Amazon

Amazon is letting me down.  I can’t believe it! 

I have been a customer with Amazon for 10 years.  I will not share how much money I have spent with them over the years but believe me it is a hefty number. 

UPS has always been the mode of shipment for me when it comes to using Amazon.  I pay a service at the beginning of the year to insure that I get 2 day delivery free for the rest of the year.  It is totally worth. I find UPS to be one of the premier mail services.  The delivery people are courteous and helpful.  They sometimes attempt to deliver more than once during the day.  They come around the same time during the day and evening.  They also attempt a few deliveries over a course a 3 days.  They rule.

Amazon is now taken to using USPS.  Why?  More than likely because it is a less expensive mode of shipping and if you read anything about Amazon these days, they need to increase their margins to effect the profits.  They should consider closing down some of their facilities and streamlining their operations to create a heftier bottom line instead of shafting their customers by changing shippers in mid-steam.

I do not mean to slam the US Postal Service but their shipping sucks, at least in NYC.  If you aren’t there at the exact moment they arrive, it goes back to your local Post Office.  Then you have to go to your local Post Office, stand in line for 20 minutes or more, have all the appropriate paperwork to pick it up and they are rude to boot.  Not something I am interested in doing during my day, that is exactly why I use UPS.

So, I just got a package bounced from Amazon because they shipped it USPS to a home that we use during the summer months.  We have PO Boxes.  The PO Boxes don’t take UPS and the homes don’t take USPS.  Amazon now can’t guarantee UPS so I’m screwed.  It is a gamble which they ship me. 

So, do I now move all my  loyalties to Barnes and Noble?  I guess if Amazon doesn’t come up with a resolution to this and go back to my good old UPS, I will have to make the move.  I wonder how many other customers will do the same?

I learned over the years that customers are trained from the onset.  Set up the rules from the beginning but attempting to change them later creates a loss of your customer base.  Amazon’s success has been their huge customer base.  Now turning that into a profitable business is the challenge.  Looking at the inside of their operation is the most difficult.  Changing how you ship your customers is easy. In the long run the hard decisions pay off, not the easy ones.   Shame on Amazon. 

Comments (Archived):

  1. scott p.

    I can assure you that the USPS problems you bring up are not local to NYC 😉

  2. daryn

    Can’t make everyone happy, but they should at least allow you to pick the carrier in cases like yours.

    Personally, I’m glad that they’re using USPS because, in reverse of your situation, UPS never leaves anything at my door, while USPS always does. And, if they don’t, the local post office is much more convenient for me than the UPS distribution center.

  3. Brian

    If you look at the key items of the last several AMZN conference calls, they have noted that they are getting squeezed on the margin side of both products (BMV) and services (shipping / labor) and they would explore every option to fix this. This should come as no surpirse that the USPS would eventually be the shipper of choice for AMZN… UPS and FedEx will always be options, but the cost difference is what drove the whole idea anyway.

  4. Abby

    If you want to switch, Powell’s is the best.

    I’ve had problems getting UPS deliveries where the guy didn’t even ring the bell, and I had been waiting home all day to get the delivery.

    In an apartment building, (not the city type) the post office will often leave your stuff in your box or with management, but UPS has to go to your door. I think that the service depends on your location. So, I think it would be better if you had a choice, because YMMV.

  5. Tim

    USPS sucks because for some odd reason, if there’s anything delivered to my house that doesn’t fit into my mailbox, the delivery guy just leaves a note telling us to pick it up at the post office. Once there, the complicated paperwork requirement really pisses me off, because I need to show my ID if it’s addressed to me, or whoever’s name is on the package has to pick it up or sign the note and name of the person that is going to pick it up, and then you still has to show an ID, and hope that they’ll give you the package and not left you empty handed for another day.

  6. adam

    THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!! I just order something from Amazon.com and I can’t believe they sent it USPS. My mail delivery SUCKS I get no mail during the week it comes all on friday if I am lucky. Boxes are usually smashed beyond belief too. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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