UNILADIf you have ever received a frustrating ‘sorry we missed you’ note from a delivery company knowing full well you were at home that day, well, I feel your pain.
Deliveries are meant to be simple. You order something either online or in store to be delivered to your house. You stay at home awaiting the delivery but no one ever knocks or calls.
Eventually you notice a missed delivery notice has been slipped through your letterbox leaving you angry, irritated and wondering what is so hard about knocking on a door. In fact, isn’t that meant to be the courier’s job?
UNILADTired of these notes, 31-year-old Gavin Morgan from Vancouver, Canada decided to do something about it setting up a fake company whose sole purpose is to troll couriers like FedEx and UPS sending them missed delivery notices.
His company, Abney Delivers, sends these funny notes to couriers on behalf of hundreds of exasperated customers who put in requests via Gavin’s website.
Sticking the notes on the doors of various UPS and FedEx centres across Canada, the reasons for missing the delivery include ‘address was a mirage’, ‘buzzer gave me the stink eye’, ‘recipient did not have 27 pieces of government ID’ and, my personal favourite, ‘buzzer tried to make fetch happen’.
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UNILADSpeaking to UNILAD, Gavin explained the idea came to him after a ‘really infuriating experience’ with the UPS customer service team.
He said:
I was expecting two deliveries from UPS in the same week. The first one was delivered fine. The second one, the driver left a note on the system saying my address could not be found. Apparently it didn’t exist.
My apartment address hadn’t changed, the buzzer worked, my building hadn’t disappeared and to this day, still hasn’t.
I phoned customer service and asked if they could try deliver again. The customer service person was convinced my address didn’t exist. She was really sure of this – even though her colleague had found the place a few days before.
I asked for my stuff to be delivered work instead and was told it’d cost $15 extra. That really p*ssed me off.
Always appreciating a good prank, Gavin started letting his imagination run wild thinking it would be funny to set up ‘the worst delivery company in the world’, the kind which would only leave notes saying they tried and failed to deliver the parcel.
Doing just that, Abney Delivers was born.
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UNILADAlthough Gavin’s prank project started out small, as word spread with local blogs featuring his site, it began to spiral.
Receiving hundreds of requests on his website, Gavin can see why it is such a popular idea:
Friends and family thought it was hilarious. We all had the same experiences of these companies having terrible service and useless customer service.
There’s nothing you can do about it, so I think people really enjoyed getting their own back.
I had no idea it would keep going like this. My friends keep egging my on and helping spread the word which is nice but has also kept me pretty busy with a stupid drunk idea. Turns out people really hate delivery companies.
People really do, Gavin!
UNILADWhile Gavin is yet to receive a response from either FedEx or UPS, he has had plenty of funny looks from people in the shops which he has concluded is the best reaction he is going to get from the couriers who ‘just don’t care anymore’.
If you would like to join in the fun and send a funny missed delivery note to a courier, you can request one on Gavin’s website.
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