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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think 7am is way too early for a delivery?

73 replies

Peaplant20 · 22/07/2021 10:00

We’ve started getting way more deliveries at around 7am since the pandemic started - possibly couriers have extended their delivery times or maybe it’s just a coincidence. It wakes me and DH up every single time as it’s usually a Saturday! And today for example we are both off on paternity/ maternity leave… I’d literally just got off to sleep after a feed and the doorbell went. I notice on DPD’s website their delivery hours are stated as 7am-5.30pm - this seems so antisocial to me, wouldn’t it be better to go later into the evening - so say 8am-6.30pm? I say I think it’s antisocial because I’d never go knocking on a neighbour’s door at 7am! What do you think?
Reasonable - yes it’s too early, I’d rather they delivered later (e.g. 8am-6.30pm)
Unreasonable - it’s fine as it is, I am up and about by 7am!

OP posts:

Original poster

Peaplant20 · 22/07/2021 10:01

P.s. seriously debating leaving a note on the front door saying please don’t knock or ring the doorbell before 8am, just leave the package or put it as a missed delivery! But this might be because I’m very sleep deprived today from having a newborn so feeling particularly annoyed about being woken up 😂

OP posts:

NewYearNewTwatName · 22/07/2021 10:03

7am is reasonable time, but I can understand how it's a but shit for you at the moment with a tiny baby.

Crockof · 22/07/2021 10:05

Stop ordering stuff?

Although I have put notes on the door telling delivery drivers not to knock and where to put it, only problem is there is no comeback if when you go to get it, it's not there.

ClumpingBambooIsALie · 22/07/2021 10:09

@NewYearNewTwatName

7am is reasonable time, but I can understand how it's a but shit for you at the moment with a tiny baby.

7am is not reasonable! Loads of people are still asleep at 7am, or at best hauling themselves into the shower. It's like getting a delivery at 11pm — a good chunk of the population is going to be in bed or close to it.

Dishwashersaurous · 22/07/2021 10:11

Means lots of people get their delivery before work etc.

So many more people are ordering on line this is the only way that couriers can meet their obligations

BarbaraofSeville · 22/07/2021 10:15

But if they did 8 til 6.30 there would be people complaining they were disturbing bathtime or evening meal preparation.

They can't win and obviously need to deliver between certain hours to get everything done, and it could be that due to your location on your driver's round, your deliveries are always going to be early.

If you get the DPD app, you can put instructions in it to leave in a safe place. If your driver knows you are still in bed, but will be up soon, he/she should be happy to leave your parcels outside somewhere for you to collect when you get up.

edwinbear · 22/07/2021 10:15

I suppose it depends how many deliveries you get. I probably only get a delivery once every 2-3 weeks so it wouldn't bother me, but if you're getting stuff every 2-3 days I can see it could be irritating. But, annoying though it is, couriers work long hours, often over running past the stated 5.30pm so I can understand they want to be on the road early.

LubaLuca · 22/07/2021 10:15

I think you can tell DPD to leave things in a safe place. I'm sure I always get a message from them in advance of delivery asking if I have any specific instructions.

Either way, leave a note on your door telling them to leave parcels without disturbing you.

SouthOfFrance · 22/07/2021 10:18

Hmm, I'm on the fence on this one. I agree it's a pain to get up at 7am if you weren't planning to, you must be quite unlucky though as I order stuff online all the time and never get knocks that early. If it happened once or twice I'd suck it up, if it literally happens all the time then I'd either leave a note on the door, get a parcel box, or update my settings/preferences with the delivery companies.
Overall the irritation of being woken at 7 doesn't outweigh the benefit of getting items delivered, I love not having to go to the shops.

viques · 22/07/2021 10:20

I sent flowers to someone yesterday, had a text at 7.07 to say they had delivered. I was really pleased as I don’t think flowers would have been at their best after a few hours steaming in a couriers van. My veg delivery is often here before 7.00, though to be honest they don’t knock, just leave it in the porch. I think early deliveries are great, easier for the couriers as less traffic, no hanging about all day waiting for the knock on the door. If I get an unexpected delivery and I am still in bed I just lean out of the bedroom window and ask them to leave it by the door before I scurry downstairs in my jammies.

Fiddliestofsticks · 22/07/2021 10:22

DPD have a safe place option though? You get a text in advance of the delivery, then another text with the delivery window times. Why didn't you set a safe place?

