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Comment by buro9 | Hacker News Reader

I've basically stopped using them because of this.

I would shop from Amazon again if I could choose to have something delivered by Royal Mail as then I know it would get to my door.

Amazon did the whole "left with neighbour" thing... but my neighbours are drug dealers and their clients come and go all the time... the packages never turned up and I'm hardly going to go confront the neighbours about it.

I shopped there for convenience, to reduce hassle, and their delivery service increased hassle.

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This has been getting progressively worse for me. I suspect it is a known problem at Amazon but I'm confident this is actually an "innovation" of the delivery men. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they are gaming the system by dumping a street or apartment's deliveries all with one resident. They're all so stretched for time that they have to cut corners to meet their targets...

For Amazon they need to find a means of setting humane targets and then finding a way to accurately measure performance of staff...

That's not the Amazon way.

You might be on to something here.

I live in a safe neighborhood, the door and the number are easy to see from the street, so the delivery person should waste no time locating the place. I never had issues with Amazon.

Seems like they're pushing the system a bit too far.

> They're all so stretched for time that they have to cut corners to meet their targets...

> For Amazon they need to find a means of setting humane targets and then finding a way to accurately measure performance of staff...

Yeah, my suspicion is that this is the root cause of my troubles with them. I live in an apartment building, but I have a street-accessible front door, so I have a sign clearly saying to leave packages with the apartment manager in the office. Half the time they just dump the packages at my door anyway, the other half of the time they just dump them at the office's street-accessible door, because they got there when it was closed.

I don't know what's so hard about noting a delivery exception and attempting again the next day. All the other carriers seem to be able to handle that. A few of the drivers have called me for instructions, but it's kind of pointless: the next day's driver is just going ignore all the instructions and dump the package anyway.

It wouldn't be so bad if I could have all Amazon Delivery packages redirected to one of their nearby drop boxes, like I do with UPS. The problem is if I set things up to use an Amazon drop box, ALL my stuff will go there, not just the Amazon delivery orders, and they don't support 2-day shipping. I still want the USPS orders to go to my mailbox, since that's the most convenient option.

They really need to allow users to enter shipping preferences, since not all carriers are the same for everyone. For me USPS and UPS are the best, Fedex and Amazon Logistics are the worst.

Exactly. There's some amazon boxes not too far away, but less convenient than next door. If I could know which service they'd use, I'd tell amazon to put it in the box and have UPS bring it to me. But they don't make that information available.

Here the existing courier services won't leave the package with the neighbour or in front of the door even if you ask. The law is such that if they did that (left a package without it being signed off by someone whose name is on that address) I could just make a complaint about it and they would be forced to reimburse me even if in reality I got the package. Because of this all the courier services will call you before they try to deliver anything (most have some kind of automated SMS system in addition which you can use to choose from a few delivery times or redirect the package to another address/work) so that they don't have to make extra trips.

Nordic socialist consumer protection laws are nice :)

> Here the existing courier services won't leave the package with the neighbour or in front of the door even if you ask.

> Nordic socialist consumer protection laws are nice :)

Errr... so a law that I couldn't have a package left on my protected porch I've never had an issue with or with my neighbors with whom I'm friendly, even if I want to, is "nice"? No thanks.

To quote the SMS I got from DHL on Monday, in Denmark:

"Your DHL Express shipment #### from #### is expected to be delivered to you today between 9-20. If you are not at home, you can give DHL power of attorney to deliver the shipment to your address without signature. Reply PROXY and specify location"

Though I actually used their other option, which was to have it delivered to the collection boxes in the nearby supermarket.

I've had other deliveries left with my neighbour, but most seem to end up at the post office.

The issue comes if someone steals it from your porch and then you claim that you never received it. Just having a marking in the delivery system that it was delivered isn't enough proof in court that it actually was delivered and thus the courier company would have to reimburse it. Unless you give them permission to basically sign it in your behalf through giving them the power of attorney.

If you tell Amazon that you did not get the package, they will resend it no extra question asked. If law in Nordic country means that you can get reimbursed for delivered package without lying that it was lost, it's a stupid law. All my Amazon stuff is delivered unattended (~2-4 times a week) and I never had a problem. Not sure why it should be illegal. I would use Amazon way less if I needed to be home for deliveries.

The one doing the reimbursing would be the courier company not the sender as from legal perspective they still have the package as nobody signed it off. Similarly you shouldn't sign a package if it looks clearly damaged on the outside. If you do then getting reimbursement gets harder as the courier company can claim that you broke it after they delivered it.

The system is by no means perfect but I like that it dictates very clearly who is responsible for what/when.

And as pointed out by Symbiote most companies have a way to give them power of attorney to deliver the package without someone signing it.

You could choose to have it delivered at a pick-up location.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...

If you're living in a bad area, Royal Mail will lose your mail as well.

Royal Mail put things that fit through the door (Amazon will not always do this).

Things that don't fit, Royal Mail will take to the concierge in the next building over (Amazon almost never does this).

I've been having tons of shipping problems from amazon, but the carrier is UPS. I saw someone mention here that I can call amazon and have them deprioritize a carrier. Need to get off my butt and do that.

The same with me.

Before, my problems were generally when USPS was making a Sunday delivery. They'd often leave the package outside the entrance to my apartment building - otherwise known as "the public sidewalk".

The last few weeks, most of my packages were handled (well, mishandled, to be more accurate) by Amazon's delivery service. I finally cancelled the two remaining orders that were somewhere in transit, and cancelled the auto-renew for my Prime account.

Now, I order directly from shops, and might get a Costco membership for bulk items.

This is a bit of a silly complaint, you're too scared to knock on your neighbour's door and somehow that's amazon's fault?

I'm having the opposite problem (UK also), my amazon deliveries are fine but roughly 50% of my royal mail post is going missing (bank statements, credit cards, gig tickets). Multiple complaints, nothing has improved.

Sample size of 1 says very little. My big complaint about amazon deliveries is the silly 8-8 time slot they allocate. Who on earth spends 12 hours in one place every day?

EDIT: Nice downvotes. Someone complains he has a drug dealer for a neighbour and that's amazon's fault and somehow that's my fault?

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