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Dear FedEx,
we pay a lot for delivery through you. We supply lots of information - phone numbers, addresses, all that. That's mostly because we really want to actually get stuff to the intended destination, and not have to walk around late at night 1 1/2 days late, fruitlessly quizzing our neighbors
whether they've seen an envelope, about this |<-->| big, was supposedly "Left at Front Door", responds to the name Kitty.
(OK, it doesn't actually respond to the name "Kitty".)
Suggestion: Instead of the little terminals that accept people's signatures for delivery - signatures that aren't compared to anything and mean nothing - equip them with still cameras. Cameras are useful for taking a picture of the recipient (in case of fraud), or of the place where the &$#@! envelope was left. Once these pictures are uploaded to your tracking site (via base stations in the vans, perhaps), I have at least a fighting chance of figuring out whether it was stolen, or just misdelivered a few houses over.
Thanks. (And no, I still haven't found it.)
Dear Jutta , we left your package with this person
http://www.viewimag...id=3&partner=Google
[Ling, Oct 14 2007]
Cheap Bike Chain..
http://www.amazon.c...=1192406184&sr=1-23
could work. [rascalraidex, Oct 14 2007]
mailbox-XL
Eight years on... [hippo, Oct 15 2007]
[link]
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Having had to deal with that crap from UPS misdelivering our customers' packages when I worked for the phone company, I really think this would be a big help, so + |
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I think taking fingerprints from the signer would be a good idea, too. |
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Maybe have them record GPS data as well. It would be nice proof for them that they delivered at least at the right location. |
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They're supposed to put it in a place where it's not likely to be found or stolen by passers by. |
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My Sister saw one delivery guy in L.A. He dropped a package for her on the side-walk with one of those notes to say sorry you weren't in. |
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Trouble is, he never left the cab at all. |
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And for dubious "comes in a plain
wrapper" deliveries, do you get to wear a
brown paper bag over your head as an
appropriate disguise? |
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//And no, I still haven't found it.// -
imagines another site called: "It's Mine
Now, Neagh! Neagh!" where proud, smug
new owners of YOUR stuff show it off. |
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A related idea would be to call the mobile phone number which was provided at order time and ask the guy where to leave it, or when he'll be in so redelivery can be arranged. |
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// baked - ebay// a friend of mine just
lost £400 through an ebay/paypal rip off.
Caveat Emptor !!! I call ebay thievebay. |
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You know, conceptually, this bears similarity with the situation prior to the adoption of the mobile phone and after the adoption of said tool:
Prior to the mobile phone age, the purpose of a phone number was to ring a specific building or location, in the vague hope that the person you're really after might actually be located in that building. Or they might be out. Usually that was the case, but someone else might have been in, so they took an indecipherable message that they'd forget to give you. Or you might have an answering machine. Or you might have an answering machine and no friends, consequently never quite being sure if it was ever working or not. |
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After the mobile phone age began, our expectation of phone number usage is that they'd more often than not map to a specific person wherever they may have wandered, and not quite so much tied to a location or building or room (ie, people have cordless phones in the house, office phones are more route-able and transferrable than prior decades*) - you now really do ring 'a person' rather than really contacting a building that you associate them with. |
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Delivery networks and organisations are still pretty much stuck in the first mode. |
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* Which makes me wonder why it still seems fit to have a whacking great box on the desk in the office, cabled into the company phone network when by now I'd have thought that all office workers could have their own internal little cordless phone system much like a cellular unit - certainly not a commonplace sighting compared to the hard-wired desk hogs still prevalent. |
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yeah... the DHL guy was about to leave my girlfriends 900 dollar laptop out on our front porch. Luckily I was awake and answered the door. He looked kinda shocked that someone was home, had me sign for it and pointed to the ground,"I put it right there" so I guess he kinda baked it. |
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If someone stole it,though, they could just throw it away. |
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//They're supposed to put it in a place where it's not likely to be found or stolen by passers by// |
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The problem usually isn't the package being being stolen off your doorstep. It's some guy lurking around who sees the delivery truck come to your house, then goes out to the truck and claims to be you, signs for it, and takes your package. They don't check I.D. when they deliver because it's expected that you might ask a friend or relative to sign for your packages. Now, UPS does require that the signer be over 18, but they still don't check I.D. If they wrote down I.D. numbers it would be much easier, effective, and not take too much longer. |
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Most IDs have the magnetic strip, so they could really easily just swipe it. Probably faster than signing. |
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+ yes. Once we were sitting in the living room waiting for a delivery only to look at the kitchen door ten minutes later to see the note, "sorry we missed you" etc, so we called UPS and made the driver come back. |
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That's true... One problem frequently encountered by delivery services is the drivers. They have to fill out paperwork if nobody signs for the package, so some of them are too lazy to want to fill it out and just leave it on the doorstep and forge the signature. That is how many packages get lost, and then any form of accountability is lost. The picture and fingerprint, I think, is the best bet. |
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My UPS driver steals my goodies, and
leaves me the empty wrapper. (He
handed me a package once with half of
the product missing. It was either him
or the processor. The packagage was
