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Comment by Balgair | Hacker News Reader

Oh wow, I guess the company at my old Apt complex got bought out. Those racks are the exact same.

Still, those were terrible ideas. FedEx, USPS, and UPS all just dropped the boxes off on our door. The others made us use those machines. It wasn't too bad to go down and get the packages. Oh wait, then you forgot your phone and had to go all the way back up to get it to get the unlock codes off of your email. Then you had to be certain that your email would not send the code email into spam, so that sucked.

But if you were out of town or on vacation or just stressed from work or had a spam email mis-identification then it was a spawn worse than Satan. The system started to charge you, like 5$/day or something, for non-picked-up packages after like day 3. Guess who got a nasty surcharge after spending a month away for work and no email to tell me that things would get surcharged? Yeah, 150$ for some random thing my sister sent me unannounced was not a lot of fun.

And no, the apt complex signed onto this AFTER we moved in and with no notice on the lease or an update to us. I did get the complex to pay that crazy fee after storming in one morning and yelling a lot. Idiots.

As long as there is no charge for packages that don't get picked up and no 'max time' it can sit in a robo-bin, these things work great. If there is any charge at all, in any way whatsoever, avoid them like the plague, they are horrible.

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It serves a real beneficial purpose for those of us who have missed packages while at work and had to drive 20min in terrible traffic to the nearest FedEx/UPS/etc retail outlet - at 6pm when everyone else got off work with the same idea. Then wait 20min in line for the pleasure of dealing with an annoyed retail lady who is short with you.

I'd much prefer having a machine on my property as a backup if I'm not home!

Your inconvenience of forgetting your wallet seems minor by comparison when you can just go upstairs, imagine forgetting it after driving and waiting in line... that really is the only alternative isn't it besides the old school "dumb" parcel boxes?

Your inconvenience of not knowing it was there and getting charged was the fault of your landlord, who rightfully paid the fee for you. It wasn't the fault of the box design per-se - but obviously something to be aware of.*

Your inconvenience of spam filtering is probably less likely with an amazon based email system.

I'm happy to see these becoming a widespread thing and being pushed to residential property owners. It even seems superior to the typical package boxes in most new apartment buildings or suburbs as it comes with email/mobile notifications (typical package tracking is far too often less than accurate)!

The only thing better than a machine here is a human concierge who signs for them and calls you if you don't pick it up with your mail. They're paid to be nice to you and are rarely busy.

* Maybe Amazon should make sure to tell new owners to thoroughly notify every tenant before using it - with signs saying it will be installed in x weeks and letters left on your door.

I'm living in Greece right now and I've been shopping online a bit more the past couple of months. I've been shopping online since 2006 and I guess at some point I forgot to notice how shit of an experience it is.

So in the past couple of months, I have RMA'd two items, returned one due to bad fulfillment, returned one more because I didn't like what I bought (and that got lost). Of all the items I ordered, one got lost or stolen, two more I had to pick up at the local PO which cost me a total of ~20USD in taxi fares (and several hours wasted waiting in line), one I had to pick up in the central depot which cost me 50USD in taxi fares just for that day (and again, several hours wasted).

Only one of those packages had free delivery because they all have to hop between the US, China, Denmark, Germany and who knows where else. (The only one I got free delivery on was a CODE keyboard, which costs $250 in Europe, vs. $130 in USA). So I'm actually paying for this ostensibly terrible service.

So I'm looking at the hub and I just think "Wow, that solves a lot of problems outside the US".

And it's US only.

Of course it is.

> And it's US only.

There are already competitors operating here in Canada doing this stuff fortunately. I believe Amazon acquired one of them which turned into this [nm, see edit]. That should hopefully pressure Amazon to expand and this will offer tons of free advertising for those smaller companies competing.

