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Their service with their existing delivery service (Amazon Logistics) has been TERRIBLE thus far. Lazy drivers leaving packages in clear sight in the middle of

Their service with their existing delivery service (Amazon Logistics) has been TERRIBLE thus far. Lazy drivers leaving packages in clear sight in the middle of the driveway, unreliable delivery estimates, etc. This last Christmas season, everything shipped from Amazon via UPS / FedEx arrived on time as expected. Everything Amazon shipped via their AMZN Logistics / USPS was late, 50% arrived after Christmas even when ordered on December 14. We've stopped shopping at Amazon in favor of other vendors who let you pick your shipping service. Their customer service just keeps collecting information, but it's not getting any better. > If SWA is cheaper than FedEx or UPS, you can bet that customers will opt for Amazon’s service instead. You get what you pay for... I'll avoid Amazon until I can pick my own RELIABLE carrier. UPS & FedEx have shown they are reliable.

mathgeek 9y ago
We also canceled a few hundred dollars worth of monthly deliveries once Amazon started using USPS to deliver them. Having to go to the post office to pick up larger boxes because they were too big to be delivered to our home meant it was easier to just go buy the stuff ourselves.
- driverdan 9y ago
  > too big to be delivered to our home That's a thing? I've had tons of large packages delivered via USPS and have never had them hold something for being too big. Are you in an apt complex that doesn't have a package pickup area?
  - mathgeek 9y ago
    It's a smaller post office.
leesalminen 9y ago
After fighting with chat/phone support for months, I finally emailed jeff@amazon with a lengthy message recounting my recent shipping experiences with USPS. They removed USPS as an option from my account. Everything now comes from UPS/FedEx. It may be worth noting that I spend roughly one order of magnitude more than their average prime customer annually (work equipment).
- ryanlol 9y ago
  You can do this almost immediately via live chat by just asking the CS rep to make a ticket requesting that $carrier be deprioritized for future deliveries to your address. Emailing jeff@ tends to get you directly to the best and brightest of Amazons support team, so it's a good option too (albeit a bit slower).
  - leconteur 9y ago
    What is that Jeff address thing?
    - adventured 9y ago
      Jeff Bezos's personal email address.
      - leesalminen 9y ago
        It used to be, anyway. These days it’s a shortcut to the top tier support team. I believe I spoke with Austin on the “Executive Support Team”.
        fnbr 9y ago
        He claims in interviews [1] that he reads everything that goes through there (but obviously doesn't reply). [1]: https://www.recode.net/2016/6/1/11826718/jeff-bezos-amazon-full-video-code https://www.recode.net/2016/6/1/11826718/jeff-bezos-amazon-f...
  - Slansitartop 9y ago
    > You can do this almost immediately via live chat by just asking the CS rep to make a ticket requesting that $carrier be deprioritized for future deliveries to your address. Doesn't work for Amazon Logistics. I tried a couple times a few months ago, and my ticket kept getting denied. Deprioitizing AMZL_US appears to be an entirely different business process than other carriers, as the rep I spoke to didn't know how to do it at first. They might not deny your request if you claim your home is a prison, but didn't try that route.
dougmany 9y ago
Our whole block had delivery confirmations and no packages. Next day, the package showed up. Amazon Logistics is terrible. Last week I had an LCD monitor thrown over our 6' fence behind our house.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
  Was the box marked fragile from the outside?
  - kevin_b_er 9y ago
    Would it matter? It was the amazon warehouses' responsibility to mark the package fragile to avoid reckless behavior by amazon delivery. Both are Amazon's duty when they're both the seller and the shipper.
    - ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
      Totally agree with you. I was just wondering, as I have never seen an Amazon box actually have the "fragile" warning label on it, and didn't know if they even did that. You would assume the weight of the customers monitor would tell any reasonable delivery driver not to drop the package 6 feet, regardless of what the box says.
  - stordoff 9y ago
    Even for items that explicitly _aren't_ fragile, I wouldn't exactly be thrilled by that handling (it's just asking for, e.g., the box to partially come open and something go missing). On the subject of delivery notifications, I had a parcel "delivered to a receptionist" last week, despite it being a residential house (because my sister opened the door).
jclardy 9y ago
I've noticed that Amazon has been silently bumping shipping estimates for my prime account. Ordered something on Monday morning that said it would arrive Wednesday. I get to Wednesday and didn't notice a shipping notification - I look at my amazon account and my formerly "guaranteed" delivery date now just said expected by February 7-8. Wednesday "or" Thursday. On the other hand, I ordered something from bestbuy with their normal free shipping and it showed up on my doorstep literally the day after.
- stanmancan 9y ago
  I've had the same thing happen to me a couple of times on Amazon. I've actually started taking a screen shot of the original "Guaranteed Delivery Date" and complaining to customer service if it gets changed. The odd error is fine, but when it starts to become a regular thing, something needs changing.
  - lostapathy 9y ago
    Amen - once in a while is weather or whatever. Happening enough that we notice it's a trend is Amazon being shitty and hoping they don't get caught.
- SkyPuncher 9y ago
