Would you complain? Postman

[huskydamage]

I'm not sure if I'm being OTT or not, but I found this rather intrusive.
I woke up Sunday morning to my dogs going ballistic, more so than usual if someone knocks. I didn't here anyone knock, but wouldn't from where my bedroom is. They didn't settle for 5/10mins so I got up to see what the problem was and went to let my younger dog out in the back garden. The postman was suddenly in my garden which frightened the life out of me tbh! I grabbed my dog's collar and asked if he could go out and go back to the front of the house. But he kept coming towards me ( I was in my pants!) He said something about it being a 24hr parcel (it wasn't and I had no idea a parcel would be turning up) and my partner went out and then he left it on the floor and went out.
I have two large dogs and one doesn't like men, so if id had that dog out I'm sure the postman would be the first to complain about me.
I have never had anyone do this before! They just leave a card or parcel by the front door. My back gate is not locked but bolted. You can undo the bolt if you reach over but it's hard to do. He must've spent ages trying to get it, which i guess is why my dogs went so nuts.
Would I be wrong in complaining just to feed back to them not to do that again?

 

[Jenko109]

I would absolutely complain.

I sunbathe topless and would lose my s*** if a postman let himself into my back garden.

Not to mention the obvious concerns with dogs not expecting a random person to be there.

 

[Thistle]

I've never known Royal Mail to deliver on a Sunday, very odd.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Oh my goodness, that would certainly have alarmed me too. I also have one dog who would definitely have just launched herself and asked questions later. Was it your usual postie, seems very odd to me. Why did he not just knock on the front door rather than struggle to get through to the back area of your property?

 

[Prancerpoos]

I queried the Sunday delivery thing with my local post office and they said they are not the regular posties but subcontractors. Very concerning.

 

[asmp]

Not condoning what he did but parcelforce do deliver on Sundays now

 

[SAujla]

Sunday deliveries will become much more common now. Especially if the planned move by the potential owner to do away with door-to-door letter deliveries and go to an American style PO Box system, focusing more on parcel deliveries. You should 100% complain as this isn't acceptable behaviour.

 

[huskydamage]

It wasn't our normal postman...glad it's not just me in thinking this is a bit much.

 

[splashgirl45]

Definitely out of order, no one should just let themselves into someone else’s property, I wouldn’t even enter my friends garden without her prior permission, I would complain as well , what if one of your dogs had got out and got killed on the road or he had been attacked by your dog. It’s frightening to think what could have happened

 

[Cloball]

Postmen and delivery arrived always coming into our back garden and putting parcels in weird places, through the cat flap, in the shed, behind the bins that can take weeks to discover. It's odd when the front door has a parcel box and letter box that I usually sign post them too

 

[CorvusCorax]

We had a guy who left our training class as he was a postie now working Sundays. I would say something as he's just asking to get bit.

 

[blackcob]

Out of order and worthy of a complaint, particularly when you asked him to leave and he kept coming, how stupid do you have to be?

A few weeks ago my dogs went ballistic in the kitchen, I poked my head round the door to see a man walking past the kitchen window. I opened the window to ask him WTF he was doing. Apparently he was looking for the garden of house X, much further down the street, and thought my gate might lead to it. The gate with a sign reading 'DOGS LOOSE, DO NOT ENTER, DO NOT OPEN GATE' and which much like yours has a deliberately hidden bolt he must have been faffing with for ages. I was not gracious in my response.

 

[tda]

Tbh I think it would be safer to just lock your back garden gate

 

[Parrotperson]

I've never known Royal Mail to deliver on a Sunday, very odd.

They do round here. They have the Amazon contract cos Northumberland is such a big area I guess.

 

[Parrotperson]

I queried the Sunday delivery thing with my local post office and they said they are not the regular posties but subcontractors. Very concerning.

When we get a Sunday delivery it’s generally our usual postie.

I’d defo be asking the local sorting office what the hell is going on.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Tbh I think it would be safer to just lock your back garden gate

I would complain but I would also lock the gate. My friend had an incident with a courier who was determined that he needed to take a photo of the open front door with the parcel inside the door. There was some reason why she couldn't open the door and he wouldn't take a photo of her reaching for the parcel over the fence. He ended up In the back garden surrounded by dogs, which he was most unhappy about - as was my friend.!

 

[Andie02]

I've never known Royal Mail to deliver on a Sunday, very odd.

A few weeks ago I had a Royal Mail parcel delivery on a Sunday surprisingly. OH has had several 24 hr tracked delivery documents delivered to clients on a Sunday recently, also surprisingly as they were booked for Monday delivery.

 

[Christmascinnamoncookie]

Very bizarre! Why not just knock at the front?!

I've never known Royal Mail to deliver on a Sunday, very odd.

Getting deliveries here on Sundays now, struck me as very odd the first time.

