I used to think - and tell everyone who was interested - that DPD was the best courier company in the country. They would give you plenty of warning of a 1-hour delivery slot, and would always reliably deliver within that slot - usually right in the middle.

However, recently their standards have slipped significantly. At least the last 2 deliveries I've had from them have had no prior notice at all. Yesterday morning, the doorbell rang - twice - at 7:45am. Unannounced, 2 large, heavy packages (of wild bird food, so of relatively low financial value and very hard to steal) were on my doorstep, as was the DPD delivery man. At that hour he could have just dropped a card through the letterbox & taken a photo, and DPD would then have emailed me to tell me it had been delivered. But no, I was dragged out of bed. On the previous occasion, a message was sent at around 6:40am that my delivery would be at 8am. I of course didn't see the warning before the package had arrived, and i was in the shower when the delivery man came.

Sorry, but I'm retired and this is the week before Christmas. Unannounced early deliveries like these are not acceptable. If you're going to deliver this early, at least let people know the night before. DPD never used to be like this.

Also, for months, the DPD app kept sending me alerts to say that my alternative drop-off address (a local Halfords) was no longer available, and that I should choose another. Except that a) I'd never selected the Halfords - or anywhere else - in the first place and b) the app gave me no means of selecting an alternative. I eventually had to turn off alerts for the app, which of course meant that I had one less means of knowing when they were due to deliver.

Come on DPD - you can do better. Much better.