Edit: turns out it was Buffer Box and they were acquired by Google and (of course) shut down https://www.wikiwand.com/en/BufferBox

InPost is another one with boxes all over Europe. They recently shut down in my city though :/ (Toronto). But otherwise it looks pretty like they have extensive deployment: https://inpost24.com/

Germany has DHL Packstation: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Packstation

Also two startups: https://wefunder.com/swapbox and http://www.ucella.com/

For the longest time, Buffer box had one location: inside the Google Waterloo office.

Australia has Parcel Lockers run by the post office for free - they are pretty good https://auspost.com.au/parcels-mail/parcel-collection-delive...

But only for packages which are delivered through AusPost. Which if you buy stuff internationally, it mostly isn't.

Also, not in a ton of locations.

IDK, the vast majority of my international purchases have been delivered by AusPost - it's actually domestic PC parts shops and eBay sellers that I have the most problems with as a lot of them choose to use companies like Fastway and don't make it clear on their websites who they ship with.

I've had four Amazon packages delivered to Parcel Lockers in the last two months.

I dont think so, I've had everything delivered there and never had an issue. My only exception is if its something where they say no po box - then I havent tried.

It's the same situation here in Lithuania - various companies have these lockers but it's hit or miss who an international package will be delivered by. Even from Amazon I've had packages delivered by DHL, UPS and regular mail.

The post office will give you a forwarding address (for regular mail) that will end up in the locker of your choosing, but you then have to pay €x/package, and the lockers are usually at post offices, so it's not really worth it.

The Packstation of DHL is great. What also DP/DHL did, is to make every little shop a micro-postoffice. Probably gave them some incentives, but it works great if you are not at home, you can be sure your package is at the store max 5 mins from you

The public post office in Cyprus [0] has 3 of those machines (1 for each big city).

SMSes get sent to you as notification, and you have 3-4 days to pick it up. After that (and a second notification), it gets sent to your local post office and a delivery note is sent to your house.

No charges yet for the service, though they have been toying with the idea ever since it launched a few years ago. No charges for packages not getting delivered either.

[0] http://www.mcw.gov.cy/mcw/dps/dps.nsf/page25_en/page25_en?Op...

InPost is essentially useless in the UK, mind... there's essentially no retailers that support it, you can't have arbitrary packages from retailers posted to one, and I've literally never seen someone using my local InPost box to send packages. I'm assuming they're burning through investment money badly. To show how little people care about it: it doesn't even have an English-language wikipedia page.

If they could somehow have the postal service and couriers able to post things to InPost boxes, it'd be far more useful - but I suspect there's some really complicated contractual stuff that prevents that.

In the UK, PassMyParcel is good.

Your parcel get just delivered to your local NewsAgent, which in the UK generally has extensive opening times. Supported directly by Amazon and a bunch of retailer, but delivery companies use the same system (DPD, EPS).

Canada Post provides this service. My building has a parcel rack and they just put a numbered key in your mailbox when you have a parcel. No need for codes or phones.

For those who may not know, Canada's national postal service is the largest parcel carrier in Canada.

In Singapore the national postal service provides this service when you can ask the parcels to be delivered to automated box and you can collect later don't know if it works with fedex or other postal service who have their own delivery guys

Amazon have a similar service, but installed in public spaces, called Amazon Locker. They have it at least here in Spain [0].

[0]: https://www.amazon.es/locker

I literally just came back from grabbing a package at an Amazon locker in Italy (this exact concept, except it's been around for a couple of months now). It was convenient and beats the really unreliable parcel services here.

> It's only US

I think that in densely built European cities robo delivery is a much more promising technology. The first trials are already ongoing here [0]. Putting in the hubs may not make sense if the target audience doesn't want delivery vans in a few years time.

[0] https://www.starship.xyz

>It serves a real beneficial purpose for those of us who have missed packages while at work and had to drive 20min in terrible traffic to the nearest FedEx/UPS/etc retail outlet

There is a low-tech solution for this already..you have normal package lockers near the mailroom which have keys. Your package is put in a locker, and the corresponding key is put into your mailbox.

Seems way easier and the only way this is better is if the touchscreen system works for signature required packages, allowing them to be dropped off without you

Back when I lived in Seattle, I had Amazon packages delivered to an Amazon Locker precisely because issues like this. Even when I am at home, it is difficult for the delivery person to ring up at the doorbell.

