Parcel for Neighbour

[Aretheyhavingalaugh]

If you have taken a parcel in for your neighbour, should they come and knock on your door to get it or should you take it to them? They have been notified we have it.

They should come and get it. I stopped taking them in because they never came to collect it

I agree, but I'm wondering how long to wait before I go and knock on there door with it!

They usually get it because when they get in they will see the card, otherwise you could be back and forth with it until someone gets home.

If you are sure they know you have it they should knock, however we don’t always get told a parcel has been left with a neighbour. I also tend to drop them round as I am then not in the middle of something when they come to collect

About 50/50. If I notice them getting home I might pop it round, otherwise they'll come over at some point and get it. It isn't a big deal to me.

Just go now? I don't understand the angst.

Quick suggestion, when you knock, don't have the parcel with you. Wait expectantly for them to put their shoes on and follow you to collect it. After a couple of repeats, I found it worked wonders, inconveniencing them as much as they'd inconvenienced me.

They should come and get it. If you take it to them you are being a postman for them without any pay for your services.

One of my next door neighbours never collected parcels so they’d sit in my hallway taking up space for days, annoying me until I would go and knock on my way out somewhere. Once a bouquet of flowers with a card was delivered at lunchtime by a local florist, they said they’d leave a card for them to know they were at mine. Later that day around 5:30pm I was back from the gym, they were all in (older couple and their adult daughter), their 3 cars outside, kitchen window open. I wait until about 8pm, I was torn between letting them sit there for days just to spite them and taking them round. I took them round. Didn’t get so much as a thank you.

Have refused to take anything in for them since.

They should come and collect it.

If its getting late, I'll often drop it around though. I don't want people coming late at night when I'm in my PJ's with no bra on!

I don't know them and think it's common courtesy for them to come and get it. If a neighbour took a parcel for me, I'd go and collect it as soon as I got home and thank them etc

I don’t like people knocking at the door unexpectedly and having to potentially break off from whatever I’m doing, so if I take a parcel in for someone then I’ll always look out for them coming home and drop it round.

If it's causing you this much thinking why take the parcel in at all?

Surely it's a good opportunity to meet them?

Unless you're in a remote rural location and your neighbour is 2 miles away is it really a big deal?

It depends if they actually know. I have a parcel missing right now but I've had nothing through the door or via email/text from delivery company. I live in a flat, don't know the people downstairs because we recently moved here and they've blanked us at every opportunity to introduce ourselves, and I now don't really fancy knocking on their door on the offchance my parcel may have been delivered to them when Amazon has no idea where the parcel is and hasn't told me it's at a neighbours, because I don't want my first interaction with them to be a massive waste of time and awkwardness.
But if you can magically see through their letterbox to see the "sorry you were out" note (and to see it's actually legible), and you're really sure they know, they should get it themselves.

The person whose parcel it is should go to collect it from the person who was nice enough to take it in. That’s just basic good manners. I’d never expect someone to take in a parcel for me and then also have to deliver it to me! So lazy!

So it isn't that are wondering whether you should take it round. It's that you think they should immediately collect and are irritated that they haven't.

It's very Mumsnet for these normal social interactions to become a big deal. In my real life experience most people are happy to take in parcels for neighbours and won't agonise over the protocol for getting said parcel to its owner. It's on your mind, pop it round and maybe introduce yourself. Next time you miss a parcel they will be happy to help.

Yes. Also don't rely on the delivery company actually leaving a comprehensive note for your neighbour. Mine often make no sense, if they are left at all.

If I come home to a card about a parcel I will immediately go and collect it from my neighbour. However, there have been times when my neighbour has knocked on my door with a parcel that I knew nothing about. The card leaving thing isn't always reliable.

Sometimes I've not noticed the card as it's slid underneath something. As you can never be completely sure whether someone knows you've got the parcel, I tend to send a child over with it when I notice they're in. If I see a card that tells me a neighbour has my parcel, I go round right away.

I took in 2 parcels at the same time, one for my next door neighbour and then another neighbour, the next door neighbour came the same day but its been 2 days and the other one hasn't been. I once had a parcel for 3 weeks!!

I'd never expect a neighbour to take in a parcel for me and in the last country I lived they would never leave parcels with neighbours but apparently I have no control over this in the UK and now I'm somehow lazy??? For someone doing something I didn't ask them to do, didn't know they'd done, didn't want them to do, and couldn't ask them NOT to do??
Bizarre judgement! If you judge people like that maybe it's not "nice" to take in their parcels so just say no to the delivery person. I'd rather deal with a depot than being judged by neighbours.

Couriers don’t always leave a card, so your neighbour might not know that you have it. Unless it’s heavy or awkward to carry, I don’t know why you wouldn’t just nip round to your neighbour’s with the parcel? It’s two minutes taken out of your day and I’m presuming that if the neighbour had a history of never bothering to pick parcels up from you that you’d have mentioned it.

Don’t do PP’s suggestion of knocking on the door without the parcel, forcing them to follow you back to your house. How mean spirited and passive aggressive.

They should come and get it - but you're assuming they'll have been left a card. Our postman doesn't always put one through.

I would suggest, though, that if it gives you so much anxiety, just say no the next time you're asked to take one in :). You don't have to do it at all!

@Aretheyhavingalaugh

There has been numerous times there had been no calling card left at mine when a parcel has been delivered next door and the same with my neighbours.
When I see they are home I go out and take it with me.
They now do the same for me.

One of the Evri drivers round here doesn't update the app properly and doesn't leave a card. He also hammers the hell out of my door which annoys me. Anyway, I have had parcels "delivered" by him, but nothing to say where it is. I hate it when a neighbour ends up bringing it round as I feel so ignorant for not collecting it and end up apologising profusely.

We always had such lovely Hermes drivers round here, it sucks that we now have this useless man.