I am getting thoroughly fed up with the parcel delivery companies: UPS DHL, FedEx, GLS, etc.

This week I ordered some wine, and the tracking web-site shows that it is due to be delivered this morning; that should be fine, since Sheryl is at home sick today. In fact, however, it is not fine. Yet again someone rang the doorbell, and gave up and walked away before Sheryl could answer.

This kind of thing happens often. Our doorbell/entry-phone system is not very smart (but smarter than the delivery personnel): if you ring a bell, the person who lives in that apartment can answer, and choose to let you into the building; if you get impatient and ring another bell, then only the last apartment whose bell you rang can answer. Many delivery drivers ring lots of bells, so that many people get disturbed, but only the last one rung can answer (and they might not be home).

There have been many cases where one of us was home, and no-one rang the doorbell, but we received a slip in our postbox that we were not home when they tried to deliver.

We have seen delivery vans parked opposite our apartment building while the driver fills in dozens of "you were not home" slips, without first attempting to ring any doorbells. I find this bizarre, since they need to ring anyway to deliver the failed-delivery slips.

There was also a period when one of the courier firms left dozens (basically all) of their parcels with a bakery over half a kilometer from our building, leaving a note saying "we have left your parcel with a neighbour".

A few years ago I bought a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) which weighed 70Kg (the weight is mostly batteries). It was delivered while I was away for work, but Sheryl was home. The delivery guy was alone, and didn't have one of those nifty stair-climbing trolleys (see photo), and refused to bring it up one flight of stairs, so Sheryl refused to accept delivery (our building has no lift) and they had to deliver it another day, with two guys. Sheryl regularly has similar problems with one particular guy who delivers to her work; he always refuses to deliver things into the building, and as a result usually leaves without getting a signature.

Some firms are worse than others, but the main variation seems to be down to the individual delivery person. This is a service for which we, as end-customers, pay (directly or indirectly), but we are not treated like customers and do not receive the service for which we pay. I guess I need to complain more to the delivery companies.