I think 3 out of the last 4 orders I've had never got delivered. Today Amazon shows the delivery was canceled as the package (motor oil) was damaged. Then it says I have to wait up to 5 days for a refund once they receive the package back. Hey, you damaged it and I never got it. Why would I have to wait. On top of that, it is available for 1 day delivery on the website so they could literally replace it and have it delivered the same day originally planned.

Now on the chat with them and they are working on a "workaround" to get me a refund. Why would they need a workaround? It's gotten so bad lately I may not renew prime.

No kidding. I guess I’m fortunate to live close enough to a distribution hub that I can get a lot of stuff same day or early next morning.

Probably 7/10 times, the items are “delayed” or don’t get delivered at all.

I suspect they overload their minimum wage independent contractors with way too many deliveries and it’s just not possible sometimes. I’d love some input from anyone with actual firsthand knowledge.

-Rob

It will miraculously improve once the "free shipping" isn't.

For four days out for delivery, then running late. Never show up. UPS delivered it today.

Gotta love them. When I ordered the motor oil I had $5 in courtesy credit from the previous orders that they never delivered. You have to go on the chat and complain to get these credits.

Anyhow, today I got notified that my oil was refunded. I paid $27 for it. They refunded only $22. I was confused until I read their email that I was not refunded "promotional credits". WTF. This was my credit for their screwups not a promotion. Had to get back on the chat to get my credit back.

The last several Amazon purchases I’ve made were delivered by USPS. The mail carrier seems to have the idea that pitching the package over my fence is a good delivery method. The package being an unpadded plastic envelope with multiple items in it, some breakable.

I don’t get an email notification from Amazon for these, asking how much I liked the delivery, as I used to. A head-scratcher for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:

I don’t get an email notification from Amazon for these, asking how much I liked the delivery, as I used to.

I think that Amazon only sends the delivery quality survey for deliveries made by AMZL (Amazon Logistics), but not for United Parcel or USPS deliveries.

After 2½ years, finally running out of anything we cared to watch on Netflix, and debating whether to re-sign with (HBO) Max or Amazon Prime, we re-signed with the latter.

First order after re-signing with AP was delivered to our porch by AMZL two days following the order ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Still going to order elsewhere when feasible, simply because AP has become too ubiquitous.

TBH: One of the reasons I finally gave in on Amazon was I've been buying a lot of Kindle books, recently. The reason I started doing that, after having had a bad experience with Barnes & Noble's NOOK and swearing off e-books, is the bookshelves are full. There's simply no place to put new books. And that's after having donated boxes full and keeping only reference books or books we know we'll want to re-read.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

I've been buying a lot of Kindle books, recently.

I am a voracious reader. My local county library uses the Libby and OverDrive apps. I have access to thousands of e-books that can be borrowd from the library and downloaded to my Kindles at no cost. Saves the time and gas, vs. the several trips / month that I used to make to go to the library.

I do like "real" books, but there are some advantages to Kindle versions. Instant access to dictionary definitions, the ability to store thousands of books in a small device, search and look-up, very portable to take along to places where I might have to sit and wait, like Dr.'s office, and great for reading in bed at night with built-in illumination that does not disturb my wife.

A small part of a recent order is now scheduled for December 14 delivery. Another order a few months ago was cancelled by Amazon after being a week late. I suspect non-Amazon sellers are posting items they do not stock and then find unavailable. I am still very happy with the result and service of my occasional use of Amazon.

Earlier this year I had an order that had not been delivered in over 2 weeks yet showed out for delivery for 5 days.

I contacted Amazon and the options were to ship another or refund to my credit card. I chose the refund and was told it would take up to 5 business days to hit my account.

I told them no, they charged my account the day it shipped so if my account was not credited by the next day, I would deny the charge.

He said “let me see what I can do.”

He came back up in the chat and said “your refund is being processed and should shown in your account within two hours. If the order finally shows up, you can keep it or give it away.”

45 minutes later, my Amex was credited and 5 days later, the cleaver was delivered.

I rely on Amazon for almost everything but groceries. In my experience, for an operation as large and complex as Amazon, some screw-ups are inevitable. However, when I experience a screw-up, and call or chat with an Amazon representative, I've always received quick, courteous solutions to my issue.

I remember the days when I would research a product, decide what I wanted, and then have to call around or drive to chain brick and mortar places only to find that the item I wanted wasn't stocked or even available to order. Now, thanks to Amazon, I can get what I want at a good price (I do comparatively shop at other places to make sure the price is right.)

If I were favoring Amazon over locally-owned stores, I'd think twice. But where I am, there aren't any locally-owned non-food stores except for women's clothing and home decor boutique type places. Everything electronics/hardware/men's clothing/etc. is part of a national chain. I don't see the difference between shopping at Amazon vs, say, shopping at Walmart, Home Depot or Lowes.

Just received an Amazon delivery today which contained multiple items, part of which was some Air Tags for my daughter for Christmas.

I opened the package, pulled out the anti-static envelope labeled as air tags, and it was empty! Yep, they shipped me an empty envelope!!! Naturally I got on the Amazon website and posted a complaint, and by the time my wife and I got home from dinner about 2 hours later the Amazon site is showing a new order for another set of air tags at no charge.

At least they took care of the problem immediately, but how the heck did they manage to ship an empty envelope to begin with?!?

I’ve been doing more of the Amazon locker pickup lately. It’s not far away, fairly easy to get.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:

I’ve been doing more of the Amazon locker pickup lately. It’s not far away, fairly easy to get.

There are a few of these within five or ten minutes from my house, but I stopped using them when I encountered a malfunction. I tried to get my package. The display indicated that my code was accepted, but the locker door would not open. I contacted Amazon and got nothing but a royal run-around. I wound up telling them to refund the charge and just keep the item.

