Neighbours keeping hold of parcels

[Bride2Be25]

AIBU to think it’s a bit rude to hold onto your neighbours parcel when it has been incorrectly delivered to you?!

Royal Mail have delivered my parcel to someone else - all I’ve got to go on from the photo is a pair of feet. I’ve posted on our local FB page but no one has responded so I’ll be knocking on all the neighbours doors until I find it but I just find it so odd that people don’t drop it round ! I see so many people posting on FB asking if people recognise that door or those feet so I’m definitely not alone. I always drop parcels & post off if it’s not mine, surely it’s just a nice neighborly thing to do?!

Also just to add it’s taken me a while to find the tracking details but I can see it was delivered a week ago!

100% agree with OP and so many pp seem to be missing the point here. The parcel was not kindly taken in by a neighbour- it was incorrectly delivered. There is no card. The courier will not have a record(other than the socks photo) of where it was delivered as they believe it to be delivered to the correct location.

I received someone’s delivery recently- I took it round to them (about 3 streets away) the same day.

I think you mean telepathy!
Telekinesis is moving objects by though!

They could be housebound. We are and if we had a random parcel left we’d have to wait to have a visitor who could take it. Really this is a RM issue of wrong delivery - and very frustrating for poor OP!

IF you know where it is, YOU should go for it, that's just common curtouesy.

However if you do NOT know where it's been delivered, (we dont always get notice but out neighbours are lovely and will let us know) or if its been delivered to the wrong address then it's basically impossible to find..
Our local fb page is FULL of people looking for parcels that have 'been delivered to customer' but they haven't. Usually a pair of feet and a doorstep to go off!!

The normal rule is you are expected to collect it. They won’t be aware you don’t know what number house. I’m sure they will drop eventually

I stopped accepting parcels after someone left 15kg of cat food in my hall for a week. I'm the only one at home so it was constantly like the sorting office in here. I don't have the time to knock on all the doors to see who is ready to have their parcel back.

OP - if this is a purchase then it’s on the seller to get this to you. Contact them and ask them to liaise with the courier for more info.

Because OP said Royal mail in their first post.

@Scaredycat259
Thank you! Blind as a bat

There are three people here.

1 - the OP who doesn’t know where her parcel is.

2 - Royal Mail, who have delivered her parcel to someone who is not OP.

3 - the neighbour who very kindly took in the parcel for someone else.

The delivery details are nothing to do with the very kind neighbour. That is between OP, Royal Mail and the shop she purchased something from. As has been repeatedly stated, OP must contact Royal Mail to ask where they delivered it to, and the shop to say it has not been delivered to her. It’s got nothing to do with the neighbour.

Nobody is ‘missing the point’ except OP and you.

But the neighbour is possibly the only person who knows where the parcel should be. They have the correct address (presumably) on the front of the parcel.

Royal Mail has a photo of socks and possibly some garbled explanation from the driver, but not necessarily the address they actually delivered it to.

It really doesn’t take much effort to pop a note in the letterbox saying I’ve got your parcel, come and get it. That would be kind, although I guess they think Royal Mail has given clearer directions than socks.

But many people are not in a position to leave the house and put notes through doors. Disabilities, children, working, too busy, don’t want to, lots of reasons.

And don’t forget the neighbour has no idea about any of this. They are simply waiting for someone to fetch a parcel. The fact that the photo isn’t clear has got nothing to do with the neighbour.

It’s on OP to do the legwork here I’m afraid.

It’s on OP to do the legwork here I’m afraid.

How? Should she go round the neighbourhood inspecting socks??

I take your point about some people being housebound but you can drop a note in on the way to school/work/shops/wherever. It doesn’t have to be a priority just done within a couple of days when you’re passing.

@urbanbuddha “How? Should she go round the neighbourhood inspecting socks??”

I have an excellent idea that no one has suggested yet, and it’s honestly such a unique solution to the problem that I really should have a go at patenting it and charging money for the solution. However, it’s a Thursday so I’ll put it here for free.