 

[ycbm]

Royal Mail have been subcontracting to Evri for Sunday deliveries round here.
.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

My mum had an incident with her dog and a postman. Had a letter from the Post Office saying they wouldn't deliver any more because of her dog biting a postman. The incident actually involved someone who was not in uniform and was delivering basically junk mail. Mum's house had a small frontage onto the street and a gate either side. One which had a clear number 2 displayed went to the front door and the other round the other side of the house through the front garden to the back door. He had delivered to the front door then for some reason decided that the unnumbered gate should be tried. He got as far as the back door when mum's little dog came shooting out of the house and nipped him. I contacted the PO for mum and pointed out that he was trespassing where he had no right or reason to be and the dog was just doing its job.
They did back down and continued delivering and we put a padlock on the gate.

 

[nagblagger]

We have had to put a lock on our back gate, delivery driver tried front door, dogs went mad ( we weren't in) so went to back gate, opened it and put parcel there thinking they were safe - we have a dog flap !!! Luckily dogs must have been so distracted by front door he got away with it and that he shut the back gate.

 

[AmyMay]

I’m not really sure what the issue is.

If you don’t want deliveries to your property, lock the gates and put a sign up explicitly saying No Entry, and put a large post box outside your gate.

 

[SilverLinings]

I had RM deliver a parcel at 6am on a Sunday about a year ago. I sleep with ear plugs in so initially didn't hear the knocking so he went and banged on both my next door neighbours doors and then returned to mine. They were furious with me (despite it not being my fault, and not a 24hr parcel). As it was ridiculously early it scared the hell out of me when I finally heard it and I thought there must be an emergency. Fortunately he didn't let himself in to the back garden though.

My sister complained to RM a few months ago (she lives in another area) as her postman started letting himself into her back garden and then opening the French doors to shout that he had the post. He had always just put it through the front door letterbox before, and he had to go to some effort to go round to the back and get the gate open. RM responded to say they'd told him not to do this (he had a stupid excuse), but he didn't stop so my sister's landlady had a code lock fixed to the gate. Unfortunately I think some people are just weird, and at best have no sense of personal space and privacy or appropriate behaviour.

ETA after all that rambling I meant to say that if I were you I would complain, but I would also put a lock on the gate to keep your dogs safe from any other idiot who thinks it's a good idea to ignore the front door.

 

[MuddyMonster]

I’m not really sure what the issue is.

If you don’t want deliveries to your property, lock the gates and put a sign up explicitly saying No Entry, and put a large post box outside your gate.

But you shouldn't have to expect to lock the gate against a postman! Especially when RM have a policy of not delivering if the postperson gets bitten. It's hard to protect against their staff being bitten when they come uninvited into private property, with clearly defensive dog(s) and keep coming when warned not to ...

We've set our house up so our reactive dog can't get to the front door and/or our lounge if need be if we have unexpected visitors - as it's a given people will use the front door and sometimes our lounge.

But I geniunely never expected to have to lock our back gate to our private property because a random delivery person wouldn't leave a parcel on the porch, walked into our garden, opened our back door and was fairly shocked by our not very pleased reaction I was SO thankful the dog wasn't in the kitchen and I was clothed ...!

We lock our gate now but I was dumbfounded when it first happened.

 

[AmyMay]

Where is the postman supposed to deliver if there’s no mail box outside the property? How are they supposed to know there are dogs (and reactive dogs) on a property if they are new to the route and there are no warning signs?

 

[JBM]

I feel the issue lies in the fact she asked him to leave the garden and go to the front of the house.
He should’ve done that.
He should not have continued to approach after he was told to leave and especially when in pants.
I would’ve felt unsafe in this situation

 

[Goldenstar]

I would lock the gate .

 

[blackcob]

Where is the postman supposed to deliver if there’s no mail box outside the property? How are they supposed to know there are dogs (and reactive dogs) on a property if they are new to the route and there are no warning signs?

The front door? And when instructed to return there, to do so immediately.

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

I'm reading this thread and feeling very foreign all of a sudden (I was born in the UK).
Here in rural France, it would never cross anyone's mind to deliver on a Sunday, it just wouldn't be done. Also everyone has a postbox outside the home and post lady has a keep to the front of the postbox. If small enough, the parcel goes in there. If bigger or signed for, the post lady will either ring the bell, honk the car horn or knock on the door if it's accessible. They won't open a gate but may go to the front door if the gate is open. If no answer, you get a slip in the postbox to inform you that they've attempted delivery.
The courriers around here are also very good and will come in a leave parcels under my hangar if they have written permission (I've been asked to text permission to them before). One was even good enough to message me back to let me know the gate was properly closed because I was worried about the chickens getting out it not.
All that to say I really don't see any reason to be breaking into people's back gardens. If you don't get an answer leave a note and the receiver will just have to wait a bit longer to get their parcel.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Where is the postman supposed to deliver if there’s no mail box outside the property? How are they supposed to know there are dogs (and reactive dogs) on a property if they are new to the route and there are no warning signs?

The letterbox?
Most people's front doors have a letterbox if there isn't an easily visible mailbox near the front door.