USPS Refuses To Deliver My Packages From Amazon
This is a first, for me at least. After almost 15 years of living in our house we all of a sudden can’t get a large portion of our Amazon packages delivered. A few weeks back I started to get notices in my mailbox that I needed to go to the post office to pick up the bulk of my packages. I was kind of dumbfounded. I pay Amazon a fee for Amazon Prime which covers my packages being delivered to my house, not the USPS office near my house, but to my actual front door. The USPS refuses to deliver my packages from Amazon, but why? What changed? And how could I fix this?
USPS Package Delivery Issues
Almost 15 years and I had never needed to go to the post office to pick up a package, not once. Unless it was a delivery that needed a signature I didn’t see why this would even be a thing. But low and behold, a few weeks back Alexa alerted me to a delivery so I went to my front door. The weird thing was, nothing was there. I went to the mailbox and there was a pink slip in there saying that I needed to drive 10 minutes away to pick it up because it was too heavy. What the f$#k?
I stood there for a minute, completely dumbfounded. I paid Amazon for a product, Amazon then paid USPS to deliver it, but yet I had to go complete the last 5 miles of the delivery? And the item was a case of Gatorade which is substantially cheaper on Amazon then here locally. We are talking 20 pounds tops, not a massive and heavy object. It made no sense to me. I ignored it and thought, send it back to Amazon then, I don’t have time for this.
But the next day there was another notice, and another one the day after that. That is when I went to Google for answers. I was surprised to see that the USPS refuses to deliver packages for many reasons. But I didn’t see anything about a new weight restriction for deliveries etc. though so I figured I would go to the post office and see what’s up.
Picking Up My Packages
Ugh, the post office. I avoid the place like I will get hepatitis by simply walking through the door. The lines are long, they move at a sloth’s pace and everyone there is like a first time Spirit Airlines flyer. How do I ship this, what envelope do I use, how do I fill it out? EVERYTHING takes FOREVER! That is why I print off labels at home and simply drop off my packages and walk out the door.
Not this time though, I got hit with that line, the long wait and Kohl’s cash customer service level of questions from the patrons in front of me. After 20 minutes I finally got up to the window and handed in my slips. I inquired what was going on, were they refusing to deliver Amazon packages with a heavy sticker but he didn’t know anything. I saw a few more people picking up Amazon boxes as well so I figured this must be some new procedure or something. He rolled out my packages and I was on my way, 40 minutes lost out of my day to pick up 3 boxes.
Searching For A Solution
Obviously this needed to end ASAP. I decided to go to the source and contact Amazon. UPS and the Amazon delivery people had no issue delivering my packages so I just needed to get my stuff from them. I reached out via chat but the person kicked me to someone higher up who called me right away.
After explaining my issue she took some time to see what she could figure out. She said there was no way to designate that my stuff only be delivered by UPS or Amazon because of their shipping algorithm. I found this to be strange since I wouldn’t think it would be impossible but I guess they probably didn’t want the additional cost. She tried calling USPS but couldn’t get through. After that she filed a complaint with USPS on my behalf and reaffirmed that this should not be happening.
At least I learned that this wasn’t a new procedure with USPS or anything. Or if it was Amazon wasn’t aware of it. I decided to file a complaint with the USPS myself as well but neither of our complaints produced a response, shocker I know.
The Hits Just Keep On Coming
A few weeks later my subscribe and save orders were due to be delivered. Wouldn’t you know, almost all of them were held at the post office instead of delivered. Some items were updated on Amazon that I needed to pick them up, others were marked as delivered to my mailbox. No notices were left in my mailbox this time around either. That second one is a problem because in Amazon’s system it shows that I received my product when I didn’t. If I wasn’t paying attention I wouldn’t notice I was billed for it, never received it or be alerted that it was at the USPS depot. This is unacceptable.
Once the boxes started building up, off to the post office I went. After 30 minutes in line I got a supervisor who was running around trying to do 5 things at once, which means he accomplished basically nothing for anyone. It took a while, but he finally brought out my 3 boxes in a cart. That is when I asked, so is the USPS not delivering anything with a heavy sticker on it now? He said that they should be delivered but my carrier has a restriction from their doctor and they can’t lift heavy boxes. Finally I had an answer.
I Still Find A Ton Of Issues With This Response
I am glad to finally figure out what is going on here but I am still less than pleased with the response USPS has to the issue. One, why not inform the people on the route that heavy packages won’t be delivered for a while. He was unable to tell me an approximate time frame for normal deliveries either.
Next, why wouldn’t they have someone else deliver the heavy packages, ride along, put the carrier on a different job that didn’t require heavy lifting etc. In my old job if we had a driver with restrictions we sent someone with them to do the heavy lifting. We didn’t ask the customer to come to the truck and grab their stuff. That isn’t how things work.
