People of England (who live in flats) - How do you get parcels?

[LiteralNightmare]

Sent something to someone in a UK block of flats today. This is the delivery photo.

They're very elderly and wouldn't be able to figure out locker collection points etc, but there's got to be a better way! Any recommendations?

Sorry. The sad parcel photo.

How do they get post or visitors? Delivery drivers ring the intercom and you go to the front door to get it.

Delivery driver either leaves it outside my flat door or just inside the communal front door.

The problem with your photo is a crap delivery driver, not flats.

What a silly post, no one is sat at home waiting for a postman or a parcel.

I live in a converted house, they leave it under the porch, hidden by the bins if there's no one in the house (2 flats). The first of us who sees a parcel will bring it inside so its safe.
If it's an Evri delivery, our delivery guy will give it to my next door neighbour, he knows we're happy to help each other out.

When I was living in a block of flats before, the delivery people would just randomly ring a flat to get access and then deliver in the hallway, or directly by the flat door.

It depends on the courier company and whether the recipient has set up an 'accepted place' to leave a delivery. Tbh, they'd need to know a parcel was coming (companies usually provide tracking) and then leave a post-it on front door saying please-leave-on-mat if going to be out, most drivers snap parcel in front of note to prove I've taken responsibility. Is that photo of the front of their block? Has the parcel walked? Oh dear....😒

A very elderly person might be. Assuming they're retired.

A lot of retired people do but they need to be expecting it.

And even if they’re in, no guarantee the delivery driver won’t still play “hide the parcel”. Whether it’s a flat or a house!

DD's flat there is a post room with lockers, think the postman puts all the post on the front desk and the 24 hr concierge sorts into the right mail box/keeps hold of any big parcels.

At my flats people have to be buzzed in if they don't have a fob (the regular postman does).
So they either buzz the flat they want, get let in, deliver to that flat.
Or they buzz all the flats until someone lets them in and leave the parcel outside the individual flat door, with a neighbour or downstairs by the main door to the building.
If no one buzzes in they usually take the parcel back and leave a card (either shoved under the main door or stuck to the door).

My 75 year old Dad lives on the top floor of a block of flats. There are 7 flights of stairs and no lift. The Postman delivers to each flat's front door, but delivery people tend to press the intercom buzzer for the flat they want to reach and if the owner answers, they tell them to come down and get the parcel, which they will often just leave by the front door once they have a response. Occasionally a delivery person will leave something out the front or will gain access to the building and leave a parcel in the foyer, but they will inevitably get nicked.

I think the way to go is to be clear in your delivery instructions that parcels are not to be left outside or in a communal area and have one or two friendly neighbours who are happy to take in parcels for you. In your case I would put in the delivery instructions "Recipient is elderly and may take a few minutes to get to the door, please wait", or give them a phone number to call when they arrive so the recipient knows to go and collect it immediately.

For my Dad, I tend to get things delivered to me, then once every couple of weeks I make the 200 mile round trip and give them all to him in one go, he finds waiting for deliveries very stressful - particularly the ones where they constantly send you tracking info, he's terrified of missing them!

In my block, the delivery deliver buzzes until someone lets them in & then leaves all parcels in the lobby by the letter boxes.

It doesn’t look like that’s an option here though so yes to finding a helpful neighbour.

I generally ask for stuff to be delivered to pick up points of lockers as it is easier.

What is supposed to happen is the delivery people are meant to buzz the flat and come up and deliver the parcel to your door. In reality they buzz every flat until someone lets them in and then dump the parcels in the main lobby.

Some have illegally aquired fire brigade keys to open the front doors.

Thanks all. I might see if there's a newsagents or something local that would accept parcels. Someone mentioned the stress, that's it exactly. He gets so stressed if he misses them, and equally stressed that it will be stolen. I'm in a different country so can't drop it off myself.

The funny thing is it was meant to be delivered yesterday but they said they couldn't get access. I'm glad they found a way, I guess...

Depends where the parcel came from. Amazon and many other retailers often give an option of having parcels delivered to a local newsagent or similar. I often use that option myself as we have a nightmare with deliveries to our block of flats.

Get them to leave it in a locker, then you can safely get it from there. Do you have one near you?

Occasional problems of theft (we used to have a clear front door, so parcels in the lobby could be seen from the street) but generally if someone isn't in, another resident will let delivery drivers in (some a bit grumpily if they're WFH)
I also get stuff delivered to the local Waitrose where I can to avoid inconveniencing neighbours too much.

before delivering to collection points/lockers was a thing, I used to have things delivered to friends with a shop near me, and depending on where I was working, have stuff delivered to work.