  5 of my last 6 orders from Amazon have been bumped. We've been Prime customers for years, but we're getting incredibly frustrated that we're paying for an annual subscription and being promised two day shipping - but consistently missing. At this point, I'm starting to look back to smaller sites that offer more traditional 4-7 day shipping. They might still be slower than Amazon (which is about a 3.5 day average for us), but at least they're never missing their delivery window.
  - CodeMage 9y ago
    I can't tell you how weird this sounds to me. When I moved to the US, I paid one year of Prime and then stopped, because that was the year they raised the price from $80 a year to $100. Since then, I have been using the free shipping option (5-8 business day) for the vast majority of my orders and I have consistently received my orders before their initial estimate. The only reason why I paid for Prime that one year was because of Amazon Instant Video, but I got disappointed by lack of Spanish subtitles and the lackluster content selection.
s0rce 9y ago
You forgot to mention deliveries arriving late Sunday evening from unmarked white rental vans.
dazc 9y ago
In the UK I have had the exact opposite experience. Amazon Logistics was a bit patchy to begin with but they have improved a lot over the past 18 months. My only bugbear is that the I seem to always be one of the last stops for the guy who does our area so deliveries are always around 7 pm.
- CraigRood 9y ago
  I avoid all the 'carriers' and use the Local Collect to my local Post Office. Only disadvantage I guess is the Sunday deliveries, but It's a worth while trade-off.
- newhere420 9y ago
  Same experience here in the UK. Started out poor, but now just as good as Royal Mail.
- stordoff 9y ago
  They are still very variable for me (UK). With Royal Mail etc., I can be all but certain that by about 2pm I'll have the package. Most of the time, Amazon can match that, but I definitely get more issues with them than with other carriers (deliveries as late as 10pm, missed deliveries, items arriving damaged, items left in weird places [e.g. wheelie bin shortly before it was due to be emptied] even when people are in the house, items left in "safe" places without leaving any notification, misleading email notifications etc.). They've definitely improved, but are still a lesser service in my experience.
markkanof 9y ago
I've had similar experience with regard to sloppy deliveries from Amazon Logistics. However, recently we had one delivery person that made a real effort to ensure the package would not be stolen. I live in a city, so it's not uncommon for package thieves to stroll around and steal packages that are in plain view. This delivery guy went around the side of our house and tucked the bubble envelope up against a basement window well. If I didn't have surveillance cameras we wouldn't have found this package for weeks. I like his sentiment, but his implementation leaves a lot to be desired.
- Notorious_BLT 9y ago
  I've had a similar experience. Living in the city, I'm livid whenever I find that they left a package on the doorstep of my building, which very clearly has no lock on the garden gate. I've not had a package stolen yet, but how do you just leave it in plain sight and walk away, as a delivery person? But one time, I got a "delivered" notification but couldn't find it, and none of my neighbors brought it in. I finally found it after digging into the "delivered" order information and finding a picture they sent of my package behind a bush, up against the wall of my building, completely hidden. I thought it might just be a one-off thing, but I honestly wish they would always do this, so long as they tell me where it is. I'd rather have to play hide-and-seek than have to be home all day to get a delivery.
pr77 9y ago
not US but india. Amazon delivery allows me to either leave the package with a neighbour or to deliver to a shop(they have some tie up with local shops) from where I can pick up. This was quite helpful couple of times when the package arrived ahead of time and i was not available to sign the package. and this can be set even after the package is shipped.
dawnerd 9y ago
This combined this other problems such as comingeling and how bad their listings have become convinced me to let my subscription expire. Really wish they’d stop trying to expand into everything and use that effort to clean up what they already have. I don’t think they’ve built anything that’s polished.
BlackjackCF 9y ago
Yeah, this has totally been my experience too. FedEx, USPS, UPS - they all manage to get into my building and deliver my packages. Sometimes they even go all the way up to my door. I've asked Amazon to stop trying to send packages via their couriers, because they don't even seem to bother trying to get in before giving up and leaving. I don't know if it's a laziness thing or if they're under some sort of horrible time crunch to deliver every single one of these packages (not sure if they get a bonus for more packages delivered or something), but Amazon couriers REALLY suck.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  > I don't know if it's a laziness thing or if they're under some sort of horrible time crunch to deliver every single one of these packages (not sure if they get a bonus for more packages delivered or something), but Amazon couriers REALLY suck. Contract workers with unreasonable expectations dictated by management.
aaronbrethorst 9y ago
> Lazy drivers I'm sure some of them are, but—for the most part—I think Amazon and their subcontractors have absurd expectations about their drivers' performance, as described in this lawsuit: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/12/21/25647480/delivery-drivers-sue-amazon-claiming-wage-and-break-violations https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/12/21/25647480/deliver...
sjg007 9y ago
I've noticed that 2 day prime has become 4-5 day with some rare exceptions.
gautamdivgi 9y ago
