Fedex gave my package to my random neighbor without asking me. WTF?! Isn't this a violation of privacy, some kind of breach of contract, and a financial risk to me?
I seem to have the opposite problem of
this guy, who can't get Fedex to leave his package when he's not there. I don't want them leaving it unless I
am there.
The other day I get home and there's a Fedex tag on my door. For a second I thought they had put it on the wrong door because it had somebody else's name on it. But then I realized they were saying they gave my package to somebody else. I live in an apartment complex and this was some person down the way who I've never met or heard of. Whaaa? This has never happened to me before. I felt so violated. I don't know any of these people.
How can they just give my package to someone who's not me and isn't a designated receiver of packages like a doorman or building manager or leasing office? How is this legal?
In this case, it was just a jacket I had ordered from a catalog, and I got the package from the neighbor the next day after a couple of tries, when we both happened to be home. His halting English prevented him from explaining why Fedex had given him my package, but he was nice enough and handed the thing over. So no harm done this time...
But what if it had been a package with markings that indicated or hinted at the sender and/or contents, and those weren't contents or associations I wanted my neighbor or anyone to know about? Think politics, business, sex, legal matters, financial matters, whatever. There could be any number of things indicated by a package that you wouldn't voluntarily share with the people around you. Isn't it a violation of my privacy to disclose those things?
What if my neighbor accepts my package while I'm away for a day or two and then leaves for a three-week vacation, and the package is something I need urgently? How can Fedex transfer this discretion to him? What if my neigbor decides he'd like a shiny new whatever's-in-the-box, and decides to sign with a false name and a fake signature and then deny ever having signed for it when Fedex produces the "evidence"? What if my neighbor is a jerk and we hate each other and he decides to sign for it and throw it in a ditch and, again, deny having signed for it? It would just be his word against mine and Fedex's with no way to prove that he's got whatever it is.
What could I possibly do at that point? What could Fedex do? I'd have to appeal to the sender to send another one and they'd be like, "look, we did our part, this is Fedex's problem." And Fedex would be like, "This is our policy and your neighbor signed - - it's between you two to resolve." And the neighbor would be like, "Chem huskenur. Ts'tesutyun." And I'd be like, "Fuck!"
I feel like they have no right to give my packages to random strangers. And it's not up to my unknown neighbor to make that decision for me. It should go: sender, Fedex, me. If after three failed attempts at delivering to me or to my leasing office (which accepts packages for all residents), they need to keep the package at their facility like they say and let me come pick it up. I understand that the sender has the option of requiring a signature, but that's the point of Fedex's three-tries policy. If they make a reasonable effort to get it to me, but cant, then I think it's fair that I should have to go pick it up at my local facility. But don't just cop out and dump the thing at the next best location. Where's the accountability?
I looked on their website and saw that this neigbor option is standard policy. I can't believe this is permitted. Shouldn't there be some legal argument here? Isn't there some kind of compact between sender, carrier, and recipient?
Is there a way to get them to not do this? This isn't Mayberry - I don't want them to ever deliver to someone who just happens to be near my place.
On a side note, another shipper, I'm guessing it's USPS, just leaves stuff on my doorstep while I'm gone. Wouldn't mind so much at a house, but at a busy complex that is deserted during the day, that's like a thief magnet for random loiterers. Wish they wouldn't do that. I'll be calling both them and Fedex to make these requests. Has anyone else tried this and if so, what happened?
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posted by The Gooch at 11:02 AM on November 13, 2006