to complain about the delivery driver's incessent banging?

[WazFlimFlam]

I have just complained to both the company I bought the goods from, and Parcelforce about the behaviour of one of their delivery drivers.

I am working from home today, and was in the middle of an important phone call when the bell was rung, in that kind of BUZZZzzzz buzzz buzz BUZZZZ kind of a way.

I thought 'oh bum I can't take that delivery right now and will have to rearrange, how annoying!', hoping the person on the other end of the phone didn't hear the bell.

I carried on my call and seconds later there was another BUZZZ buzz (etc....) and then some banging on the panes of glass on the front door. I think 'oh fucking hell', and still try to ignore it.

Then it comes a third time 'BUZZZ BUZZZZ BUZZZ' and more hammering on the door.

I'm now thinking 'oh chuffing heck, someone is trying to tell me the house is on fire/someone has collapsed on the street outside and they are panicking and need someone to help'

So I reluctantly paused my telephone conversation and went downstairs to find a furious delivery driver with his face pressed up against the window, all this time the bell's BUZZZ BUZZ buzzing and he's hammering on the glass with his fists. He then just wordlessly passes me the parcel and sods off.

Was he being a dick, or AIBU complaining about a poorly paid member of the gig economy who was just at the end of his tether?

[GreatDuckCookery6211]

That sounds bonkers! How did he know you were in?

[MissionItsPossible]

I'm sure you would also be asking if you were BU to complain if he had buzzed once and then drove off leaving you to rearrange had it been convenient for you to accept it at the time so YABU and I don't think you should.

[Killerfiller]

Was he being a dick, or AIBU complaining about a poorly paid member of the gig economy who was just at the end of his tether?


Ooohhh look at me my job/life/call is more important than you delivering your parcels you poor peasant. How dare you bother me whilst I'm on my call. Please go away and deliver at a time which is more suitable to me. I didn't need my shiney silver tea set this weekend anyway.

just answer the door or don't order stuff online. Mix with the peasants and go to the shop !

[WazFlimFlam]

Rhiannon I am self-employed! I sometimes work for clients in their offices, I sometimes work from home. Today I was working from home.

[Valerrie]

YANBU. I'm disabled and live upstairs for quick access to the toilet. It takes me a long time to get down the stairs and sometimes I can't make it before they've gone.

I now have a "please be patient, disabled person" sticker for my front door and delivery drivers seem to think this gives them the right to bang constantly and loudly until I answer the door, then be shirty because I took so long.

[GreatDuckCookery6211]

If he didn’t hear the OP talking ( which she has said he couldn’t have ) or didn’t see a car outside the flat then how would he know anyone one in? The delivery didn’t have a slot for the time and date so I’m bewildered to why he was adamant anyone was home.

[RhiannonOHara]

Sorry, OP, I shouldn't have assumed.

Killer, that's quite a chip on your shoulder. The OP has not said or implied that she thinks she's more important than the delivery man. The point of this section of her post was to acknowledge that these kind of jobs are often poorly paid and with few protections for the people who do them; and therefore that complaining might just result in a bad outcome for this individual.

[HuskyMcClusky]

YANBU.

I hate it when delivery drivers do the super-LOUD emergency-style banging on the door. It’s a parcel, not a bloody bushfire - just knock once or twice normally!

[RagingFemininist]

YANBU

Delivery man will be quite used to having no one at home and leave a message.
People are working from home and sometimes cannot be going to the door.
Eg I’ve been having counselling at the counsellor house. Deleivery man cam to deliver a parcel for another house and kept in banging the door and get went to the back of the house. As the customer I wasn’t best pleased!
You could be under the shower, sleeping afetr a night shift, whatever.

As for arranging delivery when you can take the parcel...
You are just joking aren’t you? When a parcel is delivered you will always know which day it is (NOT) or the time (NOT).
Be a bit realistic!

[LipstickHandbagCoffee]

He delivered the parcel to you,on time.thats cause for praise not complaint
Of course he knocked the door to get your attention in order to deliver parcel
Sounds like you were in a mood when you eventually answered the door

[Blahblahblahzeeblah]

Im.surprised he made such an effort. I usually have the opposite problem that afyer their one brief doorbell push they're back in the van by the time I've made it to the door!

[yolkybokey]

I agree that delivery drivers often can't win - they are under huge time pressure.

I often get pissed off with them repeatedly ringing my buzzer insanely loudly and waking the baby but then I have to remind myself that the buzzer sounds a lot quieter downstairs.

[FireCracker2]

YABU. Why do you think your work is more important than his? You ordered a parcel to be delivered to your house that is a business arrangement you have made with him.If you are at home you receive it-
that's the deal.It's not his concern that you have another business arrangement going on at the same time.You do realise their are cost implications to both the driver and the delivery company of your actions?

[RagingFemininist]

He delivered the parcel to you,on time.thats cause for praise not complaint
Lol
Does it also work when parcel is left under the rain even there is a safe place specified or when the parcel is in poor condition?
Or when them disrupting you can cause major problem with your work?

A good delivery is more than just delivering the parcel on time.

[RagingFemininist]

Nope his job is TRY and deliver the parcel.
The delivery driver job is NOT to force someone to answer the door.

As for the ‘why do you think your job is more important than yours’ Comment, I want to ask
what is making you think that the delivery driver job is more important than the OP?? that she has to stop everyth8ng and make someone wait in the other side (eg a customer).
Would YOU be happy to wait as a customer in that case? Because I can tell you that my customers woud’nt.

