Hacker News Reader

Comment by SamReidHughes | Hacker News Reader

I now get photos of my package when it was delivered.

A local Amazon delivery driver was just found to have been taking the photos then swiping the package. The only reason he was caught was someones Ring doorbell. If anything the package photos are to help Amazon refute claims.

I don't know the pay structure for Amazon drivers, but I would not be surprised that we are giving up "trustworthy" drivers for the cheapest option Amazon can provide at scale. I've heard working at UPS as a driver is a great job long-term for some people perhaps leading to more integrity, but I'm just speculating. Maybe I'm wrong but I trust UPS or FedEx with my packages more than Amazon or their flex drivers.

Right. UPS drivers are union (Teamsters), Fedex are not.

I gave up and moved entirely to using the lockers when I order from amazon now. Curiously they still managed to lose a package between the last distribution center and their locker.

But larger scale it made me doubt if their model of Uber style contract workers doing just in time delivery with incredibly tight deadlines can ever work. For the speed they promise at their scale I don't see how they'll get around hiring more workers, giving more reasonable workloads, and providing incentives to actual get the job done right instead of lying to try and meet their numbers.

I had a package shipped to a locker. Delivery date comes and I get a notification that the driver couldn't complete the delivery because the location was inaccessible. Perhaps I "locked out the mailbox" the email says. I call them up to ask how I supposedly locked them out of their own locker, which is in the middle of a public mall. They assure me the driver will "try again" tomorrow. The status goes back to in-progress, then "location inaccessible" again, and finally "package damaged" a couple hours after. I don't know whether it was always damaged, or it got damaged in the process of not delivering it, but neither is a good look. Amazon automatically refunds me, presumably so I stop messing with the delivery time average. How its possible to screw up what's essentially an internal shipment so bad I don't know.

I went to buy it from the manufacturer's website instead. Ships without trouble right to my apartment, and I don't have to worry if I'm buying damaged goods, a knock-off, or some garbage. Someone is doing some terrible Pinto-style calculations, shaving pennies here and there while losing pounds building a delivery network that gets 'most' packages 'somewhere', 'most' of the time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com