When I was a boy, the following things were delivered to our house - bottles of milk, sacks of coal, the daily newspaper and every two weeks or so bottles of pop from the Law's pop lorry - pop being what Americans call soda.
Nowadays it's different. Just about everything is delivered to our homes - from clothes to refrigerators. Here in England vast Amazon warehouses have been constructed close to motorways and delivery vans cruise up and down every street in our kingdom. Amazon alone have more than a thousand delivery vans in Britain and that fleet is forever expanding.
For various reasons, the most complained about delivery service in this country was a company called Hermes. They have reinvented themselves and changed their name to EVRI and it was this company that brought a parcel to our door this morning. Unusually it was for me as a few days ago I ordered a new pair of sandals from the Clarks Outlet store.
Barefooted, I came to the door in my dressing gown. The delivery man thrust the package into my hands while simultaneously taking a photo on his smartphome - presumably to prove that the delivery had taken place.
It is at this point that I feel the urge to climb up on my soapbox. The delivery man did not ask for my permission to take that picture. It is not the first time that this has happened. I am sure that delivery staff are under instructions from their companies to take those pictures, I wonder if this also happens in The States, Australia, Canada, Germany and France for example.
On this occasion, the picture did not reveal very much but you can see one of my naked big toes. The guy was on our property and I think that if someone is on your property they should not be snapping any pictures without permission to do so. Perhaps next time I will get my own camera out and start snapping pictures of the deliverer. See how they like it.
By the way, the sandals are very nice and fit perfectly. All I need now is a pair of white ankle socks to go with my cool summer outfit - khaki shorts and a navy blue Yorkshire Pudding T-shirt.
Your post reminded me of Amazon and how it uses people and then discards them.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il4c_snvLnQ
I have no idea if delivery people take pictures of the delivery here. Not to my knowledge though.
ReplyDeleteOh, Mr. P. Yes, it is annoying to have someone take your picture without asking first. But if you complain, please complain to the company, not the delivery person. He/She no more wants to take your picture than you want it taken. I am almost certain of that.
Please post a picture of you in that outfit, including the sandals. With white socks.
I'll be delivering your Uber Eats tonight, Big Yin.
ReplyDeleteI'll be expecting a tip. I'm hoping to upgrade my bike to electric.
You are very lucky that your EVRI deliveries are actually delivered to the correct address. Here, our local community online page is usually full of people asking if anyone has received their parcel as they have been sent a delivery confirmation with a photo of it on a stranger's doorstep.
ReplyDeleteSame here in my village. Every week there is a post with a photo. Has anyone seen my parcel.
DeleteI rarely order online for home delivery, but I'd be annoyed if they snapped my photo without permission.
ReplyDeleteWhile the east and west coasts may say soda, we here in the Midwest call it pop. Down south it is called Coke which is confusing when asked a second question of what flavor, the flavors being Pepsi, 7-up, Sprite, and even Coke, etc.
ReplyDeleteYou might try coming to the door au naturel, that is "stark naked". That might give them pause. Or not.
ReplyDeleteBTW, where I grew up it was called "pop", too, unless it was "Coke".
ReplyDeleteI love Clarks and the color of your door. The Amazon people take a photo of the package if they leave it at my house. They've never done so when (rarely) they put it directly into my hands.
ReplyDeleteThe sartorial elegance must be something to behold.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Your property, no photos without a polite request. Of course if they knock at your door, put the parcel down and moved to the street to snap a photo as you picked up the parcel, that would be allowed.
I don't know about here. I've seen delivery people take photos of a parcel where they have left them, but not personal photos.
Watch out, Neil, you are starting to sound like a "Moaning Minnie" complaining about a photo that doesn't hardly show you at all. It's just proof of delivery! ;)
ReplyDeleteWe have no idea how many times we are on camera . we don't know it and we've given no permission.
ReplyDeleteI am always glad when they take pictures. It makes it easier to figure out where to look for it.
ReplyDeleteI have stuff delivered very, very rarely, mainly before Christmas, and have never seen a delivery person taking a picture of the handover. Here in Germany, laws limit under what circumstances it is allowed to take pictures of people without their consent - the situation you have described definitely requires consent.
ReplyDeleteSome will take a photo of a parcel left at your front door. Too often it is the wrong front door! I have never had a photo taken of me with a parcel. Probably too scary for the poor delivery driver.
ReplyDeleteTo repeat Jaycee......there are always people on local facebook, asking if anyone knows where their parcel might be as it has been delivered , but not to their front door!
ReplyDeleteHere in Tod, lost parcels. lost cats and lost dogs feature. We now have several picking up points round the town for parcels. The One shop, Lidl, Morrison and the station. We haven't got a central point for animals though!
ReplyDeleteThe picture taking does happen here and I suspect almost everywhere else too, it is proof the parcel was delivered and they take only the parcel not photos of the people. Even if the parcel is left on your porch a photo is taken, then if it goes missing the company can't be blamed for a thief stealing it and people can't be saying it never got delivered.
ReplyDeleteClarks is the shoe factory I worked for, on the production line that made men's shoes.
ReplyDeleteI thinks it's a leftover from Covid and nobody actually signs anything. I had it in England last August when campsites, hotels and bars wouldn't take cash just the tap of a card.
ReplyDeleteWill you be instantly recognisable from the photo of your big toe?
ReplyDeleteAmazon delivery usually sends me a photo of the package dropped outside my door. A couple of years ago, I looked and the box was not there, and I looked at the photo, and it was not outside my door, but one of the literally 1007 other doors in the same set of buildings. The carpet in the hallway was different. When I pointed this out to the Amazon bot, they re-shipped the books.
ReplyDeleteThey do take photos of deliveries here, Neil.
ReplyDeleteHi. The problem of denial of receipt has caused companies to use photographs to prove delivery. I work for royal mail. All tracked and specials now have a photo prompt with the specific instruction not to take a picture of the person's face. I always put the package on the floor by the door and take the photo as the person opens the door so it shows the package was not just left outside. The scan is also GPS tracked so that if a mis delivery does happen we know where the postie has left the package and can reclaim it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps your toe will enjoy its moment of fame. I had a delivery person do the same on our front steps not too long ago, but he DID ask first, or at least gave me some kind of warning that he needed to do it. In any case I was prepared.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I didn't realize that Hermes and Evri were one and the same! I wondered where Evri came from since I hadn't heard of it before. While working in the library I keep getting e-mails saying "Your Asendia parcel is being delivered today by Evri." And I thought, "Who comes up with these names?!"
ReplyDeleteThis week Evri have made two separate deliveries to my house (my daughter had ordered some things and is never home when they deliver and lives on a busy road where they can't just be dumped on the doorstep for fear of theft, so she puts my address down for delivery). Each time the item must have been delivered after 9pm, but instead of ringing my doorbell, the parcels were dumped on the doorstep, leaning up against the front door. and not found until the next morning, when I opened the door and they fell in! Again with the possibility of being stolen or rained on. My daughter did not even receive a text to say they had been delivered.
ReplyDeleteBe kind to those delivery men and women , they get paid peanuts for too many deliveries in one day
ReplyDeleteI've had my photo taken with a parcel and I don't mind but I get what you're saying. We've also been fortunate to figure out a lost parcel via the photo (the door in the pic was not ours so we knew it was delivered to the wrong address) After benefitting, I feel it would be churlish to complain
ReplyDelete