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Comment by Saad_M | Hacker News Reader

Is there a really need for this type of product? With the choice of either collecting your parcel from a delivery office or the multitude of delivery lockers that are popping up everywhere is this a problem that needs solving? Perhaps someone could help me to understand if there are particular scenarios where this would be beneficial to allow this form of parcel delivery.

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There is a huge convenience to getting your packages at your door rather than having them shipped to a separate location. For a household with kids, we are getting several deliveries a week. Things like diapers, wipes, food, etc. I'm already used to just opening the door and picking them up, so driving somewhere to get them really defeats the point of ordering them online. I might as well just drive to Target instead.

I would rather buy a box with a lock on it that I can keep outside my front door than let strangers (and Amazon) into my house.

This is an odd but apparently widespread phobia.

Do you not have a housekeeper, or a landscaper, or dog walker, or anyone else who goes into your house when you're not there? It's pretty common for service personnel to be in a house doing stuff.

A person or group of people that I've met personally and don't change often is much different than letting a random low-paid employee/contractor into your house.

I'm guessing tho that lots of people don't have people they've met personally. In fact, that seems like it would be pretty strong evidence of some kind of illegal activity, e.g. employment tax evasion. I'd guess a good number of people use a service that might sometimes, e.g. send someone other than the regular person.

[I'm unsure why a landscaper would need to enter your home or apartment or whatever.]

Not to mention the actual security of locks. People are discussing this functionality as if standard doors and locks are strong enough to keep intruders out. No, they keep honest people out; a real intruder can do things like open or break a window, pick a lock (or use a bump key), or kick in the door. Those are all a lot easier than hacking your fancy IoT locks and jamming Wi-Fi.

Never expected I'd hear "letting strangers into your house" be described as an "odd but widespread phobia".

I only allow people I trust to enter my house when I'm not home.

For a certain class of people I'm sure that's true but I would bet 80%+ do not have people coming into their homes providing services when no one is home.

Yes. Rural customers can definitely benefit from this.

I grew up about an hour from the nearest UPS facility. A closer one still doesn't exist to this day. I didn't have to worry about people stealing a package from my house, but if you go five minutes into town, you get to neighborhoods that are much more dense. If you wanted UPS to hold your package, you had a 2 hour round trip to get something you paid to have delivered to your house.

I'm not a strict advocate for Amazon Key, but I can definitely see the use case for it.

I think in the rural scenario an onsite lockbox has a bunch of advantages. Just need a way to direct deliveries to it without calling huge attention to it.

> Just need a way to direct deliveries to it without calling huge attention to it.

You'd think you could just fill in a textbox with a description of where the lockbox is when you make your order, and Amazon could forward that information to the delivery company.

Not quite as automated, but once you get the tracking number, go to UPS.com or wherever, and "add delivery instructions".

My parents have a plastic container slightly hidden in some bushes (ie not visible from the road), and the postman just leaves packages in there.

I'm a happy Amazon Key customer. I live in a reasonably dense part of San Francisco, and the nearest Amazon Locker to me is a mile walk from my home. The Lockers also tend to be at capacity, resulting in packages sometimes getting rejected and returned to Amazon. There's also the difficulty of getting bulky or heavy packages delivered.

My case is atypical though because I installed it on an outer gate, meaning delivery people are not actually entering my home.

This is the solution that seems sensible for me. Creating a "locker" (mudroom, just a big box, a garage... with access only to that space for Amazon and others). Granted that isn't going to be worth setting up for many people. But for those that it is it worth the bother it seems like a valuable feature (secure storage at location accessible to delivery personnel).

And that the feature also lets those that want to just to give access to their whole house seem a useful way to grow the adoption (since my guess is many more people will take this more convenient, though less secure option).

> collecting your parcel from a delivery office

That's not necessarily as easy as you seem to be making out, a lot of people don't have cars which rules out large or heavy packages and some delivery offices have inconvenient opening times (often business hours + Saturday but if you already have recurring commitments on Saturdays you might have to go through a lot of effort to make the time during the week).

a number of other threads on this service contained comments from folks who had limited mobility, or who had relatives in such a situation. they suggested having someone able to come in and just set the package on a table or other surface that doesn't require bending down would be valuable to them.

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