131–140 of 165 posts
FedEx ground is the worst; they aren't the same company as FedEx Express, they are locally operated instead (according to drivers I've talked with), and quality varies by region. I've had drivers fake signatures and dump packages at the door. My last 3 shipments bounced around Chicago for 6 days, traveling 19 miles total, and were finally delivered late
If Amazon made it possible for a customer to pick (and pay for the presumed incremental cost of) alternative carriers, they'd have a gold mine of data on customer WTP and carrier quality at the local level.
I suspect that Amazon does not want to put additional cognitive load on the purchaser right at the most critical point of the conversion funnel. As a customer, I want a delivery time/date and let Amazon figure out how to do it. They're presumably way better at it than I am. If Amazon fails at that, I want to be able to complain without feeling like "oh, it was my fault because I picked Rickshaw Bob as the carrier". W…
They can do it off the side, like how you can select an amazon locker to ship to (but still have your default mailing address set to something else). They could easily use the same flow: just add a "pick your shipper" section similar to how some small time retailers too it and have separate pricing for each (if you're not on prime).
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Amazon is reaching further and further into the economy, and I don’t see much stopping them. As much as I'm concerned about monopoly and the potential for anti-competitive behavior... I'm impressed by how effectively Amazon operates at the scale that it does. It's not like Comcast or AT&T which operate horribly at scale. I wish they would get disrupted by Starlink or something and go out of business. Amazon is an inc…
An efficient monopoly is that much more concerning. The efficiency with which it can squeeze FedEx applies to its customers, as well.
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WSJ reported on Amazon's expanding delivery ambitions 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12600094
"Ambition" rather than 'They are just killing off UPS and FedEx' Its a huge billion dollar story that's been incredibly soft, just look at UPS's stock, this will result in them losing their largest partner, no movement at all.
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> It AMAZES ME how unreported it goes that they are doing this right now. It don't think it's a secret. Why do you think it'd be a major story? > nobody bothered to ask.. 'Why?' Because they're doing logistics... everyone knows that. Have you never had an Amazon logistics person deliver you parcel?
"Doing logistics" for one's own shipping, is a bit different than "trying to subsume the role of FedEx/UPS in the economy." Certainly it's "only" a matter of scale, but logistics-as-a-service (the business FedEx and UPS are in) is as large a market as the one Amazon's already in, and you'd think clear signs of them being ready to suddenly add another few hundred billion dollars to their market cap would be reflected…
It’s to the point where I can’t blame Amazon for actions like these. The consumer has come to expect guaranteed overnight or 2 day shipping. When they don’t get that, they get really upset. Amazon doesn’t want its customers to get upset, and it can’t trust its shipping partners because they don’t have the burden of the consumer sentiment. No one blames FedEx for their late package these days, they blame Amazon. Heck,…
I feel the elephant in the room is the question of whether Amazon should be allowed to vertically integrate shipping.
It’s to the point where I can’t blame Amazon for actions like these. The consumer has come to expect guaranteed overnight or 2 day shipping. When they don’t get that, they get really upset. Amazon doesn’t want its customers to get upset, and it can’t trust its shipping partners because they don’t have the burden of the consumer sentiment. No one blames FedEx for their late package these days, they blame Amazon. Heck,…
I worked for Fedex ground for a while and I can't blame Amazon for this decision. Fedex contracts their ground delivery out and the quality of service is greatly affected by that. Some areas are great and some are awful. My experience was working under an awful contractor who was near abusive in his work requirements. If anyone has any questions I'm open to answer.
Nearly 100% of the time I get something that's supposed to be delivered by FedEx that needs a signature, I stay home all day until eventually getting a notification that the delivery was attempted and no one was home. The doorbell never rings and there's no slip on the door.
FedEx support tells me the driver scanned the slip so they don't know what happened.
This happens over and over again until I raise enough hell so they force the driver to come back to my house.
Funny thing, though. If it were possible, I'd have Amazon block their own shipping service, for the same reasons. I've asked, and it isn't permitted. In my area, USPS/UPS have been rock solid, but ever since they largely switched to their internal FBA, I've had late packages at least monthly. It's clear they're buckling under the Christmas load, too. I've had over a dozen items delayed thus far.
I've had some utterly ridiculous situations, like having an CCTV capture a package being delivered, the driver taking a picture of the delivered package for tracking, and then the driver leaving with it. I've also had them deliver packages to the wrong apartment numerous times, taking pictures of floor mats that don't even exist within a mile of me.
"An Amazon delivery driver need help with your order. Reply STOP to stop receiving texts from Amazon delivery drivers.
Hello, my name is [name]. Yor please [sic] in the bin"
"Your order has been delivered"
Getting home late then having to dig through a bin to find your parcel is not fun (and of course they didn't leave a card so other people had added stuff to the bin in the meantime). I've already complained to them about leaving stuff in the garden waste bin in the past (damp grass clippings and cardboard is _not_ a good combo).
Funny thing, though. If it were possible, I'd have Amazon block their own shipping service, for the same reasons. I've asked, and it isn't permitted. In my area, USPS/UPS have been rock solid, but ever since they largely switched to their internal FBA, I've had late packages at least monthly. It's clear they're buckling under the Christmas load, too. I've had over a dozen items delayed thus far.
At my address, UPS usually ring the doorbell; FBA never does. Given proximity to a major street and risk of theft, it's nice to know to bring packages inside when I'm working from home.