Usually, when I show a photo of my cat in a cardboard box, I am probably happy about a delivery I got or a purchase I made. This time it’s different, I just needed a fitting image with a delivery box, and when I saw the photo at the top in my library with my grumpy-looking cat Shyna, I thought “Yeah, this photo is appropriate because I probably look equally grumpy right now”.
Last year I’ve had several issues with my package deliverer. I won’t mention all the cases now but one example so that you can get an idea. For example, I ordered something for almost €1000 and stayed home as the tracking app said it would arrive that day. I was on the computer and played a PC game to waste a bit of time until the guy would ring on my door. Meanwhile, I refreshed the browser with the tracking URL every hour, and then there was an update that said the package was delivered to my name a half-hour ago. I went down to the mailbox to see if I got a notification that it was handed over to a neighbor but no, nothing was there.
In the evening I got the idea to ask my neighbors if they got anything and after the fourth neighbor, one did say “Yes, here it is, have fun with it!”. I was upset and called the deliverer but gave up on the long waiting time to get through and told myself “Screw it, you got your package, don’t waste your time in the hotline”. But the thought about the fact that a package with a value of almost €1000 could end up anywhere, without you getting notified where exactly it is, was still upsetting. I saw the delivery guy in my street the next day by coincidence. I walked over to him and confronted him with what just happened. He made a repulsed facial expression and replied “I don’t think so, you got it from me”. I went ballistic and said, “Are you fucking serious, dude?” and explained that I was at home, that I had no notification in my mailbox, and all that, but he still denied it. It made no sense at all to talk with him, he didn’t admit it and felt caught out.
I probably should really have written or called the delivery company this time. And honestly, I attempted it but yet again didn’t want to waste my time. Looks like the corporate strategies to make a contact very difficult seemed to work. No real possibility to contact them online, hours long queue if you attempt to contact them via phone. You just give up. So, I did let it slide. You know things can happen and if this guy would have admitted it, I would probably have said “Ok fine, but can you please do it right next time, the package had value and I had to find out myself who received it?” and things would have been ok. I really thought the guy wouldn’t keep doing his job poorly. But here is why I am upset yet again!
I wasn’t at home today. I came home in the evening. A neighbor did ring on my door later and asked me to hand over his package. I was like “What? Which package?” and “I just came home?”. He then said that his Amazon package was delivered to me. I was like “Ehhhh, no?”. He was equally confused now and showed me his smartphone screen and I clearly saw my first and surname as delivered in the tracking application. I told the neighbor that I definitely don’t have his package and told him a few issues I had with the delivery guy in the past. I was pissed and told the neighbor that a certain point is reached because now the delivery guy makes me look stupid or like a fraudster. The neighbor was friendly and said, “Don’t worry, I believe you for now”. I repeat, he said, “for now”. I didn’t elaborate on that but we ended the talk here.
But it did upset me a lot, looking stupid myself for someone’s mistake or tricks (too many packages, taking some back to the depot for another day delivery, tricking the scanner). I went straight to the police station and wanted to file a complaint against the delivery man. Not only is this slander, saying someone else accepted a package if he did not, is is in my opinion fraud too. Imagine the possibilities if this would be allowed. As a delivery man, you could basically take all packages home and say neighbors on your tour received them. Too bad that we don’t have to put a signature on the scanner anymore since Covid-19 because then we actually would talk about forgery here too. You know what the policeman told me? I should call the delivery company. Yes, I will for sure do it this time, going to waste my time on a hotline. I have nothing better to do. No, I am going to catch the delivery guy the next few days and will have a conversation with him, that is what will happen. I still asked the policeman again how this delivery man can just claim I accepted a package, without any real consequence. The policeman understood why I am upset but told me again that I should call the delivery company first and solve the issue with them.
