Neighbor won't give me my parcel

A week ago, I got a DHL notice in my mailbox that they had left a parcel at a neighbor's place. Fine. I have gone to the neighbor's multiple times over the past week and they never answer the door. I thought they were not at home (then why sign for someone's package??) but today, I could clearly hear the tv and raspy cough of someone inside, until I rang the bell a second time, then suddenly all was silent! I knocked, waited a bit longer, nada. Now I am livid. This is not the first time I've had problems...once I never got any notice at all, and only found out someone in the building had my package when they brought it to my door months(!!!) later.

I tried using Packstation for awhile and it's swell except that there isn't one convenient to my home (the post offices closer to me don't offer it ). Is there no way to ensure your parcels are taken back to the post office if you're not at home, and not left with anyone else?

I want to leave a note for my neighbor stating that I have made several fruitless attempts and would like my package NOW. Could someone please give me a simple German text to use (I can think of plenty to write but I do want to be grammatically correct and polite--at least by German standards...)? What happens if I can't get them to give it up?

Is it possible you can contact DHL and ask them to contact your neighbors as it seems to me DHL should have some responsibility for you getting your parcel since they left it with your neighbors. Did you authorize DHL to leave it with your neighbors?

DHL doesn't need authorisation to leave a package with a neighbour unless the box is specifically marked that it can only be signed for by the intended recipient. Call the police on the non-emergency number (check your phone book). Your neighbours are committing/have committed a crime. You have the DHL slip as proof. If they claim you've already got it from them, deny it and demand a police report on the spot so that you can then go to a lawyer.

woof.

I know that you received a package addressed to me. Please let me know when I can pick it up.


If I do not hear from you within three days (date) I must assume that you intend to keep the package.

It might not be conducive to your relationship but it should get them off their Teutonic asses. Notice how it does not mention the police, but 10 to 1 your neighbors will think that you will inform them.

Have you tried talking through the door. They might think you're the GEZ coming to collect on the television

...and pin a copy of the DHL notification to your note.

[quote name='fruitlassie' date='Dec 8 2007, 3:38 pm' post='1143690']
and only found out someone in the building had my package when they brought it to my door months(!!!) later.

Bloody hell ! That would have sent me mental if someone did that to me.

Just leave a note like SaraByrd said, but I would skip the second sentence at this stage - bit over the top to start with the threatening, surely?
Never mind calling the police already (ridiculous idea )
Some people are just lazy and/or don't like answering the door when they're not expecting anyone. It's not a big deal yet. You've only heard them in there once, maybe you happening to ring the bell in the middle of their favourite programme or while they were eating dinner or something.

I would also knock loudly so they know there is someone outside the door, not just outside the building and call out "Hallo Herr/Frau..."

no threat there, just an assumption

Not over the top and sarabyrd's "note" is right on. Although if it were me, I would forget the note and call the police tomorrow morning as the fucker has now had the package for more than a week and refuses to answer his door, but that is just me.

Do any of the other neighbors have their phone number? Can you look it up in a directory? Have the post office get in contact with them too. try calling them if they don't answer the door. If they pick up the phone and you tell them you want your package they can't deny that they are home.

Well, I left a note around 5pm yesterday and am waiting for a response of some kind. I hate to involve the police over what amounts to about 50 Euro worth of DVDs but I would dearly like to have them (crazy, I know... ) The blue card from DHL is dated 30th of November!

maybe they're watching the DVDs?

Wow, you are patient. I'd have kicked down their door by now.

Yeah, to be honest I would not be that patient either, it's been over a week. It's not your fault if you go to the police, they should have given you your parcel a long time ago! Luckily I have never had crappy neighbors like that (only an idiot concierge ).

I actually have the opposite problem - I took a package for someone in the building and it has been sitting in my apartment for a week. Should I put a note in their briefkasten? My German is not too good. Can someone give me the proper German for: "A package of your was delivered to me last week. Please come and pick it up as soon as possible." or something like that.

