To think you don’t take in a parcel for a neighbour if you are going on holiday!

[Aliveinwanderland]

A relative sent a birthday present for DS which arrived yesterday morning by Royal Mail, however we had gone out to the zoo. It was left with a neighbour that 5 doors down. Went to collect it at 4pm but no-one Home, tried again at 7:30 and again no-one Home. This morning the house next to them says they went on holiday at lunchtime yesterday (about an hour after taking in my parcel) and they won’t be back for 2 weeks!!!

Surely they should have just said no to the postman!

YANBU. That was daft of someone to take in a package when they were going away for 2 weeks.

On a slightly different tangent, a few years ago, I posted a package full of gifts (12 in total - worth around £120,) for my brother and his wife and their 2 kids. They only lived 22-23 miles away at the time, but I couldn't tie them down to a date or time to pop in to drop it off. (I didn't want to risk them not being in as it was a long way to go for nothing, and they had no shed or garage to leave it in, and nowhere else to leave it.)

I said I would only stay 10 minutes, as I was quite happy to just drop by briefly and then mosey on into the city (they lived on the outskirts, 5 miles from the city centre.) But SIL kept saying they were too busy for me to pop over.

So I ended up posting the package with ALL their Christmas presents in. I posted it Monday 15th December. The delivery was a 48 hour one and was due between 9am and midday Wednesday the 17th. I texted him to tell him, and he said 'cool. That's great coz Lisa is in all morning.'

I checked on the delivery status at 11am Wednesday, and it said they tried to deliver the package at 10am, and failed, (no reply,) and the package has gone back to the depot.

I texted my brother to let him know, and he says 'cheers sis! We will get it soon.''

Long story short, they were going away for Christmas on the Sunday the 21st (til Tuesday the 30th,) to stay with her family 100 miles away, and they never bothered going to get the package before they went.

Brother said 'we have been a bit busy packing, we will get it when we get back.'

So anyway, they never rang the post office and told them, so they tried re-delivering the package on the Monday (the 22nd,) and of course they weren't in!

The package sat in the delivery office til the Friday the 2nd of January, because brother and SIL couldn't make time to pick it up, as life was so 'hectic' after their week away, and then it ended up back with me on the Monday (the 5th of January!) I was so pissed off.

I asked a few times that week (week commencing 5th January,) if I could pop in to drop it off, and kept getting put off by my SIL. In the end, they popped in when it was my birthday (late February,) and picked the package up then!

I never ever posted anything to them again.

giving them the benefit of the doubt if they often take in packages at the postie's request they may just have said yes automatically without thinking they were going on holiday so not a good idea.

Possible, but if I did something like this then I'd feel guilty for withholding someones stuff for that length of time - a day or two is annoying but two weeks is really inconvenient, especially as they don't know what's in the parcel, it could be something important/time sensitive - and would probably see if another neighbour could hold onto the parcel after explaining the predicament and apologise profusely for the inconvenience (and putting a note through the actual recipients door to say who has the parcel). If that wasn't possible I'd try to leave it somewhere either on my property or the neighbour's that they had easy access to but that was fairly safe - in the shed/in a sheltered spot in the back garden/in the porch/empty recycling box or bin on the driveway (provided it isn't bin collection day of course!) etc and then leave a note through the door saying where you left it.

The responsibility lies with the person who actually ordered the goods.

I agree ... until it is knowingly and wilfully accepted by someone else. Once the neighbours have accepted the parcel it is their responsibility to make sure the correct recipient can get it in a timely manner.

Don't want the responsibility? Don't take the parcel.

Don't order parcels if you're not going to be home to receive them.

You can't always guarantee when things will show up though.

I ordered some stuff online on Monday, the estimated delivery was Friday/Saturday which is fine as I work evenings on those days (and today). They were being delivered by Royal Mail and our postie is never later than about 2:30pm so I just planned to do all my housework/home jobs Thursday-Saturday mornings so that I could definitely be home when they arrived. Yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) I had just got back from doing the early opening shift and was making my lunch at 12:30pm when the doorbell went ... it was my postie with my parcels.

I am definitely not complaining that I had my stuff within 48 hours of ordering, even without express delivery, but if I hadn't been home (I could have done a few errands after work and not been home yet) and the postie had foisted them on a neighbour then how exactly am I to blame? I was given two delivery days and I made sure to organize my schedule to ensure I'd be home on those days (and the day before, just in case) but I am not psychic and can't put my life on hold until parcels arrive.