Yes, sure, no one is dying, compared to all the bad stuff happening in cities, this is probably a small problem. But it’s affecting me and back then in the good old days, the police also helped to solve stuff like that, but now nobody has the time. Not the police, not the corporation you have trouble with because they do their best to make the contact difficult like every other imbecile capitalist corporation. You know what, I am way too depressive for this shit. It might just be that I won’t give a fuck either. It’s not my package, the neighbor will find out where it is, point. On the other hand, things will just continue with this guy, so what will happen next? I’d like to get him into trouble with his superior, but you know what I mean? Do I really want to sit in a 2 hours hotline queue with the result that you will get booted out of the line after two hours with a friendly robot voice “Thanks for your call, try again later” or something similar?
I am sick of shit like that. Honestly, fuck these corporations. Rant over.
Diary of Dennis 
Wow, what a mess, Dennis! It sounds like this delivery person should be fired immediately. What a jerk, he’s helping neighbors to turn on each other too. I would call that company right away and blast them first. Perhaps take photos and/or record the guy being a jerk too. I agree with your thoughts on how these huge corporations make it very difficult to contact them, even for a positive comment. Sure, they are happy to take your money, but if the crap hits the fan, they run and hide. I hope you can get this crap sorted soon, Dennis.
So true. the neighbors here have had friendly relations so far but stuff like that can indeed make us turn on each other. When my neighbor ended his sentence with “I believe you, FOR NOW”, I was pretty sour. But I also do understand him now that I calmed down.
I do agree, this guy needs to be fired. This is also the only reason why I might go through the horrible hotline. Maybe I just put the phone on loud, listen to the hotline music and play a PC game or something. If so, I need to do it tomorrow, it’s evening now the hotline is closed since the whole issue popped up today.
Generally, I am not against any business but like I said, and you said… the new trend is to only take money but duck when customers want to give feedback. It’s a widespread trend, just see how difficult it is to find ways to contact them, and when you found them, how they play with your patience… or annoy you with bot voices that ask you questions, robots voices that don’t understand you… sometimes you can’t even get past them. That’s usually when I turn evil and say fuck them…they don’t deserve a single penny.
It seems that people everywhere are having trouble with deliveries, either slow delivery, damaged deliveries or no delivery at all. Of course we are all shopping online more now but there seems to be a trend since signing is no longer required for delivery people to just dump packages. I am sure they are overworked but that is not the point.
Is there a consumer watchdog organisation you can take you case to? Usually there is some national or state run body that deals companies when they won’t treat customers right.. There may well be a consumer advocacy group too. We have one in Australia called Choice who are independent and funded by members. I have been subscribed for over 20 years and many times I’ve seen letters from members whose complaints were dealt with properly just because they mentioned that Choice was interested in their case. I am pretty sure that Choice has a German counterpart because sometimes they publish articles taken from the German magazine. If you are unsuccessful in getting justice from the delivery company yourself then perhaps contacting these organisations should be your next step.
Yes, we have something like that too. They’re called “Verbraucherzentrale”. But the general opinion is, and my own experience as well, they’re pretty much worthless in our case. The last time I had contact with them for example when I wanted to solve an issue for my grandpa, a woman from that organization didn’t even know how to put a link into her email. I eventually ended up teaching her how to do it but she didn’t get it right. I then told her to just give me the name of the document form we’re looking for so that I can google it myself lol. It turned out that was completely unrelated to our case. I eventually solved grandpa’s issue by doing my own research. We paid a lawyer a very little sum for the first consultation and to write a letter to the fraudster company that wanted to steal money from my grandpa… they never ever demanded money from my grandpa again, problem solved.
