Board 8 > how do you all make sure packages get delivered?

(+) Yeah! (+)

my new apartment is the 2nd floor of a house in a city area

there's a large front porch and a separate mailbox for each apartment, but it seems like half the packaged stuff i order online just doesn't get delivered, presumably because the delivery person is worried about stuff getting stolen

any tips on how to deal with that? amazon is follows written instructions about 70% of the time (there's a decent hiding place), but anything i order anywhere else feels almost guaranteed to disappear

for whatever reason i haven't had the same issues in other apartments. maybe it's a "my current city/neighborhood" thing

those of you without little entrance rooms packages can hide in, what do you do?

i don't want to have to get everything delivered to a relative's place

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I live in a hotel-style apartment building. UPS and USPS always bring packages right to my door. FedEx is hit or miss. Amazon is lazy AF and just dumps it all in the entryway.

For your situation, I'd like to ask a few questions first:
1. Have you met your new neighbor downstairs? Do you know what their schedule is like?
2. Where is your landlord's office? Anywhere near your place? (It's quite unlikely, but worth asking)
3. What kind of person is your landlord? Someone willing to work with you... or a hardass?
4. Based on the setup you have, is there any way (if your landlord is flexible enough), to create a "drop-off chute" of some sort through your door? That way, packages can just be slid inside and end up at the bottom of your stairs.
5. Does your job make it so you can't sign for packages?

IDK, I'm just trying to come up with something. Right now, I'd just track packages and put a note on the door about where the hiding place is, but it's only so long before porch pirates learn to check there, too. Good luck finding a solution.
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Only surefire way in that instance is to get a PO box probably

I personally never had an issue in either apartment complex I lived in and one was downtown Orlando. They just left it on my doorstep, never had anything stolen or not delivered

i appreciate the responses

i realize it wasn't clear- by "disappear" i meant "the delivery person aborts and returns the package to sender and i get flustered"

BlueCrystalTear posted...

I live in a hotel-style apartment building. UPS and USPS always bring packages right to my door. FedEx is hit or miss. Amazon is lazy AF and just dumps it all in the entryway.

I've had pretty good experiences as long as the delivery people can physically get inside. The singular front door of my building is locked at all times so i suppose that's what makes things difficult

For your situation, I'd like to ask a few questions first:
1. Have you met your new neighbor downstairs? Do you know what their schedule is like?

i've met them briefly, they seem to have a normal 9-5 situation, similar to me

2. Where is your landlord's office? Anywhere near your place? (It's quite unlikely, but worth asking)

unfortunately, no longer. they were literally next door until they decided to rent out their office as an apartment

3. What kind of person is your landlord? Someone willing to work with you... or a hardass?

he's actually really cool so far. not so great at coming up with his own solutions but willing to do whatever is requested. my impression is that landlords outside of the biggest cities are more flexible

4. Based on the setup you have, is there any way (if your landlord is flexible enough), to create a "drop-off chute" of some sort through your door? That way, packages can just be slid inside and end up at the bottom of your stairs.

that's a super interesting idea- i'm glad i'm asking here. i'm having trouble envisioning how it would work. the building is literally an old 3-story brick house converted to 3 apartments, but it's worth considering

5. Does your job make it so you can't sign for packages?

not at all- i'm 100% remote now. these are things that don't even require signatures! they just show up, don't deliver it, and leave without calling/texting. come to think of it, getting a working doorbell might solve this

IDK, I'm just trying to come up with something. Right now, I'd just track packages and put a note on the door about where the hiding place is, but it's only so long before porch pirates learn to check there, too. Good luck finding a solution.

appreciate it


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ShatteredElysium posted...

Only surefire way in that instance is to get a PO box probably

I'm a noob- are PO boxes usually a proxy for a larger storage area, or do they have a size limit? i'll just call and ask.

I personally never had an issue in either apartment complex I lived in and one was downtown Orlando. They just left it on my doorstep, never had anything stolen or not delivered

Yeah, this is the first place i've had issues with. In NYC they'd just plop it somewhere and cross their fingers, which was totally fine for me

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I've had nothing but good experiences with landlords. I hear nothing but awful things about the ones in big cities. I suppose that's why I like living in a mid-size city that's literally known for having the "best of both worlds."

Talk to your landlord about getting a working doorbell. Explain to him the problems you're having and, based on how you describe him, he'll look into it. The chute probably isn't a workable idea if you can't envision it - it depends on how much space you have around the door. Old houses like yours that I've been in have varying degrees of space (there's a crap ton of them around here). It'd simply be slide it down and it'd go through a screen (like a doggie door) and be shielded from porch pirates. Wouldn't work for oversized things, of course.
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Get it delivered to an Amazon locker

Get a PO Box or use Amazon locker if you have one nearby.

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If your package is too big for the PO box, they'll leave you a notice in your box and you can pick it up at the desk.

Also as a mail carrier, people will sometimes leave notes on their doors for deliveries telling us what they want us to do with them if they're not available to get it. You can even request that large deliveries be held at the post office and you can pick them up yourself. That is probably an option for UPS or FedEx as well, assuming you have a facility near you.

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