In Australia, Amazon outsourced the lockers to "ParcelPoint", which I believe is a Toll company. The issue is they haven't updated their locker addresses here for years, and I found out the hard way that at least two addresses near me had stopped accepting Amazon packages.

why not use auspost parcel lockers?

Can you guarantee that Amazon's delivery partner, iParcel, won't use a courier which is silently blocked by AusPost?

(I have been using the AusPost ones and I'm having more luck than I used to).

Seriously - if AusPost don't want to accept a delivery they won't even let you know, it's just returned to sender.

I've never had that happen and have had lots of deliveries from both ebay sellers and amazon. Everything has always been delivered

I addressed the "dumb" boxes in my original comment. But another point is that these hubs can be "appended" to buildings without these parcel rooms/infrastructure that are offered by those larger apartment buildings.

There are plenty of other properties that could utilize this too such as multi-tenant office buildings and plenty of other non-apartment building use cases.

It also productizes these boxes so they can buy one of these instead of setting of a mail center and doing the subsequent maintenance (ie: cutting keys, replacing lost ones, etc). And it notifies the people by email/mobile which makes it a nice value add-on for property owners to sell with the property.

Why can't a 'dumb' hub be appended as well? I have them at my new apt complex now, not the 'smart' ones, and they seem to work alright. It's right next to the mailboxes for the complex. Again, it's only USPS that uses the 'dumb' hub, all the other companies just drop things off at the door. It's not a big deal, at least for the area I live in.

At my complex of 65 units, there are a total of 12 package lockers all smaller than 12"x12".

OnTrac has taken over most Amazon deliveries at this apartment. They don't know the door code to get in (ups/FedEx/usps do). So, they leave packages by the exterior door. Usually the wrong one.

"Fool-proof" never takes into account the ingenuity of fools. ;)

> There is a low-tech solution for this already..you have normal package lockers near the mailroom which have keys. Your package is put in a locker, and the corresponding key is put into your mailbox.

How would that work with multiple delivery services? A FedEx or UPS worker, for instance, cannot legally put a package locker key into a USPS mailbox (and usually, in apartment mailbox banks, cannot even physically do so even if they are willing to ignore the law).

The USPS already partners with all the big carriers for Amazon deliveries, so they could solve the problem.

Alternatively: put in boxes not owned by the usps, and use combination locks. The "special delivery instructions" box on every order form on earth already supports this.

The main problems with outdoor lock boxes are moisture and heat. The main problem with indoor ones is that you need a mail room, and they tend to be shared.

I don't see how this new product helps in most circumstances. I guess it could be useful in high crime urban settings, but mail lock boxes are already common there.

Japan is low-tech. The lockers are near the mailboxes.

Mailman puts the package in the mailbox which has a keypad and low-tech 1980's calculator style 1 line display.

He put package in locker. It generates and displays a pin-code, he write it down on a slip of paper with the locker number and puts it in your mailbox.

Works very well.

(I think he has to swipe a card to allow him to lock the thing in the first place. To stop random people using it).

Swipe a card? At least in my building there's no need. It's hard to imagine random people messing with it.

The low-tech thing has its downsides: the other day the delivery guy wrote down the wrong code so I had to wait for the building manager to open it.

That said, I agree that it works very well. And I think it's a somewhat recent innovation. Apart from my current apartment none of the places I've lived here (10+ years) had lockers.

I have lockers next to the mailbox and I'm in the US. They just put a key to the locker in your box and then you go unlock the locker and the key is 'caught' and won't re-close. Yeah, it's not a perfect system, but it doesn't go out when the power goes down and it isn't going to get taken over by Bratslavian hackers to try to sell my neighbors Viagra via Twitter and even the most tech-illiterate/disabled people can use it fine.

Personally, I just get all my packages delivered to work. I guess that's not an option for everyone.