Thanks,
Ali

Usually I think you would go to their apartment and tell them you got it (and not a week later but I would actually try to see if they're home the evening of the same day it was delivered, and if they are not home leave a note). At least that is what we always do. How else are they supposed to know it is you who has their parcel after all? Maybe it is you who has fruitlassie's parcel!!!

In German what you want to say is: Ich habe für Sie letzte Woche ein Paket angenommen. Bitte holen Sie es so bald wie möglich bei mir ab. Danke.

What are the odds?

Man, my neighbors are waiting for me when I get home from work to let me know they have a package for me. Good people, for sure. I wouldn't have been this patient either, really. 2-3 days, ok. But 10+ days? That shows intent on their part. Does Germany have any laws about tampering with someone else's mail? Like if they opened it? In the states, that's a federal offense.

I hope you get your DVDs.

Well they are definitely both in the same city, though I do have to admit the city is the biggest one in Germany.

Odenwalder, it is illegal for others to open your mail. Briefgeheimnis.

The consequences this can have are:


http://bundesrecht.juris.de/stgb/__202.html

Well, I've been giving this person the benefit of the doubt because they signed for a package for me once before (many months ago) and I had no problem collecting it. I am not home all that much myself, so perhaps our paths just don't really cross much.

I'll give them another day or so to reply, then step things up if necessary.

I am confident that I don't have fruitlassie's package - the one I have is much bigger than 50 CDs. Also, I would answer the door if someone rang (even though I am scared shitless that the person on the other side is going to speak German to me!)

From what I understood, the people whose package it is were given a note saying who has their package (just like fruitlassie knows who has her package). When I missed a package I got a note from DHL and I went to my neighbors place. Because of this, I thought that they would come and find me. Look, I am still new, my German is still very bad so I am not going and looking for interaction. I am trying hard not to "break rules" but it seems like once I know a rule, it changes.

Thanks for the German translation. I will put the note in their box today. Hopefully they won't be mad!

Meanwhile, this whole process of taking other people's packages and also being able to put something in someone else's mailbox still seems very funny to me.

Thanks guys,
Ali

I am not sure if the mailman always puts the name of the neighbor on the note. It is also possible that your neighbor is on vacation and that is why they haven't come to collect their parcel yet.
By the way, one way of getting your German to improve is interaction. I would actually say it is the best way. Maybe you could actually make some friendly contact with your neighbors. It would maybe make living there less intimidating or something (maybe you aren't actually intimidated, it just seems like you are a bit from your post). I would just go for a younger person who is also likelier to speak some English. Not all Germans are grumpy assholes.

Haha! Unfortunately, I live in Kreuzberg, and my neighbor is most assuredly German.

Thanks, Mariposa. I know not all Germans are grumpy assholes! I actually have quite a few lovely German friends, including a couple tandem partners. I am getting better but I think I need a bit more time for me to feel confident. It was funny. I actually tried to introduce myself to one neighbor who had something left for him at my place and he looked at me like I was a complete alien! I understand that it was probably just this guy, but admittedly it did put me off a bit.

I am actually not intimidated so much in person (although I admit I did come off like a bit of a pansy in my post) but I am still terrified of the phone. Language barriers are so much easier to deal with in person where you can make hand gestures and smile. On the phone it is significantly harder, I think.

Thanks for the support,
Ali

Ali--based on my own experience, there are times when DHL does not bother to leave any note for the recipient. So you would probably be doing your neighbor a great favor letting them know you have it.

Sometime DHL doesn't leave a name either, I had one that just left the sticky thing & said the packeage was a number 15, brilliant there are 15 apartments in that building!! Luckily my neighbors are pretty good and watch for my car & come flying out the door withthe package as soon as I pull up!

