Jarle H Knudsen wrote:

Also online shopping can be a real pain because of the delivery firms,
especially if you live in any sort of flat or compound - which is a large
number and growing out here, including those without a direct intercom to
individual flats at street level. A lot of the courier firms have not put
together a proper strategy for how to deliver to such flats beyond turn
up
at the gate, shrug shoulders, drive off and bill the sender for
non-delivery. (By contrast the likes of Pizza Hut have worked out things
like taking telephone numbers and issuing their deliverers with phones to
contact buyers directly, whilst Royal Mail usually have keys.) Throw in
the
inability to deliver on the day predicted & taken off work, and you can
understand why online shopping ain't great for all.

Here in Norway the parcel is left at the post office and a notice is sent
through the mail when the recipient is not at home.

We basically have the same here with Royal Mail and Parcelforce (part of the
Royal Mail set-up but separate deliveries et al). Royal Mail will put a form
through the letterbox and take it to the local sorting office. Parcelforce,
if they can't get in the building, will take it to the local (sizeable) Post
Office and send a note via the mail. In both cases I like these, not least
because I live just round the corner from both the Post Office and sorting
office, and both open on Saturday mornings.

The problem is with a lot of other courier firms, many of whom have their
roots in business deliveries (although one started up as the delivery
service for a catalogue mainly aimed at housewives - i.e. buyers most likely
to be in during day times, usually in suburbs and towns where the front door
is accessible from the street). The root of the trouble is they don't have a
home delivery mindset and operate on the basis that someone will always be
there to take the parcel, 8am to 7pm Mondays to Fridays. Generally that's
fine for office deliveries but for home deliveries:

* Predicted delivery times & dates are poorly met, to frustration on the one
side that days are taken off work for no reason, on the other for prolonging
the delivery round
* Some drivers cut corners by just quietly sneaking up to the door and
shoving a "sorry you were out" card on the first attempt
* Several of the firms don't do Saturday deliveries or open the depots for
collection at a home convenient time
* The depots themselves are invariably on out of the way industrial estates
poorly served by public transport. It's even worse outside the big cities
because often the depot is in another town a long way away
* The firms don't issue their drivers with equipment that's increasingly
standard for other deliverers, particularly mobile phones for contacting the
recipient to gain access (and also sat navs for more rural deliveries)
* The firms make no effort to develop a proper strategy for delivering to
flats without concierges; nor do they ever bother to black list addresses
and make the seller go elsewhere
* Some firms insist on all items being signed for, even small items that
will fit through the letter box

It's not *just* the courier firms though - a lot of online sellers fail to
give sufficient information about how stuff will be delivered, particularly
which delivery firm will be used, and sometimes don't meet their promise
(very frustrating if you specifically choose them because you were under the
impression they use Royal Mail and get Yodel). They also often make promises
that the couriers can't meet - particularly promising next day deliveries
for Saturdays. Plus there are often communication breakdowns between the
two, both individually about the delivery information passed on, but also
more generally about the expected volume of sales for particular periods
(there have been several years when Amazon have got their numbers badly
wrong and so the couriers haven't taken & trained enough extra staff).

I think the singlest biggest thing the whole delivery industry needs to do
is to basically ask the customers, the deliverers and the sellers "Would you
prefer delivery as quickly as possible, or would you prefer as accurate a
delivery date & time as possible?" Currently the assumption is the former,
because business expects as quickly as possible, business usually has all
delivery times covered, and the early online home shoppers were the likes of
Amazon who were mainly sending parcels that didn't need signing for and
fitted through the average letterbox. But I think a lot of people would
prefer accurate predictions that allow them to take time off work in the
confidence the item will arrive.

In one regard the courier mess offers a good opportunity to a lot of chain
stores that also sell online. If they offer the option to collect purchases
from a chosen branch then they can more foot traffic and income for the
branch, whilst from the customer point of view you've got control over where
you have to go to collect the goods and it's easier to get to find and reach
a high street shop on a Saturday than rushing round the backwaters of an
industrial estate at ten to seven on a weekday night.