Yesterday I was expecting a delivery of goodies from British Corner Shop and, knowing how heavy some of their boxes can be, I was waiting for la factrice in case she needed some help. I watched her walk up to our apartment building but she didn't ring the doorbell or knock so I just assumed there was no colis. Imagine my surprise when I went to collect the post that an avis de passage had been left in the postbox to say that she had tried to deliver a colis. The form also said that I had to collect the colis from le bureau de poste. No option was given to ask for it to be redelivered.
Feeling a bit miffed I hotfooted it to our local bureau de poste to demand an explanation. I got the usual gallic shrug, a 'je ne sais pas' and 'venez demain vers 11h'. Having said I wasn't happy with this I was reluctantly told that la factrice would be asked about it and that maybe my colis would be delivered the next day.
My colis was delivered this morning and, as predicted, it weighed a ton and I was asked to help carry it from the van. It was also delivered by a factrice I had never seen before. Coincidence?!
I know the box was heavy but that's no excuse for not even attempting to deliver it. Maybe la poste shouldn't accept heavy boxes if their facteurs/factrices are going to refuse to deliver them. my hubby thinks it's the start of a mutiny by employees of la poste against internet shopping but he does love a conspiracy theory. Anyone else had a similar experience?
I have had some bulky and quite heavy deliveries with rarely any hitch. However, some of the drop off points free of charge instead of expensive deliveries seem to be far too far from where a car or other form of transport for collecting them can get too. I have once taken a wheelbarrow in my car to pick something up. It all seems to be part of an intricate plot to kill off internet buying at a time when the companies offering discounts are proliferating rather than be deterred by delivery issues in the least and are gradually finding ways around it. If La Poste does not watch out they are going to find themselves confronted with an alternative delivery service and the undoubted reduction of their services with a few thousand redundancies too boot. So it all seems a bit of a self-serving spiral down to loss of postal services, income for the state and low paid jobs for the people.
Hi
I'think you might need to work on your conspiracy theory - its probably internet shopping thats going to keep them their jobs!
I pity the poor Factrice - boxes full of pickled onions, beans and the like!
I have noticed that a number of delivery companies now state 'livraison pied du batiment'' or something similar - ie delivery to ground floor - for larger /heavy items. Maybe thats what's to come...
la poste website states,
- Poids : le poids unitaire des colis peut aller de 0 à 30 kg (emballage et contenu compris).
- Dimensions maximales : les dimensions maximales sont telles que : L+l+h=150 cm avec L=100 cm.
As long as its less than 30kg, they should deliver it....as I'm sure it wasn't cheap to send...
Good Luck.
Yes, we've had several instances of the postman not even bothering to ring the bell but just leaving 'avis 'de passage'. When it got to the point of not even leaving the avis (I knew the company had shipped and la & behold the parcel was at the Post Office when we checked) we asked at the counter how to complain; we were given an official La Poste complaints form & 2 weeks later got a very apologetic letter from the manager of the local parcels distribution centre :) no problems since then , except maybe I've got someone's back up as every single wrong written postcode gets corrected before delivery now...!
This type of behaviour is not unknown in the UK. I too have been in the house and had a card left to say that a courier had tried to deliver a parcel, but no one had even rung our bell!
I find it difficult to imagine that it is La Poste who are against internet shopping, rather the politicians, but protectionism is rife here in France, so who knows?
The only certainty is that it causes more work for us and less for the postman/courier.