I recently ordered some products online from a large Swedish furniture store.

Some of them did not fit in the parcel box of the parcel service and were therefore said to be delivered to my front door. It was even signed for. So said the app.

The reality turned out to be different. Part of the order was indeed in the parcel box. Fine. But the part that didn't fit was nowhere to be seen. Checking with neighbours. Checking the paper container (yes, sometimes parcels end up there too). Calling the delivery service resulted in nothing, except for the advice to contact the shop myself.It always feels a bit hopeless as soon as all systems claim that something has been delivered and you know for sure that it hasn't.Initially, there would be a follow-up delivery, according to the e-mail. Fine. As long as I get my order on time. But no. The follow up delivery did not come. Responding to the mail resulted in no response. So I decided to call. What turned out: the follow-up order had been cancelled. Why? No idea. Whether the delivery service would investigate further? No idea. For the shop, it was quicker - read: cheaper - to deliver it again. No further questions. Friendly on the phone, though. And nice that things worked out in the end.

But in this way, how does the parcel service know if it delivers as promised? In 'the system', my parcel is listed as 'delivered'. Somewhere in a warehouse, another parcel is still wandering around. And 'it doesn't feel' nice that parcels can be marked as delivered with signature when they are not.

And why do I receive no reply to my e-mail? Because the policy is not to communicate by email from the furniture store. That was on the website. On the same website where the phone number is almost impossible to find. (Eventually I found it with Google.)

Idea 1: If I have to sign for delivery, have the delivery service scan me a unique (QR) code. Which will be texted or pushed to me as soon as the delivery driver is nearby.

Idea 2: Remove the line "In that case, please contact us by replying to this e-mail or any other way" from the e-mail and replace it with the phone number. An auto-reply is also an option, of course.Sure, there are bigger problems in the world. So it would be nice if the time we all spend on inaccuracies like this could be spent on world peace and a worry-free life.‍