Amazon lowers free shipping minimum back to $25

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Prime is my streaming video service; I don't subscribe to Netflix or Hulu. So it's well worth the $99 yearly fee for that alone. When you add in all of the other perks that come with membership, it's a super value for me.

Yes, the advantage of USA Prime. When I saw the differences between USA and Canada with Prime I got the envies.

I just joined Netflix recently because I and various family members wanted to watch some things that are currently offered there. While I hear complaints from my fellow Canadians that our Netflix is "not as good as" the one south of the border, we find plenty in our genres to entertain us. (likely due to our eclectic tastes and the fact we've not watched regular tv or movies for a long time).

[Catlady]

While we're talking about deliveries--I've had several deliveries left at my door without the driver even bothering to rap on the door or ring the bell. I mean, he's brought the damn package right to the door; he can't take another second to push the bell, even if the package doesn't require a signature?

Usually I hear the noise, or my cats do and stare warily toward the door. But sometimes I only know there's a delivery because Amazon sends me a text, and then I find it sitting outside the door. UPS, USPS, and FedEx all do it. The one that really killed me was FedEx leaving the giant box with my flat-screen TV propped up against the door so I could barely open it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Catlady

While we're talking about deliveries--I've had several deliveries left at my door without the driver even bothering to rap on the door or ring the bell. I mean, he's brought the damn package right to the door; he can't take another second to push the bell, even if the package doesn't require a signature?

Usually I hear the noise, or my cats do and stare warily toward the door. But sometimes I only know there's a delivery because Amazon sends me a text, and then I find it sitting outside the door. UPS, USPS, and FedEx all do it. The one that really killed me was FedEx leaving the giant box with my flat-screen TV propped up against the door so I could barely open it.

If it was me, I'd have called Amazon every time this happened and complained and asked what sort of compensation they could give me for this. I would not put up with it.

When I had a Prime delivery be late, I called Amazon and complained. They compensated us with an extra month free.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by jswinden

In my area we have actual USPS employees and also we have contractors. The contractors don't seem to last as long, don't seem to give a crap, and they often bitch about everything. The last house I lived in they dinged a neighbor for having their mailbox one inch too low. That home owner had to install a new mailbox at the curb simply because the contractor didn't want to reach 1" lower. Once they dinged me and a couple others on the street because the numbers on the mailboxes were not large enough or were faded. I think all of this was because some of us had complained to the local Post Office about poor service. I saw the contractors on multiple occasions put notices in my mailbox that they tried to deliver the package but no one was at home. I was standing right next to the mailbox one time that she did that. I got mad, drove the 4 miles to the Post Office to pickup my package, asked to speak to the manager, and lodged a big complaint. Others did too. After that the contractor started the retaliation campaign. I then went back to the Post Office and had another long talk with the manager, and after that we never saw that contractor again.

Since I moved 10 miles to another town, I haven't had any issues with the delivery folks from the USPS. But here we have actual USPS employees and none of those darn contractors. And they deliver right to our front porches too. None of that drive up to a mailbox at the curb crap like they did in the last town. And definitely none of that centrally located wall of mailboxes like they do in some newer suburbs. We get the good old fashioned mail delivery person walking up to our door with the mail and packages.

Not in a new neighborhood but we have curb boxes. Except a couple of house deliveries. Those boxes have inch high letters that say HOUSE DELIVERY. The subs can't always read.

[tubemonkey]

My deliveries have been good. I placed three orders this week, all with Prime two-day shipping. So far, two have been delivered on schedule and the third one is on schedule to arrive tomorrow.

UPS delivered the first one to my doorstep and rang the bell. USPS delivered the second one to my mailbox. In both cases, I received a text shortly afterward indicating that my packages had been delivered.

FYI, all three of these Prime orders tried to bribe me with the $5 Prime Pantry credit if I went with slow shipping. I refuse to use Pantry and that's all Amazon ever offers me. I no longer get digital credit offers.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The one that really killed me was FedEx leaving the giant box with my flat-screen TV propped up against the door so I could barely open it.

At least he didn't throw it

[tdonline]

I work from home 90% of the time so yeah I've caught a couple of delivery guys lying about ringing the door bell or not having anyone at home. One time, I wrote a complaint. A manager from the delivery company actually called me and said the delivery man rang the doorbell and no one came to the door. I live in a small apartment building. My apartment door is about 15 feet away from the lobby door. I also have a VERY loud intercom system. When she told me that story, I told her I was leaving my apartment, going to the lobby door and ringing my apartment intercom. Standing outside my building, I held phone up, rang the intercom and she could hear the alarm buzz from inside my apartment. So I asked her how likely was it that I didn't hear my doorbell when the deliveryman rang it? She said she would talk to the deliveryman. He actually came by the very next day with a delivery. Rang the doorbell and said something along the lines of that I prefer to be notified by the intercom. Yeah, no kidding. Is it so hard to press the button for a second or two?

