on 2nd foor with no lift. Delivery man refused to deliver to my door. There was no way I could have dragged it up the stairs even if I was not heavily pregnant. If I could carry it myself I would not pay a hefty delivery charge in the first place. Also surely delivery companies should send 2 delivery men if its heavy.

ThePearShapedToad · 29/12/2013 11:54

I had that. Had two massive solid bookshelves delivered and one delivery man. I had a sprained wrist and couldn't lift anything. He wanted to leave it in the communal hall as I wasn't able to help him lift them up the stairs.
His piece de resistance remark was when he asked "don't you have a boyfriend or any friends who could take it to your door later?" I was so
I told him it wasn't my problem that he wouldn't bring it in and would refuse to sign for it otherwise.

He eventually got off his arse and did his job

MrsWeasley · 29/12/2013 11:55

I've never been asked to help bring in a delivery. When we have had heavy things delivered they usually send 2 people. Surely its the delivery companies responsibility to ensure they are not expecting their drivers to lift too much weight?

Notawordfromtheladybird · 29/12/2013 12:01

It's either a curb side delivery or to front door. But if the item is heavy, the driver can probably cite health & safety reasons why he can refuse to lift over xx pounds and give you the option of helping him or redelivering it when two drivers are available (around the period of cold day in hell). I had a curb side delivery once where he couldn't get the item off the lorry and nothing to cut the wrapping off (so it could be loaded off in smaller packs) and was told I was lucky he was even bothering as most would just mark it for another redelivery attempt. If I hadn't been desperate, I would've told him fine, then cancelled my order and let his UK company figure out how to get it back to the bloody port it was picked up from so it made its way back to e manufacturer in Norway.

zgaze · 29/12/2013 12:10

I had a huge 8 seater sofa delivered when I was 9 months pregnant, the delivery driver carried it all off his van and up my long path but then dumped it all at the bottom of a small three step run up to the front door where the lift to my flat is and refused to move it any further. Arsehole. The company went bankrupt, can't imagine why!

LividofLondon · 29/12/2013 12:12

I had this issue when my kitchen worktop was delivered. It was solid wood so very heavy, yet there was only the driver to unload it. It was too heavy for me to lift without risking doing myself an injury, so we had to ask for help from the local business (who kindly lent us 2 employees for a few minutes ). I thought it was really silly to only have one person deliver something which clearly required an extra pair of strong hands. What if there was no-one around to help?!

Another time I had a bookcase delivered (different company BTW) and they were brilliant. Two people brought it in and even sited it exactly where I wanted. It was their company policy to do that.

Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme · 29/12/2013 12:17

When we had our bedroom furniture delivered some years ago the delivery men were brilliant. Some of it was already assembled and weighed a ton but they took it upstairs. The rest was dovetail joint assembly and they had it together and in the right place in minutes.

There's no way I'd be helping. That's what you've paid for. Channel your inner Margot Leadbetter from The Good Life. Can you imagine her helping the delivery driver?

DameDeepRedBetty · 29/12/2013 12:18

DP is a specialist in delivering antiques - and checking who's available to help at the other end is part of the service. If necessary, he'll take another body along to help. Of course, this does get added to the delivery charge. However if someone's just spent £25,000 on a bureau-bookcase, an extra £80 for a day's wages for an agency worker is peanuts...

chanie44 · 29/12/2013 13:10

OH is a delivery driver and works for different companies. He said that he was recently delivering some items that were far too heavy for one person, but the companies don't want to pay out for extra staff if they can help it.

I totally agree with you, but isn't always the fault of the drivers.

DoYouLikeMyBaubles · 29/12/2013 13:23

There's a different though between couriers delivery and actually delivery men like who deliver sofas and such.

A lot of courier deliverers have no obligation to carry something, and often the stuff is too heavy for one man. Mix in the fact some of these men are self employed (yip I dont know how it works but we had drivers for big couriers who said they were self employed) they can't risk hurting themselves.

I'm not saying I don't agree with you, but it's the companies fault usually not the drivers. And sometimes people need to realise that if you're expecting a large delivery, you might need some help in getting it into your home. It's best to enquire.

