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Comment by miker64 | Hacker News Reader

Both UPS and FedEx deliveries arrive at my front door in good condition, the delivery drivers bag the packages up if I'm not home and it looks like rain.

USPS consistently rings my doorbell and makes sure packages are handed to me rather than left outside.

Amazon delivered packages have been: thrown from the street; arrive crushed, punctured, or otherwise damaged; left in the driveway; left in the neighbors yard; never ring the doorbell, unless it's after dark, and then they ring and run.

Amazon's last mile service is a complete shit show, impressively worse than the random cut rate last mile delivery services they used when they were trying to force UPS and FedEx to lower prices.

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I think service for any of these companies is highly variable and dependent upon locale. Perhaps it's a culture thing. The USPS worker never rings my doorbell for left packages and just yesterday a package was delivered damaged in my mailbox. I live in a nice part of town (I think) but the service culture here may be different than where you live (and different than other locales where I've resided).

Completely agree. Multiple times I've had USPS drivers report packages as "delivered" late in the day when they were not delivered at all, then they are actually delivered the next day. Sure makes their metrics look better, though.

> Amazon delivered packages have been: thrown from the street

i watched a USPS driver do that. i'm amazed he could heft the package that far.

> USPS consistently rings my doorbell

i don't know that they've ever rung my doorbell.

> Amazon's last mile service is a complete shit show

they all vary in quality by location. fedex was nearly unusable at my last residence, but is great where i'm at now. anecdotes simply aren't valuable here.

Only amazon rings my doorbell and it’s annoying as shit. My dog goes crazy and all because my toilet paper is here. Jesus Christ nothing ever got stolen ever in the history of ever here, don’t ring the bell.

Any packages from Amazon that have been delivered by its independent contractor delivery people have always been photographed sitting by my front door.

Do yours not take photos?

I live in apartment building with ~100 units, lots of Amazon packages and many from independent contractors. I've never even heard of this, and can't imagine them bothering.

I also live in a complex with over 100 units and yet Amazon still manages to track my packages effectively, take pictures, etc, so I'm not sure what the point is. Different delivery people treat packages differently?

My point is that I live in a large building with a lot of people and amazon doesn’t require their serfs to to take pictures, nor was I aware that happened anywhere, nor can I imagine them bothering, as they barely seem capable of doing what they’re contracted to.

Doesn’t bother me, I always select the longest wait anyway.

Ideally, processes should be the same worldwide except for differences required by local laws.

And ideally simply depositing a package on the porch for every random asshole to grab shouldn't be a thing either, it thankfully is not in Germany.

Contrary but also anecdotal evidence. Many ebay sellers use FedEx and it sucks a lot. The deliveries are constantly delayed. No issues with Amazon timing/packages from Amazon, except that they occasionally not brought to the package room and left near mailboxes (I live in apartment complex)

disc: I'm Amazon employee, not in Retail (anymore)

Am I correct in thinking that the last mile delivery solution from Amazon strictly relies on independent contractors or do they have corporate trucks/drivers?

IIRC, it's all independent contractors. Whether it's an independent company contracted by Amazon (which is the bulk of it), or a direct Lyft/Uber-style gig economy model of sourcing contract drivers.

Here's a (somewhat sensationalized, it's Buzzfeed News) article about some of the negatives that have shown up. It references that all of the delivery network is decentralized: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/amazon...

Currently both Amazon and FedEx both use independent contractors (sorry, entrepreneurs) - and your experience will vary widely with the contractors operating in your area. We always groan when FedEx is doing the delivery, because in our area that usually means two or three days of 'missed deliveries'.

They have at least some corporate trucks/drivers in at least some locations. Though without inside data it's impossible to say what proportion, but anecdotally it seems to be mostly independent contractors in Seattle.

Im surprised Amazon isn't campaigning with Lyft & Uber on the new gig economy labour laws...

You're being downvoted, but you're not wrong. Amazon's deliver is terrible for me as well, never had a problem with UPS or FedEx (USPS is slightly less reliable, but still WAY better than Amazon).

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