C.O.D. You can't open or inspect a
package till you pay. Then once you
open it, it's too late. It's yours!) |
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Anyway, anything that solves any of the
probs they have, since Christmas is
coming soon, gets a bun from me! |
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They should email, or otherwise send
you a pin number that you have to
enter, or NO delivery is logged. Only
you know this number, so the driver, or
anyone else can't fudge in your
signature. Would this not solve the
problem? |
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[xen], I like that a LOT. You could give the PIN number to your assistants. Or, more easily remembered, the name of the recipient, which the driver doesn't give away. |
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But, based on something anno-ed earlier, I'm morphing that over to a phone number the driver has to call. (He could have a special phone with delivery numbers put into speed-dial or something automatic.) If the person who wants the package doesn't have the ringing phone, he doesn't get it. Or if whoever answers the phone says to give the package to the homeless person or just leave it on the porch, the package guy could record the call. |
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As was said, use the available technology to catch up with modern times. [+] |
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Heh, this has happened to me a LOT - my buddies in scotland sometimes send me things, and I know of at least one occasion whereby the package never arrived. Also when buying things online, the delivery guy left my stuff *on the porch of my house* - this isn't exactly the most secure thing to do, as recently there have been a spate of burglaries, and some enterprising bastard would prolly walk up the driveway and steal it. |
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What they should have on the truck is a mini trebuchet, which would deliver the package onto the roof of the house (where it is easier to get off the roof when you actually live there), or failing that, have 'second addresses', such as you're mates house where they'll hold it for you. |
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How about a cable lock system that they can just tether your package somewhere on your house. Unlock with a 4 digit code you received on your invoice or via email. |
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I usually empty my garbage can, place some bricks in the bottom to prevent lifting it, with newspapers on top of the bricks for padding, leave it inside the fence just to the side of my front door and tell them when I order it to drop it in the can. Unless you jump the fence, which my dogs are NOT going to let you do, you ain't gettin' it! |
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On a side note, I once ordered some phones from Sprint (I do not use Sprint because of this by the way) and they arrived 2 months after I ordered them, despite them telling me that the confirmation number they emailed me when I placed the order was invalid and no order had in fact been placed. Not only did they screw that up, but despite Sprint's policy of requiring signature upon reciept, I came home from work and found them lying on my doorstep. |
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seems like it might be a security issue. revealing other people's faces and addresses on the internet... (sorry it got lost!) |
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<glances around shiftilly> |
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Perhaps not, but I think you'll make an excellent scapegoat.... SECURITY!!!! SECURITY!!!! |
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Yeah! Like all the suggestions. Anything to make it safer. |
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I've had a few packages turn up with contents missing. The worst was when I was waiting for a new passport to be delivered and my Granny died. I couldn't fly home for the funeral without my new passport and the delivery firm (DHL) said that it had already been delivered and signed for. Only by going to the depot and forcing the unhelpful bastard on the counter to go and look if it was there with his eyes did I get it at all. If I'd not gone that day, they would have sent it back to the embassy and I would have missed the funeral. |
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[+] I had a package missing for 3 days.
My girlfriend saw the delivery truck in
the neighborhood but he never cam to
our door. There was a car in the open
garage which usually signifies someone
being home. 3 days later (after filing a
complaint with the company to find out
where the friggn' package was left), I
found it *in* my garage next to the tire
of her car. We practically ran over the
thing for 3 days because the jerk didn't
ring the doorbell. |
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Our company had an address very similar to the address of a building in the same industrial park causing us to get each other's packages all of the time. If I could track it and see that the delivery driver left it "here" I wouldn't mind going to wherever I had to go in order to get it. |
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Just to help the driver out: A big feckin' box labeled "Put It *HERE*". [+] |
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Yeah....i wish the tracking actually worked... I have recently been ordering quite a bit off the internet, and none of the tracking services work. All they say is shipped. Then I am sitting at home one day, checking the tracking again, and DING DONG. I run to my door and open in time to see the UPS truck taking off with my package just chillin. Maybe UPS guys are really shy, or they are just practicing for the Ding Dong Ditch Olympics. |
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I don't see how ebay improves on this at all - ebay is part of the source that feeds into the actual problem, which is delivery by a third party to an unspecified individual. |
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A photo of the recipient - preferably with the delivered item's current location also visible - is an excellent idea. |
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"Why not a small GPS/phone module they chuck into the boxes." |
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Baked. US Military uses gps transceivers to track air cargo. They're about the size of an icecream sandwich. |
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I absolutely love this idea~~!! |
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Heh - an ice cream sandwich? |
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This would work, without being too high-tech!!! Not everything can afford to be high-tech. This doesn't need to be. [+]! How about if you put a thing on your porch, that flashes lights. You only turn it on if you have a package coming. Nobody can mix that up, I mean, come on... |
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...unless both you *and* your neighbour are expecting a delivery. |
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