We went through all of it:

- a huge carton meant for a neighbour that we had never met before blocking our hallway , I slipped a note in his mailbox asking him to pick it up after 2 days, still, no one came... it took him 10 days to pick up the parcel, and then he didn't even say thanks, let alone introduce himself.

- neighbours accepted a parcel and then went on an extra long break - we had been desperately waiting for the parcel as it contained stuff that we needed for a wedding - we did NOT get the parcel in time, but only after we came back from the wedding in England...

- a note in our mailbox saying that neighbour x accepted a parcel for us - said neighbour did not have a parcel for us, said he had one for another neighbour, who had picked it up already. We were actually really waiting for a parcel at that time, so after checking on every available neighbour if THEY accepted the parcel, we put up a note on the noteboard asking the person who accepted the parcel to let us know when we could pick it up. A few days later we received the parcel from DHL, there was no other parcel, the DHL guy had just dropped the notice in the wrong mailbox and after noticing his fault just wrote another notice for the real recipients and couldn't be arsed to inform us that the notice/parcel wasn't actually meant for us...

sometimes the delivery people don't even bother ringing our doorbell, but send a note via Schneckenpost telling us to pick up our parcel at postoffice x (when it is actually stored at another one, which makes us drive around like mad...)

I always accept parcels for the neighbours and have never had a problem with them picking them up. Is always great fun pretending to speak german when the postman is asking me to take it.

The old lady downstairs also accepts our parcels and complained after the second one arrived (electric guitar so quite a big box). Made me want to point out quite clearly that she didn't have to take them if she didn't want to!

Yeah same here, my gf always says "well, that was nice of you"...I just figure why not, saves them the hassle of going all the way to the post office, which around here is a bitch, with or without a car. Every time, as soon as they get home (6pm ish) they knock on the door, no problem.

As for our packages, our maintainance guy (almost) always accepts ours

Small victory! I came home to find a note "Bitte anrufen zu Abholung des Pakets! Danke!". And then their phone number. I found the exclamation points quite friendly and reassuring that they were not mad.

So...you saw from my previous post that I am scared of the language barrier over the phone but I am happy to say that I conquered my fear! I called and stumbled through saying who I was and that I have a paket for them. It took her a minute to figure it out but then she said LOTS of German words...something about Kind, mein Mann, and then I heard "zwanzig Uhr". Yay! I know my numbers. So from what I gathered she is dealing with her child and her husband will be home at 8 and then she will pick it up. Man that felt good!

Thanks for your help, guys!
Ali

I've only had one problem in several years with packages going astray. I've got a lot of what you might call 'urberliner' in my house, but I've never had to wait for long as they are mostly at home all the time smoking themselves to death and watching shopping channel. A couple of years ago an amazon book order didn't arrive, I guess the DHL guy forgot to put a note in my box. One day I ran into a neighbour who lives on the same floor and he mentioned that he had a delivery of mine, one of the books, which he'd obviously had for a month or more. When he opened his flat door, I realised why he'd (apparently) forgotten about it. His entire hallway was stacked up with a huge amount of junk, not other peoples' packages but just stuff. He dug the package out, seeing me had reminded him that he had it. Hope you don't get one of those.

Nothing like a bit of bigoted anti-working class shite to remind me its Toytown I'm reading.

Working class is a bit of a stretch seeing as they're sat on their arse all day smoking fags they bought with their Hartz IV

I love it when people hoist their "I'm an arrogant bastard" flag, and don't even notice it. This guy does you a favour and you've nothing better to do than look down your snout at him. Bad form!


I hope he never does you the favour of taking on a parcel for you again.

In all fairness: My very German janitor in my old place who has an immaculate apartment kept an important computer part for almost a week without notifying me. When I picked it up - another neighbor had mentioned that he finally got his parcel and had seen others in their hallway - I asked why she hadn't dropped a note in my mailbox. Response: "I don't have to do that. I don't even have to accept your parcels. It's your business to pick them up." My mild reaction: "All the Hausmeister before you did it and even brought them up to the recipients in the evening. Goes to show that all kinds of people make up a community."
It's not just the messies who are bastards.

