Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

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toad
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Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by toad »

USPS, my local post office has been pulling this on me. If a package is larger than my mail box they put a notice that they attempted to deliver but I wasn't there. Lying sacks of shit.
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Aesop
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by Aesop »

You have correctly identified the actual culprit. This has nothing to do with Amazon (but it'll affect them in a big hurry).
I'm <100 yards from the local suburban P.O.
They have fraudulently claimed to have attempted delivery of numerous items, including certified and registered mail, never having done any such thing.
It's the reason I now rent a box at the UPS store. UPS and FedEx are your friend.

Anything sent by USPS might just as well be shit into the maw of the Great Pit of Carkoon, or set on fire in the P.O. parking lot.
Federal employee + union employee = just kill yourselves if you're depending on them. Hereabouts, they only hire the people too stupid to get into the TSA.

I use the US mail to send things I don't care when it gets there. Like my income tax check.
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Rumpshot
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by Rumpshot »

I have used a PO Box since I moved to northern AZ. The local PO just installed about a hundred mail lockers. If the package does not fit your rented mail box, they leave the key instead and the package is in one of the larger mail lockers.

My local Post Office is pretty much on top of things.

I know that a lot of them, especially in the bigger cities are really shitty.
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Netpackrat
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by Netpackrat »

Service at the PO I use sucks enough, that when I go in to pick up a package, and don't have to wait 20 minutes in line, it is a pleasant surprise. They have also frequently misdelivered things, or failed to put a package notice in my box. On numerous occasions they have stuffed the box full of mail intended for the local commie-rag newspaper. I finally was able to get one of their employees to tape a note to the back of my box, that says "Not the ADN" which at least brought an end to that. They also do the parcel locker thing which is very convenient, but the only reason they can is because so many PO box customers have canceled their service and gone elsewhere... When we moved to this end of town and started using that PO, there were very few boxes available for rent, and there was no parcel locker service. Now, I think most of the boxes are available for use as parcel lockers.

Next time we move, I am going to pay a little more for a box at the closest UPS store rather than rent a PO box again. They have better parcel pick up hours, and they give all hours access to the boxes using a key card for their outer doors.

All that said, I still use USPS as my preferred shipping service to AK. Anything else is just too expensive, and I like the privacy of having all my mail go to a box at the post office. Most of the people and companies I get mail from, have no need to know my physical address. That also goes for whoever manages to hack their databases.
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Jered
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by Jered »

I use a post office down the street from where I work.

About half the time when I go in there, I have to wait ten minutes or so, because there are three Canadians sending shit to fifteen different countries and they can't decide which postage that they want.

:roll:
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toad
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by toad »

I figure Amazon has to take some of the responsibility for this under "due diligence." Complaints about various post offices have been going on for over two years that I know of. Amazon can ask the post office to improve and they'll just give Amazon the finger. Right now it looks like Amazon is hoping Black Friday will work out just because the bean counters say it will. I guess they never thought to check sources like Yelp and others for complaints about Postal Service, there is an Oxymoron.
toad
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by toad »

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mekender
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by mekender »

Call your postmaster, they tend to get such situations handled nicely... Amazon can specifically exclude a shipper from your address if they are problematic but you have to bitch a lot.
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HTRN
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by HTRN »

toad wrote:I figure Amazon has to take some of the responsibility
Amazon is the biggest retailer in the world. Taking responsibility is for smaller companies.

Yeah, they're gonna go with the cheaper delivery system. Yes it sucks. But who else are you gonna go to?

It's basically the same issue with Ebay and they're increasing shitty and hostile consumer experience.
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MiddleAgedKen
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Re: Amazon shoots it self in the foot?

Post by MiddleAgedKen »

If Amazon goes down that road, it will be a mistake (not saying they won't get away with it).

For now, though, let me give you a pair of examples. First up: Barnes and (redacted redacted redacting redacted) Noble. I got a gift card for my birthday, which I thought to use to buy a couple of Nook books. One (Victor Milan's The Dinosaur Lords, which I recommend highly) downloaded no problem. The other, Vincent O'Hara's Struggle for the Middle Sea (also recommended for WWII Med buffs), would not download no matter how many times I jumped through B&N's "support" FAQ hoops.

I e-mailed support. Several days (note: not a typo) later I got a reply. "We're working on full Windows 10 compatibility for our Nook Reader app." Because, you know, the launch of Windows 10 was a complete freaking surprise to everyone outside of Redmond. Kept trying, no soap. Contact them again. Again, several days (still not a typo) later the reply came: "Sorry you're having trouble with Nook for Windows. We're working on full Windows 10 compatibility. Here's a link to Nook apps for other operating systems."

Now I don't actually own devices using any of these operating systems, but I suppose it would help pass the time. And does B&N currently have a Nook app for any flavor of Windows other than 10? They do not (I bet you guessed that).

Finally, in a "Batman has has it up to here with these damn juggalos" mood, I wrote back and asked for a refund on the O'Hara. "We don't really offer refunds on gift cards," was the reply. "Would you like to try again?" I replied. "You're going to be classroom famous (I'm a marketing professor) either way, but are you shooting for Internet famous?"

Finally, they gave me the refund, and I ordered a couple of used dead-tree books.

Second up: Amazon. I ordered some hardware to help me record screencasts (recording parts of my lectures to the learning management system so we can do something hands-on in class). Got a nice little USB mixer, mic, stand, pop filter, headphones, and cables. Big Brown Truck of Happiness does its bit, and I unpack. No left channel on the headphones, out of the box. Contact Amazon. In about an hour, I get: "Sorry about that. Click here for a refund, click here for a replacement." click "Replacement is on the way. Print this UPS label, send yours back by (date), and there'll be no charge for the second set of headphones."

So easy even an academic type can do it.

The contrast made a nice discussion when we talked about services marketing in class. :twisted:
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