Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
I think it's probably complaints, rather than cost. They switched up to using "Fedex Home," which is Fedex subcontracting out to the Post Office. Lots of customers--like yours truly--live in rural, or semi-rural areas, that use community mailbox setups. My mailbox, for example, is half-a-mile from my actual house. It's not in a Post office; it's a bunch of boxes. Like these: http://www.tucsonazrealestateblog.co...ailboxessm.jpg
Ergo, if I am supposed to receive a package that's too big for those "big" boxes you see at the bottom, I'm just OUTTA LUCK. My post-person won't bring it to "my door." They simply leave me a green slip, telling me I have to schelp 30MI to go fetch the delivery for which I've paid for "to my door" service. Needless to say, I've had some pretty heated discussions with Amazon about it, and I've left everything that they've shipped to the PO, and refused to pay for it.
My attitude on it is that I'm, and they are, paying Fedex to deliver the package to my home. I won't "fetch." Period. I suspect that this situation is now plaguing the millions of Americans who bought homes since the mid-80's. That's when the Post Office decided to go to community mailboxes in all new housing and all rural-ish areas. I have asked Amazon repeatedly to make shipping OPTIONS available, so I can always choose UPS (which will always come to my door), even if it's slower, which I don't mind.
{shrug}. That's my guess as to the reasoning behnd this. I'll bet it's customer dissatisfaction over the PO's delivery services, rather than the money, given Amazon's view of the world.
Hitch |
Part of the reason that Amazon has done well is fast shipping. Order it today, have it show up on your door step in two days. If it goes to 5-7 days, then they lose a lot of their edge over the other online stores. I feel your pain. I've had a number of packages where I was promised free 2 day delivery, they sub contract the last mile to the post office, and I get the package 3 or 4 days later. And I don't live somewhere with community mail boxes!
I would also say that the inevitable result to a race to the bottom in price, is a race to the bottom in service. It's the old saying, pick two of the three - good, fast, cheap, because you won't get all three, at least not for very long.