Is this DPD parcel delivery system setting ridiculous or AIBU? Long, sorry.

[StalkedByACat]

Bit of background: Months ago, DH ordered small item from an online retailer. DPD emailed, "we're delivering your parcel on date" but we weren't going to be in, so DH did the online form thing to change delivery address to a Pickup Shop near work. All fine, collected item from shop. (Bear in mind months ago so memory of details vague and have been reconstructed from subsequent investigation.)

Last week: DH ordered another item from same online retailer. DPD emails, "we're delivering your parcel on date to Pickup Shop" - cue DH puzzlement, because when he re-checked his order email from the retailer, it was definitely our home address. But he thought maybe he'd accidentally given retailer the Pickup Shop address rather than DPD, the previous time. So no problem, collected item from shop.

This week: DH ordered kitchen appliance from Amazon. DPD emails, "we're delivering your parcel tomorrow to Pickup Shop" - DH goes WTF, I ordered from Amazon. After a day of frantic Googling and struggling with every "Contact Us" method on the DPD website including finally being able to speak to a human on the phone this morning, this is the upshot...

Somehow, DH had created a DPD account when he first did the Redirect Parcel thing, months ago. In said account, there is a check box saying effectively "Send everything to Pickup Shop by default" and this was ticked. He does not recall doing this, pointing out why would he?? The entirety of the DPD system (including all the supposed "Change my delivery address/date" options) does not permit the Pickup to be overridden. The kitchen appliance is going to a shop not near our house, today, that's it, the end. {NB: We do not own a car}

I'm surprised at his difficulties, I use the app and find it really easy to understand. We do have great DPD couriers here though.

The app, the website, the chat function and the people on the phone are all perfectly easy to understand.

They just do not have any option, no matter what, to override a "default send to Pickup Shop" setting that he didn't even know was there, in an account that he hadn't realised had been created.

Isn't there a bit on the app just to change address details?

Not being ato override is annoying but I imagine it's for this delivery and can change for the next.
When I had to change a date I thought it was really clear that I was creating an account tbf.

With hindsight probably should have checked after the last one.

Surprised DPD staff cannot cancel, or arrange collection and redirect.

Not if DPD have decided your parcel is going to a Pickup Shop, no. Can't be done. Not even by a human.

These commercial courier companies are all awful. I have to deal with Evri, don’t get me started…
When I post packages, I use Royal Mail, whose system is reliable & predictable, but most retailers use Hermes, DPD, Evri. It’s a mess frankly.

Can they delete your account so you can start again?

Agree, with hindsight DH should have twigged something was amiss with last week's delivery.

Obviously, now he has unticked the "Send all my stuff to Timbuktu no matter what the retailer says" option on his account.

But it is apparently impossible for DPD humans to do anything about a kitchen appliance going to a local shop, once "the system" has deemed it. I honestly don't understand, when if the parcel was going to a normal address, there would be options to redirect.

How annoying.

I can understand it not being possible to change on the day, once the route is planned, but there's no logical reason for them to shut off that option beforehand.

Thing is, when you place an online order you generally have no idea which company will be delivering your parcel.

In this case, DH ordered from Amazon. He has checked and re-checked his Amazon order details - they clearly state our home address as the destination. And generally one would expect Amazon orders to be delivered by Amazon.

The first he knew of the DPD debacle was yesterday's email, which by the time he read it, events were apparently set in stone 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's so weird that they do this. Similar thing happened to my husband where he entered a safe space for a package he ordered when we weren't going to be in. Since then every package has just been dumped there and they haven't knocked or anything, one being a quite expensive camera. DH went to ask what on earth was going on and why they weren't bothering to knock and the driver said these were the delivery instructions. I had no idea they created accounts off the back of one order so this is good to know as we should be able to fix it now. I don't understand how they're allowed to do that as surely their business is with the seller, probably why it never occurred to us that we had an account.

DPD deliver some Amazon parcels. They delivered an Amazon order to me this week. I was surprised too. However it was from a third party seller so I suppose the seller selects the delivery company.
DPD are great round here though.
Evri on the other hand are rubbish, they leave deliveries anywhere in the neighbourhood without letting you know where.

Not being able to change something in transit is understandable because scammers would send something to their victim's address then divert it to their own without the victim realising that their details were used for an online order. Not everyone checks their banking so scammers would get away with a lot.

Having a tickbox saying always use this preference will annoy as many people as it will please. Some people will always want a delivery to go to work unless it's being delivered at the weekend where as others will want a different delivery address as a one off because they are on holiday or whatever.

It is annoying that you've got to work out how to get a package home. I hope it's not too big. Worst case scenario you'll have to work out nearest place to return it or take a taxi home.