Totally agree. With UPS and FedEx I always got my packages. With the amazon delivery I seemed to miss them all the time. Until one day I got a call from this lady in my subdivision and said she had all my packages. Apparently she has he same house number as mine but a totally different street. She tried to reach amazon but they told her that since the packages aren’t hers there isn’t much they can do. So I called them. The dude at the call center said he’ll ship them again at no charge. After many mental wtf’s and facepalms I finally managed to get thru to him that his delivery person is going to the wrong house. He said “he’ll make a note”. The note seems to have worked for now.
stagger87 9y ago
I really think it is going to depend on your location and a bit of luck unfortunately. The local couriers in my area who work with Amazon at first were horrible but have gotten much better to the point I prefer them because they will deliver usually early in the morning and on any day of the week. I've been getting reliable Sunday morning deliveries for a few months now.
dangerboysteve 9y ago
Another way to look at this. Due to less parcels from Amazon to USP and FedEx, both companies had the capacity to reach their delivery timeframes.
majormajor 9y ago
I think I first started seeing Amazon doing their own deliveries in 2013 or 2014 in LA, and they were awful at first. Got a lot better by 2016 or so, though. I've noticed now, though, it's spread to much more suburban areas where they're way worse. Delivering to an apartment complex in LA with a slightly-hidden package area seems much easier for them than delivering to a bunch of individual suburban houses - packages tossed out the car, photographed laying their on the sidewalk - and I wasn't surprised based on the delivery photos they took when the packages to my parents got stolen. :| Now I just don't order things from them for my parents. Works for me, ordering to large buildings for work or home, but not to send to addresses I'm not familiar with. So there goes all my gift-buying business. They're still fast, for me, at least, though. If that goes away... Another part of my personal mitigation has been that I order less from regular Amazon though, now, and more from Prime Now. Same day in a two hour window for $5 ("suggested tip"), and seems like it's not prone to the same stock intermingling stuff because they don't have third party sellers on Prime Now and they don't have the same inventory.
phyller 9y ago
+1 I really wish we could choose our carrier, and reward those that do a good job. I used to have a way better experience with UPS then Fedex, the difference was huge because I would have to go to the Fedex warehouse to pick up my package (long story, Fedex was pretty bad in my area). But I have no control over who delivers it. The Amazon delivery guys are way worse. I never know when something is coming, even if it says out for delivery I might not get it for days. Every time I need something for a trip that I buy 3 business days early, with 2 day prime shipping, I don't get it before I have to leave. I gave up trying to complain, you could review the seller, but not the delivery service. Hopefully they have changed that. I used to only shop on Amazon for pretty much everything. Now I decide if I should get it from a local store instead. When I need something that is time sensitive, I definitely get it from a brick and mortar store. The worst is that while UPS will leave the packages on my doorstep (and knock on the door), the off-brand Amazon delivery guys tend to leave the package in front of my garage door because it is closer. One of these days I'm going to drive over something expensive by accident.
stcredzero 9y ago
Their service with their existing delivery service (Amazon Logistics) has been TERRIBLE thus far. Lazy drivers leaving packages in clear sight in the middle of the driveway, unreliable delivery estimates, etc. Bad delivery people are like some kind of spatial plague. Your neighborhood might be so afflicted, or it might have good people, with the occasional hiccup due to a substitute delivery worker. Sometimes, it's the USPS that has the bozos, but UPS is good. Sometimes, it's also UPS.
legohead 9y ago
I had a package delivered to my work and the Amazon guy gave it to some random person in the building. Didn't even bother to come to the Suite #
zaidf 9y ago
Amazon as a company is all about efficiency. The one area they have been slow to apply this (till now) is with user acquisition and retention. This is now changing. Right now amazon has hundreds of MBA Product Managers crunching data to determine how much they can screw up in certain areas with little to no impact on customer happiness or churn (on a macro level.)
jeremydavid 9y ago
I've had the complete opposite experience in Berlin. In Berlin, most of the "houses" here are 5 story walk ups - and DHL drivers (the main delivery service here) are so lazy they don't even bother ringing the door bell. Instead, if you are lucky, they leave your package at a neighbours house and tell you where it is. Usually they drop it off at some terrible centre where you have to go pick it up (defeating the purpose of getting something delivered), or even worse dropping it off somewhere and not telling you where! Amazon so far actually delivers the package... when they don't contract it out to DHL.
CommieBobDole 9y ago
Sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot with delivery estimates, too. A month or two back, I ordered an item on Wednesday that said it wouldn't be delivered until the next Tuesday. I was OK with that, so I ordered it. Checked on the order the next day and it now had an expected delivery by Saturday at 8PM. Saturday at 8:01PM it changes to "There's been a delay, now expected Monday by 8PM". Monday 8PM rolls around, no package, and it changes to "Tuesday by 8PM". So it arrives on the day it was originally expected. Difference is, now I'm irritated because I've had to change my plans several times.
plandis 9y ago
I think the thing here is that Amazon is trying to fill a lack of capacity. There have been times where Amazon has effectively exceed delivery bandwidth in some places. I’d imagine they are thinking that bad shipping is better than no shipping and try to improve from there.
dang 9y ago
Please don't use uppercase for emphasis in HN comments. This is in the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

