So here's the thing. I don't want the carrier to call to ask how to deliver a package. I have never had a FedEX or UPS carrier do that, they just put it where all packages for my building are supposed to go.

I've had Amazon Logistics carriers: Be unable to find my door (it's a non-gated, outward facing door in a row-style townhome with street access). Leave things at an _entirely different_ residential complex, whose address matched neither my street name nor number. They've done this twice, and not even at the same wrong complex (the hint is it said "left at reception", and we don't have a reception area). Try to pressure me into letting them just leave something on the sidewalk outside a gated apartment ("would that be safe?").

I'm a Prime addict and I feel like my dealer just started cutting the supply. At least let Prime members opt-out of Amazon Logistics (hell, I'd pay extra in my annual fee to do so).

This isn't unique to Amazon's couriers. I've had UPS leave a package "at loading dock" in a similar row-style townhome with street access. I still have no idea where that one ended up.

Not sure that I've ever had a package delivered by Amazon, but if I did there weren't any problems. That UPS incident is my only personal shipping issue in years.

I'm also a Prime addict, and have noticed vast improvements in the past year or so with Amazon Logistics (Bay Area).

Just like you mentioned, it was really bad at first. Packages would routinely arrive late, wrong address, etc. I live in a gated apartment complex and they would always leave the package with the leasing office instead of using the code I provided (UPS, FedEx, would always leave at my door).

Now it is indistinguishable from other carriers, in that all my packages arrive on time, at my door, without any problems.

The only thing I don't like is PrimeNow, which uses 'part time' carriers like Postmates, and they ALWAYS get confused by my apartment complex - so I stopped using it.

PrimeNow in Seattle leverages Amazon logistics -- and it's actually very nice. I've never had a problem with PrimeNow here :)

UberEats on the other hand can never find my house as their routing sends them down an alley that has no street numbers.

>>So here's the thing. I don't want the carrier to call to ask how to deliver a package. I have never had a FedEX or UPS carrier do that, they just put it where all packages for my building are supposed to go.

I wish I could say the same. I get calls from UPS delivery guys/gals about 30% of the time because I live in a duplex and my unit faces the alley. So they come in through the main street, can't find "Unit B" and end up calling me. I have to explain to them that they have to enter through the gate on the side.

This one time they left the package in front of the mailboxes, out in the open. When I got home, the entire box was soaking wet from the rain. Gross.

I've gotten a lot of downvotes for this and I'm not sure why. Am I saying something controversial?

People being weird I guess. You just got 2 upvotes from me.

Heh, everyone's experience is different. Until recently Amazon used UPS for everything and I never had a problem. They deliver the packages to the business next door. Just like it says on the sign by the front door.

And since Amazon is incredibly customer-focused, I have an easier time believing the positive anecdotes.

It's still a pretty hard problem to solve, though. My experience is that it's taken Amazon about 3 years to figure out how to do their own deliveries in LA.

The first ones were terrible. They seemed to have no good fallback if the building's gate was locked and nobody was available to buzz them in, and stuff just got lost. They were customer focused, yes, but that just meant they shipped me free replacement stuff with free overnight non-Amazon shipping. Not the best experience overall, though, compared to getting it on the original date.

Fast forward to 2016 and they're pretty good here. Though USPS has been best for my building (and elsewhere people here are talking about USPS being the worst - again, it's a hard problem to solve for every area for everyone).

Why do you assume people are lying, just because other people have different experiences than them? It is possible for both to be true. You sound like a marketers dream.

I've had nothing but problems with them:

* Package marked as delivered on Saturday. Package actually delivered on Sunday.

* Package not delivered because there was no safe place to leave it (there's a sign next to the front door with instructions do leave it in the complex's leasing office across the street).

* Package delivered to my door, despite my door being behind multiple card-access doors.

* Package left at the door to the leasing office, even though the leasing office was open and the lights were on.

These have all happened in the past three months. I'm borderline ready to cancel Prime.

Each of these will get you an extra month of Prime if you complain to Amazon.

Great, except what if I ordered something for a specific date because, you know, I needed it for that specific date? An extra month of Prime isn't going to help me there.

Then enjoy the fact that literally no mailing provider actually guarantees delivery date.

At least Amazon is more than willing to work with you to figure out how they can make your experience more palatable.

Royal Mail offer a guaranteed next day delivery service [1]

UPS in the USA do [2]

[1] http://www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/special-delive...

[2] https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/next...

"The guarantee does not apply when late delivery results ... from events beyond our control ... or the exercise of any lien in accordance with our Terms and Conditions of Carriage."

If you can void your guarantee based on "forces outside your control" in something like shipping, where you're at the mercy of traffic, weather conditions, and human error, it's not really a guarantee.

The UK is a substantially easier country to ship in logistically than the US. I don't doubt that Royal Mail's guaranteed delivery works.

Much like a cable company giving you a month of HBO when you complain, I fail to see how giving me more of an unreliable service will fix the broken elements of that service.

I'm in the exact same boat my prime membership is due next month... May cancel

Apparently that customer focus hasn't translated into competence in running a residential package delivery service.

At least they tend to go good for it when they screw up, without much pushback, in my experience.

I've only had positive experiences. I accidentally screwed up the numbers for the address for a package. UPS and USPS showed up at the address and just returned the package. The Amazon Courier called me to check to see what the real address was.

Same here. Amazon has been great.

They also deliver on Sundays and they call me since my apartment building's package room is closed on Sundays.

I agree completely. I usually have the most problems with packages delivered through the US Postal Service and I haven't had any problems to speak of with Amazon delivery.

When I lived outside a major metro area for a couple years (Prescott Valley, AZ for reference), the USPS was horrible there, packages sitting on the mailbox in the rain, delivered literally blocks/streets off of both the address by number and street name... There were a dozen or so times a year we'd get someone else's packages. Actually getting packages from USPS was under 50%. I started having stuff delivered to work, as it was more reliable. And I panicked when I read about USPS doing last mile delivery for other carriers.

I haven't had that near as much in town, but USPS is my absolute last choice in the space.

Here in Hawaii, USPS has been at least as good as any of the other companies, while charging a fraction of the cost. We're talking 1/4 the cost or less, and delivery from most places on the mainland in usually 3 days, maybe 4.

It will vary greatly by area... I haven't had any issues in the Phoenix area... There are still a lot of neighborhoods in Phoenix that still have their mailboxes at the house, not the curb. Though I have friends farther out in newer neighborhoods that have less than great experiences.

USPS is the only carrier that has claimed to deliver a package on the correct day, then actually deliver the next day.--My 2 cent anecdote.

This completely. If I order from Amazon and it shows them handing it to USPS, I email/call right away because odds are I will not get the package.

I complained to the postmaster multiple times. Although, as a typical gov. employee, he just laughed and said we do what we want, it is your neighborhoods problem. Eventually the whole neighborhood got together and made some changes happen. It is still not perfect, but better.

I didn't order a package from Amazon, but it was shipped from the company to me via amazon. (I refuse to buy from Aamzon) The amazon delievery person ended up putting on the slip "in the flower bed." I've had other horror stories about delivery people being clueless about leaving it, and/or where to leave it.

I've had a lot less issues with UPS than I've had with the Amazon delievery service.

>I didn't order a package from Amazon, but it was shipped from the company to me via amazon.

Are you sure about that?

It sounds like you bought from an arbitrager: someone who's just a middleman, posts something for sale which they don't even have, but at a higher price than some retailer that does. Then, when you buy it, they go buy the thing (on Amazon in this case), use your address as the delivery address, and then pocket the difference. It's extremely common on Ebay and Amazon both, and many other places.

It was the company who made the item.