Parcel safe places

[latenightpartyrings]

Finally got hold of a parcel today that had been left at local(ish) Royal Mail depot after two 'undeliverable' notice cards. I'm irritated because this depot now has very limited opening hours and I specified a safe place of 'back door' -this is clearly printed on the parcel - and twice it has apparently been ignored.

Partner says IABU because the post person may not have known how to get to back door (up a shared driveway) and not had time to investigate. I feel that maybe they shouldn't offer the service and could at least on one occasion noted the difficulty on the card (which was otherwise quite fully filled in).

AIBU? Happy for any RM employees to weight in!

I'm sure the safe place is meant to be secure / weatherproof and easy for them to get to - would leaving it just by the back door fit all of those criteria? I'm not sure an open doorstep would count as a safe place?

I know you 'agree' to losses etc. but back door is sheltered away from other houses/street and many other couriers are happy to use it/playhouse/plant pot/chucked over fence/ without prompting...hence maybe they could have an option for 'safe place not suitable' or similar on calling card.

If a tracked packet won’t fit through the letterbox then the postie is required to take a picture of the item in a safe place. Royal Mail doesn’t regard a doorstep as a safe place so if anything goes wrong with such a delivery, the postie gets hauled into the office. The time allowed for a duty is also pretty tight in most cases (extra requirements like collecting as well as delivering packets for example, without increasing the time available) so again posties have to weigh the consequences of running over against providing the service the public were previously accustomed to. Privatisation was bad enough but the direction the current leadership have taken has thrown away much of the public’s trust in the service.

I'm a dog walker and different areas so get to know a lot of posties! They are really struggling with the job now and many who i know, who have loved their job in the past, are considering leaving.

Years ago we had a wonderful pair of posties, who knew I was walking my dogs around delivery time and would always leave my parcel for me and put a note through the door saying where it was. I'm fairly sure though royal mail website says a safe place cannot be outdoors. They risked it because they knew me and knew i wouldn't be long. Particularly this time of year, your postie isn't going to risk your parcel getting soaked and you complaining.

One postie I know was delivering on a brand new estate. One day he was following the lorry delivering brand new bins to the houses. He had a parcel for a lady and thought he would do her a favour so she didn't need to go to the sorting office so he left her parcel in her brand new bin and put a note through the door to tell her. She rang the sorting office and told them her parcel had been left in a bin which had then been emptied. Despite him telling his manager it was a brand new bin, and they could confirm that with the council, the manager took the customer's side and he was in trouble. He has never left a parcel unsecured since....

Would a parcel box work for you?

I'm sympathetic to all of these issues - although I've previously specified to use the playhouse (door shuts, concealed from street) and that's also been ignored only by RM.

So perhaps IABU, but that leaves me with redelivery (when I'm never going to be in) or collection from a depot which is now rarely open...

I have considered a parcel box in the past, but this is such a rare occurrence now (because most couriers will leave a parcel and I'd arrange to be in for anything valuable).

I think from the postie's or delivery person's point of view, delivery to a back door, going through a garden gate etc is a faff they don't have time for any more. I have a parcel box on the front of my home, which you can't see from the road, but is easily visible once you are at the front door.

The 739 (while you were out card) has an option to schedule a redelivery to you, a neighbour or your local post office, free of charge. You just go online at https://www.royalmail.com/receiving-mail/redelivery/book and fill in using the reference number on the card.

If the postie doesn't feel it is safe then they won't leave it there. There is also no time to be faffing in back gardens. We get 3 minutes to deliver each parcel including the driving.

YABU

You can't expect postal workers to be walking up shared driveways and elsewhere looking for a 'safe space' that sounds anything but.

Get it delivered to your local post office.