If you can’t figure out a way to get help why not get them a dolly or two wheeler for packages etc. I feel like there were a lot of potential solutions here but they went with the laziest option and said, hey guy you take care of this yourself. It would be one thing if their was a quick pick up system, a locker I could grab them from or literally anything that didn’t cost me an hour every time I have an order.
Final Thoughts
Since the USPS refuses to deliver my packages from Amazon until restrictions are lifted I have canceled many of my “heavier” items. I guess I will test it again in a few months and see if my postal carrier is off restrictions. The lack of communication is frustrating but the solution is simply maddening. Having your customers take care of your issues is not how you do business but it isn’t all that surprising since it is the USPS. There were a lot of potential fixes they could have gone with but having me waste an hour of my time to complete their job is the one they decided to go with.
If you ever run into a similar issue hopefully you now know what will work and what won’t now.
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What I don’t get is most homes now a days have those dumb tiny cluster mailboxes, which USPS will NOT deliver packages for…. So why would Amazon still use USPS??? Most of the time ups or an Amazon driver will deliver my packages, always to my door, but I’ll keep getting like one package today- has 10 items, fairly large box, and it goes to USPS for delivery????? Why on earth??? They won’t deliver it!! It won’t fit and heaven forbid USPS deliver to people’s doors!
I am a postal worker we are sick and tired of you people constantly ordering Amazon and having to deliver to your houses every single day! Y’all act like Amazon is your savior it ain’t! It’s killing the post office and we are starting to protest not to deliver Amazon anymore!
We’d be better off without the Postal Service. You’re a drain on taxpayer dollars and we are starting a protest to abolish USPS.
NEWS FLASH….USPS doesn’t received any taxpayer dollars its revenue is simply from postage paid!!!!
Newsflash, they might not directly receive funding but they are a protected monopoly, given they are the only entity allowed to deliver to mailboxes (which is estimated in 10s of billion$). They’re tax exempt and their government vehicles are also exempt from toll roads, parking tickets, and vehicle registration fees (also estimated in billion$). Lastly, because it’s a government entity, employees are paid more than equivalent jobs in the private sector (reducing turnover costs). Because they get all those benefits, they aren’t required to innovate as much as the private sector and they get lazy, just like you’d see with a child that gets handed everything in their life without building it through competition.
Then find a new job, Chris. The postal service was almost out of business until they contracted with Amazon. No one does letters or mailed bills. What else do you want to deliver? If you can’t lift 20-40 lbs this is not the job for you.
Amazon didn’t save the postal service lmfao cmon now!! We be fine without them we don’t even want it. We deliver mail small packages.. we shouldn’t be delivering your stupid patio furniture or mini fridges tires gtfaoh!!!… I take extra time for every box that don’t fit in my carry bag. If I gotta go to your house twice cos you ordered heavy shit I take extra time and get paid o.t
USA taxpayers $8 billion dollars to privately owned USPS in 2022
Derek, this is spot on. Wow, they get paid so well and have so many benefits for what they do and they cry when they have to deliver something that doesn’t fit in the mailbox. Let someone else work that job if you refuse to do real work. Most of them are friends or family of pre-existing postal workers which is also why they’re spoiled children.
So you are sick of delivering packages? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen a PACKAGE DELIVERY WORKER say. You do realize that our business is the only reason the Post Office is even still in operation.
Why can’t he be sick of it.. it’s overwhelming when u have your regular work load plus amazon.. 1st off the post office can never ever go out of business.. yall being ignorant if u think Amazon saved us.. cmon now come back to us
Then USPS should not accept the money for deliveries they will refuse later on. How hard of a concept is that? But they don’t, because they want the money. And they have no moral qualms about lying and say “we couldn’t deliver because we couldn’t access”, or even claiming it *was* delivered when it is still sitting at the post office, and altogether lying about attempts at delivery.
This lie is not a victimless crime, it is pushing liability for a product on the buyers and sellers. If not for the lie other shipment methods would be arranged, but you’re deliberately getting in the way with that when you lie about attempts to deliver things you actually just don’t want to do. Then you make people come to the office, wait, just to do the job you were paid to do. I can’t believe you’d defend this.
TL;DR lying is bad, and you seem to be skipping over that without lying about delivery attempts and the reasons, we’d come up with another solution.