My large megacorp has an explicit policy forbidding employees from using work addresses for personal parcels - allegedly, they're concerned that shipments from overseas could lead to customs import paperwork being sent to them and being accidentally paid by the company, and, well, something something something security.

In my company, it's because half of those packages end up delivered to the warehouse behind the office building, and apparently the warehouse workers didn't like the additional workload.

something something something costs

I just ship my packages to the office instead. Always someone available to sign and no traffic issues.

why not have the packages delivered to work ? or for large white goods fridge wfh on that day

Yeah, if you have to go pick up stuff, this kinda thing could help. I've never had to do that though, are you US based? My issue was that many other companies just left it on our doorstop, but DHL and a few others I'm forgetting insisted on using the machines when we were there. It was weird.

Again, I think they are nice enough most of the time, but the 'edge' cases make them a no-go for me.

Stop making excuses. I wonder how such a terrible comment made its way to the top.

> Oh wait, then you forgot your phone and had to go all the way back up to get it to get the unlock codes off of your email. Then you had to be certain that your email would not send the code email into spam, so that sucked.

Those are just one time things. You will forget first or second time but third time your brain will ring a bell "get your phone". Adding that email into trusted contacts is also a one time thing.

My building also has this setup but from different company. First three days are free. There is a website to manager locker settings. You can specify your away days then your packages will be dropped at leasing office.

This idea was also pitched at SharkTank and got funding.

> Stop making excuses. I wonder how such a terrible comment made its way to the top.

Yeah, what a weird argument. Oh no, I have to grab my phone and can't just saunter downstairs in my unmentionables and nothing else.

So, yeah, I was just complaining about some of the issues that this thing has as compared to just dropping packages off at the door like a lot of other companies did already and continued to do after these lockers were installed. It's more steps (literally) than before and doesn't make a lot of sense. Like, to me, it felt like yet another unnecessary middle-man just waiting for you to screw up so they could take your money.

Really don't appreciate trash like 'how such a terrible comment made its way to the top'. I actually think this comment reads like a paid account. This kind of attitude is more fitting for 4chan or reddit on a bad day. the 'terrible comment made its way to the top' because people identified with it. Obviously.

Gracias

Seriously. Trivial tiny things.

True, I get that. But other companies were already, and continued to, just drop packages off at the door. Like I said in another reply, it felt like another unnecessary middleman waiting for me to screw up and then gank me. They succeeded, and now I really dislike these things, especially when (for me at least) the 'normal' method was better.

I moved out of my previous apartment partially because they switched to something like this... in our case they actually put the locker outside the building/locks - far more annoying than when the building let services leave the package in front of our apartment doors. I'm pretty sure these cost money too.

One of these systems tipped you over into moving out of an apartment?

I didn't say that, I said it contributed.

Delivery lockers are a minor inconvenience, but it certainly was not a positive change... paper cuts add up.

Ah, I missed the "partially".

I guess my brain works differently than your's does; I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached.

I have no idea what a trusted contact is in email.

Also, our rentors never told us about this nonsense, they just appeared. So, trying to think up, de-novo, that these would have some website attached to them was too far-fetched for me, let alone many of my former neighbors.

You know SharkTank is highly staged and this is an Amazon thingy now, right?: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilycanal/2016/10/21/about-72-...

> Oh wait, then you forgot your phone and had to go all the way back

I can hardly remember the last time I went somewhere without my phone.

Even just to go to your mailbox? I routinely walk in the door from work, change into some more comfortable clothes (which may or may not have pockets), and then grab keys to go get my mail. I'd say I don't have my phone most of the time I do that.

But what if I get bored during those 3 minutes? Or god forbid, introspect!?

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-04-25

Haha

What if you miss a youtube notification?

I've been reading a bunch of complaints about notifications recently and I'm so confused, do people not know you can turn off notifications?

Like it takes two seconds in the app or you can block all notifications from that app by long pressing the notification.

Really not that hard to get rid of the spam.

What the hell, I used Android exclusively for nearly a decade and have just now seen the long press for the first time..