How about…………how about OP contacts the seller, who is the only person she has a contract with, and say ‘I paid you for this item and it’s not been delivered’? Or, she could contact Royal Mail and say ‘what the fuck dude?’.

I’m here all day if anyone else wants any problems fixing.

Most people are assuming the parcel was left with a neighbour as OP wasn’t in - they were but it was delivered to the wrong address.
The onus is on the person who received the parcel to make sure it’s given to the addressee, unless they’re a thieving scumbag and keep the parcel, but that’s a different thread.

You can't always assume that the parcel will have been delivered to somebody living nearby. In my area there are streets called "The Village" in 3 neighbouring villages The closest is a 10 minute car journey (or two hours each way on public transport). Knowing how frap the postal service is in our country is, I would generally assume that if somebody didn't pick up a parcel that they didn't know where it was. I wouldn't assume that they were rude and entitled.

@Noodlecat ”The onus is on the person who received the parcel to make sure it’s given to the addressee”

I’ll bear that in mind. Next time I’m wfh and really really busy and tempted to accept a neighbours parcel to make life easier for them I’ll just say no. Royal Mail can then take it back to the sorting office. And the neighbours can go and fetch it from there.

Complain to Royal Mail. The postie obviously isn't doing what they should be doing.

It seems that there are some people who are just too stubborn and refuse to help themselves get rid of a parcel that isn't theirs.

As a PP said, if a courier/postie asks you to take in a parcel for a neighbour, they are likely to put through a card or put a note on the app to say which neighbour it's with. But if it's an error, for the intended recipient it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

It's not rocket science to pop a note through their door with a mobile number and ask them to text when it's convenient to drop it round, or for them to check you're in to pick up.

Also, if someone hasn't collected after a couple of days, call the courier and get them to retrieve it and deliver it correctly, don't just sit there and seethe.

@Sondheimisademigod as per my PP, the parcel has been mis-delivered. I WFH so as always around for my parcels and yes I frequently take them in for my neighbours and drop them round.

I’m not expecting my neighbours to act as a concierge service but if I had my neighbours parcel for a week I might start thinking maybe they don’t know where it is.

I’ve knocked on every door on my street to try and find it - no one who answered has it.

absolutely fair enough ! And helpful for neighbour to know where it is

I think there’s confusion with this. The person who it gets delivered to assumes the parcel owner gets told that their parcel is there. When more often than not, tracking states ‘delivered’ with a photo but no location as to where to get it from. It’s easy for both parties to get annoyed but it’s usually a misunderstanding. I’ve been this person, I moved into a new build where delivery drivers would get confused where I lived and deliver to any other address - my neighbours on the ‘estate’ also had this issue so we now have a Facebook group for this and other issues. It’s recently came in handy when I had a chilled delivery that needed to be refrigerated that was left on a random neighbours porch and I didn’t know where to get it.

Absolutely if I knew where it was, I would have been over there straight away to get it.

Our local Fb group is also full of those type of messages so clearly a regular occurrence of things being delivered incorrectly. The world would be a nicer place if people did try and help each other out but it seems like I’m in the minority here.

Royal Mail usually leave a card saying where it is.

This is why I don't accept parcels now. I live at a single digit number and was asked to take a parcel for my "neighbour" I obliged and only after I took it, I realised it was a house at the very top of the road, where there are some 300 houses between us.

They then hammered my door the next door, accused me of being a thief and raging because they had put a post on Facebook saying we had their parcel and could we drop it up and I never replied.

I rarely go on Facebook and it's not my place to redeliver on behalf of Royal Mail.

Next time this happens, report to whoever you had your order from that it hasn't been delivered and you don't know where the parcel is and send them the royal mail picture.

@Bride2Be25

I’m curious how this ends. You said in your OP it has been over a week. What did Royal Mail say to you when you called them?