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Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

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Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat off topic but it is quite stunning to me that American carriers just leave the package at the door. I lived in different European countries and in all of them the expectation is that the mailman (official mail, or any of the services like dhl, ups, etc) will ring the bell. If you don't answer they will ring the neighbour and then take it back and either try again another day or you can go to a pickup point.…

Yikes, I would never in a million years use a shipping service that delivered my packages to my neighbor, nor one that required me to go to a pickup point. WTF is the point of that? If I wanted to go somewhere to pick up my stuff, I'd just buy it from a store instead of ordering it online!

Most mail carriers (the majority of deliveries are carried by a national (ex) monopoly let you choose what you want to happen to your package. And we have many corner shops in EU cities and towns, and the mail companies have installed dedicated lockers as well in central locations, so a pickup point is usually 5 minute walk away. On the neighbour - for me that's normal. I guess we generally trust our neighbours more? We also do not have the strange U.S. laws that you can keep anything that arrives at your door, so it is normal for anyone to receive (and then hand over) neighbour's parcels. Like a real community...

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat off topic but it is quite stunning to me that American carriers just leave the package at the door. I lived in different European countries and in all of them the expectation is that the mailman (official mail, or any of the services like dhl, ups, etc) will ring the bell. If you don't answer they will ring the neighbour and then take it back and either try again another day or you can go to a pickup point.…

When I lived in NYC and like most didn’t own a car this was the way it worked (sans the neighbor, delivering a package to the wrong recipient is a big no no, and makes some huge assumptions about the neighbor, relationship to the neighbor, and sensitivity of the delivery). If you weren’t home you got a hang tag. They attempted redelivery a few times, held it for a while for pickup, then sent it back. I worked, like m…

Interesting, it seems in the EU countries I lived in, a different solution emerged: the mail carriers cooperate with local corner shops (common in any EU city) and even supermarkets to serve as pick up points. In addition there are package lock boxes run by the mail carrier and distributed in central locations. I have never lived anywhere where I would have walked more than 10 minutes to the pickup, usually much less. The only issue I ever had was with a huge bulk parcel which I had to pick up at a depot, and a deouevry from china on which I had to pay duties. But that were 2 out of probably thousands of deliveries over the years.

On neighbours, the carriers usually let you choose if you want this to happen, but it's just a normal part of life to accept (and hand over) your neighbour's parcels. I have done so dozens of times and had it happen for me, even in rougher areas where I barely knew the neighbours. I guess levels of interpersonal trust might be higher in Europe than the U.S.?

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat off topic but it is quite stunning to me that American carriers just leave the package at the door. I lived in different European countries and in all of them the expectation is that the mailman (official mail, or any of the services like dhl, ups, etc) will ring the bell. If you don't answer they will ring the neighbour and then take it back and either try again another day or you can go to a pickup point.…

Meanwhile, it is quite stunning to me that European carriers would intentionally mis-deliver (i.e. leave with a neighbor) packages rather than just leaving them on the porch! Over many years and many neighbors, I've had plenty who I would be happy to let receive my packages and plenty I would very much not. Likewise, I would be quite peeved as a permanent WFH-er to be the neighborhood final delivery guy. There are pl…

Thanks, interesting insight. Here it's just a normal thing to do. Why not do my neighbour a favour? The mail carriers mostly are regulars (except for the new Amazon carriers) so if you refuse parcels they will also respect this and not bother you.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes, I would never in a million years use a shipping service that delivered my packages to my neighbor, nor one that required me to go to a pickup point. WTF is the point of that? If I wanted to go somewhere to pick up my stuff, I'd just buy it from a store instead of ordering it online!

Most mail carriers (the majority of deliveries are carried by a national (ex) monopoly let you choose what you want to happen to your package. And we have many corner shops in EU cities and towns, and the mail companies have installed dedicated lockers as well in central locations, so a pickup point is usually 5 minute walk away. On the neighbour - for me that's normal. I guess we generally trust our neighbours more?…

Thanks for the long winded justification, but all of these are strictly worse than simply leaving my package at the doorstep. I'm 40 years old and in my entire life I have had exactly one package go missing after being delivered... that risk is not worth even considering "a 5 minute walk" to get every packages, nevermind having them delivered to random neighbors -- that's just beyond the pale, absolutely absurd.
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