You’d think that before getting hired as a FedEx driver, someone would check to see whether you have certain skills. Such as the ability to read street signs. The driver serving Charlie’s neighborhood lacks this key skill. That, or he confuses street names very, very frequently.

Here’s Charlie’s sad tale of packages and confusion:

My wife and I, like many people, like to order things online. Especially nowadays, because we have two kids under two years old and sometimes it’s just easier to order online than to load everyone up into the SUV and trek off to whatever store we need to visit.

Most times we have no problems with our online orders if the delivery is handled by UPS or the Post Office. But if it’s handled by FedEx, all bets are off. This isn’t a story of a driver who punts our packages onto our front stoop or doesn’t leave it in a safe place. No, this is a story of a driver who is seemingly incapable of reading street signs to make sure they are delivering to the correct place.

We have discovered that, over the course of this past year, the delivery driver who handles my area delivers our packages to a house that is one street away from ours. Both our addresses happen to be the same single-digit number. That’s where the similarities between our two houses end.

The first two times we thought were just an innocent fluke. The third time it happened, we became annoyed. Admittedly, we didn’t contact FedEx to let them know they were doing it wrong and this is mostly because the person who lives at the other address is the mother of an acquaintance of ours who let us know that they got our package.

Last week, our 1 1/2 year old began climbing out of her crib, so we decided to order a toddler bed. I have an Amazon Prime account, so we got free two-day shipping. On Saturday evening, the bed was noted as being delivered. Which was a surprise to us, because nothing was there. A quick check of our neighbor’s porch the next morning showed that yet another package was delivered to the wrong place yet again.

We had enough now. I spoke with customer service who said that their drivers double- and triple-check before they make a delivery. I had to struggle to stop myself laughing in disbelief, because clearly this driver did nothing of the sort. Our streets are clearly marked and visible from the front door.

To top it all off, this afternoon, my wife was home when suddenly, there was a loud banging on our door, accompanied my multiple doorbell rings. It was the FedEx driver.

“Did you get your package?” the driver asked.
“Yes, after I had to go to the wrong address to get it. This is the fourth time this year you’ve done this,” my wife said.
“Sorry, sometimes I get confused in my head,” was the excuse he offered.

Creepiness factor of a face-to-face confrontation aside, in all honesty if I had a choice I wouldn’t use FedEx ever again.

Maybe it’s because I work from home, but I don’t see how a face-to-face encounter with a delivery person is creepy. The driver just stopping by to make sure that you got the package that they recently mis-delivered, though? That’s a little weird. Let’s hope that the driver stops getting “confused in [his] head” and gives those addresses a quadruple check in future.

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