Wait, you can do that?!

Imagine the horror of the long walk to get it

My issue was that other companies provided better service for the same price throughout this time. Why make it harder when it worked well already? To me, it felt like yet another middleman trying to grab cash from me when I messed up in their tiny little empire that I never signed up for and did not agree to. So yeah, I would rate it a 1/5 stars.

How old are you?

Both myself and everyone I know have their phones on them 24/7, and next to their bed when they sleep.

Jesus man, I'm in my early 20's and even I don't make sure to put my phone in my pocket just to go pick up the mail. What could possibly be so important that it couldn't wait a whole 120 seconds?

I make it a habit to never leave without my phone so that I don't forget it anywhere. Even when I get up from my desk to get water 10 feet away.

I do that with my wallet and keys. I rarely take my phone out of the house though, and even leave it switched off for days or weeks at a time. I'm not sure what I'm missing out on by not having it available 24/7.

It's a very liberating feeling once you have 'trained' your friends and family that you are not dead nor hate them if a text goes unanswered for a few hours.

That is orthogonal to having a smart phone on you 24/7. I trained my friends and family not to expect instant replies (or me always picking up phone calls), but I use the phone also to read stuff, search for stuff, and note down stuff, so I do want it on me all the time.

I'm usually in the same place, and using my Linux desktop. I guess that's why I've always found it hard to get interested in phones: annoying devices with too-small screens, slow data entry and usually a locked-down OS with no updates.

Nothing - but the same habit also compels me to carry my wallet & keys everywhere I go as well. It costs me nothing to carry it, and there are times where I've returned to my apartment after stepping out for a minute to find myself locked out.

How do you get locked out if you carry your keys with you everywhere you go?

An always locked door?

But he has keys with him, so he's by definition not locked out. Maybe I'm reading into it too much.

My door locks automatically when its closed - so when if I were to forget my keys, I would get locked out (which has happened, which is why I always carry my keys).

Look, I'm not advocating illegal lock-picking here, not at all. But you may want to take a look here: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/11/19/how-to-pick-a-lock-...

You think that is healthy?

Not OP, but... yes, I think it is - at least if you use your phone for anything else than just reading trivia and socializing with people.

I usually set mine on a table or whatever when I'm home, but if I need it to get my mail, I'd take it and it's not a big deal.

I do the same, I leave my phone on the table or whatever when I go get my mail.

But if my mailbox requires me to have my phone, I'd bring it along. I don't see the problem.

I forget my phone all the time, heck, I forget my keys to my car all the time. My issue was that other companies already left things at the door, yet more steps (literally) were unnecessary and seemed like a middleman forced themselves into my life to make it less good.

For me, yes. I've been the on-call dev for several years. Last month I dared to go hiking out of cell range only to get hit with downtime (due to hosting provider failover failure). I learned my lesson :(.

I installed the PagerDuty app on my phone which uses a body proximity sensor to automatically alert me any time I walk away from the phone even for a minute. /s

/s means sarcasm, right?

I just keep my mailbox keys on the same keyring as my house keys, so I check the mailbox before I go inside...

What if your elevator malfunctions? What if you forget your keys and are locked out?

Yeah, that happens a lot to me. They installed those like scanner card-fob thingys at the last apt. and I lost that all the time too. Fortunately, it is just a magnetic sensor, so any neodymium magnet unlocked all the stuff. Granted, it was a full plate glass door for the front of the building too.

>and then grab keys

How come you don't forget the keys then? This phone thing is such a non-issue. You could even memorize the code when you get the mail and won't need the phone at all after that.

I forget my keys all the time. Also, the code was like 10 digits and letters or something. If I forget my keys all the time, I'd forget the code thingy too, no question.

So beware about addiction. Sometimes I make sure to not bring my phone to have more focus, e.g., gym, talk to people, etc.

I am sure OP is not addicted to his/her phone. There are lot of us who keep the phone in their pockets just fine when talking to people or keep it in the bag when going to the gym.

