Then Deliver!

 On line shopping is great and very convenient most of the time. Then there is the delivery aspect. Occasionally, certain delivery folk don't deliver. When you pay for delivery, you want delivery. And it is about the delivery person, not the system. One of these delivery persons, habitually calls me on the entry system and I let them in but when I go down to locate the parcel since it did not come to my door, I find it left either just inside the entry door in the lobby or on the shelf in the open mail room or as last time, tossed onto the middle of the floor in the mail room. Sweet! I am not ordinarily a crank but really, when I pay for delivery, I see no reason why I should translate the sticky note, go online and locate the little drug store or corner store post office to pick up my parcel. It is supposed to be delivered. I am therefore, from this day on,  rebelling because I have decided that when I ask for delivery and pay for it and am home, I expect the parcel to be delivered. I am no longer going to act as my own delivery system. I can understand the sticky note if I am not home or did not answer the entry phone. But otherwise, that's it. Annoyed? Yes, it's very annoying but not as annoying to try and call the delivery business and get that stray parcel. First of all, there are a league of delivery companies and they direct you to go on line and quote the number that has more numbers and letters than the entire alphabet and numeral system combined. When you do, there is no human to speak with unless you phone head office in another country or across yours. There is waiting time involved when you do find an actual human. To complain is useless because you would be blaming someone who is unknown to whom you are speaking if you are lucky enough to find a human in the mix. Second of all, you don't know which parcel it is, because apparently that is a secret known only to you and if you order a lot online, even the invoice doesn't say what it is. There are numbers involving a necessary search, but that is cumbersome.  I used to have a perfect delivery guy who called me by my first name and we got  a great delivery repartee going each time he arrived. The only bad part was that if it were in a cardboard box, there would be a one inch hole in the parcel. I never did, even when asking, find out what that hole was for. I suspect it was made by some sort of tool they used to retrieve the parcel from a shelf or stack or pile or whatever in the van, but always there was the mysterious hole in the package. One time, the packet of screws to put the item together must have fallen out of it because I had to improvise, and another time, the tool they used scratched the inside item somewhat. I did not complain. I am generally a nice person. I did ask, however, about the reason for the hole,  but was always met with a blank expression and no answer. I supposed there are certain mysteries about the parcel delivery system that are highly undercover. Another non-green mystery is to have, come to your door, an over large box containing something small, such as, in a box that would hold a bread box,  a tiny bottle of nail polish hidden somewhere amongst yards of air filled plastic or paper stuffings. The really horrendous parcels that bother me, contain styrofoam packing which is outlawed. How come it's used then? And just try to find a trash company who will take that off your hands! Even for cash. Ah, online shopping. I love it, but it's not all good.