Yesss sirrr!! People forget we are mailman we deliver mail.. now they want us to deliver big heavy Amazon packages plus ups packages plus our mail in 8hrs. Not happening.. as far as us using dollies and hand trucks we don’t have to that’s not in out contract.. go to the store by the shit yourself
Deadserious01, Also, if all you want to do is deliver envelops into a mailbox. You need to jump on your horse and ride back to the 1800s. You do realize, if all you did was deliver paper in 2024 you would be generating $5 an hour in value. We live in a world with digital payments, digital screens, digital communication, and everything can be done instantly in real time online. Delivering paper in mailboxes is a huge waste of resources and completely unnecessary in 2024. Perhaps you worked for USPS in the glory days when everyone had to pay their bills and communicate on paper through the mail. The times have changed and without Amazon, you would only have a part time hobby for a job working 2 days a week and making less than minimum wage. Time to get up to date and get with the times bud. Maybe if you embrace change it will make you healthy to get off your rear end and lift something heavier than an envelope. You sir, come across as spoiled and clueless. Get back on your horse and ride back where you came from. The 1800s.
USPS is paid for their services by Amazon. And if it wasn’t for those packages USPS would be out of business within 5 years. Nobody mails letters and bills anymore, it’s all packages. So if you want job security you better learn to love Amazon or find a new line of work!
If you don’t like your job, find a different one inconsiderate.
No you are not a “postal worker,” no “Postal Worker” ever says “I’m a postal worker…” That is not even a category in USPS. You are, a troll.
As a disabled person I rely on deliveries. Amazon has made my life easier by letting me shop instead of having to wait for someone in my friends or family group to ask me what I need. If I order three items, Amazon tends to ship them all separately. That’s not my fault. If postal workers have an issue with that, then they can complain to Amazon.
That works for everyone! Please stop accepting Amazon packages! No one wants USPS to deliver Amazon packages – or anything for that matter. USPS is always a miserable place – I’ve lived in big cities and very small rural areas and somehow there is always a line and somehow USPS will always mess up everything. Only the laziest people who can’t get jobs anywhere else work for USPS… We really need to close USPS.
It would be fine with me if USPS never delivered another Amazon package. I almost never have delivery issues with UPS, FedEx, Amazon direct deliveries, etc., but USPS deliveries of anything that won’t fit in the mailbox is a nightmare. I wish Amazon stopped using USPS if they have alternatives for an address. I would even be willing to pickup a package at an Amazon locker if they would notify me before shipment that it was going to be shipped by USPS but I will NOT pickup from the post office.
In the near future, ‘the last mile’ for delivery will be open sourced. With e-commerce becoming the new way to shop, UPS, FEDEX, USPS, and DHL will not be able to keep up. More and more companies will join in on delivery and distribution and your packages will be done by multiple sources through apps like Uber and Instacart. More than half of the traffic on the roads will be dedicated to distribution and delivery. Along with traditional mailboxes, each and every house will have a large locker/dropbox specifically for packages. All the roads will be widened and there will be a lane for through traffic and a lane for delivery traffic. Each home will have a drone landing and package drop spot that is designed specifically for certain types of essential deliveries like food and medicine. These clowns who are complaining about delivering Amazon packages for USPS will get their wish when the contract runs out and USPS closes its doors 5 out of 7 days a week. When technology allows for open-source delivery on a large scale, the USPS will be a relic of the past museum.
If you’d say to the public, “We’re protesting”, we’d probably stand with you. But you lie to us, you lie to Amazon about us, you treat us with contempt. You’re felons fully deserving of the six months imprisonment you’re asking for when you engage in these antics. The public has no reason to support you.
I have the same issues- rural usps route, small personal car used for delivery, refusal to deliver subscribe and save boxes in particular, and if multiple boxes come on the same day I get a note about how the boxes (regardless of weight or size) won’t fit in the delivery vehicle. Amazon customer service once refunded me for an order but two months later, when it happened again, they said “to be honest, Amazon can’t choose who delivers your package-best bet is to cancel subscribe and save order and place a
New order and hope for a different carrier.” Dissatisfied all around. Post office is overwhelmed by packages (rural people probably buy even more online because we live far away from big box stores) and rural carriers don’t have big mail trucks. USPS can’t even find boxes sometimes because so many are stacked up- threaten to return to Amazon if I don’t pick it up in a certain amount of time. Best solution I see is to stop ordering subscribe and save items with less than 5% discount , and cancel those items that are heavy. Use Walmart more. Another frustration is the rude post office customer service person I reached from the 800 number who was hostile from first part of the conversation and less than helpful. Wish I had something productive to ad, but unfortunately all I have is another common tale.
I think most Amazon customers are having issues with USPS deliveries. They should never had signed a contract with them; we all know struggling USPS needed the money but they are not equipped to deliver the amount of packages Amazon requires for them to deliver on top of USPS deliveries. I literally cringe when I see that notification of a USPS delivery because I know there will be an issue with delivery and 80% of the time, there is. And you can argue the weight issue, but I’ve had smaller items not delivered because I live in an apartment on the second floor and if it can’t fit in my tiny community box, they will not deliver. USPS does not only deliver packages from Amazon but vendors ship using their services and they still have issues delivering.
