Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Ditto.
Just the other day I had a package intended for a Christmas gift go awry at my post office--it was showing as delivered, but I couldn't locate it and assumed it had ended up at a wrong address. Since I needed it before Christmas, I contacted Amazon, and they immediately sent out a replacement in time, with instructions to return the original shipment if it showed up (it did). I thought that was excellent service.
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Catlady:
Until 2 years ago, I would have agreed, 100%, with you and shalym. My service with Amazon was stellar, absolutely brilliant. BUT: I now live in a rural area, and since Amazon has switched to using "Fedex Home" and USPS, what they seem to have not taken into account is that not every P.O. has workers that will bring stuff to your door. In my case, we have those community mailboxes--
mine are 1/2-mile from my house. (see image).
http://www.mailboxes.com/assets/depa...USPS_Image.jpg
I don't have a mailbox AT my house.
Our PO people will not--absolutely not--deliver to the door. If an item doesn't fit into the "package" box at the community boxes, it goes back in the little truck, and thence some 15+ miles to "my" Post Office.
In the past two years, I've had not less than 15 deliveries go back to the P.O.. Yes, I can call Amazon and bitch, and yes, they then send out a replacement via overnight. I've tried
EVERYTHING. I've called, I've written to them, (telling them I was done with them, in frustration). I've tried paying EXTRA to have "overnight," but even some of those come P.O., and then the cycle repeats.
I've simply stopped buying from them. That's why "only" 15-some-odd astray deliveries. If it won't fit in a mailbox, I no longer buy it there,
period.
There is no way to select the shipping BEFORE you click purchase. You can't choose the carrier. It doesn't matter if you use 1- or 2-day (tried that--got USPS overnight, and, yes: back to the P.O.). You can't call and order, and have THEM choose the carrier--they seemingly can only do that when you have an order go astray.
When I lived in the burbs, the carrier was only too happy to walk about 20 steps and drop something at my door. Now, they won't. I'm not saying it's not understandable, but the situation is moderately simple to me: I'm paying Amazon a fee for delivery TO MY DOOR, not a 30-mile RT away. (Or further--I know it's at least 10 to the freeway, then however many miles a few exits down the freeway, around a bunch of corners, and let's not forget the 30-minute wait at the PO itself, EVERY.DAMN.TIME.)
Amazon no longer gives me a way to get those packages reliably, and without aggravation and MAJOR inconvenience to me. My alternative is to have items shipped to my (business) paid-box, which is ONLY a 20-mile RT for me. Again: major inconvenience. (Not only "inconvenience." I used them to deliver heavy packages to me when my shoulder(s) were giving me major problems. Guess how happy I was to go schelp 40-50lb. packages from the P.O. 30 miles away?)
Oh, and--it's always someone else's fault. Amazon says, "well, we're paying Fedex for HOME delivery, and they said that they delivered it." Fedex has simply creamed off a percentage, and are paying USPS their lesser fees for "delivery." And hey, from their perspective, the package says "delivered," which means, in English "it's at the P.O. waiting for YOU to go pick it UP." The USPS doesn't give two s**ts if you're happy or not, as whatcha gonna do, fire 'em? There isn't a single entity in the chain that now takes ownership of the issue, not even Amazon.
For a company that's made its name in Customer Service, it's absolutely gobsmacking and breathtakingly cavalier. From their standpoint, hey, if you live in a non-urban area, and don't have your own mailbox, you're SCREWED. (Which means
all houses built in larger subdivisions, rural areas, etc., since about 1985, as that is when the P.O. regs changed to requiring community mailboxes.)
So, while I'm glad that you have ongoing good experiences with them, ever since the two factors--a move to a far more rural area, and Amazon's switchover to USPS--my service has gone straight to s**t. And yes, they're always helpful when I'm on the phone, they always send a replacement, etc., but it's a major hassle I should NOT have to go through, not when I'm paying NOT to go through it. Moreover, I've seen increasing numbers of posts from OTHER people like me--people who have moved from the city, or never did live there--who are having the same issues, over and over.
That's my perspective.
Hitch