I bring it with me to work and hiking, but usually leave it charging or in my work-pants when I get home and am with family for the rest of the day. On weekends, I think I check it maybe twice. Like, the phone is something I use to call people I want to call/txt. It's not something that others use to reach me. Yeah, it sounds like a jerk thing, but my life is pretty 'face-to-face' and not digital to begin with. As far as I know, people who want to talk to me don't have an issue with it.

Consumers would prefer to get packages delivered to their doorsteps but the coordination of package delivery and consumer availability isn't always feasible. This is the solution to that problem and nothing more. And one of many available options (others being scheduled delivery, dropping off at the neighbours, leaving it at the doorstep, reattempting the delivery, pick up from the local depot, etc).

Since this is a multi-access digital mailbox this can handle more complex workflows a typical mailbox cannot. For example the code can be changed remotely so your access can be revoked (for cancelled orders maybe) or the delivery person re-open the box to pick up a package you dropped off in there for return.

This also opens up potential for further innovations here like RFID or bar-code scanners inside the hubs to mitigate wrong deliveries.

> Yeah, 150$ for some random thing my sister sent me unannounced was not a lot of fun.

That's unfortunate and maybe they ought to allow you to monitor and avoid charges using your app. However, whenever you have a shared and limited resources, charging for overages is not only inevitable but necessary. Otherwise someone who has a holiday home in London can order packages all year around and block the hub until his next visit.

Where Amazon seems to be going with this is improving the state of last mile mail logistics. The logistics are also sensible. Typically it will take a van at least an hour to cover a dozen drops at 5 minutes per drop. This is a real cost -- a cost that the consumer eventually bears. With a sharper focus on the hub model, a delivery van now needs to make a single drop for dozens of packages. These cost savings can be passed on to the consumer.

If a damn Roomba is now mapping my floor plan and what I have in my house and then selling that data to god-knows-who, why in the hell would I trust an app on my phone?

My issue was that many of the other companies were doing the 'normal' thing even through the time I was at the place that had the robo-lockers. Like, why make me take the extra steps (literally) to endure yet another middle-man that is just trying to gank me when I screw up? It made no sense and I didn't sign up for it at all, nor did they tell me about any apps or web-sites, just some random email stuff that got sorted into spam a lot.

Also, I don't really think ol' Jeff is gonna pass those savings on to us. Why would he? Dude is now crazy rich, and he did not get that way by passing savings on to customers. He got that way by providing a competing service for maybe 1 penny less than the other guy even though he could have done it for a dollar less. And yes, that is a heck of a debate to get mucked into, but suffice to say, Jeff is not trying to do us favors, he's trying to stay filthy rich.

It's the same locker Amazon already has in many supermarkets. I use those a lot; much more convenient than worrying about a package being left on my door, or dropped blindly inside my patio ruining a plant.

What you mean is that this isn't opt-in? All your packets potentially go there without you explicitly asking for it?

Yeah, I think DHL and some others just auto-dropped them in there without us wanting them to do so. It wasn't our choice. UPS and others continued to drop stuff off at our door during this time frame.

My complex has one of those Luxer One systems, not the lockered ones, just a package room with a Luxer One branded iPad that controlled the lock and a camera in the room. Same dumb charges, except packages literally sit in a room. I don't mind the service, but every time I get that heavily branded email that says "No need to rush home. Your package will be ready when you are!" I squirm a little - it's really over-branded like they don't want you to forget who they are

weird! The lockered one at our complex is really slick. A room with an ipad and camera is bizarre.

> Oh wait, then you forgot your phone and had to go all the way back up to get it

Wow, the very definition of 1st world problems right there :D

My issue was that this new 'service' I did not sign up for was worse than before and than what many other companies were providing. To me, it was yet another unnecessary middle-man trying to gouge me for no reason. It was more steps (literally) for worse service. Why would I want that?

Same deal at my current apartment. This fills up super quick then they just leave packages the packages on the ground outside.

Haha! All that engineering and design and all those meetings for nothing.

