Stumped by buyer request

[tech-tonix]

A day or so after payment, the item is ready to despatch. Buyer is notified approx. when he can expect it, and re replies --

"Please call me before delivering to my house. Because i will be at work and the house would be closed. So please call me before delivering." followed by the buyer's phone contact info.

Maybe he thinks I'm going to drive hundres of miles there & same again back.

In the good old days, you could use City Link who were utterly religious in requiring a signature/carding in event of "not-in" syndrome. Once I had to drive 30 miles to their depot to collect from them, & 30 miles back, for a cheapish item after being carded 😞

Now, you're not sure if couriers will leave it at any nearby building where someone will answer the door, or chuck it over fence, into/behind wheelie bins etc. 

Who gets your preference in this situation (allowing for extra cost of option) - UPS ?  Royal Mail Parcels ?  ParcelFarce ?

[*knight-rider*]

Everybody has their own preference, but i use Royal mail48, purchased direct and printed off, as it`s cheaper than going to the post office. If it`s a decent size, you can even have it collected.

You can add the buyers email address and phone number, then they will get notified when it`s going to be delivered, so you`ll need those details off the buyer. Most other couriers do the same thing now, but just check first.

[tech-tonix]

I've had texts & emails to that effect when receiving parcels, but I'm never 100% confident the delivery companies will reliably do that *on my behalf* , even given the contact details for the recipient. And having to provide those garbled.nonsense@ebay.com email addresses doesn't enhance my confidence

[bravergrace]

It might be better to ask the buyer to cancel the purchase, and re-purchase using a click and collect address or a parcel locker, or even a neighbour's address.

I find UPS generally reliable - I've only had one of their parcels doorstepped - but if a courier can't deliver to the buyer for some reason, you may have to pay to have it returned.

[tech-tonix]

Yes, thx for the Click & collect suggestion, too late now this time, but ... and yes, for a long time I used UPS as super-reliable & more convenient drop off, but they hiked prices these last couple of years, would still use again on occasion

[the-nutwood-collection]

RM Tracked give a timeslot and the opportunity to divert the parcel to a post office.  However, I have had tracked parcels delivered to me a day early (usually after 6pm) and I've seen numerous tracked parcels on neighbours' doorsteps - despite the fact that there's a dustbin store right next to the front door.  RM left a customer's parcel behind their bins, and didn't leave a card.  Fortunately it was found before the rain destroyed it.

FedEx and TNT don't give a timeslot, just 'between 8am and 6pm'.  Very useful - not.  I regularly receive parcels from these carriers, and 10-15% of them aren't delivered on the date.  I don't receive a new date, I just have to log into the tracking every morning and see whether it's out for delivery.

DHL give a timeslot, and provide a graphic of a van travelling along a winding road (my customers seem to like this).  It also tells you that you are drop 250 and the van's at drop 3.  For parcels delivered to me, I have found that they're not accurate to the timeslot, they're generally early.

EVRi give a timeslot and the opportunity to divert to a parcelshop.  Customers don't seem to avail themselves of the opportunity and discover the parcel somewhere in the garden.  For parcels delivered to me, I generally find they're accurate to the timeslot.

As a sender and a recipient of many parcels, my honest answer to your query is that no courier is completely reliable as to time and date, and it's vanishingly rare that I receive a phone call in advance.  I 

occasionally receive a call, but that's because my parcels are very large and the driver doesn't want to make the drop if there's nobody to receive them - or sometimes the driver is lost, and wants directions.

I think your customer is living in cloud cuckoo land if they think that they're going to get a call in advance.  If you sent the parcel with a limo service and asked the driver to call the customer and wait until they  got home from work, then it would be possible to achieve this level of service.  However, unless you're selling diamond tiaras or 100k watches, I doubt you've got the margin.

Your customer sounds like hard work - if it were me, I'd block them to avoid aggravation in the future.

[tech-tonix]

Interesting take on these things, a lot seems to depend on how the local driver for each company chooses to action their responsibilities.  I recently was expecting a very low-value Evri parcel, which unbeknownst to me, a quite significant Ebay seller had tasked with requiring a POD. And my local Evri person is a bit religious about it being signed by me, not the neighbour (you win some, lose some). 

2 weeks went by with their attempts to knock on my door (didn't hear them or was out) but they NEVER carded me. Had it occurred to me to look up online tracking info I would have seen "attempted delivery today" repeatedly. It was such a cheap item I'd forgotten about it tbh. Only the exasperated Evri courier texting me, alerted me to it. And when I replied politely in a text, she became even more fearful "where did you get my number from", well, you, actually, I suggested they carded. Got the item after a load of kerfuffle. Not buying cheap items from sellers requiring a POD/EVRi again.

[simplyessential_uk]

If you use Yodel or Evri the buyer can download the app it will tell them when their item is out for delivery and arrange designated safe space or with EVRI redirect to a local collection point to them.  I no longer trust my Evri driver so always redirect mine to the local newsagents for collection. Yodel will let you take an image of the safe space they should leave it at but cant change the date / time if its not convenient

If your items under 2kg these are the cheapest but you can check on their websites to see if they have a local shop to the buyer that they could redirect it to and collect after work

RM tracked will send the buyer a text/email re a delivery time but in all my times of receiving these they never come in that window but with the text/email the buyer can arrange to redirect or designate an alternative day of delivery (one he will be in) but he could be in all day with RM.

DPD pretty good again download the app and the buyer can pinpoint their house and What3words with instructions where to leave if out or redirect to local collection and they get an hour slot re delivery due.  They cant select the time but they can rearrange a different date for delivery 

UPS - Buyer gets an email and they can arrange redirection to local UPS collection point usually a newsagents/post office - They send texts when out for delivery (and day before to notify asking if you want to change the date/location) and give a 2hr window for delivery day of delivery

[tech-tonix]

Lots of useful info thanks. Whilst I do use a smartphone I'm reluctant to be sucked into reliance on apps from a plethora of companies. Sadly, the days of carding & reponding via a customer service phone line "1 to redeliver next day" etc seem to be waning. For selling, I'll probably stick with RM for now, for all its faults

[simplyessential_uk]

Ive down loaded most couriers and put them in a seperate folder on my phone  - really useful if Im due a delivery from suppliers to redirect ( I personally have had a lot of issues with couriers finding me ) but I can check on buyers missing parcels as I only have to put the tracking in and get upto date info (and photos of the delivered parcel) Personally think RM are the worst and so out of touch with tech, Even if its marked delivered you have to contact their call centre and wait along time to ask about GPS and if you claim for anything under £8 you get flipping book of stamps as compensation - hate RM

[tech-tonix]

Luckily I've only very rarely needed to claim compo. Yes, the stamps thing has a real twist of the knife because they give you £1.25 1st class stamps instead of £0.75 2nd class stamps. And for me, sending a

letter these days, the delivery time is identical, so you've lost 40% of value right away. A bare-faced scam. Though I think RM have been increasingly embracing tech, probably for their £££ benefit but often helps customers too