AIBU to think it was rude they kept my misdelivered parcel?

[FrostedCandyAngel]

Was expecting a parcel on Saturday. (Was a small package, in a padded envelope so could easily fit through letterbox, no signature required)

Didn’t get delivered. So I checked the tracking details online Sunday evening. Tracking details said it had been delivered at 09:30am Saturday. It had a photo of the delivery person handing it over. All you can see in the photo is the package, someone’s shoes and their driveway. Which had a particular unique pattern of paving.

It wasn’t my shoes, or my driveway.

I walked up and down my street trying the find the driveway. Found it. About 8 houses down.

Knocked on the door and luckily they answered. I said “Oh I’m just wondering if you have a parcel for number 60 please”. They said yes, and gave it me. No “sorry I was going to bring it round/post it through your letter box”.

I understand people are busy but they had my parcel for 30+ hours. I would have had no idea they had it unless I went out looking at everyone’s driveways.

Was this rude of them?

She didn't have to knock on 32 doors, just look at driveways. That's not difficult.

Just my 2 cents 🌸

Personally, I think this is only the fault of the delivery company.

I know that if I were you, I too would be overwhelmed and worry when I realised my parcel had been delivered somewhere else & especially if I didn’t recognise where it had been left.
(Once, we had a Hello Fresh delivered to us 5 days later by a neighbour who lived over a mile away who realised it had been left in his garden 🤣 - of course we were grateful he delivered it to us, but obviously couldn’t eat it & we never would’ve found it in a million years so we complained to DPD)

So can totally understand your frustration.

That being said, I don’t think the neighbour is rude or has done anything wrong. They probably assumed you had been given a slip. I would’ve assumed that.

They also didn’t know when you would be home to receive it back and they might have thought it was too fragile to be posted through the letterbox. (If the parcel delivery company didn’t want to post it, my logical brain would tell me not to post it either as there must’ve been a reason why the professional deliverer didn’t want to😅)

I never know the etiquette for things like this either so I genuinely don’t think they would’ve done the opposite of what you wanted on purpose or to be rude. I think we are all just busy, stressed out with our own lives and problems, trying our best to handle things as best we can. Especially unexpected things like that when we didn’t know a random parcel would arrive for a neighbour. (I’m autistic and if I’m having a stressful day I can’t even cope with opening my own parcels let alone knowing what to do with someone else’s 🤣)

I would take it up with the delivery company so that it doesn’t happen again to you!

Sorry that happened & it stressed you out! 🌸

YABVU. The entitlement.

The neighbour owes you nothing. They may have not realised it was yours til the postie left, they may have thought you got a card, they may have been busy and your parcel not appraised assessed and prioritised by them 🤷🏼‍♀️

Your parcel your problem. Posties responsibility but not neighbours.

Their job isnt to sort your mail. Your OP title implied theyd refused to give it back.

You literally realised the parcel was at a neighbour's, walked 8 doors, knocked and immediately recieved your parcel. No problem.

But how were they supposed to know you hadn’t been left a card saying which house it was at? They haven’t done anything wrong. Stop being so dramatic about a non-event.

But… she shouldn’t have to look at driveways? Why should she need to look at driveways (you said it’s not that difficult) when she’s paid for delivery to her house (that was delivered 8 doors away). Baffled why you think this is an acceptable delivery @Bbq1

How did the neighbours know you didn't get a card?

This is such a tit for tat situation. The ONLY person in the wrong is Royal Mail.

Not in the UK

I now get that the courier should have left a card, but here they just wouldn't leave a parcel with a neighbour at all (unless there were instructions to do so). The card left here would instruct you to collect the parcel from an actual designated business where undelivered parcels are kept (or they would just leave the parcel on the doorstep, which is what I get done with mine, although obviously we have different styles of housing here and it's generally safer to leave a parcel).

You’ve no idea what’s going on in that house, whoever took the package might have assumed it was for someone else in the house and never even looked at the name on it and left it sitting on the side.