Other companies, when you are arranging a different delivery address, have a tick box for whether you want the address to become your default delivery address.

It's not like asking for the moon on a stick!

(As DH doesn't really remember the change with the previous order, is it possible he made a mistake, there was a box and he ticked it?)

And it does sound as if you can change - just not when an order is en route

So has he done it for future orders?

Not being able to change something in transit is understandable because scammers would send something to their victim's address then divert it to their own without the victim realising that their details were used for an online order.

That makes complete sense, but normally (as their website says) this relates to the Sender being the one to address the parcel.

In our situation, all DH's communications from the retailers have our home address on them. So it wasn't until he got DPD's email that he realised the delivery address was wrong - by which time, in their system, it was too late to change.

I know exactly what you mean, when you go to a retailer website and you can tick their box for another address.

This isn't the retailers though, it's DPD.

He has indeed unticked the "Send all my stuff to Moonbase Alpha, even though my retailer has put my home address" box.

@Moanranger I have to disagree about Royal Mail. They are completely unreliable round here and I prefer not to use them.

It’s true that when you order something online, you mostly don’t know who the courier is, until it’s ordered. People have different experiences and opinions about the couriers and, like many things, it’s dependent on who the person is in your area.

It’s quite likely the parcel shop will reject the delivery as it will be too big if it’s a big appliance. They’ll get returned to the sender and you’ll have to reorder.

Noooo don't say that 😭DH is already kicking himself as it is!

It's not just DPD: Amazon van deliveries have also gone mad here. I recently ordered some bath towels from them, one pack of 2 x blue, one of 2 x green, all Amazon own brand and in stock. Delivery was for 2 days later, to the Amazon pick-up shop about 10 minutes walk away.

Then they emailed to say that they couldn't deliver them both on (say) the Thursday, so one would be arriving on the Thursday and another on the Friday. Would I prefer them both on the same day (Friday)? Yes please. All fine.

Later that day ... oh, and by the way, we can deliver one lot (the blue) to the pick-up shop, but not the green. That one will have to go to your home address. No, it's too late to ask for both parcels to go there. WTAF?

I'm pretty certain that they came on the same van, as the message saying my parcel was available at the shop arrived within a few minutes of the other one arriving at my front door. I can only think that someone in the pick-up shop has a superstition about green. 😁

I’ve been having real nightmares with almost all delivery companies recently (except, surprisingly, Evri, which is certainly a role reversal!)

The same thing has happened to me with DPD, and then I get another update saying that they “could not deliver to a Point” and eventually they return to sender. I think I’ll be better off hiring a van and buying furniture the old fashioned way in future!

I checked the parcel that DH received last week from DPD, and indeed it has two labels on. The first, applied by the actual retailer, has our actual home address. Over it, DPD has applied the second label with the shop address.

So just further confirmation (not that I needed it) that this was entirely a DPD account thing.

It is infuriatingly Kafkaesque that one cannot redirect a parcel once it is en route, but that you don't actually know that you need to redirect it until it is en route, because you don't know which company is delivering it and what settings they have recorded for you, until they contact you to tell you it is en route!

Kitchen appliance has been successfully delivered to the shop this afternoon - we will collect it tomorrow and take a taxi home. Annoying hassle and extra expense, but a valuable teaching moment or something...

Hope this is helpful to anybody who has ever redirected a parcel, to check the default account settings you have unknowingly created!

@DrinkingMyWaterMindingMyBiz - My only experience of Evri was having them pick up an item for delivery to a charity - at my expense, obviously. They gave me a 30-minute time slot and turned up within the first 5 minutes. I was tempted to hug the driver!

I sympathise. I remember last year, my uncle had sent me a Christmas present, delivery direct from the retailer to me, DPD delivering. I only had half an hour's notice of the delivery when my uncle messaged me about it, and there wasn't going to be anyone in. He did say he could try and get it changed but with no guarantee, and as it was such short notice I also had my doubts it could be done, so I just said leave it and I'd sort it when I got home (thinking I'd get the option to have it redelivered to my home). As it turned out, it was delivered to a pickup shop and it wouldn't give me the option of having it redelivered here instead. While I could get it, even though it was a pain, I wasn't impressed at the lack of options as there are people out there who wouldn't have found it as easy. I wonder now if there was a setting like that ticked there.

Another one I had was Amazon, someone trying to put one parcel in the garage claiming that had been selected as a safe place. Even though my mum was physically present and kept telling the driver she would accept the delivery herself, he still said a few times it had to go in the garage!

If you give your address to the shop they’ll inform the driver he’s got a choice reroute or take it away I can’t see the shop accepting a kitchen appliance