>you forgot your phone

Who forgets their phone these days? And even then, you can memorize the 4 digit code.

We have these things and they work great.

I think it was a 10 digit number and letter code which I could never remember and would have to then write down. Granted, this is not Amazon, it was some other company.

And yeah, I forget my phone all the time. To me, the phone is something I use, not something that I need or that others need me to have. On the weekends, I maybe check it twice if I'm not hiking or something, it just sits there charging otherwise.

I have one of these in my building and it sucks. USPS never uses it, because they have actual mailboxes. Fedex and UPS use it half the time. They sometimes just leave your package lying out in the open. The apartment staff will move any unattended packages into a locked room, which defeats the purpose of the system. Sometimes you get unannounced packages and there's a fee after 2 days of storage. But the worst part is that you are forced to pay $20 to sign up for this service.

Those honestly sound like small issues that can be worked out, especially with tighter integration with Amazon. The solution doesn't necessarily have to be "let me leave packages in there forever". If there's good customer communication and support in the Amazon app, it could be a real nice solution to a major problem with urban deliveries.

Amazon has an app? I'm not urban, so maybe it works better for urban people than for people like me. My issue was that other companies continued to provide a better service for the same price with less hassle. To me, it felt like an unnecessary middleman that was just trying to gank me when I messed up even a little bit.

You have a very difficult life.

My issue what that other companies continued to provide better service for the same price at that time with less hassle. To me, this felt like yet another middleman inserting themselves into the process and just trying to extort money from me when I didn't follow their rules. Plus, I never signed up for this, they just appeared and I was given no notice that 'my stuff' was going to be held hostage, no instructions, no links to websites or apps or whatever. So yeah, I was a bit cranky, my bad.

This is where it is really useful to know a neighbor or a concierge in the building. Then you can just forward them the package code and they can get it for you if your out.

I agree, but at the time, our neighbors weren't bad per se, but we really didn't know them. Lesson learned.

It just seems like what we have to do in this new world :p. Hey, at least we now have an excuse to know our neighbors, or at least be nice to the concierge if your building has one.

Seems to me more like deploying Amazon Locker to me.

> Oh wait, then you forgot your phone

Just get the Amazon implant to authentify yourself (coming soon)... or just scream something next to the hub and the echo located in your bedroom will give you access using your voice's unique signature.

Haha, good one! I could actually see them doing something that crazy.

> The system started to charge you, like 5$/day or something, for non-picked-up packages after like day 3. Guess who got a nasty surcharge after spending a month away for work and no email to tell me that things would get surcharged? Yeah, 150$ for some random thing my sister sent me unannounced was not a lot of fun.

Why is nobody talking about the most important point? THIS is the most important point. $5 a day is a LOT of money and I am outraged. Is everyone here financially independent or something? I have agonized over buying a used desktop/laptop computer for months and that purchase is well under $200.

None of the rest of the story matters. What matters at the end of the day is the money. Are you guys paying attention to where your money is going?

If I was in charge, changing the terms of rental like this would be a criminal offense and the management would be in prison for years.

Why is this thing electronic at all? Why isn't it just a purely mechanical system where when you get a package, they drop the key to the big package-sized lockbox in your little letter-sized mailbox?

This is what the USPS, Canada Post, and some other postal services do in community mailboxes. The only problem is when someone forgets to pickup a package as the box is rendered unusable until they do, which can be a challenge with only a few package boxes for every 5-10 mailboxes.

Most US apartment mailboxes are locked with a key, so the USPS is the only one who can leave a package key for you.

UPS and FedEx cannot legally open your mailbox, either, even if it doesn't have a lock.

Would you please not rant like this here? You have a good point that $5 a day is a lot for many people, but venting bile is not a good way to make your points on Hacker News. You emit more pollution this way than information, and if we're to have a functioning community, not polluting the local ecosystem is each member's first responsibility.

Thank you for your moderation. I got carried away. I will try not let let that happen again.

It's such a pleasure when someone replies to moderation with moderation. Thank you!

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