Almost everything I need these days is being delivered to me. I rarely go to a store to get things. I get clothing delivered, random stuff for my house delivered, essential stuff delivered, and groceries delivered. I don’t love how much I’m relying on delivery services right now, but that’s how life is these days. I try to limit how often I get deliveries or to make sure I do things together (like using Amazon Delivery Day to get all my Amazon stuff on the same day, even if that means I don’t get them as quickly).
I used to do plenty of delivery stuff before. I mean I love Amazon Prime and how easy it is to get stuff (I’m trying to make sure I only get things I need and that I can’t get at other places for similar prices). And shopping online for clothes is so much better than going to stores. A lot of stores only include plus sizes online, so I don’t even have the opportunity to shop in the store.
And for all the deliveries I’ve gotten over the years, I’ve been very lucky with not having things stolen. I think I’ve only had a package stolen once or twice in my life. This is partially due to me always being home so I grab things off of my doorstep as soon as they arrive. But even when I didn’t work at home, things weren’t stolen as often as they were for some of my friends. Perhaps the location of my front door helps because most people wouldn’t walk up my driveway to look at each house.
Most deliveries will tell you what day to expect them to arrive and it’s a mystery what time it will be dropped off. But not grocery deliveries. I typically am given a 2-hour window to expect them. And you get a tracking link so you can watch the truck as it’s driving to you. That way, if you have things that need to be refrigerated or frozen, you can get the bags right away and the food won’t go bad. There has been a time or two that the tracking link didn’t make it to me, but the delivery person has always rung the doorbell so I know that they arrived. Plus, I get an alert on my Ring that someone is at my door.
I was supposed to have groceries delivered on Wednesday. I knew the 2-hour window they were supposed to arrive and I knew I would be at home (not like I can really go anywhere else). It was almost the end of the delivery window and I still hadn’t gotten the tracking information. I checked in front and behind my house and didn’t see groceries anywhere. So I contacted the customer service to see what was going on.
According to them, my groceries had been delivered right at the beginning of the delivery window. There was a photo showing them near my house, but I never got a notification that there was anyone at my door or that the groceries arrived. And I guess someone took them from my door before I checked about 90 minutes after the delivery.
Nothing I ordered was that urgent or essential. It was a few ingredients I needed for something I wanted to make this weekend, some snacks, and some sparkling water. Nothing fancy. Nothing I would think someone would want to steal. But I guess someone was either desperate for groceries or didn’t look in the bags before they stole them because they were gone.
The customer service person I was speaking to was really working with me to figure out what happened. She described the picture of the delivery (I was unable to see it), and it was very obviously my house from the description she gave. But there was no reason why I didn’t get a tracking link so I could watch the delivery progress and it was clear that I didn’t have my groceries.
I said I would be fine with either a refund or redelivery. I felt bad asking for them because I feel like it was partially my fault I didn’t know my groceries had been delivered. But then again, I had no way to know. Fortunately, it was really simple to get them redelivered and I did get my groceries yesterday. I made sure to be sitting by my door during the delivery window so that I didn’t miss them arriving.
I know I’m lucky that this is a very rare occurrence for me and it was resolved quickly and easily. I’m privileged that I haven’t had things stolen from the front door that I really needed. I couldn’t imagine if this was a prescription delivery or if I actually needed the food that night. It sucks that people do this, but I’m glad that it’s not that often.
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