This. I live in a town so tiny our post office has two employees. One in the office three days a week, and the driver in his personal little car. I cannot get to them being disabled and I do need heavy items like dog and cat food. Just get them to my porch please. My husband can get it inside. He works hard and can’t take off time when the office is open until like 4pm three days a week.
It’s now the Christmas season now too. Why can’t they still ship UPS for the packages to my tiny town? They’ve overwhelmed two employees. Granted there’s only 400 people if that in my town, but we’re not close to each other. We all live in tiny hollers in the mountains. There isn’t anyone who lives ‘in town” it’s a ghost town except for the dollar general, post office, police office, and a drug store. And a like 10-15 long vacant businesses that died when the population dwindled. That’s it. The UPS guy has no trouble delivering to any of us but we see him less and less and the poor usps delivery guy in a 20 year old Saturn on it’s last legs is overwhelmed.
I blame Amazon not being able to respond to customer wishes on delivery carrier.
Order from “Petsmart” or another? Avoid Amazon
This same issue started happening to me since the Christmas season. I talked to a several USPS people, filled out complaint forms, talked to other USPS people, and have finally given up.
My solution: anything that USPS refuses to deliver, I go online and fill out a form to have that packaged Returned to Sender (Amazon). I am filling out complaints with Amazon, and talking with talking with an Amazon CSR every time this occurs.
But Amazon is about to lose me as a customer who averages orders of over 25k per year over this. I can take my online business either directly to the vendor, or order thru Sam’s Club or other big box retailers. I do not subscribe to PRIME to become a de facto Post Office package delivery person.
You might not know there are many less USPS employees than even just one year ago. In almost all Post Offices there are many more mail routes than mail carriers. Post Office employees have been working 80-100+ hours a week for up to two years in many places. Some, but NOT ALL, of these employees do get overtime. Whichever, many are deciding these hours are unsustainable and are exiting these positions. With not enough carriers you will have routes rotated, which means you won’t see mail every day. If your carrier is out, there most likely are no subs. Amazon laid off most of their delivery people, (Now only delivering in high density areas such as big cities). UPS delivers very little Amazon anymore. FED EX does none. It is not profitable for these companies. USPS also has letters unlike other delivery companies. Thousands of parcels are dropped at each post office every day. USPS, by law, cannot turn away mail. Carriers deliver between 300-600 packages per route every day. If packages are too large for the vehicles it requires the carrier to go back n forth to the station. With the decrease of carriers this is getting less and less feasible. People order dog food, diapers, toilet paper, gatorade, etc which are all large boxes for the mail delivery vehicles. These are also found at any store around! Any reasonable person would be able to see the consumer does have some culpability in these issues.
My son is postmaster at a small post office in Eastern Washington. If I have questions I ask him. And, yes, I am fully aware of the shortage of employees, just like a shortage of employees period, due to Federal policies that allow people to enjoy not working, but still be paid. Thanks Leftover COVID nonsense.
But in direct response, that is not the issue. It is the refusal of my regular carrier to deliver packages that do not squeeze into the mailbox.
Hahahaha!
Hard on 150 mile routes with 300-600 parcels
I do agree if they will fit in box they should be delivered and placed there. 50 pound bags of dog food on a rural route is a different story. I think there are just less people to work with boomer retirements.
Makes no difference if it’s ten ounces or 50 pounds. The end consumer paid for the service, and the post office can either cancel the Amazon contract, or deliver the goods. No excuses, no rationalizations.
The consumer has zero culpability. Wow! This epitomizes the service provided by USPS. You all are a disgrace and yet…accurately represent union works everywhere. As a doctor, should I say you are culpable because most ailments can be resolved/prevented with diet/lifestyle changes? Wow…the customer is not culpable for your decision to stay in your job. If you can’t find an alternative job, that is your fault (Pro Tip – during an interview avoid telling the interviewer that customer is culpable for the poor service they receive….) If you are never the selected applicant that is because there is always another applicate better than you – that means you are culpable for your own failure.
If USPS is not run properly that is not the fault of the general public/consumer. My goodness – USPS employees are just the laziest and most ungrateful ever …..many union members are this way but USPS leads the pack. If you don’t like your job – get a new one, but then I hear about the loss of benefits…then it must be worth staying! That is life! If you don’t consider the pay and benefits worth the work – then stop complaining and just find a new job. That is what every other adult must do when the pay/benefits outweigh the work. If the nanny hires on to care for a single toddler and then Mom gives birth to triplets and doesn’t offer a raise, then that Nanny must decide if the pay/benefits are worth the extra work…this is life. If it’s not, then she must find a new job. This is part of being an adult – life is not always a bed of roses, or fair, but that is why you have the right and obligation to find a job that you are satisfied with – but no one is under obligation to make your life easier. The general public is not here to make your job easier!!!!!