Right now I just tried to contact the delivery company, all their hotlines are dead. I gonna wait this out… either my neighbor will get his package or he will believe I really stole his package lol, in which case I’d probably get a letter from the police. And then I’d get a lawyer and fight the delivery company. But honestly, I think he will get his package in 2-3 days. I worked for the same company in the past, and I have a friend who still works there and know how things changed… they need to get packages back to the depot because it’s too much, but they can’t just take them back to the depot and say “sorry, couldn’t do it today”. They need to fly under the radar with tricks. The most common trick is to skip a few packages, not ringing on the door, and then tell the hand scanner customer was not there. But their superiors wouldn’t believe that, thus, they just tell the system it was delivered to a neighbor, who then turn against each other. My friend told me they’re allowed to take 30% of the packages home for next-day delivery, but more than that would mean real trouble with the superior. He said it’s not possible anymore to deliver 70%…
I generally understand their situation. Honestly, I’d do it the same way. Doing a good job doesn’t make you more money, that’s one of the biggest lies we got told… it’s wasting time, but getting a bit of money and making someone else or a corporation richer so that they can continue to exploit workers. People don’t get anything back,. thus it’s understandable that they stop to give a flying fuck about the company or if a customer calls and makes a report against them. I totally get that. Like my friend who works for that delivery company too often said “If someone reports me, and if the company fires me, they’d do me a favor”, referring to the issue that when you cancel the job yourself, you’d get less unemployment benefit money than if you would have been fired by the employer. Thus, people getting fired have an easier time surviving in the time they look for a job than those who canceled their jobs themselves. He said he’d look for a new job after work but how? He is 7 pm at home, needs to go shopping, eating and then is exhausted and goes to sleep, and stuff repeats the next day. That’s why he said they’d do him a favor if they’d fire him, he couldn’t care less.
Anyway, as much as I understand their situation, the fun stops when a neighbor could think I stole his package. That’s where I am involved and I don’t steal packages lol. But I have slept over it a night and can today sympathize more with the worker than with the company. I haven’t been a package deliverer, I’ve been a mailman for the exact same company in the past. I experienced the downfall when greed did set in… they fired a lot of people to save money but everyone else got their tour(district size increased because someone needs to do the work of the fired people. This was a long time ago and I still know ex-workmates who told me “What you saw was just the beginning, it’s much worse today”. I’ve never heard anything positive from anyone working still today in this field. And with their parcel service, as a friend told me, it’s not much different today.
Today having slept over it, I really feel split. I do understand them, but I also really don’t want a neighbor ringing on my door, saying I have received a package when I have not. But it’s probably wise to understand that it’s a symptom of something much bigger.
We had similar problems when we bought the house in West Virginia. We got a notification that two packages were delivered by FedEx at a certain time. One package was for me and one was for my wife. Both came from different companies. I was outside at that time that they said the package arrived but I never saw a FedEx truck and we never got the package. One of the packages came the next day but the other never arrived. My neighbor said they deliver packages to the wrong houses all the time. It is true. A couple of days later a package arrived at my door for a neighbor that lives four houses down. Other things happened too but it is too much to write about here.
That’s horrible and I remember my mother had the exact same thing happening last year. I do assume they’re overworked like here in Germany. A friend of mine does still work for the delivery company and says they fired a lot of people and divided up the remaining tours on the remaining workes. So, the tours just got bigger and bigger because the company wants to save money on wages like you often hear today. Add the increasing online sales to it, and it’s a disaster according to him. He said, they can’t deliver it all anymore and need to trick around, or they make mistakes because there is simply no time anymore to do it all right. I really get his position, but in the end, when we’re involved as customers…it’s sad because makes the whole online shopping experience a surprise if the package will arrive or not.
Fortunately, at least here in Germany, you have the right to get another package sent by the sales company, this however means that they have to clarify with the delivery company where the package was lost. So, in fact, we’re talking about another victim at this point… small or large businesses that send the products. Of course, if you out of a sudden get the lost package weeks later, you have to refuse to take it so that it gets back to the seller. Happened recently to a friend too. I do assume it’s the same in the US?
Anyway, these are horrible experiences and I can recall that it worked much better a couple of years ago and we had online sales too. I think this is really mostly due to these companies saving wages, and thus delivery is getting worse and worse.
My wife and I have a bit of an inside joke here. Whenever we get bad customer service we say “Due to COVID.” It means that companies are using COVID as an excuse to save money even though COVID has nothing to do with it.
Haha, yes, really! People here experience it the same way. It’s definitely used as an excuse by some companies now.