Delivery driver let himself into house

[Moonshine160]

Firstly I know I should have locked the door but I was expecting family at any moment and had a sleeping baby on me. I was in the living room and heard the back door slam shut. I waited for a few moments thinking it was my sister arriving but nobody was here. I looked out the window and a van was just pulling away up the street. I went into the kitchen (where the back door is) and my Amazon parcels were in the middle of the floor. So the driver had let himself in and just put them on the floor and I feel a bit freaked out! They’re usually left by the back door or unfortunately sometimes on the front doorstep for all to see. When I go onto the app on my account it says they have been left in a rear porch so I can only assume he thought he was going into a porch. It doesn’t look like one though, it’s literally a back door straight into the kitchen, there’s a big pane of glass in the door and the blind was up. It looks like I need to phone up to make a complaint. AIBU to do this? I’ve asked my sister who’s now arrived who said that maybe he/she knew I’ve got a young baby so might have just been being helpful?!

Do you know how much delivery drivers get paid and the conditions they work in? I personally appreciate that they make my life so much easier by delivering stuff to me so I don't have to go out and get it, and it wouldn't occur to me to report someone for making a mistake when working under immense stress and time pressure, for the crime of mistaking my kitchen for a porch, but maybe I'm just not an overprivileged, entitled, middle class Karen.

Yes, I do. I know it very well, and I suspect I know more about it than anybody on this thread. Do you know how much delivery drivers get paid and the conditions they work in? As in have you actually done this work as your main job, 5 or 6 days a week, for longer than a month? Or is your assertion of the poor conditions going to be based on Panorama, a friend of a friend, and Sorry We Missed You?

Is Sorry we missed you an inaccurate portrayal?

Wow. Are you ok?

Thanks again for all your comments. I have not made a complaint nor am I going to. I don’t want anyone to lose their job. I can only assume the driver has made a mistake or thought it was a porch, despite it looking nothing like one. It’s literally a glass paned door straight into the house from the back garden. The driver went down the side through a gate and into my house without even knocking first to see if I was home.

I get Amazon deliveries regularly and this hasn’t happened before. As I said in my OP it was literally in the middle of the kitchen floor, not right by the back door or on the counters by the back door, the driver would have had to walk a few steps across the kitchen to leave it where they did and I find that odd. I have checked my safe place and it says shed, although it’s very rarely left there. I didn’t know this was a common thing in some places, although I am not rural. I am not “precious” or “ghastly” - I am a single parent with a small child and it scared me. Yes I should have locked my door, but that doesn’t give a person the right to just walk into my home just because it’s not bolted. I genuinely don’t usually leave my doors unlocked. As I’ve said previously, I could tell my son was about to fall asleep on me and my sister was due to arrive so I unbolted the door so she could let herself in to prevent him waking. This was for 10/15 mins max prior to the delivery.

My doors will definitely be locked all the time from now on.

I am not “precious” or “ghastly” - I am a single parent with a small child and it scared me.

And you're not, you had an understandable shock. It's strange to me (one time delivery driver) that he / she didn't knock first, as that's normally the quickest way. Perhaps they were a novice, I don't know.

I am the one who reported the driver who came into my house, through the porch door into the hall and shouted to see if anyone was in.

I really hope that he got spoken to and warned about his behaviour but hope he didn't lose his job.

I'm amazed that so many people on this thread find it acceptable for a strange man to enter their home without permission.

Especially when so many on this website are so concerned about men in women's spaces...

I believe that the individual scenarios the film depicted are accurate (as in they can happen), AND that the film is misleading in what it was clearly communicating, that a career as a delivery driver is full of things to trip you up, cost you money, and cause you to end up in a worse situation than you started in, as though it's basically designed to be that way.

Customers I deliver to sometimes ask me about the job because they seem to think it would do them for a little while to make some good money, and I talk to them about what it's like, generally. But I know nobody believes how much I earn a week, and I also know that the people who end up in trouble after starting are the people who haven't actually thought about what they're doing by taking a job like this. They want money now, see the job as easy, and are blind to everything else. Yes, you have to actually have a car or van. Yes, you need to pay for your insurance. Yes, you need to buy fuel. And yes, even delivery drivers pay taxes. I've seen a lot of new people start and get frustrated on the job and quit, because they have this idea that everything should be free AND they get paid the good rates AND the job will always be easy and end at 5pm.