Keeping it would mean they refused to hand it over when you asked. Incredibly dramatic!!
You have absolutely no idea their intentions just because they didn't apologise profusely and explain.
They possibly should have refused it at the time of delivery as if wasn't for them but again we don't know what was going on at the time and they may just not have noticed.

They didn't open it, they didn't keep it.. Get over it you got your package. This didn't need a thread.

It was the responsibility of the courier to let you know where they had left the parcel. How did the person they delivered it to know you hadn't been informed?
If I took a parcel in for someone 8 doors away I would expect them to fetch it.

Your package your responsibility. This is why I avoid taking them in.

I've had similar situations but been so busy it's taken me 5 days to drop the post to the right house. It's not priority 1 and I would just keep forgetting.

People are not factoring your misdelivered parcel into their packed lives! You're lucky you got the parcel. Seems an odd thing to treat it as the neighbour being intentionally rude.

Your neighbour didn't know that though. They were probably assuming you'd have had a card through the door and wondering why it took you 30 hours to get round to collecting it!

You don't know what is going on in their lives. Some days I don't even open my own parcels for a couple of days. If your parcel ends up at my house, I'll take it down as soon as I get around to it, usually within a couple of days. If there's a phone number for the recipient, I'll probably text you to let you know where it is. Then you can come get it if you want. It's not my fault your parcel came to me. Just hope I'm wearing my glasses as I've been knowing to open parcels, thinking it's one I'm expecting, then found it belongs to someone else in the household.

30 hours isn't much... if they do shift work they may have virtually no time to themselves for a few days or more at a time. Or small children. Or any number of other things going on

We both work full time and have busy kids. Redelivering your parcel would not be a priority! We would get to it eventually. A day and a half is nothing in my world.

It’s a bit odd to accept a parcel for the wrong address so perhaps someone a bit hapless (teenager, visitor, cleaner?) took it in. Otherwise why not say, “that’s not for me”? No one particularly wants other people’s post sitting in their hallway.

A parcel could easily get overlooked at my house for 30 hours (i.e. a day), especially if we were out at work when it came. Sometimes we have a few parcels and don’t immediately open them when busy.

Your neighbour may also have been thinking “I must get around to dropping off that parcel” but slightly lost track of time.

I don’t think you can assume it’s rude - I would let it go.

You think it rude of them not having excused themselves for not being inconvenienced.
I would be very wary about an unexpected and potentially suspicious package coming through my door and wouldn’t want it.

Their life, your parcel, your problem.

What this thread should have opened your eyes to is that someone else's parcel isn't the most important thing in most people's lives. Last week my child had DoE, partner luckily given all clear from a serious medical issue, I've got big things happening at work that I can't fuck up and a whole bunch of financial stuff to sort out. It's odd that people can be so self-centred not to work out that other people can be busy.
And yes, I would have returned your parcel-it might have taken me till the weekend to do it, that's all.

TBH I would assume if I took in a parcel for a neighbour they would have a slip letting them know it was at mine…it’s not for me to then deliver (obviously unless I seen them and would tell them I had a parcel for them) and if I found out a neighbour was annoyed I hadn’t delivered their parcel I would just refuse to take any for them going forward

Are you insane? The courier delivered to your neighbour not you. The courier didn’t leave you a note to say where they’d delivered to. It was the courier’s fault. Poor neighbour thought they were helping by taking parcel in. Never a good deed go unpunished eh?!

But your neighbour didn’t know that you didn’t know where the parcel was.

I seem to be the only person on my street that works from home so I taken in everyone’s parcels. It’s highly irritating to be constantly answering the door all the time, but hey ho. I never, ever deliver parcels. It wouldn’t occur to me. They all just stay in my hallway until someone picks them up.

I didn't say anywhere that it was an acceptable delivery or otherwise. I merely said that collecting it from a neighbour wasn't very taxing and that she didn't need to knock on up to 32 doors as you claimed she did. I have had a similar experience when the courier accidentally left the parcel at my house number but in the next road. I worked that out for myself and didn't find walking to the next road a huge chore. Nor did I expect the person who had it delivered to them to ferry it around to my house.