Amazon Logistics has turned out to be very reliable for us, for deliveries to home or business address.

quote:

Today Amazon shows the delivery was canceled as the package (motor oil) was damaged. Then it says I have to wait up to 5 days for a refund once they receive the package back. Hey, you damaged it and I never got it. Why would I have to wait. On top of that, it is available for 1 day delivery on the website so they could literally replace it and have it delivered the same day originally planned.

I bought two items on black Friday, they loaded both on the same delivery vehicle Monday, and only delivered one. I figured once the driver returned to the Amazon Warehouse that he/she would put in in the pile to be delivered in a day or 2. However, Saturday rolls around and still nothing so I IM'd customer service and they try to give a refund which doesn't work for two reasons (1) the two items go together so the item in my possession is worthless without the undelivered item and (2) the undelivered item was no longer on sale and I'm not paying extra for their mistake. Finally, the 3rd customer service person was able to order a replacement and get it to me next day.

Amazon delivery today:
I ordered 3 things from Amazon on one order:
Two nylon business card holders.
A bottle of meds for my cat, which is slightly smaller in size than a soft drink can.
Here is how it arrived:
Each of the business card holders was packed in a 10 inch by ten inch poly envelope. And the cat stuff came in a cardboard ten inch by 8 inch box, surrounded by packing paper. 3 items... 3 separate packages!
Hey, Bezos? Give me a shout! I have an idea that can save you a lot of $$$!

Been with Amazon for a long time and I have been happy with them. But as previously mentioned, I have gotten the really small items in huge boxes.

As I was leaving my neighborhood today and here comes the amazon van side door open, she starts her turn and out come 2 packages bouncing across the corner lawn. Driver stops and picks them up, I was looking the rest of the way to the store to see if there were any other packages along the way.

I ordered an elbow brace and a few knockoff Arduinos for a project on October 28. Found they were still in the "preparing" stage the day I expected everything. Tried to cancel, it wouldn't let me. I made the exact same order a second time and had it in 2 days.

Fast forward to December 1, it's finally delivered. Now I need to decide if I'm gonna send back everything, or just the brace (I can find many a use for microcontrollers like that, so it's not unwise to keep a couple on hand). We're only talking about maybe $30 of stuff but the headaches it's causing have been plentiful.

I'll echo the increasing frustration with the packaging as well. I don't want to buy pyrex Tig cups from Amazon if they're going to put the fragile glass parts into a padded envelope - those kits can get really pricey if you get name brand (I've been known to use a cheap knockoff a try as a test run before dropping $80 on the name brand CK Worldwide cup kits). Even if the manufacturer puts them in a plastic container, there's only so much "give" before you end up with broken shit.

I did have the flip side where they used a 12x12x12" box to ship...A Hornady neck bushing for my reloading bench. Dumb.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
No kidding. I guess I’m fortunate to live close enough to a distribution hub that I can get a lot of stuff same day or early next morning.

Probably 7/10 times, the items are “delayed” or don’t get delivered at all.

I suspect they overload their minimum wage independent contractors with way too many deliveries and it’s just not possible sometimes. I’d love some input from anyone with actual firsthand knowledge.

-Rob

I worked for two Amazon Delivery Service Partner's (DSP's) for 3 years and worked my way up to the supervisor/driver trainer level from 2018 to 2021 in Portland, Oregon. Amazon did give us quite a lot of packages, sometimes between 300 and 400, however many stops have multiple packages so my routes were usually around 180 stops for a 10 hour route. Even so, I regularly finished my routes in about 7 hours because I hustled and still got paid the full 10 hours.

Amazon claimed to give drivers sufficient time on route to take required breaks, bathroom breaks, and lunch breaks, and finish the route, without assistance or what drivers called getting "rescued." However, Amazon quite literally has a scheduled timeline for each and every package/stop to be delivered down to the minute, and there were never any gaps in that delivery schedule for a scheduled break. Drivers would have to be very ahead of schedule to take a break and not fall behind schedule. The delivery app would force drivers to take their 30 minute lunch break after a certain point, but drivers figured out they could start the lunch break as soon as they left the warehouse on the way to their first stop as a workaround, and they wouldn't be interrupted in the middle of the day.

Keep in mind, Amazon does not bear the burden for anything the driver does. The DSP gets dinged for packages coming back to the warehouse, drivers filing complaints to state labor boards for lack of breaks, drivers getting hurt and claiming worker's compensation, drivers damaging customer property, damage to delivery vehicles, traffic crashes, etc. Amazon has, so far, been able to separate themselves from any lawsuits since the DSP is employing the driver, not Amazon, and the DSP is therefore responsible for ensuring the drivers are taking breaks, insurance, worker's comp, etc.

The DSP I worked for was very successful and regularly had 40+ routes daily, usually around 25,000 packages, and we had extra drivers on staff to rescue a chunk of packages from some of the slower, but reliable drivers. The DSP is paid per package delivered, but the drivers are paid hourly, and we were actually paid a decent wage for a no/low experience job. I was making $20/hour on weekdays and $22/hour on weekends and the new hires were getting $18/hour. A quick search on Indeed for the Portland, OR area shows the hourly range for drivers is now $21-27.

I cannot tell you how many times I found 32oz Gatorade bottles filled with piss that a driver left in the delivery van; sometimes they had popped open and contents spilled out into the van. One driver who got to use the same van every work day had a dedicated bottle that he would empty out at the end of the day before stashing it in a hidden nook of the van. A female driver told me she would get contractor size trash bags from the warehouse cleaning crew, spread it open and do her business in the back of the van where the packages are.

Happy to answer any other questions.