DHL is mostly subcontracted to local companies. Yes, drivers do that when they have a residential address, because they cannot pull the same trick with companies at factory/office hours, they hope it goes unnoticed with individuals.

But I also have a DHL driver doing the opposite: you stay at home all day and nobody rings; then you notice that the parcel is marked as delivered on the website. What? You get outside and you see the parcel was thrown in your yard over the wall/fence/portal. You go back to DHL website and you download the receipt, to discover a beautiful fake signature of yours forged by the driver.

So he just didn't bother to ring the doorbell to save 20 seconds. He saves 20 seconds and you lose several hours waiting for him...

Also, in this subcontracting company, the drivers have very bad equipment, they do not have winter tyres (and we are talking about a mountain area...), they do not have enough large enough vans, so the drivers try to ditch as many parcels as possible in any 'possible' way because otherwise they have no room for pickups...

The driver even showed up one day with a regular compact car... He had to come back.

> But I also have a DHL driver doing the opposite: you stay at home all day and nobody rings; then you notice that the parcel is marked as delivered on the website. What? You get outside and you see the parcel was thrown in your yard over the wall/fence/portal. You go back to DHL website and you download the receipt, to discover a beautiful fake signature of yours forged by the driver.

IN cases like that, I would have a very hard ethical time in pushing that issue of fraud onto the driver. To be honest, I haven't done that... but the thought would definitely cross my mind.

I wouldn't think twice. I would absolutely do that. Why? While in school I was working as a delivery driver and never resorted to shit like that.

And we were not only pressed for time. We were paid by delivered parcel. Nothing else counted.

And we had to deliver the packets that were not successfully delivered to the central logistics station by 6pm.

So if we didn't perform we were f..ed.

> While in school I was working as a delivery driver and never resorted to shit like that.

How long ago was that? Maybe the service has gotten worse because the pay/reward system has gotten worse.

> You go back to DHL website and you download the receipt, to discover a beautiful fake signature of yours forged by the driver.

Depending on carrier, this has hellish consequences for customers who end up having to file loss/damage claims against the carrier. Your signature attests that you received it and it's intact, so when the signature is forged attesting to such, any claims filed are summarily denied.

(Consumers usually get their money back from the shipper as a matter of customer service, but the shipper still eats the loss.)

It also happens in germany. I once talked to a deliery guy from DHL. He told me, he has 3 minutes for a delivery. That's insane. Just one red traffic light and the 3 minute windows is fucked up.

When you call dhl you only get lame exuses. "Maybe you doorbell isn't working?" Sure, DHL, sure.

The person you call almost certainly has no actual insight into the problem or way to contact the driver

Wonder if we have it all wrong. If we paid for shipping on receipt there would be motivation to deliver.

In the UK we can get our money back if the goods don't make it into your hands. It's up to the seller / courier to prove otherwise although it's usually a battle arguing with them.

Royal Mail delivered a £560 multimeter to the wrong address and to a signature which wasn't mine. Never saw it again. That took a nightmare battle from hell to get sorted.

This is the same in every single country. However, if the mail say it was delivered then what do you do? You lose.

I actually found that in the UK at least, you get on twitter and call them thieving bastards repetitively until they are fed up with you and just give you the money to shut up :)

Royal Mail is just terrible at doing anything it seems.

Some of the vendors allow you to select the delivery company. I like this.

It's pretty hard to get back to a seller and try to explain him the delivery company he is using is potentially scamming, especially as it only affects me (the receiver), not the shipper.

Yeah I imagine the drivers do this to save time when they're behind schedule.

Which makes me feel bad for the drivers, really. I'm gonna guess that they have some very tough schedules.

You don’t need to guess, it’s been documented. Most have impossible schedules. Ugly industry, and it would be costly to make it less ugly. So we all look away.

As I understand it (no personal experience, just hearsay), the quotas given to drivers are unrealistically aggressive, encouraging this behavior.

This happens every single time with PostNord, the postal service in Sweden and Denmark. Every, single, time.

Second that.