When I first moved into the apartment and someone rang the intercom, I nearly had a heart attack. My cats still run and hide under the bed when they hear it.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Trivia question: was it an Amazon fulfilled order or a third party order?
If the first then Amazon shouldn't have let it sit so long.
If the second, give Amazon feedback.

My last two orders were items purchased directly from Amazon.

There was no third-party (ironically those actually tend to shop the same or next day) and was not labeled as another seller with "fulfilled by Amazon" either.

[library addict]

They closed the big Post Office here and now all of the outgoing mail is taken somewhere else to be shipped.

We used to have our mail delivered by 11am every day. But now we're considered some other type of route and so mail now comes between 3 and 5pm.

They have delivered on Sundays though.

I find it silly that they will bring my packages to the door, but still put the regular mail (letters, etc) in the mail box at the end of my driveway.

Better than the one UPS guy though. He once actually just opened my front door (the glass door, my front door was open at the time) and walked in to the house to put a package in my hallway. He was lucky the dog was in the backyard at the time. I was just coming down the stairs. He didn't knock or ring the doorbell. It was very odd.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by library addict

They closed the big Post Office here and now all of the outgoing mail is taken somewhere else to be shipped.

We used to have our mail delivered by 11am every day. But now we're considered some other type of route and so mail now comes between 3 and 5pm.

They have delivered on Sundays though.

I find it silly that they will bring my packages to the door, but still put the regular mail (letters, etc) in the mail box at the end of my driveway.

Better than the one UPS guy though. He once actually just opened my front door (the glass door, my front door was open at the time) and walked in to the house to put a package in my hallway. He was lucky the dog was in the backyard at the time. I was just coming down the stairs. He didn't knock or ring the doorbell. It was very odd.

Regular mailbox or one of a block cluster?
If the later, they are required to put the mail in the box.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Regular mailbox or one of a block cluster?
If the later, they are required to put the mail in the box.

It's a regular, single mailbox.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

At least he didn't throw it

Yep, I see similar stories on the news all the time, especially near Xmas time. Sad, very sad. Too lazy to do their job the right way.

For most of my adult life I've lived in apartments. They are the worst places to live as far as deliveries, and for pretty much every other reason too. Once upon a time, UPS and FedEX required you to have a form filled out and on file with them stating you gave them permission to leave a package on your front porch if you were not home. They don't seem to do that any more, as far as I can tell. They just leave the package in open site if you live in a house, or at the front office if you live in an apartment. My UPS guy will try to conceal it by putting it under a chair on my porch that has a soft rain cover over it. That is actually pretty nice of him to do that. Typically, with USPS, UPS, and FedEX, they put the package on the porch then ring the doorbell and leave before I get to the door. My neighborhood is fairly crime free, so no big deal. You can always request a special delivery for a specific package, but I've never done that so no clue how that would work out.

I live in my own house now, and have for a few years. It is interesting how I am treated differently now by delivery services. When living in an apartment, the delivery services are not very nice to you and most of them refused to deliver to the door. Instead they delivered to the apartment office. Since the apartment office only had a couple of employees at a time, they were sometimes both out for lunch or showing apartments to prospective renters, and if the office was closed the delivery services couldn't leave the package. I don't blame the delivery services as many, if not most, apartment complexes are notorious for packages getting stolen if they are left at the door. USPS would leave a key in my mailbox to the larger package box at our mailbox cluster, but it was often too small, so they too would take the larger packages inside the main office. Now that I live in my house, I am treated much better. I get door deliveries and better service with a smile. I am the same middle-class, well educated guy I have always been, but now I am treated better by the delivery services. I think they lump apartment dwellers into the same category as trailer park residents. I assume they have a good reason to believe stuff will happen to packages if left unattended a few seconds or more at apartments and certain other neighborhoods. Yes, they do indeed profile, but they are probably right in doing so. They are profiling the neighborhood, not individuals, and they are going by experience. More specifically they are categorizing neighborhoods and dwelling types into which need more secure drop offs. Profiling probably is not the term to use, but basically that is what they are doing.

[Cinisajoy]

I once got a delivery to my house that the person put it on a chair then turned the chair around so it wasn't visible.
The person it was for just drove by my house didn't see package on the porch and drove on. He got the package 2 days later when we got home.