With that said – you’ve given more proof to the fact that USPS is the most poorly run organization in the world….There is no reason USPS should even exist. If USPS is dissolved, the general public will find another way – or will learn to live w/o USPS. It’s really not that big of a deal. I live in a rural area…USPS will not deliver to my house as it’s too rural. They will deliver to the paved road about 5 miles away…I paid for a PO Box. I go into town once every 14 days to pick up my mail. I do not have street delivery which means anything sent to my house address via USPS is returned before it even reached my small town. Yet, even with my limited USPS interactions…and a small town of less than 1500 people….literally I’ve met no one in town likes going to the post office. It was so funny – once at a town hall of about 250-300 people, there was a seriously hot debate (about the Pumpkin Festival…yep, small town). Tempers were very high, it was getting really crazy….we have two officers on duty at any time and many of us thought a fight was going to break out….THEN….a man steps up to the microphone and no one is listening to him, until he says “…and this is still better than going to the post office…”. Everyone stopped and most people started laughing…and stopped yelling. Suddenly, people were bonding over the terrible experiences of the post office…even in a small town. Seriously, how can you possibly wait for 45min in line with a town of only 1500 people! USPS is absolutely awful.
I agree with another you pointed out delivery is not a favor….I paid for delivery to my house – not delivery 30min each way from my house. I refuse to drive an hour round trip and stand in line for 30-45 min. That is about 2 hours of my day to pick up a package that I paid to have delivered because I didn’t want to drive into the city….Amazon is losing my business. I already cancelled my Prime membership and rarely order from them anymore. Walmart and Target deliver in 2 days now – I just use them.
I will offer a tip for anyone who reads this far….sign up for USPS informed delivery. They’ll send scanned images of your mail. I use this to decide if I want to go into town or not. USPS will return anything not picked up after 15 days, sooner if it’s priority mail. The cost of a POB is about $100 a year now days….yea…I am the idiot supporting the ungrateful government run organization….
Wow. You sound like a very bitter, very disgruntled individual. I have been a Letter Carrier for 30 years. My Dad was a Letter Carrier for 36 years. He never, EVER, stayed home sick. When he retired, he couldn’t go downstairs in his house for months because his knees were so bad. He never complained, nor do I, about the job we CHOSE to do. I would never consider him, or myself, or the people I work with, to be “the laziest and most ungrateful ever”, as you put it. I’m sorry you seem to have had a bad experience with the Postal Service. As far as delivery goes, we are the only organization that is contractually obligated to deliver every piece of mail and every package, every day. UPS doesn’t, FedEx doesn’t. Just us. Did you know that UPS, in rural areas like yours (if they even offer service there) will hold packages until they get enough to make it worth their while to make the trip?
So sit in your glass house and throw your stones. Lumping every Postal Employee together and calling us all lazy and ungrateful is just as ludicrous as me saying everyone that lives in a small town must be an unsophisticated hick. I realize that my job pays well for my area, and the benefits are great. I also realize I work my ass off doing what I do. Not everyone is physically able to do what I do. I daresay you’ve probably never had as physical a job. And that’s OK. I won’t judge you as you so seem to enjoy judging others.
Last month, I did cancel my amazon membership and requested a refund of my membership fee. They refunded it in full. I am no longer an amazon customer. I will not do business with this company any longer!
Amazon will miss u 🙁 … lol
I just moved to a new place and am experiencing this. My packages aren’t even heavy! I got a 12 inch tall straw Yule goat as a decoration because I’ll be too busy to make any this year and a Cyberpunk 2020 rpg hardcover book. Both are light and just too big to fit in the little mailbox slot of the community mailbox. The house is easily accessible, just a 1/4 of a mile from the community mailbox. FedEx, Amazon, and UPS have no trouble delivering to my door but both of these packages were apparently undeliverable due to no secure location despite there being a very easy to plop mail on porch right at the front of the house! I’d understand if the mail was heavy but the goat should be basket light and the book is probably a half a pound at most. I never had trouble like this where I used to live in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky, and where I live now is closer to the city than there. It’s about a ten to fifteen minute drive to civilization while my old place was thirty to an hour. Also the driveway is so much shorter, literally just pull in and your there, also it’s cement, my old place was gravel, long and windy and terrifying to drive on after a good rain. I would not have blamed them for saying no to delivering to the porch there but they always did, perhaps the Kentucky USPS is just built different, who knows. It confounds me that they can’t seem to deliver to the porch when the package is a smidge too big for the mailbox but oh well. I put in a redelivery request that specifically asks them to deliver them on my porch and here’s to hoping. It wouldn’t normally matter too too much but I work the graveyard shift at my job and I really, really don’t want to skip on sleep after my shift just to wait an hour or two at the post office to pick up two lightweight, easy-to-deliver packages.
