soon there'll be more Rivers of London for me

[ratcreature]

My copy of Broken Homes, the fourth in the Rivers of London series, is in the mail, even though I thought it was only coming out in a few days (also, some of Amazon's distribution warehouses in Germany are striking, so I wasn't sure whether my order would be affected). So I will have it earlier than I thought. Well, if the package is delivered properly.

I used to just have them deliver my packages to one of the automated machines, because the delivery people always hate coming up five flights of stairs and thus pretend I'm not home, even if I am, and my packages end up somewhere misplaced in the wild among half a dozen stores, the post office or neighbors I then can't reach. With the machine I'd have to fetch the package, but at least it was a sure thing. However they "improved" their service in that they made it more secure by demanding that you don't just receive an email and then authenticate yourself for the machine with a delivery card and PIN, but get a unique code on a cell phone via SMS. They won't send those via email, so if you don't own a cell phone you can't use that service anymore. So I'm back at the mercy of delivery people.

But, new Rivers of London!

Comments

[zing_och]

I'll have to check this series out, I heard good things about it!

Gah, yes, the woes of Packstation. *g* Fortunately I have a (rarely used) cellphone, so I caved and added my cell number, and now I have to locate my cell and check it has power when I get the email... and atm they just deliver it elsewhere anyway. Today I once again visited the Getränkemarkt with package counter.

Sadly, that's still better than the random post offices they deliver to when I'm not home (which is always).

[ratcreature]

I once had my laptop repaired and they wouldn't send to a Packstation. I was at home waiting for the laptop to have my computer back, but of course the delivery person pretended I wasn't. I went downstairs soon after and the notification said it was delivered to the interior decorations store across the street, but my laptop wasn't even there. The store owner said sometimes they dropped things off at the bakery next door even when cards said it was the other store, but my laptop wasn't at the bakery either. Nor at the tailor or the bicycle store. In the end it turned out that the delivery person would only drop off the packages at the end of his run at the store, a whole bunch of them, but put in the cards earlier in the round. Argh.

ETA: BTW, how that mess with leaving my laptop at a random store nearby was safer and closer to delivery "in person" than putting it inside a machine that's at least locked rather than storing a bunch of packages including my very recognizable computer-sized and labeled package in an open pile in the store I'll never know.

[sholio]

Well, that sounds frustrating. I'm starting to encounter more and more services that either want or REQUIRE you to enter a cell number ... which I don't have. At some point it's going to be as necessary for ordinary daily life as just having a regular phone. Or a computer, I guess ... some of my older relatives still don't have email or Internet access, but it's getting to where lots of places make it difficult to conduct business in any other way. (Which is fine for me, but not so much for people who don't have one.)

But on the bright side -- wheeeee new Rivers of London! I'd completely forgotten the new book is out this month! Gotta go order that ...

[ratcreature]

Yeah. Anything that used regular PINs or passwords in the past now seems to want to add a layer of individual one-off security that need a cell phone to generate. Like banks using that kind of thing instead of sending you a list of TANs.

[enname]

It is exciting. My copy won't get anywhere near me until the end of the world, because well, Australia tends to be that way. Still, it means something to look forward to. :)

[ratcreature]

Mine is supposed to arrive tomorrow, but realistically, if the delivery person pretends I'm not there as usual, it'll probably be at least Thursday.