The Times has been investigating cases of parcels being late, lost, damaged or stolen.
The focus has been on Hermes, who deliver for the likes of John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, but courtesy of Amazon I experienced my own ‘parcel pain’ last week.
I ordered a vinyl record for my daughter but when it arrived the driver chose not to knock on the door even though we were in.
(Either that or we didn’t hear him.)
Instead he tried to force the delicate package through the letter box but it was obviously too big so it got stuck, half in, half out.
That excited the interest of our furiously barking dog who did what dogs do, leaving it with significant damage to one corner of the outer packaging and the gatefold sleeve inside (see below).
And before anyone had a chance to alert the delivery man he had driven off. Just like that.
But what made me even more annoyed was the fact that a few minutes later I got an email from Amazon confirming that the item had not only been delivered successfully but had been ‘handed to the resident’.
Incensed, I rang the company and got a call centre in what I assume was India where a pleasant young lady listened to my complaint before passing me on to a colleague.
Unfortunately their combined efforts to calm me down had the opposite effect. For example:
Did I have video evidence of the driver’s actions?
Of course not! I don’t live in Fort Knox surrounded by security cameras!!
Afterwards however I recognised the absurdity of the situation.
Here was I, a middle-class citizen of one of the most prosperous countries in the world, complaining bitterly to someone in a country haunted by poverty about some minor (albeit annoying) damage to a relatively inconsequential item that could, after all, be replaced.
Damage, moreover, inflicted by my own dog!
I recognise too the pressure delivery drivers are under to keep to strict schedules, especially at this time of year.
Nevertheless, first world problem aside, is it too much to ask that they don’t force an LP-shaped package into a letter-box while a furious dog is waiting to tear it to bits on the other side?
Or, adding insult to injury, that they don’t drive away before sending an email that reads, without a scintilla of truth, ‘Handed to resident’?
Happy Christmas.