Husband ordered a new computer part from Amazon with specific orders, in german no less, that it not be delivered to a neighbor. DHL ignored the label (in capital red letters that the vendor put on it before shipping) and let a neighbor sign for it. I went down and picked up the package and opened it. It was empty. We had to go to DHL's main office in the neighboring town, file a report within 2 days (husband was traveling at the time), which was copied to Amazon and the vendor of the part. No one would take responsibility for the missing part and the police even interviewed the neighbor as a suspect in the 'robbery' of the part. We warned the neighbor about the police report so she was gracious about it and still speaks to us. It took a month before we were able to get a replacement. By then, we were given a refund of 20 euros because the price of the part has already gone down that much in a month.

dear me, the whinging pom syndrome. I don't care if people smoke or watch shopping channel all day, it's not in what I wrote or what I think, same goes for people who misplace packages, that's the way it goes. maybe you should get the chip on your shoulder(s) checked.

It may not have been what you intended to write, but that's clearly how it came across. Maybe you need to sharpen your writing skills.

And don't call me a pom! Now, that's whinging!

As a fellow Berliner, I found Chipbag's 'Urberliner' comment a witty, affectionate and charming description of some of our fellow residents. From direct experience, I didn't consider the description to be malicious rather a simple statement of fact. If you look in the windows of the basement flats around here you can quite often barely see the constantly flickering TV for the thick fog of smoke that shrouds their living rooms. And on the rare occasions the front windows are opened onto the street, then you can smell the property often before you can see it and there is a good chance that you can hear the shopping channels rather than MTV or ARTE on in the background. These people do not seem to get out and about much but do continue to take an interest in the comings and goings of street life and are normally very happy to be helpful and take in DHL stuff for you. I for one am pleased to have them around.

We also have a such a neighbour who clearly likes to accumulate possessions in his hall. A charming man, but somewhat absentminded, and I would not be surprised if he suddenly excavated a parcel of ours that he had accepted and then put down somewhere for safekeeping. He is also not that keen on opening his front door ...

I had to chuckle at Chipbag's comment as well. I didn't see anything judgmental about it. It is a fact that there are many Berliners who do not venture outside much, be it due to longterm unemployment, depression, usually a combo of both. It's also a fact that a lot of them smoke. My next door neighbor--not the one I'm having problems with--is such a lady. In 3 years of living here I have never seen her leave her flat, although she does open the door to vacuum her doormat a couple times a week. (Her husband does work and seems to do all the shopping, etc.)

Honestly, if any of us have issues with the local populace we probably wouldn't be living here. I see people comment on "Bavarians" and other German stereotypes on here all the time, don't see the difference really.

@fruitlassie

I hope you have not been so rash as to call round whilst the 'Tagesschau' is on

Trying to make out MTV is a higher quality channel than a shopping channel?
"Pimp My Picasso" ?

Yeah, some peope sit home all day and watch TV.
You do know that Germany as a society is drifting apart don't you?
With a whole bunch of people (primarily older industrial workers in inner cities) consigned to the scrap heap?
But let's have a laugh hey cos you're in some sexy well paid job and can laugh at the plebs who have to act as the left luggage office for your consumer goods.

Thank you for taking the time to point this out.

Very helpful and not at all condescending to either the members of Toytown who live in Berlin or indeed other local residents of the city.

Please do feel free to continue to explain to us about the demographics and economic situation of the city we choose to live in. However, perhaps its best that you don't refer to our neighbours as 'plebs' - we don't.

Is salted popcorn the new Preiß?

Class!

Why are we still talking about this? Go and get your package...
Keep Knocking on the door until somebody opens it, then demand your package..
Eventually they will get tired of the knocking after 5-10 min...

Make sure you get their next parcels. I mean many!! Not sure how u can do that but if do it, WOW!!!