mathgeek 9y ago

We also canceled a few hundred dollars worth of monthly deliveries once Amazon started using USPS to deliver them. Having to go to the post office to pick up larger boxes because they were too big to be delivered to our home meant it was easier to just go buy the stuff ourselves.

driverdan 9y ago
> too big to be delivered to our home That's a thing? I've had tons of large packages delivered via USPS and have never had them hold something for being too big. Are you in an apt complex that doesn't have a package pickup area?
- mathgeek 9y ago
  It's a smaller post office.

leesalminen 9y ago

After fighting with chat/phone support for months, I finally emailed jeff@amazon with a lengthy message recounting my recent shipping experiences with USPS. They removed USPS as an option from my account. Everything now comes from UPS/FedEx. It may be worth noting that I spend roughly one order of magnitude more than their average prime customer annually (work equipment).

ryanlol 9y ago
You can do this almost immediately via live chat by just asking the CS rep to make a ticket requesting that $carrier be deprioritized for future deliveries to your address. Emailing jeff@ tends to get you directly to the best and brightest of Amazons support team, so it's a good option too (albeit a bit slower).
- leconteur 9y ago
  What is that Jeff address thing?
  - adventured 9y ago
    Jeff Bezos's personal email address.
    - leesalminen 9y ago
      It used to be, anyway. These days it’s a shortcut to the top tier support team. I believe I spoke with Austin on the “Executive Support Team”.
      - fnbr 9y ago
        He claims in interviews [1] that he reads everything that goes through there (but obviously doesn't reply). [1]: https://www.recode.net/2016/6/1/11826718/jeff-bezos-amazon-full-video-code https://www.recode.net/2016/6/1/11826718/jeff-bezos-amazon-f...
- Slansitartop 9y ago
  > You can do this almost immediately via live chat by just asking the CS rep to make a ticket requesting that $carrier be deprioritized for future deliveries to your address. Doesn't work for Amazon Logistics. I tried a couple times a few months ago, and my ticket kept getting denied. Deprioitizing AMZL_US appears to be an entirely different business process than other carriers, as the rep I spoke to didn't know how to do it at first. They might not deny your request if you claim your home is a prison, but didn't try that route.

