A couple of months ago I arrived home from work to find a delivery of groceries on our doorstep. The thing is, we hadn’t ordered any groceries. Plus, they were from Coles, which isn’t where we get our deliveries from.
We brought the groceries in, put the cold things into our fridge/freezer and I rang the local store. It wasn’t them, so I rang another, then another. They checked and after a few phone calls back and forth, confirmed it had come from them (there had been a sticker with a code on it – no other ID). They said the delivery driver would be back shortly to collect the order and redeliver it. I was relieved, as it was obviously a family with young children and they probably needed the order for dinner.
Hours later, after 9pm when we were in our pyjamas and readying for bed, having given up on the deliveryman returning, there was a knock at the door. It was him – and after we gave him all the groceries back he had the nerve to ask us if we had returned everything!
I doubt they were ever redelivered. I imagine they just went back to the store which was very frustrating after all I’d done to try and get them to the owner.
Fast forward to today. This time we were waiting for our delivery. I could track the Uber Eats deliveryman (yep, for small orders Woolworths use them apparently) and watched him turn into our street on the tracking. I got up and went out to make sure the table was free to put the groceries on. I heard the phone chime to say the order was delivered but there was nothing at the front door and a walk around the house…nada. I rang the store and was told to ring another number. After being on hold for a while I got a lovely lady who rang the Uber controller, but that person could only confirm they were delivered to our street and they couldn’t contact the driver. The outcome…I could get a refund or the groceries delivered again tomorrow. The thing is, this order had our dinner supplies. I had nothing else defrosted or prepared for our tea.
The Hub walked half the street knocking on doors but the groceries were nowhere to be found. Obviously someone had taken them inside and were staying mum (they are just left on the doorstep – post-covid procedure).
I’m starting to wonder why I bother trying to do the right thing so much. It usually results in making life difficult for myself, and others don’t seem to even bother trying.
Have you ever wondered if Karma is giving you the cold shoulder?
April 17, 2023 at 9:48 pm
In Canada they usually take a picture aftee they drop it off to show that it’s in the right place. Do they not do that for you?
This sounds sooo frustrating!! What did you do for your tea?
April 18, 2023 at 10:59 am
Yeah, they do that here as well, but they couldn’t contact the driver. Whoever had received the groceries were in our street (which isn’t long) and the Hub knocked on a lot of doors but everyone said they hadn’t received it.
We had toast 🙁
April 18, 2023 at 6:20 am
We went through a period when delivery drivers kept dropping things off to one of our next door neighbors because they couldn’t tell which was our house (it’s the ones with two-inch numbers on the mailbox)…
April 18, 2023 at 11:01 am
Oh how frustrating! We have a big number on our letterbox as well. No plants in front of it (and it has a solar light which means you can read it in the dark as well).
We reordered the groceries and when they were delivered (this time to our address) they didn’t give us any of our chilled food. Never ordered Uber Eats and after two failures like this, won’t be rushing to use them.
April 20, 2023 at 8:15 am
John, I have been trying to leave a comment on your blog, but after 3 attempts it still doesn’t seem to be there. I hope you are feeling better now and it wasn’t anything serious.
April 18, 2023 at 11:02 am
Awwww dang! Hope it got sorted out today?
April 18, 2023 at 11:42 am
What a mess. I hope you get it straightened out.
April 18, 2023 at 2:16 pm
They’ve refunded me the missing groceries. I’ll just make sure I do big orders – the big ones aren’t delivered by “partnered” delivery.
April 19, 2023 at 5:23 am
Just another modern hassle 🙂 The system is so prone to errors, even when people are trying to do their best. I’m glad you got a refund!
April 19, 2023 at 9:53 am
I know, first world problem, but still frustrating!
April 26, 2023 at 12:03 pm
About two weeks ago the doorbell rang and a couple of bags of groceries were sitting there. I caught the delivery person before she got away and told here they weren’t ours.
She was adamant that they were because Google had said she was in the right place.
I asked the address they were supposed to be at and it was next door. Our number is the next even number up, like it says on the mailbox.
April 27, 2023 at 10:25 am
I reckon that’s what happened with ours (because of the shape of our street, it’s a bit odd), and they didn’t actually read the address they were going to or the number on the box *shaking head*.
Very good of you to do the right thing!