Same issue here. Our rural mail carriers use their own cars to deliver and said they don’t have room for the packages. To make it worse, the office is closed from 11 am till 12:30 am so if I want to pick up my packages, I have to take leave from work.
The worst is the Sunday delivery. Amazon pays them to deliver on Sundays, but we’ve never received Sunday deliveries. They are always marked “attempted delivery”, taken back to the office and given to the mail carrier, who sometimes deliveries them on Tuesday. I called and was told that we live too far and that the Sunday delivery person is told to mark it “undeliverable” or they won’t be paid by Amazon.
I was also told by Amazon that they would not use the USPS anymore with my packages, but that was just a lie.
I tried to get my Subscribe and Save items changed to one of Amazon’s pick up counters in town, but they said that S&S could not be delivered there.
I have switched most of mine to WalMart plus who do NOT use the postal service. No issue there.
Amazon is digging a hole for themselves.
I am currently experiencing the same problem. I saw something to grab for my kids’ Christmas presents at Target a few weeks ago, but didn’t have the capacity to carry both back home (I don’t live with my family just yet) so I decided to use Amazon. Well my daughter’s present, on top of other items I ordered, were directly shipped by Amazon….the other one…this makes about 4 now, where they simply refuse to do a door drop even at my request. I should not have to spend delivery fees PLUS UBER to go pick up something that could have been resolved by just buying the product directly from the store….it doesn’t make it any easier and totally defeats the use of Amazon and the Post Office, and I’m already in contact with my Congressman and Consumer Affairs on this matter! Don’t give up, the government thinks they control you, show them who pays their Paychecks!
I work at the post office. I am a rural carrier. I understand where all of our customers are coming from. The views & frustrations. On my route I have to provide my own vehicle. I make 2 trips on most days & their have been times I’ve made 3. I try my best to deliver all packages. My customers are important to me. I put myself in the other shoe. I wish that customers would do the same. We are overwhelmed & overloaded with Amazon packages on a daily basis. It’s after Christmas but, it’s still not unusual for us to receive 15 pallets of packages. That doesn’t include the smaller ones, or the mail we need to deliver, or magazines, etc. we are not all lazy & it’s not that we don’t want to deliver. When contacting the places you mentioned you are going to contact then please mention how short staffed we are, how over worked we are, & that we are in dire need of postal vehicles for all routes that are new & full of safety features.
Same experience here too. I just contacted Amazon via chat and expressed my anger and frustration and how USPS should not be a carrier for Amazon. The agent refunded the item and still let me keep it. I just have to find a way to pick it up from the post office. I gave them the link to this article, stating that hundreds of people have experienced this. They said they would send it to the appropriate team and that I would not have this problem again. That all packages would be delivered to my home. Who knows! We will see. Thank you so much for writing this article!
Glad you were able to get some kind of compensation for it
I have experienced this exact same issue 2x this year. Anytime an item is too large for the mailbox they simply refuse to deliver it and tell me to come pick it up. I do not have the ability to pick it up, which is why I ordered a delivery service. Maddening.
I am a rural mail carrier. I can tell you why you get notices on your packages. Amazon refuses to deliver anything over 25 lbs. they drop them with the post office. We have so many “heavy”, “team lift” packages. We do Not get paid more for them from Amazon. The postal service doesn’t get paid more for them. All of these heavy packages are causing carriers to get injured. Every package that I had today was heavy or team lift. Well guess what? I delivered them all and now sitting on my couch with ice on my shoulder. When you have multiple heavy packages they get heavier and heavier as the day goes on. I have a Dr appointment on Monday and I am going to ask that he put a weight restriction for me. My health and job are more important than a box of dog food. I am 56 and would like to continue working until retirement but all of these packages will shorten my stay at the post office. No-one thinks about that. People only think about their inconvenience. When I was hired there was no Amazon. Amazon should deliver their heavy packages not the USPS!
Thanks for sharing your experience Julie. I agree that there has to be a better way. I think the USPS should dictate what weight they are willing to accept from Amazon but they probably won’t because of the money it represents. Or at least they should charge more and give the workers a heavy item delivery pay.
This is a valid complaint to the Postmaster. Amazon does not allow consumers to choose the delivery carrier. If they did, your complaint would have merit to postal customers, but it does not. I do sympathize with this issue, but my issue is to get the service I paid for. Believe me, I do not want USPS delivering my packages from ANYONE.