dougmany 9y ago

Our whole block had delivery confirmations and no packages. Next day, the package showed up. Amazon Logistics is terrible. Last week I had an LCD monitor thrown over our 6' fence behind our house.

ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
Was the box marked fragile from the outside?
- kevin_b_er 9y ago
  Would it matter? It was the amazon warehouses' responsibility to mark the package fragile to avoid reckless behavior by amazon delivery. Both are Amazon's duty when they're both the seller and the shipper.
  - ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
    Totally agree with you. I was just wondering, as I have never seen an Amazon box actually have the "fragile" warning label on it, and didn't know if they even did that. You would assume the weight of the customers monitor would tell any reasonable delivery driver not to drop the package 6 feet, regardless of what the box says.
- stordoff 9y ago
  Even for items that explicitly _aren't_ fragile, I wouldn't exactly be thrilled by that handling (it's just asking for, e.g., the box to partially come open and something go missing). On the subject of delivery notifications, I had a parcel "delivered to a receptionist" last week, despite it being a residential house (because my sister opened the door).

jclardy 9y ago

I've noticed that Amazon has been silently bumping shipping estimates for my prime account. Ordered something on Monday morning that said it would arrive Wednesday. I get to Wednesday and didn't notice a shipping notification - I look at my amazon account and my formerly "guaranteed" delivery date now just said expected by February 7-8. Wednesday "or" Thursday. On the other hand, I ordered something from bestbuy with their normal free shipping and it showed up on my doorstep literally the day after.

stanmancan 9y ago
I've had the same thing happen to me a couple of times on Amazon. I've actually started taking a screen shot of the original "Guaranteed Delivery Date" and complaining to customer service if it gets changed. The odd error is fine, but when it starts to become a regular thing, something needs changing.
- lostapathy 9y ago
  Amen - once in a while is weather or whatever. Happening enough that we notice it's a trend is Amazon being shitty and hoping they don't get caught.
SkyPuncher 9y ago
5 of my last 6 orders from Amazon have been bumped. We've been Prime customers for years, but we're getting incredibly frustrated that we're paying for an annual subscription and being promised two day shipping - but consistently missing. At this point, I'm starting to look back to smaller sites that offer more traditional 4-7 day shipping. They might still be slower than Amazon (which is about a 3.5 day average for us), but at least they're never missing their delivery window.
- CodeMage 9y ago
  I can't tell you how weird this sounds to me. When I moved to the US, I paid one year of Prime and then stopped, because that was the year they raised the price from $80 a year to $100. Since then, I have been using the free shipping option (5-8 business day) for the vast majority of my orders and I have consistently received my orders before their initial estimate. The only reason why I paid for Prime that one year was because of Amazon Instant Video, but I got disappointed by lack of Spanish subtitles and the lackluster content selection.

s0rce 9y ago

You forgot to mention deliveries arriving late Sunday evening from unmarked white rental vans.

dazc 9y ago

In the UK I have had the exact opposite experience. Amazon Logistics was a bit patchy to begin with but they have improved a lot over the past 18 months. My only bugbear is that the I seem to always be one of the last stops for the guy who does our area so deliveries are always around 7 pm.