[mindutopia]

If it didn't require a signature and he could hear you inside, he should have left it in a secure spot. This sort of thing drives me nuts. We run a business and get a lot of deliveries to home (it's easier and more secure than to our commercial premises as there isn't always a secure place to leave them there). We don't get incessant banging so much as now they know just to leave things. But we do get them signing for things themselves (they get paid if it's been signed off as delivered) but then not delivering it because they didn't feel like driving all the way here. The parcel will eventually end up here several days later, meanwhile we're trying to track it down and figure out what the hell happened to it. Similarly, we schedule courier pick ups (often for next day deliveries, so has to be picked up as is being delivered the next day). Again, they sign it off as 'collected' even though it's still sitting in the hall because no one wants to come and get it and then they show up a day or two later to collect said 'next day delivery.' One time, the guy did this and went on holiday for 5 days and then finally came to get it and was like, 'oh, sorry, was in majorca end of last week so never got out here to get this until now.' We even have one guy who doesn't even knock anymore. He literally opens the front door and chucks the parcel down the hall. I've literally stood in the kitchen (on the way to open the door for him) as he's opened our front door and thrown a parcel (in this case, it was one he had just dropped in the mud, so it was sodden and covered in mud) about 10 feet down our hall. Anyway, I do ocassionally shout at them when it's really ridiculous, but ultimately, these courier companies are crap and they treat their employees terribly and underpay them, etc. So it's the company's fault more than anything. It doesn't mean it doesn't make me really angry (and mean we then have to deal with refunding people's shipping and dealing with irate customers on our end).

[KateAdiesEarrings]

You'd be unreasonable to complain. You're also over-compensating because men judge you for working from home. That isn't the delivery driver's fault.
You could easily have said, 'Sorry, I just need to pop you on hold for a moment because . . . there's a problem with the connection; I need to sign for some mail; etc; etc' All of which would be valid reasons to pause a call in an office too.
It's a fallacy that meetings and phone calls are never interrupted in offices. It's not a regular occurrence but it does happen. Hence it's fine for it to happen occasionally when you're working from home too.

[ASatisfyingThump]

We've got loads of deliveries coming at the moment, and not one of them has a set delivery day, let alone time. He was being utterly rude and should have left it with a neighbour/taken it back to the depot so you could rearrange delivery.

Blahblah your delivery people ring the doorbell? Lucky sod, I had a bunch of stuff left next door because I couldn't hear the postman knocking over the noise of the washing machine (was in the kitchen). When I asked him why he didn't ring the perfectly obvious doorbell, which I would have heard, his response was "doorbells don't always work, so I don't bother." He's not the only one either might as well bloody get rid of it, for all the use it gets.

[LipstickHandbagCoffee]

Her parcel was left in rain/over a hedge/visible on doorstep.it was delivered.to op
Complain if parcel left in rain/over a hedge/visible on doorstep.not if delivered
How would delivery man know she’s on a tc?he can’t determine the significance of her call
He didn’t force the door.no physical damage to frame/lock/door. Just some loud knock
I really can’t see the problem.if you shop online expect your day to be interrupted with delivery

[RhiannonOHara]

You do realise their are cost implications to both the driver and the delivery company of your actions?

I think she does, yes, which is kind of why she was asking whether she should complain.

Kate, you're absolutely right about meetings and phone calls being interrupted in offices too. I'm not sure why in the OP's experience some people – well, men – seem to think that the odd interruption at home is not acceptable.

It's a good tip, I think, to say 'There's a problem with the connection' as an excuse if you need to break a phone call in future. I mean, it'd be better if men stopped acting like twats about women working from home, but...

[LipstickHandbagCoffee]

Her parcel was not left in rain/over a hedge/visible on doorstep.it was delivered.to op
Complain if parcel left in rain/over a hedge/visible on doorstep.not if delivered
How would delivery man know she’s on a tc?he can’t determine the significance of her call
He didn’t force the door.no physical damage to frame/lock/door. Just some loud knock
I really can’t see the problem.if you shop online expect your day to be interrupted with delivery

[Skittlesandbeer]

Nup. Totally reasonable for the OP to take this further. In fact, go hard.

Buying something to be delivered doesn’t mean accepting that your door/bell/window will be hammered on repeatedly. You never know what’s going on in a house: be it work, child-care, sick people, dying people, resident with other issues. And if you can’t go through that stuff peacefully in your own home, does it mean you aren’t allowed to organise deliveries? Bollocks.

I’m sure the company using this delivery service would prefer you buy from them again, so they’ll be interested in your complaint, OP. The delivery guy himself is likely judged/paid on how many times he successfully harasses people to open the door, so his (subcontracted) company is likely less interested.

I work from home. Is my job so much less important than his? Nope.

[lionguard]

tbh I get more fucked off with delivery drivers who don't even TRY to deliver a parcel before sending it back to the Post Office. Even when I'm in.

He sounds like he REALLY likes delivering parcels.

[ThunderboltsLightning]

YANBU I am on mat leave and also have a dog. My DH regularly shops online.

The number of times my DS has been woken by the dog getting excited by a parcel delivery! I won't answer the door if i am in the middle of feeding or settling DS and I would be furious if someone was as persistent as this man.

I am actually interested in getting some sort of locked parcel drop box outside my house (thankfully i have a driveway and a porch so not right on the pavement) which will be helpful when i am back at work and nobody is in to accept parcels. Except the dog of course.

[HuskyMcClusky]

Nope his job is TRY and deliver the parcel.
The delivery driver job is NOT to force someone to answer the door.

Exactly.

The ‘whose job is more important’ thing is a red herring. The OP could be unable or unwiling to answer the door for any number of reasons (baby in bath/waxing her legs/practising pole dancing).