My solution is to refuse to accept any delivery from now on that Amazon shows as a tracking number for USPS. If I cannot cancel, then I will automatically refuse to accept it and order it Return to Sender via online USPS forms.
I can order anything on Amazon directly from the vendor who produces the item, and they frequently will cover shipping, so Amazon is about ready to lose a Prime Member. If Amazon does not change, they are going to begin losing big time.
The double edged sword to Amazon not using USPS is that it is another loss of badly needed revenue, which shows up eventually as less hiring or cutbacks in wage and benefits.
The postal service has a contract for delivery and items up to 70# can be shipped USPS.
Retire and let someone else have the job. I handled 50# to 60# boxes at the grocery store at 60+ years old. I handled 100# bags of feed when we owned a feed store.
USPS has a contract with Amazon for delivery. Believe me they don’t do it for free!
I just went into the post office and picked up a 47#, 6’ long package, effortlessly threw it over my shoulder and my 5’ tall, 64 year old self carried it out to my car! The mail carrier surely could have taken the roll of fencing out of her vehicle and sat it on the ground by my gate!
Thank you for this! I’m a carrier as well and the entitlement is real with some of these customers! We have a sub out currently who is having her hip replaced due to Amazons mountain of packages we have waiting for us every single morning before our truck even runs! We’ve had one carrier retire early, and two more subs out with pulled muscles! Mind you we only have 5 routes and an Aux! I really do hope these ppl keep calling and complaining, maybe then Amazon will drop us and do their own damn work! I’m not killing myself for free, for no damn body! Every single one of these ppl act like they’re the only customer we have to deliver for. My route is 110 miles with 643 boxes, of which EVERYONE orders AMAZON!! My evaluated time is a little over 9 hours. That’s 2 1/2 hours to sort and load, then 6 1/2 hours to figure out the rest! Not including all the trips back and forth to the post office to load the ones that don’t fit! I can’t load down my 2008 Honda CRV with 15 of your 40lb Amazon boxes and deliver them to you at the same time or I wouldn’t have room for anyone else’s packages, let alone my mail! So by all means to all the Karen’s out there, please continue with your complaints, you’ll be doing us a favor!!! My badge says USPS, NOT Amazon! I work for the United States Postal Service and never signed a contract with Amazon! Amazon promised you your packages would be delivered to your door on time, not us, so take this up with them!
Unfortunately, your employer signed a contract with Amazon. I do take my complaints to Amazon and USPS. I don’t contact the carrier. My agreement is with Amazon and it’s their responsibility to hold USPS accountable or end the contract. My main issue with USPS is that they lie on the delivery and tracking, so Amazon sees that the agreement was fulfilled. USPS has made billions on the Amazon contract.
Paying for a service is not entitlement. Refusing to do your job is entitled. I hope you get fired soon
If you aren’t willing to commit to providing services then you should not be in a service industry. Amazon just pushes the customer back to the carrier — USPS. I’m having the very same problem having just moved to a rural area. I’m not just having it with Amazon deliveries — it’s often a problem with medications and I have to drive 15 mi into town to pick them up from the post office. I don’t get to choose the delivery service. It’s very disappointing the lack of pride and commitment in the post office these days. Whatever happened to “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”?
Same issue. I am DONE with Amazon if they insist on using USPS. I will purchase things elsewhere. USPS does not do their job. Constant battle. Amazon starting to use USPS more and more and have continual problems with our local postman and postmaster of our post office. I’m speaking with my $$ and purchasing elsewhere. Isn’t it USPS job to deliver mail and packages? Makes no sense to me. So done with Amazon. Never an issue with UPS. Never!
Similar issue here. We order dog food from Amazon that comes in 40 pound bags. We constantly get “can’t deliver, box is full, over carrier weight limit, no notice at all.”. Try to reschedule delivery. Put in the comments “deliver to front door. Use driveway to get to flat property (we live on a hill) package weighs 40lbs, plan accordingly”. Come home to another note saying above carrier weight limit. They need to not accept packages that are above weight limits. I feel for people that are injured, I myself have a shoulder injury that restricts me some. But I don’t claim to be able to lift 60 lbs with that shoulder and take jobs requiring it. We have cancelled Amazon prime, and anything we try to order that says USPS delivery, we walk away from.
To those saying “just drive to the store and get your own heavy things” not everyone drives or has the ability to do that.
Same issue here. I have had several packages with no weight issue not be delivered per my request to front door. What is wrong with this company?
I currently have 3 packages, all got a pink slip, I requested re-delivery and I have waited for 5 days with no(!) Redelivery to my front door per my note to USPS in the note section. I have had 2 packages be returned to Amazon due to this issue. Now I have to take time off of work to go pick up 3 packages that USPS cannot figure out to deliver as requested. This company is horrible. I pay for the delivery to my door, it is unacceptable for them not to follow requested procedure.
