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 not a fan of dpd. I ordered something and wasn’t given a specific date for delivery at checkout then received a text the following day saying it was being delivered that day when I was out but I could change. So I went online. It cost me £4.99 to change to the following day when I knew I would be in. Next day I went on to track it and there was a message saying due to issues at their end they couldn’t deliver and it would come the following day again. I had to then see arrangements to be able to collect it on the day after I’d paid extra for it to be delivered. I wasn’t best pleased that I’d changed my plans and also that my item was now 2 days late.

Unsure what the big deal is about this? There are so many worse things going on in this world right now.

I had an issue with Evri. I went to pick up my parcel from the Post Office. It was addressed to my maiden name, so my ID was not valid.

I had to show them my confirmation email from the retailer that had my married name on the order, and luckily they let me have it. The other person said they have problems like this all the time with Evri. I changed my name 7 years ago and have had several deliveries from Evri since.

Another time I received a message from Evri to say the package had been delivered to pick-up point. I went to pick it up...it wasn't there. I was told they don't get any deliveries from Evri on that day 🙄

If they deliver to the house they NEVER ring the bell. They just leave it in the doorstep for anyone to take. I have to constantly keep tracking the parcel....and it doesn't always arrive in the given timeslot.

DPD are good, but the guy rings and bangs on the door until you open it...he expects you to hang around right next to the front door so you can open it immediately. 🙄

Royal Mail are the worst infact

Feel free to scroll on by without posting, then.

I was going to reply to that poster, that it was the bizarrest thing to post on pretty much any MN thread, but then I thought the point would fly right over

This happened to me a couple of times before I found and changed the setting and I swore out loud a good few times over how annoying it all was as the local store is on the other end of town and past a road that is always slow traffic…

I very much sympathise op as I am
în the middle of a similar situation right now. Marks and Spencer sent an email saying that a parcel had been delivered to me which is the first I had seen or heard of it since ordering. No texts from DPD saying it’s en route, or it’s nearly there etc.

It was meant to come to my home address where there is someone at home at all times so I was surprised that instruction had been overridden.

Cue me running around to my “safe place” and to the local DPD pick up centres. No one has seen it. It contained a coat and two pairs of trousers so I am really pissed off that it’s lost.

I’ve contacted M&S who are trying to track it down.

And in the past I’ve had several Amazon delivery drivers just leave a packet on the pavement outside my door for anyone to take!

i think the whole system needs an overhaul. The way we shop has changed so much. There should be some sort of vending machine collection point built in to the infrastructure every few streets or so. Or maybe drones will change everything although the prospect of the sky being full of them is not very appealing!

Oh and why is it always the package with the lovely winter clothes that goes astray and the one containing the boring shelving brackets that gets handed over the doorstep with infinite care?

I used to work for a company that sold a perishable product and we used DPD. They were generally excellent but I remember when they started really prioritising the use of these Pick Up shops before Xmas one year. It was a bit of a nightmare because they would take parcels to the shop if the recipient was out as a default- but people were sending lots of gifts that time of year so had to then tell their gift recipient to collect it. 😩

@Moldywarpedalright If you have a front garden, you can buy a parcel box for your deliveries. I've got one - it's like a large mail box with a door that can be locked afterwards without a key to keep the parcel secure. Not all couriers use it but most do and it's made life so much easier.

I'm currently being accused of theft thanks to dpd. They have repeatedly delivered parcels for a neighbour here. They tried to again last week. They handed me a parcel, I looked at it, said it wasn't for me, handed it back to the driver and directed him to where it should be delivered and thought no more of it.

A few days later the neighbour came storming round. Apparently the parcel contained a phone and the dpd driver had taken a photo as he handed the parcel to me, before I gave it back to him, so the neighbour had the delivery photo. After accusing me of theft they were off to report it to the police so I am waiting for the fallout from that. Dishonesty can mean I am struck off (lawyer) so this is potentially a very big deal.

A few months ago I had two dpd drivers at the door getting aggro with me because they had left a parcel on the doorstep while we were away. We had taken it round to the same neighbour when we got back, doing dpd's job for them as they are so useless. Apparently it contained a part worth £10k and the neighbour was saying they hadn't received it. I'm bloody sick of dpd.

I got caught by the same thing with DPD. I'd set up the pickup shop for all DPD deliveries when ordering a present around Christmas, as it made sense at the time. I assumed I'd always know if I had chosen a DPD delivery.

About a year or two later I bought an item in John Lewis, they arranged delivery but this wasn't done by the shop staff so I didn't have any details.

A few weeks and several confused calls later, the item had been delivered to the pickup shop and then returned back to John Lewis. Took me ages to work out what had happened.

I wonder if your neighbour has accidentally ticked a "send all my valuable parcels to eurochick by default, even though my retailer has clearly addressed it to me" box on their DPD account that they didn't know they had created.

Thank you stripytees I have looked at them. It’s something I was considering.

I was a bit shocked at the prices though! It might be worth it to save all of this hassle though.

And I don’t know how you place them in an urban setting where front doors open straight on to the pavement?

This thread has reminded me of the time one of my dds went through an Argyll sock phase 😄so I ordered three pairs from Scotland for her Christmas stocking one year. They never turned up, or so I thought, and then a couple of years later we found a rather moth eaten parcel stuffed behind one of the pipes in an outdoor shed.

We have had this issue and couldn’t work out why they bloody keep sending stuff to the newsagent. Now we know! Again can’t see where we have asked them to do this.

If the parcel is already in dispatched it will never be as simple as changing an address, especially as you have said that the shop is not near your home.

Delivery routes are planned, they don't just shove a load of parcels at a driver and tell them to get on with it. Changing an address on a delivery after the parcels have been allocated to a driver means that the driver would then have to go out of their way to redirect to your house, that costs money and the time taken would potentially mean another missed delivery - That is why there is often an option to say that you are not in, rather than a redirection.

Some people may offer this, but it's hardly surprising DPD have said no.

DPD hugely messed up an Amazon return for us last month, atrocious service. Almost impossible to talk to a person unless you log a complaint. Dismal dismal dismal.