Should I stop taking my neighbours parcels in?

[hunkydory13]

Hi! So my husband and I live in a building with 5 other residents. Since covid my husband has been working from home whilst I have been in the office. Hubby still working from home and I am on maternity leave now so we are both in or at least one of us is at home everyday. The 5 other residents consist of a working couple (one works from home), an older woman who is at home all day, another woman who is at home all day, a woman with a small child (who I think is still on maternity leave) and a gentleman who works 2 jobs. I have noticed recently we have been getting these neighbours parcels as they haven’t been answering the door (in particular it’s the couple who work from home and the older lady who is at home all day). We didn’t have an issue taking these in but there have been a few times recently we have had to collect our parcels from the depot as nobody took ours in since they don’t answer the door. Should we stop taking in their parcels? If so what do you say to the postman? I feel bad as they are just doing their job but nobody else does this favour in return and I have to go to the depot with a 3 month old baby! Anyone else experience this?

When DP wfh he wears headphones, he cannot hear the door so if I'm not in parcels get left on the doorstep or with neighbours.

Women on maternity leave do go out so do retired people. Maybe they can't hear the door because the tv is too loud, baby is screaming etc. Maybe they go happily go out on parcel delivery day because they know they can rely on you to take it in.

There are many reasons why they might not answer the door. There's nothing wrong with refusing their parcels if it's inconvenient to you, maybe they'll make more effort to answer the door if you do!

Just tell delivery person "sorry no" and leave it at that you owe nobody an explanation and close door, rinse and repeat until they get the message both delivery person and recipient.

I assume the delivery person rings their bell first and then yours? Can you hear their bell ring? If so just ignore yours when they try it after.

Or if you can’t hear them trying someone else first: Are they buzzers or do you have to go all the way to the front door to speak to the delivery person? If it’s a buzzer system then it’s easy enough to say “Sorry I can’t take it.” And then just hang up.

The delivery guys are used to it. Just say no.
I had a ridiculous situation recently when the guy wanted me to accept for 2 houses, and I said yes to one, and no to the other. He didn't seem fussed.

As PP said there are many reasons your neighbours may not open the door. I often am stuck in a meeting and can't get up in the middle to answer the door. I've explained this to my usual posties though and told them where to leave parcel.

Just tell your postie sorry just mine please

Yes I've done that and they haven't batted an eyelid. They must be used to it

I wouldn't bother, just say "sorry I can't" and close the door. Or don't open it in the first place unless you are expecting your own delivery.

Just say "sorry we can never get hold of them either so I'd rather not accept their parcels". The driver will either leave it at their risk, or take it back to the depot.

"Sorry, it takes too much trouble to get them to collect from us when we take parcels for other residents so we won't be accepting them any more."

TBH in my old flat I wished one of my neighbours would stop taking my parcels in (I never list "leave with neighbour" as a delivery option I would always ask them to put it in the meter cupboard which was right next to my front door and I would leave unlocked on days I was expecting deliveries) because I would work late shifts, leave at 12pm and get home at 11pm and she was out of the house at 7am, home at 4pm and in bed before 10pm.

So to get my parcel I either had to wake her up at 11pm or get up at 6am. I told her repeatedly to not take my parcels (if they weren't delivered I could get them from the depot, that was a 5 minute walk away, at my leisure) but she insisted she was trying to help and I should be grateful ... So from them on I always woke her up at 11pm (previously I'd been dragging myself out of bed at 6am to inconvenience her less) and she started to take the hint as a lot more of my parcels either ended up in the cupboard or back at the depot.

This happened to me too. Recently I just started to tell the post man/delivery guy, "no I can't, sorry." I feel much better now.

You can just say “no sorry” to the delivery person. One of our neighbours are tw*ts so we don’t take parcels in for him. I’ve just started saying no sorry I can’t.

Put a note on your door to say we don't accept neighbours parcels. The DPD man insists on continually asking if we will take a parcel I've always said no, I ignore him now. It pisses me off as it sets the dogs off when he knocks😤 I don't expect anyone to take things for me, I hate collecting it and making small talk and don't want people collecting from me.

I have a professionally printed notice on my door (eBay) that tells couriers to leave my parcels in my parcel safe, not leave them with neighbours, and that I do not take in neighbours' parcels. I NEVER get asked to take in others' parcels. As the only WFH resident I was getting continually disturbed by the couriers then the parcel owners, so I stopped it completely.

It takes no effort to take a parcel in. If you've already opened the door you may as well let the delivery driver set the parcel down. I understand not doing favours for those who don't return them but you aren't actually doing anything.

I’ve had a similar issue, when anyone knocks I now explain it isnt convenient.

I found out my neighbour had put my name and address down for deliveries and they were big car/motorbike items that took up my whole hallway. I just didn’t answer the door. Neighbour did get me some chocolates, I didn’t mind occasionally, but not nearly every day. Neighbour asked if I had a delivery for him, I just said I didn’t hear, was probably in the garden. Did it a few times, then he must have stopped using my address as deliveries stopped.

It's not the taking it in that takes the time, it's the getting rid of it again, in our case anyway.

If so what do you say to the postman?

I ended up saying "sorry I am going out later so won't see them". It was getting to be that I was being asked to take in parcels everyday, by default, for the 5-6 houses near me.

I feel for delivery people but mine had clearly just tagged me as a easy place to drop off the parcels so I had to put an end to it.

Yes. Just stop. Your neighbours will soon discover an interest in answering the door.

I used to be fine about taking in neighbours parcels, until the time when we had a run of occasions where we were storing several boxes in our hall for weeks because they couldn't be bothered to collect, and I then found out that they were actually specifying our address as the "safe place to leave if we are out" for all their deliveries (and were out half the time so we were doing this loads). So I just stopped taking in any parcels at all if they aren't addressed to me, and tbh I would far rather go to the depot for my own parcels on the rare occasions when I miss a delivery of my own, rather than braving the neighbour's horribly yappy and ill-trained dog.