Every Arrival, Announced

Expectation. The building shall notify the resident of every delivery event — arrival, status change, and pending disposition — through the resident's primary interface, at the point of relevance.

Required.

• When an item is received, the resident is notified through the primary interface within the timeframe the building has published for delivery notifications. The notification includes, at minimum, the carrier or source and one distinguishing characteristic — size category, item count, or description — so the resident can identify which delivery arrived without visiting the storage area.
• When an item is perishable or temperature-sensitive, the notification distinguishes it from a standard delivery and communicates the retrieval deadline.
• When an item approaches the end of the building's retention period, the resident is notified no fewer than 48 hours before disposition.
• When an item is returned to a carrier or otherwise disposed of due to non-retrieval, the resident is notified of the action taken and the reason.
• The resident can view the current state of every item in the building's custody — pending retrieval, retrieved, returned, or expired — at any time.
• The building publishes its notification timeframe and retention period within the resident-facing interface.

Recommended.

• The notification includes the item's storage location within the building — which room, which locker, which section — so the resident can proceed directly to it.
• When a delivery requires the resident's presence — signature, identity confirmation, or oversized item handoff — the notification communicates this requirement before the resident arrives at the retrieval point.
• Planned changes to the receiving system — maintenance, reconfiguration, capacity reduction — are communicated to residents in advance, including alternative receiving instructions.

In practice.

A resident receives a notification: package arrived, standard delivery, carrier identified, stored in the ground-floor receiving area, compartment C-12. The resident walks directly to compartment C-12, retrieves the item, and leaves. They did not wander the package room reading labels.

A grocery delivery arrives containing refrigerated items. The resident receives a notification distinct from a standard package alert: perishable delivery received, temperature-controlled storage, retrieve within 24 hours. The notification does not look identical to the one for a book that arrived the same morning. The resident retrieves the groceries first.

An unclaimed package has been in storage for 12 days. The building's published retention period is 14 days. The resident receives a notification: item received on March 1 will be returned to carrier on March 15 if not retrieved. The resident retrieves it on March 13. The return did not happen without warning. The 48-hour advance notification gave the resident time to act.

A new resident opens the delivery section of the interface for the first time. The notification timeframe and retention policy are visible: notifications within 15 minutes of receipt, items retained for 14 days, disposition notice 48 hours before return. The resident knows the operating parameters before their first delivery arrives.

Failure modes.

Notification without identification. The resident receives an alert: "You have a package." No carrier, no size, no description, no location. The resident has three pending orders from different retailers. They cannot determine which arrived or where to find it without visiting the storage area and searching.

Uniform urgency. A temperature-sensitive medical delivery and a clothing order arrive within the same hour. Both generate identical notifications. The resident retrieves the clothing first because it appeared first in the list. The medical delivery, which required prompt retrieval, waited six additional hours in a non-climate-controlled area.

Silent return. A package exceeds the retention period. It is returned to the carrier. The resident checks their delivery list a week later — the item is gone. No notification was sent before or after the return. The resident contacts the retailer, who shows a confirmed delivery and a carrier-initiated return. The resident was the last to know.

Unpublished parameters. The building enforces a 7-day retention period and a 30-minute notification window, but neither is documented in the resident-facing interface. The resident assumed their package would be held longer. By the time they checked, it was gone. The building followed its policy. The resident never had access to the policy.

Test.

1. Deliver a standard item. Confirm: the resident receives a notification within the building's published timeframe that includes carrier or source and at least one distinguishing characteristic.
2. Deliver a perishable item. Confirm: the notification is visually or textually distinct from a standard delivery notification and includes a retrieval deadline.
3. Allow an item to reach 48 hours before the published retention limit. Confirm: the resident receives advance notification of pending disposition.
4. View the resident's delivery record. Confirm: every item shows its current state — pending, retrieved, returned, or expired.
5. View the building's delivery policies within the resident-facing interface. Confirm: notification timeframe and retention period are published and accessible.