NewYearNewTwatName · 22/07/2021 10:23

I stand by 7am reasonable. most people are getting up for work or school. there will always be a large minority who aren't for lots of reasons, but for delivery company to make the amount of deliveries needed, they will go with majority.

if it was 6am? then yes totally unreasonable (even though it would still be fine for me)

ClumpingBambooIsALie · 22/07/2021 10:24

Alright for those as wear jammies 😅

m0therofdragons · 22/07/2021 10:26

I hate it - 8am fine but most people aren’t dressed / properly awake at 7am. We must be first on the dpd delivery route and at one point it was 7am but then he came at 6.45am and I snapped at him that it was unsociable and not acceptable. Oddly, once dh started answering he changed to being happy to leave it in the porch so he must have liked seeing my dazed/pissed off face!

icelollycraving · 22/07/2021 10:27

Totally fine. I get loads of deliveries. I’d rather early morning than late evening. I’m too lazy to be too bothered, as long as someone is literally delivering it to me I don’t care.

UrAWizHarry · 22/07/2021 10:28

They are never going to please everyone.

7am is not that early, and most if not all couriers allow you to specify a safe place for parcels to be left if you don't answer the door.

BarbaraofSeville · 22/07/2021 10:28

I'd also rather it come early in the morning rather than getting something like a 9 to 1 slot, where you're hanging around waiting for the parcel and don't know if you can go out and come back before it comes, or it will be getting too late to go anywhere if it arrives after lunch.

goodwinter · 22/07/2021 10:32

@Fiddliestofsticks

DPD have a safe place option though? You get a text in advance of the delivery, then another text with the delivery window times. Why didn't you set a safe place?

Not everyone has somewhere to use as a safe space - I'm mid-terrace right onto the street, no front garden, no porch etc. Back garden is accessed through a locked back alley and I don't think they have the time to be faffing with gate codes to get into the alley and then counting back gates to figure out which one is mine!

OneTC · 22/07/2021 10:32

Last week one of my outstanding deliveries got set to delivered and it hadn't arrived. I reported the problem but the next morning at about 0530 I heard a funny noise in the hall and ran out to attack the invader and it was a dpd driver trying to lever the missing package through our letterbox and there was me wishing I'd got dressed

I wouldn't have a problem with 7 personally but I'm up then anyway. 8 seems completely reasonable as it's when most other restrictions about annoying sleeping people are lifted

PattyPan · 22/07/2021 10:33

I totally agree, 7 am is too early. 8am is when it becomes reasonable IMO. It would be fine if they let you choose a slot if you wanted it that early but they just blithely email you to say your parcel will be coming between 7am-10am so you have to get up and dressed earlier so that you’re not asleep or in the shower when they come and then they don’t even come until 9.55 anyway.
Oh and I don’t have anywhere I would consider a safe place - door is about 1m back from the street so doorstep is very visible, no porch, mid terrace so can’t put it over the fence/in outbuilding etc.

LakieLady · 22/07/2021 10:34

7am is not reasonable! Loads of people are still asleep at 7am

Not in my road they're not, unless they're deaf.

There are at least 4 people who leave for work between 5 & 6.30, all of whom seem to have incredibly noisy diesel vehicles, and between 6 & 7 several neighbours let their dogs out, and we have the daily barkfest.

The thought of sleeping till 7 is heavenly.

Original poster

Peaplant20 · 22/07/2021 10:34

@Fiddliestofsticks

DPD have a safe place option though? You get a text in advance of the delivery, then another text with the delivery window times. Why didn't you set a safe place?

DH ordered it so not sure about the safe place thing but we did get a text in advance of the delivery… at 6.48am 😆

Thanks everyone for the info about the app and the safe place option… doing that ASAP!

Yes I must be the first on the route or something as it happens every time.

OP posts:

Lottie4 · 22/07/2021 10:36

The poor delivery person has no chance of a lie in on a Saturday, as he's delivering your items. If it's a struggle to get up for 7am on a Saturday, then I'd order for things to arrive a different day.

AddressLabel · 22/07/2021 10:39

7am isn’t too early, and if you think it is then choose a delivery service that doesn’t deliver at this time. Also if you are expecting a delivery and know it is a company that delivers at 7am, as a one off it’s not the end of the world.
I like 7am deliveries. I always choose the early time slot if I get given the option. I’m up at that time, and it means I don’t have to hang about wasting a day of annual leave, or having to “make up time” at work.

ClumpingBambooIsALie · 22/07/2021 10:39

@NewYearNewTwatName

if it was 6am? then yes totally unreasonable (even though it would still be fine for me)

I googled average UK wake-up times to check that I'm not going completely bonkers here, and not a single source gave an average pre-7am wake-up time (they varied between about 7.05 and 7.35). Admittedly some will be biased towards certain demographics because they're based on things like fitness trackers, but some were industry surveys so a different demographic. Which means it's probably the majority of people still in bed at 7am, not a "large minority", probably asleep, possibly naked, likely as far away from their front door as it's possible to get. Fine if it's veg box or milk deliveries where you're not expected to answer the door for it, but I bet they have to do a lot of hanging around waiting for people to run downstairs half-awake throwing on a dressing gown.

It would be great if you could flag yourself with delivery companies as a "yes please, deliver as early as possible so I can get on with my day" household or alternatively a "dear God I'm not even sentient before elevenses" person.

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