Re: Emergency Water Turn-Off?

["BruceR" <brNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I feel your pain regarding FedEx. I've never liked them very much -
particularly in Hawaii. My business partner's son has a Fedex route on
Oregon and I think he's up to 6 trucks now. FedEx Grd is the old RPS
System and that's the way they always did it. FedEx is squeezing the
guys though.
 My home drop box works well but some drivers prefer to leave stuff by
the front door which is fine as it can't be seen from the street.  We're
lucky that we don't have much turnover and I know the guys by name. One
thing that might work for you is a motion detection camera setup. If the
camera could be mounted such that it watches your front door from an
angle it would trigger whenever anybody approached it and you could look
to see if anybody or a package is there.
 I get my tech things past my wife by keeping things neat with no
dangling or exposed wires and by showing her how it increases security
and convenience. She thinks my camera setup is a bit over the top but
it's not unsightly so there's no problem.
 One almost sure way to solve your problem, of course, is to get a
private mailbox if there's a convenient place nearby to do that. The
advantage is that they are always there to receive and secure your
packages and some will even call or email you when something is there.
You can make it a "confirmed address" by having a credit card bill sent
there for a few months.

From:Robert Green
ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx

> "BruceR" <brNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:HdRge.9160$887.1823@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Robert,  How about just using something like the DoorbellFon product
>> to ring all the phones in the house when the doorbell is pressed?
>
> That was the fatal flaw in my last attempt to solve this problem.  I
> assumed they would *all* press the doorbell.  Not so.  I'm beginning
> to think that some of them are "Ghost Dogs" and are able to slip past
> PIRs like Ninja assassins.  As I become more and more dependent on
> delivery services, it would be nice to have as much advance "prep"
> time as I can  when someone's coming.  After a lost "indirect"
> delivery I'm also trying to keep unattended package exposure to a
> minimum without having to resort to a drop-box.
>
>> Then you can pick up any phone in the house and tell the
>> driver you're home and on the way to the door.  Another
>> thing you can do is sign a form that the FedEx and UPS
>> drivers have that authorize them to leave packages in
>> a predetermined place if you're not home.
>
> Well, FedEx virtually forced a release on me after the indirect
> delivery. In investigating why it was apparently better business for
> them to give my package to strangers I found an incredible series of
> scandals with FedEx and their attempt to sell their routes off to
> drives as independent contractors. They reinvented the company store
> in one feld swoop.
>
> The drivers were allegedly given so many packages to deliver in a
> day, they couldn't stop more than 20 seconds at each hop.  Many
> drivers were barely hanging on: they had to buy the trucks, paint
> them, fuel them, maintain them, take whatever route and load FedEx
> wanted them to take with penalty clauses that caused many to throw in
> the towel.  To try to get an edge, the drivers doubled up deliveries,
> to the point that if your lights were out or they somehow didn't
> think you were home, or they thought they could get away with it,
> they wouldn't even MAKE the stop and just give your package to the
> next stop on their route.  It makes sense from their point of view
> and the way the structure was set up.  Just Google FedEx Ground and
> independent contractor lawsuit for the details.
>
> Anyway, I wandered.  I need some pretty good AI to tell me when a
> package is about to be delivered and that a package is sitting on the
> porch, or between my front and screen door.  We're having a local
> crime wave. <sigh>  That's in addition to stuff that arrives when I
> am not expecting it (backorders are real problem that way, and I had
> to drop one vendor who sent them without any email notification).
>
>> Some high value items still need a signature but everything
>> else will be left without a signature. I put in a package drop
>> door for them to leave stuf and that's been working great for
>> me over the last few years. I also have a sensor on the package
>> door that causes a chime to sound in the house and the
>> Stargate to call my cellphone.
>
> That's a good idea.  Do the drivers use it religiously?  Do you have
> much turnover in drivers?   How do you get it to pass spouse
> approval.  I was not warmly received the last time it was suggested.
>
> --
> Bobby G.