The Vent and Rant Thread

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

The delivery company Amazon uses in my area likes to dump my packages in the apartment lobby without even buzzing the apartment.

Make sure that you respond to the "how did we do" queries negatively. Believe it or not, they take it fairly seriously.

Hitch

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Make sure that you respond to the "how did we do" queries negatively. Believe it or not, they take it fairly seriously.

Hitch

Yesterday, we had a package delivered, tossed on the front step in the pouring rain. No plastic bag, nothing. The outer box was soaked through, fortunately I checked the tracking and realized it was out there.

I did the whole "How was your delivery", selected "Not so great"...picked "driver mishandled delivery" and have heard nothing from Amazon.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Yesterday, we had a package delivered, tossed on the front step in the pouring rain. No plastic bag, nothing. The outer box was soaked through, fortunately I checked the tracking and realized it was out there.

I did the whole "How was your delivery", selected "Not so great"...picked "driver mishandled delivery" and have heard nothing from Amazon.

Do that and then ALSO use the live contact form, on the Help page(s), for chats, etc. I had a delivery thrown onto a rattlesnake den, which, obviously, wasn't my favorite delivery of the year. Not to mention, I didn't have a picture so had NO idea where to find it. (We also get those, stashed over by our garage, left there for days-stuff).

Anyway...I've found that when things go really awry, the contact form--either chat or call--is the best and most effective approach.

Hitch

[Deskisamess]

While not strictly Amazon related, delivery services on the whole are horrible. We have a large mailbox mounted on the house by the side door. There is a levered slot for mail, and a large door you can open below that for items that won't fit through the slot.

The mail carriers let stuff hang out of the slot, so rain can be wicked in and get everything wet. On Tuesdays, we get junk coupons in the form of large newsprint. We opted out of the coupons with the sending company, but the carriers pay no attention to the addresses, so we still get it.

Last week, the carrier crammed the junk newspapers into the box, and tossed the bag that contained hubby's medicine on the ground under the mailbox. It is obvious it is medicine, they just don't care.

I had a note taped on the box that asked them to not leave the coupons since we opted out, and to request they not let envelopes hang out in the rain. The note got messed up over time, it's time to make a new one. We used to always have the same carrier...now it is different carriers all the time. It's a walking route as well, so mail and packages show up at different times.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

While not strictly Amazon related, delivery services on the whole are horrible. We have a large mailbox mounted on the house by the side door. There is a levered slot for mail, and a large door you can open below that for items that won't fit through the slot.

The mail carriers let stuff hang out of the slot, so rain can be wicked in and get everything wet. On Tuesdays, we get junk coupons in the form of large newsprint. We opted out of the coupons with the sending company, but the carriers pay no attention to the addresses, so we still get it.

Last week, the carrier crammed the junk newspapers into the box, and tossed the bag that contained hubby's medicine on the ground under the mailbox. It is obvious it is medicine, they just don't care.

I had a note taped on the box that asked them to not leave the coupons since we opted out, and to request they not let envelopes hang out in the rain. The note got messed up over time, it's time to make a new one. We used to always have the same carrier...now it is different carriers all the time. It's a walking route as well, so mail and packages show up at different times.

Yeah--rural route, perhaps? We have something somewhat similar here. We have an oddball thing--half the houses that are in this area, this "bowl" between mountains, federal national forest on the north, State preserve on the east and then two State Land mountains, west and south--were here before the PO decided that individual mailboxes were not cost-efficient. So all those homes have grandfathered mailboxes on the "main drag," which is a single road that comes in off the main N-S road, into our little area.

Those private mailboxes sit right on that main street. But the rest of us, whose homes were built after that decision, have to share those community mailboxes (on that same main drag, mind you)--you know the ones, look a bit like those in a condo or apartment complex. They have parcel lockers, but only up to given size. After that, it's a 30+mile drive to the PO.

And, if you live past the paving, on the N/S streets, (perpendicular to the main drag, IOW) you're outta luck, too, even if the roads are well-maintained. They won't deliver any sort of 'priority" or whatever package to you, no matter what the sender paid them.

