Amazon Shipping Used Equipment As New

No nothing, when they drop the package off they send me a txt with the code to open the locker. Works really well and a lot less hassle than hoping they deliver correctly.

Amazon’s proprietary delivery service has been a much better experience for me than either UPS or Fedex - they call, I tell them to leave the package (or if I’m home - and they sometimes do deliver when I’m home, unlike the big guys - I go grab it), and they do. Stress free. Meanwhile it’s literally impossible to talk to your local UPS or Fedex driver in my experience and while I’ve not had any issues in a while (possibly because I had Amazon put a note on my delivery address to just leave stuff), their default policy around here certainly isn’t to leave stuff. It’s to leave a door tag, or more recently, to divert it out of the delivery queue and put it for pickup at some random affiliate that I can’t easily get to.

I went back to France last month, and was used to using Amazon’s delivery with dropoff without a problem.
Well, until last month: that was quite the most un-Amazonish experience ever. I guess Amazon adapted itself and now provides what is expected as service for my country.

First, I was charged right on ordering, while I was used to Amazon charging only on delivery when I was ordering from them directly. This turned out to be the first time I got none (yup, none, not a single one) of my deliveries.
It was mostly hardware (one of the items was a vertical mouse I was really looking forward to trying out, as recommanded by @geggis). It shipped from the UK to France in half a day. Then it didn’t go anywhere from there. The expected delivery date kept being pushed.
After a week, a single item of a two-in-one command was strangely sent back to the UK, without explanation, and was charged back.
Finally, after 2 weeks, I got a mail suggesting me to “try again” (unnh?) or cancel the orders and get a chargeback. Since I was staying only for another 10 days, I didn’t push my unluck and went for the second option.
This was good old Amazon again, finally, as they indeed gave me back my money without a problem. At least that is still working in my country.

Let me know how you get on with that as and when it arrives! :-)

@Reemul

When you make an order does the Amazon system know automatically whether a package will fit in their drop off?

Finally got my package, but the Amazon guy was really confused because when he tried to scan it, it said my order was canceled. I took the contents out and gave him the package so he could figure it out later. Really good to see they deliver on Saturdays and Sundays. I suppose I can just order stuff to arrive on Saturdays. (And then they will use UPS knowing my luck).

Hopefully I was just unlucky. Glad to hear most have had solid experiences with it.

Yep, if you select a drop location it will say if it is not possible for it to be dropped and ask for another delivery address

I’ve come to the conclusion that delivery services vary wildly by location. In my new place, there’s a porch. UPS gleefully leaves packages there. FedEx can’t be bothered. They’d rather leave them on the steps…in the rain or just on the lawn. Thanks FedEx. I would pay Amazon more to ensure that they shipped everything to me via UPS.

yeah I just bought some wayfarers and it was clearly a display model… no sticker on the lens, smudges all over the lenses… I mean for fucks sake at least clean the lenses before you ship it out as new.

My situation is exactly the opposite. Fed Ex is great. I have a package box on my porch and they will use it everytime and if the package is too big they will ring the doorbell and let me know the package is here. With UPS, Im lucky if my packages even make it on the porch. And they NEVER ring the doorbell because they cant be bothered with actually doing their job. I would pay Amazon more to ensure they never shipped by UPS again. Honestly I think these services vary based on the individual drivers, not the actual company. Some drivers take their job seriously and others cut corners to save time.

Yes. The actual companies and policies are uniformly horrible, but sometimes the individual driver is a decent, helpful human being and sometimes not.

I don’t know about Fedex but I’ve heard bad things about how UPS treats it’s drivers, mostly surrounding delivery quotas. The drivers that used to be nice had to stop because they were being forced into more aggressive routes.

Yes, corporate expectations (particularly surrounding quotas) often conflict with quality customer service, unfortunately. I think it still might be possible to get a higher quality of service if one could reasonably communicate with the local driver so they know what you need from them (at least for regular users like me). But the corporate call center doesn’t let you short of camping out and waiting for them outside and talking in person. :/

My local UPS drivers here are insanely good and probably hide-and-seek champions. The creative ways they conceal my packages are just awesome, plus the driver leaves me funny little notes every now and then! The only trouble is when USPS gets involved via “SurePost” (?) or whatever.

I’ve gotten scammed a few times via the “fulfilled by” program and exclusively when ordering lapidary tools. I’m 0% offended by it, though, as it’s not like I need to polish and facet my rocks in some specified time frame. The process of getting a refund via Amazon has also been just exquisite! Two mouse clicks and BOOM! Done. No questions asked.

Also, I ordered two sets of solar eclipse glasses. One set was a bit more expensive due to the plastic frames. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from Amazon with a nice gift card in it, explaining that the glasses were not actually certified, so they wanted me to have my money back, Shucks yeah! Plus the glasses were just fine, anyway.

Two other ways Amazon’s internal delivery service is better than UPS or Fedex:

  1. If you get to them early enough (before 4), they may be able to reattempt delivery the same day. UPS and Fedex just flat refuse.
  2. They have a field where they can specify an instruction to leave the package at (x) door as a global directive - it’s still up to the driver whether they actually do so, of course, but again, UPS and Fedex just flat refuse to provide any way to provide that sort of global instruction.

(In general they’ve just called me and neither of these things have been necessary, but I had an adventure this weekend where i had no phone service until about 3:40 this afternoon and so the driver presumably tried calling me, couldn’t reach me, and aborted. I was furious until I realized my phone wasn’t activated. I tried to head off possible issues today with a signed note at the door in case - as happened - I hadn’t gotten my phone up and running again before they arrived and that was roundly ignored.)

You can create a free UPS account and they will generally contact you the day before a package arrives. I think you can give them instructions including giving them permission to leave the package. Not sure about a global directive, but it woudn’t surprise me.

I’ve even had them forward the package to another address 100s of miles away for a minor fee.

Yeah, I signed up for MyChoice a while ago specifically because it advertised that function but it’s a complete lie. It doesn’t actually let you provide delivery instructions ahead of time either globally or per package. At least not for free. There was a premium version which I never paid for to see if it offered the functionality I needed because at that point they’re literally charging me an annual fee to receive my packages and fuck that. Fedex offers a similar program that advertises the same sort of thing and also doesn’t provide it.

Exactly. They want you to PAY EXTRA in order to get cable company like install windows. Fuck that noise.

I went to high school with my UPS driver. Nice fella. Service is excellent around here. Just move to a sleepy little town.

My USPS delivery guy is really nice as well. He waves whenever I’m out skateboarding.

FedEx guy still can’t seem to figure out that the door with a 4 on it is Apartment 4.

Amazon’s service looks to be extremely unorganized from what I have seen. I came home from work the other and there were 3 Amazon delivery trucks around my condo’s area. I went out on my deck and they kept driving around. Two seemed lost, driving in circles, while the third had parked and was stacking Amazon packages on the road as he searched for something.

I like the idea, especially if they will talk to the customers (not that they have in my case) and deliver on Saturday and Sundays, but right now I would much rather have USPS. I was never a big fan of USPS, but since they have ramped up service, apparently to support Amazon, I get Saturday and Sunday deliveries, and unless it is a huge package, a secure locker right outside my place.