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Since we live in Center City Philadelphia, the 21st most dangerous and crime-ridden city in America, obviously a passer-by saw the package, looked both ways and made off with it.
FedEx’s excuse: “Nobody said to sign for it. In that case, we always leave it on the doorstep or porch.”
I was incredulous. We are a neighborhood of 18th-century row houses. We all know each other—and we know the regular UPS and FedEx delivery guys. They greet us by name. If a neighbor is not in to receive a package, my doorbell will ring (they know I work out of the house), and the courier will ask me to hold the package and then will leave a note on the door of the intended recipient. Neither the FedEx or UPS guys would dream of leaving a package out in the open for anybody to steal.
My doorbell rang twice in March. I ran down from the fourth floor office and both times found packages left on the front steps—from Amazon.com and the Vermont Country Store. This was nuts. I retrieved the label from the Vermont Country Store package and discovered it was shipped via something called SmartPost. When Googled, SmartPost came up on a FedEx Web site with the following explanation:
About FedEx SmartPost
FedEx SmartPost offers you an efficient, value-oriented, and timely way to ship high volumes of low-weight packages to residential customers. We pick up, sort, line haul, track and deliver your packages to the post offices closest to your customers. The USPS makes the final delivery to the residence. As a result, you reduce transit time, minimize handling, and maximize postal discounts.
Take a look at the very bottom of the label illustration at the bottom of this page, and you will see a line of copy: “Carrier: Leave If No Response.”
Maybe it’s OK to leave a package on the porch in the burbs or the boonies. In the city it will be stolen.
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