I now ask all my suppliers to write on the package, "TO BE DELIVERED VIA THE POST OFFICE. NOT TO BE PASSED TO A COURIER".
The Post Office here in Crete, is quite reliable. (When they are not on strike).
The courier service however, is another thing.
When I first had a parcel delivered to the local courier's depot instead of the Post Office, I received a phone call from the courier's head office in Athens three days later telling me that it was there.
When I went to collect it the following day, the courier told me off in no uncertain terms for not including my telephone number on the address.
When I asked why they had not delivered it, he said that they only deliver to the outlying villages once a week, and then only as much as they can deliver in one morning. If there are more, they have to wait until the following week.
When I told him that the parcel was bare root plants and wouldn't last that long, he just shrugged his shoulders.
When I asked the English nursery, why they had sent it by courier, they told me that they hadn't. They had taken it to the local Post Office and sent it via Parcel Force. It had been passed to the couriers, somewhere on it's journey.
So now I include that message with my address to all my plant suppliers.
Daisy