They've been pulling this s**t for nearly 5 years now. When we sold our other house, which was in the city, more or less (typical burbs, IOW), and moved here, Amazon switched over to USPS service soon thereafter. We've been here just over 6 years, so...at least 5 years.
What they do is that they DO contract to UPS and Fedex--who promptly turn around and sub the deliveries out to the PO. I've bitched about this very thing here--and it just happened to us again.
Where we live, in a quite rural environment, there are several hundred individually, custom-built homes in what you'd call an "area" or enclave, surrounded by moutains on three sides. There's a "main drag" of about 3 miles long, from the nearest main street, and then roads that shoot off from this E-W Main Drag, forming the residential streets. All the homes sit on 1.25/acre and up lots. So, the mailpeople don't "deliver" mail. They deliver it to those neighborhood mailboxes you've seen, like so:
Ours is 1/2 mile from our home. The Post Office? 30 miles, each way, from our home.
Thus, if GOD FORBID, I buy something that is a skosh too large for the parcel locker (that's the big box at the bottom of the Cluster boxes), they leave me a green form, and say 'oh, gosh, sorry we missed you, come pick up your doodleflicker at the PO." Now, here's the thing--because of how spread out we all are, they WILL NOT deliver to the door--period.
What pisses me off is that this happens constantly. You have NO way to specify shipping carrier, at Amazon. Amazon pays Fedex/UPS, for "to the door delivery," and USPS takes the contract--and then just doesn't deliver. And it's tough s**t, kids. I wrote to Amazon more than once about this, and refused to pick up a number of things, telling them. "well, it's tough on you. You take it back; I won't pay for it and as I paid you my Prime fees, AND whatever else I paid, for 'to-my-door' shipping, I refuse to drive to the PO and pick it up--period."
NO ONE takes responsibility for this Fluster Cluck. Amazon figures, well, they lived upto their responsibility; Fedex/UPS thinks so, too...and meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Amazon customers are NOT getting the service for which they've paid. And there's nothing you can do about it, other than buying elsewhere--which is what I've done. I've switched over to other stores, where I can at least dictate the carrier.
How is it NOT Amazon's fault? If they are advertising shipment to your door, then they, bygod, should at least try to ensure that that's what you're getting. They're relying completely on the typical ennui of the American shopper to fail to take action to actively shop somewhere else, as Amazon is "convenient" in fulfilling instant-gratification clickage.
Yeah, you'd think, right? See my note, above. They're
perfectly happy with this subcontracting crap, because it's cheaper.
I had a site plan being fedexed to me a few years ago, while we were still down in the City. Long story short, the woman in charge of the project became indignant with me, when I told her I hadn't received the plan set. She insisted that I had, and she 'had my signature" to prove it. It wasn't my signature, which was boggling. After some back-forth, FedEx (my regular guy--not the sub) came out, and knocked next door, which was answered by a mentally disabled man in shorts, and his Mother (?), in a negligee and kitten heels, who crawled out of bed at 3:00 in the afternoon.
Oh, yes, they said--they'd signed for my plans--FIVE days earlier--and simply hadn't gotten around to giving me my parcel. (Really, you'd think that there was gold in there). Somehow, the Substitute didn't bother to figure out if he was at the right house, or anything else. These folks were new neighbors, so that went over really well. (n.b.: later, they were unceremoniously moved out of the house, due to bounty hunters crashing down their doors in the middle of the night. Gave our complacent Scottsdale, AZ, neighborhood something to twitter about for days!).
You're at the mercy of the guys in Brown, Red+white+blue and Fedex's RW&Blue colors, that's for damn sure.
In fairness to those guys--most of whom have been FABULOUS over the years, I'd point out that their lives aren't parties, either. We had a delightful UPS guy up here, who was constantly traumatized by the fact that a well known, uh, "naturists' colony" is up here. He had a guy on that route who was WELL into his 90's, who
persisted in answering the door in
nothing but a banana thong. Yahoo, brother! I'm pretty sure when most carrier delivery guys fantasize about someone on their route answering the door in their skimpiest gear, that's NOT what they had in mind.
last note:
Has anyone here heard from KK? I see that her last activity here on MR was in the middle of December; almost exactly 4 months ago to the day. Anyone?
Hitch