CraigRood 9y ago
I avoid all the 'carriers' and use the Local Collect to my local Post Office. Only disadvantage I guess is the Sunday deliveries, but It's a worth while trade-off.
newhere420 9y ago
Same experience here in the UK. Started out poor, but now just as good as Royal Mail.
stordoff 9y ago
They are still very variable for me (UK). With Royal Mail etc., I can be all but certain that by about 2pm I'll have the package. Most of the time, Amazon can match that, but I definitely get more issues with them than with other carriers (deliveries as late as 10pm, missed deliveries, items arriving damaged, items left in weird places [e.g. wheelie bin shortly before it was due to be emptied] even when people are in the house, items left in "safe" places without leaving any notification, misleading email notifications etc.). They've definitely improved, but are still a lesser service in my experience.

markkanof 9y ago

I've had similar experience with regard to sloppy deliveries from Amazon Logistics. However, recently we had one delivery person that made a real effort to ensure the package would not be stolen. I live in a city, so it's not uncommon for package thieves to stroll around and steal packages that are in plain view. This delivery guy went around the side of our house and tucked the bubble envelope up against a basement window well. If I didn't have surveillance cameras we wouldn't have found this package for weeks. I like his sentiment, but his implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

Notorious_BLT 9y ago
I've had a similar experience. Living in the city, I'm livid whenever I find that they left a package on the doorstep of my building, which very clearly has no lock on the garden gate. I've not had a package stolen yet, but how do you just leave it in plain sight and walk away, as a delivery person? But one time, I got a "delivered" notification but couldn't find it, and none of my neighbors brought it in. I finally found it after digging into the "delivered" order information and finding a picture they sent of my package behind a bush, up against the wall of my building, completely hidden. I thought it might just be a one-off thing, but I honestly wish they would always do this, so long as they tell me where it is. I'd rather have to play hide-and-seek than have to be home all day to get a delivery.

pr77 9y ago

not US but india. Amazon delivery allows me to either leave the package with a neighbour or to deliver to a shop(they have some tie up with local shops) from where I can pick up. This was quite helpful couple of times when the package arrived ahead of time and i was not available to sign the package. and this can be set even after the package is shipped.

dawnerd 9y ago

This combined this other problems such as comingeling and how bad their listings have become convinced me to let my subscription expire. Really wish they’d stop trying to expand into everything and use that effort to clean up what they already have. I don’t think they’ve built anything that’s polished.

BlackjackCF 9y ago

Yeah, this has totally been my experience too. FedEx, USPS, UPS - they all manage to get into my building and deliver my packages. Sometimes they even go all the way up to my door. I've asked Amazon to stop trying to send packages via their couriers, because they don't even seem to bother trying to get in before giving up and leaving. I don't know if it's a laziness thing or if they're under some sort of horrible time crunch to deliver every single one of these packages (not sure if they get a bonus for more packages delivered or something), but Amazon couriers REALLY suck.

toomuchtodo 9y ago
> I don't know if it's a laziness thing or if they're under some sort of horrible time crunch to deliver every single one of these packages (not sure if they get a bonus for more packages delivered or something), but Amazon couriers REALLY suck. Contract workers with unreasonable expectations dictated by management.

aaronbrethorst 9y ago

> Lazy drivers I'm sure some of them are, but—for the most part—I think Amazon and their subcontractors have absurd expectations about their drivers' performance, as described in this lawsuit: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/12/21/25647480/delivery-drivers-sue-amazon-claiming-wage-and-break-violations https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/12/21/25647480/deliver...

sjg007 9y ago

I've noticed that 2 day prime has become 4-5 day with some rare exceptions.

gautamdivgi 9y ago

Totally agree. With UPS and FedEx I always got my packages. With the amazon delivery I seemed to miss them all the time. Until one day I got a call from this lady in my subdivision and said she had all my packages. Apparently she has he same house number as mine but a totally different street. She tried to reach amazon but they told her that since the packages aren’t hers there isn’t much they can do. So I called them. The dude at the call center said he’ll ship them again at no charge. After many mental wtf’s and facepalms I finally managed to get thru to him that his delivery person is going to the wrong house. He said “he’ll make a note”. The note seems to have worked for now.

stagger87 9y ago

I really think it is going to depend on your location and a bit of luck unfortunately. The local couriers in my area who work with Amazon at first were horrible but have gotten much better to the point I prefer them because they will deliver usually early in the morning and on any day of the week. I've been getting reliable Sunday morning deliveries for a few months now.

dangerboysteve 9y ago

Another way to look at this. Due to less parcels from Amazon to USP and FedEx, both companies had the capacity to reach their delivery timeframes.