Why should the onus be on the neighbour?

Nobody is forcing the neighbour to take the parcel, and actually if they are inconveniencing the OP by doing this un-asked for "favour" they are doing the exact opposite of helping.

If you know you're not going to be home for delivery, you can have your parcel delivered to a drop off point in your community, ie a store, where you can pick it up at your convenience. Or you can instruct the delivery company to leave it in your shed or garage.

That's providing the courier follows said instructions to leave the parcels in you "safe place" and not with a neighbour.

A couple of months ago I had some deliveries from Amazon. It was a crazy busy week at work and I was doing some irregular shifts so I couldn't guarantee I'd be home (and I couldn't do click and collect as all the ones local to me were convenience stores whose opening hours were the hours I was usually at work myself) and because of my shift patterns I didn't want to inconvenience the neighbours with early morning/late night collections so I indicated on the delivery instructions that if I wasn't in then "parcels should be left in the shed. Gate will be unlocked but might need a shove as it sticks in frame" (quote lifted verbatim from my order confirmation email)

I got home from work one evening to a note through the door from the courier ... saying that my parcel was with the neighbours at Number 2 (4 doors down from me). Since it was only about 7pm so I popped down and knocked on the door. When they answered I apologised about them being left with my parcel and explained that I had left "safe place" instructions that had been ignored. Fortunately for me they were lovely, totally didn't blame me and were quite happy to take my parcel in but I still felt guilty for them being inconvenienced, even though it was out of my control as I had done everything within my power to make sure nobody was inconvenienced, but I can't control the actions of the courier.

I have this all the time when I order things! and half the time I'm in the house when they come to deliver my parcels, but they don't use the doorbell, just knock, meaning if i am anywhere other than the front door (where i rarely am) i don't hear the door - so it gets taken to my neighbour who works nights and gets woken up just because the delivery man didnt ring the doorbell! I'm forever apologising to my neighbour and actually always state to leave my stuff in a safe place but they never read the notes

I'm having the opposite issue right now, we took in a big box delivery for a neighbour on Monday, went to take it round Monday night and no one home. Tried again on Tuesday, twice and saw another neighbour who said they are on holiday for the week!

It's in my hallway and it's really annoying!

We did this to a neighbour once, but I thought she would collect the parcel before we went away, she had a full week to do so and we were in every evening. I also tried hers a couple of times in the week but she wasn't in so she ended up not getting her parcel for a month as we were away for 3 weeks. I now don't take parcels in except for one neighbour who collects promptly, the rest take a week or too which is too long.

That's different though biscuiteater - they had a lot of opportunities to come and collect or drop a note in with contact details to arrange something, before you left. The OP's neighbours accepted the parcel and left on holiday in the space of a few hours during a work day.

That's really bad form!

I had to awkwardly pick up a parcel from a certain house in my street the other day despite it being clearly marked "Do not leave at number X". [They are very victimised by parcel people saying they've left parcels with them when they haven't...]

They are raging. Nice wee neighbour fued you've started there Royal Mail! Made all the worse by the fact I was IN. It just takes longer than 5 seconds to get down the stairs.

Ever since we put a note on the door asking people to give me time to get to the door (I've got a gammy knee) I swear they give me even less time than before!

We had a massive box in our hall for almost a fortnight (waist high on me) a couple of weeks ago because the people who ordered it were on holiday. V annoying. More annoying is that our postman just sticks a “sorry we missed you” card through without even trying the doorbell - I’m home at weird times and off all summer (lecturer) and have caught him out a few times. He didn’t even have the package with him!

John Lewis courier once delivered my parcel to a neighbour 15 doors down from us accidentally. Owners teenage son signed for it without registering the address on the label was not even his address! His mum who I had never met kindly brought it over, which was lucky as John Lewis had no idea who it'd been delivered to.
There have also been times couriers have delivered a parcel for me to my neighbour, and then slipped the card through my letterbox, but the card has become hidden behind our curtain and unfort I have had no idea of the delivery until my neighbour comes to see me.
Unfortunately misunderstandings do happen and I hope this is what happened to you rather than your neighbour being thoughtless.

I'd check with other neighbors, as they may have written the wrong number on the card?

