Living without a cellphone: How difficult is it? Part Three: Currier companies

In the third part of the analysis of what life is like without a mobile phone, we will focus on courier companies. And yes, it is worth dedicating an entire chapter to interactions with them, as it was one of the most problematic cases until I understood and adapted to how they operate.

I live on a small island in Greece. Small, but with a lot of traffic and tourism. Therefore, there is a high need for the transportation of goods and commodities. The offices of courier companies here are usually small and understaffed compared to the large volume of shipments they have to handle. This makes them dysfunctional anyway, for everyone, whether they have a mobile phone or not.

So, when I am waiting for a good I ordered and because I do not have a mobile phone, I have to check the progress of my order online using my computer and go to the office to pick it up myself when I see it has arrived, or call from my landline and hope they answer. And so far, I would say, everything is fine. The only problem that arises is that I lose a little extra time.

My issue was that until I understood and adapted to their way of operating, I lost many packages and shipments, to the extent that my reliability as a customer in several businesses was shaken. Even in businesses where my work depended on the supply of materials and so on.

And this is because, initially, when courier companies first came to the island, they eagerly looked for the recipients of the shipments. From a certain point onward, however, the increased workload and the wider use of mobile phones began. Since then, these companies have resorted to sending a text message to the recipient’s mobile phone to inform them about the progress of their order.

Since I did not have a mobile registered in my orders, the courier companies did not call on my landline as they used to, but automatically recorded an inability to deliver as a reason in their system, and the shipment was returned after a certain period without my knowledge.

This happened without warning and was very frustrating until I realized that I would no longer be notified and that I would have to check the progress of my orders myself.

In closing this chapter, I would say that cooperation and communication with courier companies are neither dysfunctional nor impossible without a mobile phone. It’s just that, like in most cases, the interaction created under this condition is a bit different.

Now, I no longer miss any orders because I always make sure to ask for a tracking number from the business I order goods from, and as I wrote above, I monitor the progress of my shipment online.

In the next chapter, we will discuss the family and how the absence of a mobile phone affects relationships among family members and the overall functioning of the family.