I'm with you--for ages, I lived somewhere where we had the same post officer, we tipped at the holidays, and everything was copacetic. But now, it's all subcontracted delivery and you get everything--from diligent to downright negligent to almost malicious. We've been shopping online with delivery for quite a while now--the mileage+gas costs of doing smaller shopping trips more than justified the delivery options--and we sort of feel nowadays like we have to be on High Alert for every delivery, lest it be lost, ruined...weird. Our situation isn't remotely as bad as yours, though, from what you say.

Hitch

[4691mls]

The Post Office has different messages they can use when a package is delivered - one that says it was left at the door/porch and another one that says it was left in the mailbox. They used to actually use the correct one so I would know where to look for my package. Lately they just seem to choose at random and the message doesn't correspond with where they actually left the package. Oh and there's also another really useless message that just says "dropped off"....

[Deskisamess]

Not rural...we live just outside city limits off of a 4 lane state route. They park the trucks and walk, doing a couple of streets at a time.

Lots of the new housing developments around here use cluster mailboxes. So you pay $300,000+ for a house, and don't have a mailbox on your property. Seems very odd to me.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Not rural...we live just outside city limits off of a 4 lane state route. They park the trucks and walk, doing a couple of streets at a time.

Lots of the new housing developments around here use cluster mailboxes. So you pay $300,000+ for a house, and don't have a mailbox on your property. Seems very odd to me.

Oh, hell. When I was yet living in Scottsdale (AZ), you could easily pay $4M (Four Million USD) for a house and still not have a mailbox on your property. My SIL is in that very situation. Seems damned odd to me, too.

I do kinda understand the rural thing. It would take all day to deliver up here for relatively few houses (given the real estate involved, as the absolute MINIMUM lot up here is 1.25 acres and most have quite a bit more). You'd have to be schlepping over dirt roads, some better maintained than others, and the whole enchilada. Nonetheless, it drives me crazy that they won't drive to my damned door with a special delivery package.

And yes, I realize that makes me just like everybody else. "But I'm SPESHUL! Bring me MY package, ignore those other people!" Ha.

Hitch

[CRussel]

No mailboxes here, at all. But during the pandemic, the one reliable way to meet your neighbours was standing in the line outside the Post Office. (Only one customer allowed inside at a time!) At least I don't have to deal with "community mailboxes". Ours are inside the Post Office itself.

[Darqref]

I know this is a first world problem, but it's annoying me.

One thing the last year of covid has accelerated is the trend of rolls of toilet paper getting larger. Used to be "double" rolls, now they're calling them "mega" rolls. I live in an older (1950s) house, and the main bath has a tp dispenser that is inset into the wall. The rolls don't go on without squishing them, and even then they're hard to pull off.

My mother, who's mostly blind and diabetic, is having trouble with this. For me, I'd just let the roll sit on the counter, but Mom doesn't see things and can easily knock it over.

And at times this year, that's all that has been available in the store.

I want my dimensional bubble that makes the room bigger on the inside than the out.....

[Deskisamess]

"Mega" rolls of bath tissue and paper towels aren't new. We've tried to avoid them for years now, because they don't fit regular holders. The paper towels we buy have the same issue if you buy the "triple rolls". Both products are made by Proctor & Gamble.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Darqref

My mother, who's mostly blind and diabetic, is having trouble with this. For me, I'd just let the roll sit on the counter, but Mom doesn't see things and can easily knock it over.

There's something particularly frustrating about knocking a brand-new double roll into the toilet.

[Hemmi]

If you live in the US or Canada, you can get a free roll extender from Charmin. It allows you to use the larger rolls with your old recessed dispensers.

Request yours here: https://charminspindle.aerofulfillment.com/en

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

There's something particularly frustrating about knocking a brand-new double roll into the toilet.

OMG, YES. Bad enough with smaller rolls, but with the megas...sigh.

We do deliberately buy megas. Anything that we can, to stock up--not due to the plague, just due to distances and the idea out here that there's no such thing as "running to the store" for a gallon of milk or TP. Gives you a whole new mindset.

Hitch

[WT Sharpe]

We buy the one roll equals four because we've learned that six of them will fit perfectly in the bottom drawer of our bathroom cabinet. Setting one on the side of the countertop is no problem for us, but I understand how that would be difficult for someone who was seriously visually impaired.