We once took in a parcel for rude neighbours,,we knew they were rude before the parcel incident . Don't know why I accepted really knowing what an ugly the nature the wife has,
I saw postman put a card through their door to tell them it was with us,,,Nearly 2 weeks and its still at our house.
DH takes it round in the end,,,UNN (ugly natured neighbour) snatches it out of his hand and shouts 'Iv been waiting for you to bring this round'' And slams door in his face,. So now nobody in the surrounding houses take in anymore parcels for UUN .

Why would someone expect you to bring the parcel round after taking it in? I don't get the logic of that at all

Pushy courier wouldn’t take the hint that we didn’t want to take in next doors parcel. We were both dressed in black on our way to a funeral and tbh taking charge of someone else’s parcel was the bloody last thing I wanted to be thinking about. We didn’t know what time we’d be home etc Still he persisted and dp took it off him, much to my annoyance.

OP, does your NDN have teenage dc who may have signed for the parcel? If not it’s very annoying and you are definitely NBU.

sizenines the recipient/sender paid for the parcel to be delivered to them not up the road or somewhere else. They have a contract in place for that. Neighbour if not agreed or established with recipient is interfering with such contract. Unless someone has asked for you to receive such item the onus is not in them to start searching for such items for said following

1. often items to be delivered are heavy. I'm not going round if I feel under the weather or have had surgery etc
2. I don't know my neighbours but also did have an ASBO neighbour. Not about to get into confrontation / tricky situations.
3. I might want to refuse delivery 4)this is probably the most important one. I am at home so apart from the delivery company not be able to wait 5-8 seconds for me to get to answer or them not bothering to ring there really is no reason to deliver my items to other people.

I really can't comprehend people getting arsey if I haven't collected a parcel. I probably don't know about it or haven't been at home at a decent time to knock. If you're not happy don't do it.

I had scenario where I had someone knocking asking me to take parcels in at least once a week and the neighbour was in! She never came round to get it I always got fed up of having it in my house and sometimes I noticed the car had gone from the drive only minutes after I had been given the parcel!

I did decline after that but still got the knocks on the door - sometimes DH used to order things maybe when I was asleep but not mention so I would've ignored the door otherwise.

I'm just gobsmacked at the postman thinking it is OK to leave a parcel 5 doors down. In times when some people don't even know who lives next door to them, why is it OK to assume you will know the people 5 doors away.

^ when I use to live in flats they use to leave my parcels on different floors! I thought that was madness. With people I had never met.

It's 'entitled' to blame the neighbour? I don't understand that in this context at all.

I was asked to take in a parcel for a neighbor while they were on holiday (was told child's Christmas present - how could I refuse?) ended up with a full size quad bike in my living room for 2 weeks .

I stopped taking in parcels for one house. They get 10+ parcels a week. The courier always put a card through (I take in numerous parcels every day for him so he doesn't want to piss me off) but they never, ever come round to collect.

I'm home to collect said parcels because I'm a SAHM. They know my youngest is a very unwell baby. Yet took the huff when I "didn't bother to being over their parcel". Fuck that. They now have to go to town to fetch their parcels and they are very pissed off that their (insincere) apologies didn't change my stance of not taking them for them.

I also don't take parcels for the house that told the company to deliver to my house without asking either.

I don't mind doing a favour but I've no time for pisstakers.

We often refuse parcels if we’re going away, or if we know they’re away and we will be stuck with it for a while. I once got stuck with a piece of car in my hall way and the neighbour had buggered away to her parents while partner was away. Ended up finding her on Facebook and telling her to get over sharpish. Turned up with her dad and expected me to carry it. Tipped it out of my door and closed it. We refused everything since for them even when we knew they were just at Asda. And they’re also blocked on Facebook for being tits.

It’s also common for us to get a card through and have to think ‘where the hell is number 12’ as it’s so far away we have to actually check the numbers.

Poor effort from your neighbours. Let’s hope it’s not perishable like a birthday cake.

I’ve had a really pushy courier insist I take a parcel for a neighbour, even though I told him that I was going out and wasn’t going to return for several days. In the end I took it, as I was headed to an appointment, and, in all truth, I was going to be popping back briefly that evening, and in the end, neighbour got their parcel. Had it got to crunch time and I really was going to be away for several days, I’d have left it with their other ndn and left a note though. Although nowadays I’d have the spine to shut the door on the courier, it’s really not my responsibility to ensure his parcels are delivered! Perhaps it’d be better if couriers were paid properly...