Amazon deliveries getting a bit strange...

[Brian Tymchak]

About 4:30 this morning my wife awoke to some banging on the outside of the house. ( I slept through it somehow.) She got up and looked around, found nothing, and decided to go back to bed as she needed to be up in a few hours for work. She mentioned it to me when I got up, so I checked outside. Found a couple Amazon boxes on the front porch...

3 to 4 weeks ago, I noticed a pretty squirrely looking dude pull up in a beat up Honda, and drop another Amazon package on the porch.

I'm all for Amazon using independent contractors for delivery. We certainly get quicker deliveries. But, delivering at 4:30 in the morning is a good way to end up staring at the business end of a weapon. It seems that some standards of delivery service are either being ignored or need to be established and enforced. I took a quick look on Amazon's site and couldn't find any easy way to leave feedback to Amazon itself. Maybe I'll look again later.

Anyone else experiencing "interesting" deliveries lately?

[Tom M King]

We supposedly had one delivery that I never saw. Amazon said it was delivered, and said something like:" driver left package at side door". That would have made more sense if we had a side door. Anyway, I filed the claim, and seller almost immediately sent another one.

[Brian Elfert]

If a direct Amazon contractor delivers a package you should get an email with a picture of the delivery as soon as it takes place. You should be able to tell from the picture where the item was dropped off at your house.

[ChrisA Edwards]

If a direct Amazon contractor delivers a package you should get an email with a picture of the delivery as soon as it takes place. You should be able to tell from the picture where the item was dropped off at your house.

We get those on about 10% of deliveries and I've noticed our deliveries come from about 4 sources, USPS, UPS, a Amazon Prime van and then a normal unmarked car.

[Jim Becker]

The unmarked vehicles are "temporary"/overflow contractors using personal vehicles. But I agree that 04:30 is a bit, um...unusual. You can provide feedback to Amazon on most deliveries I believe...I know I very often get a follow-up email asking me to rate the delivery experience for a given order.

[Frederick Skelly]

I know I very often get a follow-up email asking me to rate the delivery experience for a given order.

Huh. I've never once been asked to rate the delivery experience. Maybe that practice varies with location. Good idea though.

[michael dilday]

I had a delivery not too long ago that I never got. They almost always leave a photo like Jim mentioned but no photo on this one. Also my cameras didn't pick up anyone like they always do. Must have been left at the wrong house or who knows. I did get a credit right away. Normally deliveries are on time and accurate.

[Tom M King]

Never received any kind of email. The mystery package, that was supposed to be delivered to a side door, that we don't have, on the 24th, showed up yesterday. It had been shipped on the 27th. It was the 28th that I filed the complaint, and the shipper sent a reply that they had shipped another one. I notified them that the first one came.

[Tom M King]

I just checked the other orders. One item, that came earlier this week, is expected to arrive next Monday, and when I checked the tracking, it says it's out for delivery. We've had 204 deliveries in the past six months, and I don't spend a lot of time keeping up with when something gets here. The one mystery item I was looking for.

[Walter Plummer]

I leave for work a little after 5 and there was a package on my stoop. No idea when it was delivered. Sometime between 9pm and 5 am.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Mostly just happy they are delivering.

[Jim Becker]

Huh. I've never once been asked to rate the delivery experience. Maybe that practice varies with location. Good idea though.

It happens as direct emails from Amazon tied to the particular order. Maybe it only applies to certain delivery sub-contractors. I don't know. They don't come for every order, that's for sure.

[Paul F Franklin]

Mostly just happy they are delivering.

+42......................

[Jim Koepke]

In these strange times deliveries are being disrupted. The tracking on one of my packages indicated it took a side trip through the southern states, back to the same distribution center from whence it came and then rerouted westward to my post office.

An order of specialty seeds from Canada made at the beginning of April was delayed a few days because of order handling at the supplier. Later in the month an inquiry was made in to the progress on my order. The reply said it was shipped on the 9th of April. It also stated mailed packages were having some delays in postal handling. Yesterday another inquiry was made about what could be done to determine what became of my order. The reply was to wait one more week before initiating any action. The seeds arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon. That is a long time to wait for a bunch of seeds in a medium sized envelope.

Delivery drivers are often making less than $1 per delivery. If they have packages at 4:00am, they will likely want to be running around delivering as many packages as they can as fast as they can. If the can squeeze out one or two more deliveries an hour, then maybe they can buy a cup of coffee or even lunch.

The USPS sends an email after any packages with tracking are delivered. The only problem is the information from the carrier to the USPS seems to be carried over cell phone towers. In my area it appears the nearest cell reception is about 45 minutes after leaving my mailbox.

jtk