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How to avoid delivery disaster this holiday season

In this Monday, Dec. 2, 2013 photo, FedEx Packages move on a conveyor belt at the FedEx hub at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. Hiring usually gets a boost with the advent of holiday shopping, but online shopping has changed where people are hiring. Transportation and warehouse jobs in places like FedEX and UPS jumped 30,500 in November. That’s 50 percent greater than the November 2012 increase. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
In this Monday, Dec. 2, 2013 photo, FedEx Packages move on a conveyor belt at the FedEx hub at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

It’s the busiest time of year for postal services and courier companies, as people around the world ship cards and gifts to their loved ones.

It can also be a high-stress time for those who are sending and receiving packages: missed deliveries, broken presents and MIA packages can all be an added headache during an already busy time of year.

Whether you’re ordering that must-have item on Black Friday or sending the perfect gift to your aunt in Alberta, following these tips important tips will help ensure that shipping is one last thing you have to worry about this year.

1. Pack (and label) your shipment right

If you’ve got something special enough to send, make sure it gets to the recipient in one piece.

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“If you’re shipping gifts to loved ones, get a good quality box and use lots of cushioning,” says James Anderson, Senior Communications Specialist for FedEx Express Canada. “We encourage using bubble wrap, and double-wrap fragile items.”

Anderson adds that another way to get your package off to a good start is to make sure the address label is clear, legible and correct.

2. Send it in plenty of time

While couriers are pretty generous with their delivery dates (FedEx will get your package to its recipient by Christmas Eve in Canada and the U.S. if you ship it by Dec. 22), the only way to guarantee it will arrive on time is if you send it well in advance of the shipping deadline. Last year, FedEx delivered 325 million packages globally between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, and while your package is precious cargo, you can avoid it getting lost in the shuffle by it sending earlier. Mondays are also the busiest shipping day; Anderson anticipates the three leading up to Dec. 25 will be the busiest days in the company’s history.

If you’re ordering something online, you still want to get that order in as early in the holiday rush as possible. It helps to know who the shipper is if you’re ordering from an e-retailer that you’re unfamiliar with. When possible, use sites with a shipper you recognize the name of. You can also search for reviews of e-retailers and see what past customers say about shipping times and service.

3. Contact your courier

If you’ve got an online purchase on the way, or are expecting a delivery from a loved one, you can make your life easier by reaching out to the courier once you have a tracking number and arranging for the best time and pick-up location.

“What I do is I often have packages delivered to me at work, because I know that’s where I’ll be during the day,” says Anderson. “And if it’s the weekend, I’ll make arrangements to deliver to me at home.”

Call your courier and give them instructions for how you want the package left or delivered, whether it be to a specific location, left with a neighbour, or by your front door. If you want it left on the porch in a more discrete location, you can tell your courier where an ideal place would be.

“If customers want a package left on the doorstep, we do our best to make it strategically placed out of sight,” says Anderson.

If you don’t think you’ll be able to give the courier a convenient place to meet you with your delivery, you can arrange to have it dropped off at a retail pick-up location. FedEx, for example, is partners with Super C in Quebec and Home Hardware in the rest of Canada, so you can have your package delivered to a location near you and pick it up at your leisure.

You can also set up text or email notifications about your delivery with certain couriers.

4. Fix problems fast

Sometimes, things just don’t go right. If your package is…

stolen.

Call the police. Once you’ve reported the theft, call the e-retailer where you purchased the item or the courier if the package was being sent directly from someone. In many cases, there are ways to resolve a lost or stolen package and the shipper or retailer will be able to resolve it in some way. When you order online, the declared value of the item will be on the waybill, but if you’re shipping a package to someone, call the courier when you send it and let them know what the value is, in case something goes wrong.

…damaged.

Start taking pictures. The resolution process will be largely the same as if it were stolen: contact the retailer where you bought it or the courier that shipped the person-to-person delivery. Most shipments come with some sort of money-back guarantee, depending on the shipper, or some kind of recourse through online retailers.