Rachelicious · 29/12/2013 13:30

When we ordered dd's cot from toys r us we were told we'd have to carry it up our 2 flights of stairs as the drivers aren't insured to do so. I was home alone when they arrived so I ran downstairs and told them to leave the boxes and I'd struggle carry them up. The men asked if it was just me so I said yes and they very kindly carried the super heavy boxes up the stairs for me so I just had to push them through into dd's bedroom. I work for a supermarket home shopping and the drivers aren't insured to take food shopping in homes but some do. I think it depends on the driver themselves. But I've never heard of you having to carry it off the van :/

larry5 · 29/12/2013 13:45

When I was over 8 months pregnant with dd we had a delivery from B & Q with one delivery driver. We were having a bathroom and a shower room redone with fully tiled walls so two bathroom suites plus hundreds of tiles. It took him a very long time to bring all the stuff in as I wasn't able to help at all.

I did give him a tip for all his hard work

LollipopViolet · 29/12/2013 13:48

Where I used to work our couriers couldn't enter the property due to insurance reasons. They would, however, put things in an open garage or other safe place to keep the boxes dry if you couldn't manage to unload the pallet there and then.

muddylettuce · 29/12/2013 13:53

I've had this. We had a dining table delivered in the summer by a well known furniture company. The driver...deliverer...(?) was female and couldn't manage the glass top on her own so I had to help. I did it willingly but thought at the time if they are delivering furniture they should probably employ two people to do the lifting?!

FloppyRagdoll · 29/12/2013 15:44

I live on the second floor, no lift. I had a suite delivered - it was by courier. It ended up coming in two deliveries, because the single chair was delivered in a van by just the driver; the sofa-bed was delivered with the driver and another man. The company guaranteed that the courier would bring the furniture into your house. The couriers, VERY obligingly, not only did that, but unpacked it for me and took away all the packaging. (A great boon when I live two bus rides from the recycling centre.)

The worst we had was years ago - we had a piano moved by a removal company, claiming to specialise in piano removals. The living room was on the first floor; we had told the company at the time and paid extra for this. When the guys arrived with the piano, they said, "Oh, we have to take it upstairs? If we'd known that, we'd have brought x piece of kit." We asked what we should do; and OH offered to help, which was accepted. Then the piano got damaged being carried up the (obscenely steep and narrow) staircase - it cost as much as the removal to get fixed, and the argument over payment/liability went on for almost as long as we lived in that house.

Actually, come to think of it, that wasn't the worst; the worst was another piano - a Bechstein baby grand. The removal company was delivering it as a part load, so no idea when it might come and they were supposed to give advance notification. Arrived home one winter evening to find the piano standing in the front garden in 10" of snow.

beals692 · 29/12/2013 16:16

I have similar problems every single time I order a large item as I live in an upper floor flat. I always fully explain this, the stairs involved and that I require it delivering to my actual flat at the time I place the order and it always seems to be a surprise to the deliveryman/men and, after waiting in all day and the item actually being outside the building, it's always touch-and-go whether I'm actually going to be able to persuade them to deliver it.

One time it was a washing machine which I had actually paid extra for them to install but which they didn't want to carry up to the flat. It was probably bloody heavy to be fair but there were two of them (and, although I offered to help, given the logistics of the width of the stairs/doorways etc it wasn't really practical for more than two people to carry it - so, if two big guys who are physically fit enough to be employed as delivery men don't feel they can do it, who can?)

Last time I ordered a large appliance, the driver had been sent out on his rounds on his own despite it being an item that according to their rules, required two people (ie just to lift it off the van and take it to the front of the building, never mind up all the stairs!) so he was reluctant to deliver it - and turned down my offers to help carry it. Fortunately, my big, burly neighbour turned up and offered to help so they got it up the stairs between them.

In situations like this, it clearly isn't the delivery guy's fault as he shouldn't be sent out on his own with large items. However, I always check the delivery small print on the website about where exactly they will deliver to and inform them that they will need to carry it up two flights of stairs to my flat. If the company don't want to provide that service, they should be upfront about it so I can choose to shop elsewhere.

getdownshep · 29/12/2013 16:23

I feel sorry for delivery drivers.
We had a log burner delivered before Christmas, it was attached to a wooden pallet so was very heavy.
He was no bigger than me (small and thin) but dh had just popped home for lunch luckily so between us we got it into the hallway.
These cheapskate delivery firms are idiots.

babybearsmummy · 29/12/2013 18:05

That's a bit odd. When I had my new bed delivered from Dreams, the del men were only supposed to take it upstairs. They came down 10 mins later and said because they saw I was at home with my little girl that they had taken it all out of the packaging and fixed it together (divan base) put the mattress on AND fixed the headboard on too. My big, strong hubby had nothing to do that evening!!

Some delivery drivers go above and beyond, but others can't seem to be bothered. Possibly call the delivery company and ask their policy?

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