Here in Sweden, you can agree to let the delivery company just leave the package by the front door, but it's only common for low value things. Most things are delivered to your nearest post office counter (usually in your closest supermarket) and recently, to a locked postbox nearby which you unlock online with their app.
Here in Berlin Germany, packages are given to whichever neighbor in your apartment building happens to reply to the buzzer fastest, typically the ground floor ones. (Elevators are also uncommon.)
I'm friends with all my neighbors but I find this practice completely bizarre.
Here in Buxtehofen, Bavaria, packages are left dangling from trees with a sign saying "I've hung up your rolex, so it wont be dragged of by boars while you're on vacation".
And when you're back from hiking the Alps your neighbor will have build a shed around it to protect it from the rain and moved in 10 of his pigs to keep it warm.
Unless of course your delivery guy tied your package to a special tree called Maibaum by mistake. Then you'll find a sign telling you that it has been redirected to one of the 5 villages called Kirchberg in your area.
In Belgium the mail carrier is supposed to ring your doorbell and wait x time for you to open it and deliver the package to you.
But instead they just put a piece of paper in your mailbox that says 'you weren't home, we'll come back tomorrow'. Next day same thing. Only then can you go and pick it up at the post office.
Oh and there are many stories of people seeing the mail carrier defaulting to the piece of paper and not even knocking because of time pressure.
If the item fits in your mailbox (letter size), they do that.
If not, they knock, and leave a "we missed you" note if the package is insured. Or leave it on the doorstep if not.
If you get the note, you have to go the post office in two days, during normal office hours (9-5ish), or Saturday morning (9-12). If you don't make in a few days, they return to sender.
But this is only for USPS. If the package is FedEx/UPS/courier, it's the wild west. Sometimes they leave it. Sometimes they leave a note. Frequently they claim they attempted delivery but didn't. And if they miss you a few times, you have to pick it up at the distribution warehouse which could be a 30 min drive away. This is the worst - even for items you know need a signature, there's no guarantee they'll deliver - we ran into this a few months ago with some jewelry - delivery was schedule Monday 12-5pm, we waited in the living room (right by the door) and nobody came. Their system showed a failed attempt (courier lied). Repeated Tues. Called courier warehouse, they asked if we had doorbell video proving the delivery attempt was never made (WTactualFuck). Repeat on Wed. Item was returned to sender. We called sender, asked them to use USPS because private shipping can be a disaster. USPS is often a day slower, but it's fairly reliable.
Some areas have problems with package theft. Fortunately mine isn't one of them, so I'm ok with packages being left.
This is how it works with the French Post, with the exception that they never come back. Other providers do their own thing, and are more or less scrupulous. Some won't even bother to come over, they'll just say nobody was home and won't even leave a slip.
Anecdotally, in France, the parcels "delivered by Amazon" have hands down the best service. They're the only ones who've ever actually delivered the parcel to my door (I live in an apartment). If they can't leave the parcel in the mailbox, they'll call me up and ask what to do, usually offering to come back some other day if I'm not at home.
My case, they're often either not delivered at all (returned to sender or kept at a random Filiale) or if they are delivered it's to a different building that DHL guessed might have been mine.
This is one of several reasons I no longer buy anything from Amazon. Not even if it's the cheapest source. Even if it gets to a Filiale, those are further than most of the shops that would sell similar items.
Amazon doesn't usually ship with DHL in France. But there's another comically bad company, not sure how they're still in business.
It's rare the Amazon sends something via them, but whenever they do, I expect to not get the package. And when I don't, I just call up Amazon support and complain about them and make it a point to mention I often have issues with that specific company. They usually offer to cancel the shipment and reship overnight. Don't know if they can actually control it or if it's coincidence, but all reshipments have been via Amazon.