majormajor 9y ago

I think I first started seeing Amazon doing their own deliveries in 2013 or 2014 in LA, and they were awful at first. Got a lot better by 2016 or so, though. I've noticed now, though, it's spread to much more suburban areas where they're way worse. Delivering to an apartment complex in LA with a slightly-hidden package area seems much easier for them than delivering to a bunch of individual suburban houses - packages tossed out the car, photographed laying their on the sidewalk - and I wasn't surprised based on the delivery photos they took when the packages to my parents got stolen. :| Now I just don't order things from them for my parents. Works for me, ordering to large buildings for work or home, but not to send to addresses I'm not familiar with. So there goes all my gift-buying business. They're still fast, for me, at least, though. If that goes away... Another part of my personal mitigation has been that I order less from regular Amazon though, now, and more from Prime Now. Same day in a two hour window for $5 ("suggested tip"), and seems like it's not prone to the same stock intermingling stuff because they don't have third party sellers on Prime Now and they don't have the same inventory.

phyller 9y ago

+1 I really wish we could choose our carrier, and reward those that do a good job. I used to have a way better experience with UPS then Fedex, the difference was huge because I would have to go to the Fedex warehouse to pick up my package (long story, Fedex was pretty bad in my area). But I have no control over who delivers it. The Amazon delivery guys are way worse. I never know when something is coming, even if it says out for delivery I might not get it for days. Every time I need something for a trip that I buy 3 business days early, with 2 day prime shipping, I don't get it before I have to leave. I gave up trying to complain, you could review the seller, but not the delivery service. Hopefully they have changed that. I used to only shop on Amazon for pretty much everything. Now I decide if I should get it from a local store instead. When I need something that is time sensitive, I definitely get it from a brick and mortar store. The worst is that while UPS will leave the packages on my doorstep (and knock on the door), the off-brand Amazon delivery guys tend to leave the package in front of my garage door because it is closer. One of these days I'm going to drive over something expensive by accident.

stcredzero 9y ago

Their service with their existing delivery service (Amazon Logistics) has been TERRIBLE thus far. Lazy drivers leaving packages in clear sight in the middle of the driveway, unreliable delivery estimates, etc. Bad delivery people are like some kind of spatial plague. Your neighborhood might be so afflicted, or it might have good people, with the occasional hiccup due to a substitute delivery worker. Sometimes, it's the USPS that has the bozos, but UPS is good. Sometimes, it's also UPS.

legohead 9y ago

I had a package delivered to my work and the Amazon guy gave it to some random person in the building. Didn't even bother to come to the Suite #

zaidf 9y ago

Amazon as a company is all about efficiency. The one area they have been slow to apply this (till now) is with user acquisition and retention. This is now changing. Right now amazon has hundreds of MBA Product Managers crunching data to determine how much they can screw up in certain areas with little to no impact on customer happiness or churn (on a macro level.)

jeremydavid 9y ago

I've had the complete opposite experience in Berlin. In Berlin, most of the "houses" here are 5 story walk ups - and DHL drivers (the main delivery service here) are so lazy they don't even bother ringing the door bell. Instead, if you are lucky, they leave your package at a neighbours house and tell you where it is. Usually they drop it off at some terrible centre where you have to go pick it up (defeating the purpose of getting something delivered), or even worse dropping it off somewhere and not telling you where! Amazon so far actually delivers the package... when they don't contract it out to DHL.

CommieBobDole 9y ago

Sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot with delivery estimates, too. A month or two back, I ordered an item on Wednesday that said it wouldn't be delivered until the next Tuesday. I was OK with that, so I ordered it. Checked on the order the next day and it now had an expected delivery by Saturday at 8PM. Saturday at 8:01PM it changes to "There's been a delay, now expected Monday by 8PM". Monday 8PM rolls around, no package, and it changes to "Tuesday by 8PM". So it arrives on the day it was originally expected. Difference is, now I'm irritated because I've had to change my plans several times.

plandis 9y ago

I think the thing here is that Amazon is trying to fill a lack of capacity. There have been times where Amazon has effectively exceed delivery bandwidth in some places. I’d imagine they are thinking that bad shipping is better than no shipping and try to improve from there.

dang 9y ago

Please don't use uppercase for emphasis in HN comments. This is in the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.