Imagine if the self-employed job in question was gardener. Buying a spade and a hoe, being able to afford your diesel before you start getting paid, and finishing later on some days than on others are things that are just part of the job. They're actually part of most jobs, aren't they, if you swap the spade and hoe for whatever tools and clothes other jobs need you to have.

Thanks for responding. I didn't get the impression the system was designed to catch him out while watching the film. I did get the impression that he was required to work under an unreasonable time pressure with no flexibility and had to take a huge financial risk with no accompanying job security. So a van is not a hoe. A gardener could probably have a sick day without having to pay a locum. These people aren't real business men striking out for the big time and they don't have the backing for that. They work as if they were while the real profits go elsewhere.

He's have to be blind to think it was a porch. At the back. When the door had a big window so you could see into what was clearly a kitchen....and there was no porch.

The lengths people are going to justify a man clearly in the wrong are mad. MN is all "men out of womens toilets" (correctly) but fine with men entering womens HOUSES uninvited? Get a fucking grip!

"Decent"?? How is it decent to open someone's door and trespass? Where I live that's a $4600 fine and or a jail sentence. It's not like he was a member of the police force, the fire dept, or a paramedic, who generally would still knock and ask permission though they may have a reasonable right to enter.

It's absolutely appalling that this is being defended on here. How many of those in favour of this conduct are delivery people or have a friend/ husband/ wife/ etc who is? Because the bias is showing.

The OP definitely has a right to lodge a complaint (and should do so for the sake of other customers!), since the behaviour is both very unprofessional and breaking laws.

I live with an elderly person and have had this happen to us a few times - both times we live with the risk of getting covid afterwards, since we have had no opportunity to protect ourselves. It's not thoughtful, it's negligent at best.

Why have you resurrected a 7 month old thread?

I've raised the issue again because far too many people don't seem to realize the seriousness of trespass.

Well, since this is a mainly British site, and here, except in very specific circumstances, trespass is not that serious.

That should read ..circumstances, trespass is a civil matter and not that serious.

Complain??? To achieve what ? You have your parcels safe.

I posted on this around 2 years ago. Similar thing about Amazon opening front door and coming in. It freaked me out

very un sympathetic responses in the main “ doing you a favour” “ keep your door locked ( a kid had gone to garage so door wasn’t locked but was on the closed latch position) and then it descended into a argument that I was lying to say I had a front door with a handle on it - no front doors have handles 🤦‍♀️🙄

funny how my new house also has handle on the front door too and works in exactly he same way. And that the door is solid door and nothing like a porch door . And that I’ve had countless delivery divers trying my door handle since then. I live on my own now so easy to keep it locked

stop blaming the OP. It’s bloody scary having someone invade your privacy without warning, especially your own home. Drivers shouldn’t be be opening doors unless there are specific instructions to leave in porch and it’s obviously a porch. The post office don’t do his - why do Amazon and dhl have particular drivers who persist in doing this.

Any chance the back door was open?

You’ve got a bit of a bee in your bonnet.

Amazon has been doing this here lately. It's very new behaviour from them. They always used to throw parcels over the back fence until the last month or so. I wonder if they've had some kind of policy change?

I don't mind as such as my door opens into a hallway/stairway rather than a living area but I do worry that'll accidentally let the indoor cats out.

I'm a relief courier, I always pop the parcel inside a porch door, if the door is unlocked and nobody has answered.

No one has ever complained, most find it helpful and I often get a thank you shouted down the road if I've been too quick for them.
I'd never walk into a house or wander down the hallway though.
Mumsnet is bizarre, lock your door if you are so worried. I've never heard anyone complain about this in real life.

I once forgot I was having a mattress delivered, dashed home in a panic, only to find it stood up in the hallway, fortunately I'd forgotten to lock the door.

Did ye aye

And the P.O do it too.

We are going to get to the stage that everyone who finds it helpful will lose that option because of a few complainers. And decent couriers will be disciplined for being helpful.

🧟‍♀️ 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️