We just started to have the same issue with Amazon using USPS for delivering. I live in a community with mailboxes in one area and if the package dont fit they will say mailbox full. I talk to someone at the post office and they said if your home is .2 -miles from the mailbox they will not deliver. USPS is also using contract delivery service to get the mail out. USPS sucks and Amazon needs to go back on using there own drivers or using UPS or FedEx. Oh and Amazon got no solutions on how to fix the issue. It easy fire USPS they just dont want to work and are just getting third party delivery service to do there job. In which they did not do a good job of when writing the contract with them.
Boycott Amazon until they start to use UPS
Amazon became really bad in delivery when they switched mostly from UPS, FedEx to USPS and their own delivery contract drivers. Both do a horrible job at delivering packages in a timely manner. I have experienced several orders that end up days later then indicated by Amazon. A few even have ended up in no man’s land somewhere in between leaving Amazon facility and USPS. One was delivered over a month later! I’m paying $139 for this bad service? I mean I could order from anywhere and get the same free delivery time frame? I pay a Prime membership to receive better service not worse.
Well I’m having the same issue and I think it’s wrong for Amazon to not do anything about this one they’re getting paid getting paid for what. We’re the customers they’re the ones that are supposed to be doing something to correct this matter. For it’s gotten way out of hand. Why is Amazon getting paid all this money for nothing when we’re not even getting what we need. I am disabled and every other day because I ordered from Amazon I am disabled they state or he states that he has tried to attempt delivery. Lies lies lies on the USPS guy. And another thing I don’t order nothing that’s heavy everything I have is little bitty things for in our town we cannot order groceries from Amazon because it won’t get delivered so what going on with this it’s like a thief in the night we’re getting ripped off. I believe I lost it should be done I believe someone has to do something about this because it’s been going on too long and I’m grateful that I read on this and I started looking into it. Because I’m not the only one that’s wrong it’s like the United States postal service is taking everyone for granted they don’t care and Amazon is as well because they don’t care to even know about the package doesn’t have been billed for many things that I have not even received and they do not believe me Amazon doesn’t believe me so they take it out on a double. I’m done with this I don’t know what to do anymore.
I believe I might go back to Walmart and delivery for day care about their customers and they don’t let it slide and go by on and on and on and on and on like Amazon does not do anything about it. What is going to happen is that Amazon is going to lose all their customers and they’re going to go back to Walmart and see where they’re going to be sitting on. For the negligence of being the company they’re supposed to be in represent.
We are having this issue and now just going to cancel Amazon. Over it!
This is maddening to read, given my recent situation– I was defrauded into a single family home (it was low-income housing advertised as super expensive, non-low-income housing, so the owners got a massive subsidy and I paid premium) in a city I moved to for grad school, that didn’t not just have a mailbox– it had a “community box.” And not just that. It was located a block away in the middle of an empty, abandoned lot. Not paved. Not maintained in any way. I’m severely disabled and it was completely ADA inaccessible. The realtor who defrauded me knew I was disabled– I told her explicitly, and she still intentionally didn’t notify me of this.
So, I file the appropriate paperwork with USPS for front-door delivery. In fact, I offered to put up a mailbox on the curb in front of my house to just have REGULAR single-family-home mail delivery, despite my severe disabled status qualifying me for front-door delivery. Well, what did they do? They couldn’t NOT approve it given that would be an ADA violation. So they just refused to approve or decline the paperwork/request. It’s been 8 months, and I never got an answer. I ended up moving to a rural area outside of the hell-hole city I lived in where we have mailboxes outside our homes and the local service people (like waste removal) actually comply with disabled pick-up requests. The waste management people didn’t get my garbage when I moved in (I now have back-door/side of the house trash removal, courtesy of the city, and all it took was 1 note from my doctor) and the manager came back on the Friday evening (it’s Friday pickup) and apologized to me personally, took it away, and ensured it would never happen again.
To think that USPS has the gall to insist their carrier can’t do their damn job and drop off regular sized boxes but demands disabled customers like myself trek onto unpaved, abandoned lots to break their legs because they don’t want to deliver to the curb in front of my house is absolutely maddening.
The best solution is just stop using Amazon, that’s what I did after they said there was nothing they could do to prevent USPS shipments.
In my case the USPS does not deliver to my area at all so everything needs a trip to the post office.
I do not feel sorry for them, when you apply for the job you have to be able to carry 70lbs, why? If they don’t deliver my packages? They never ever deliver my packages to me, even when we had Covid they still made us pick them up! They are rude and disrespectful! My post office is in Ridgeley, WV. They made up pay the price for turning them into the USPS, they withheld our mail for over 3 months, we had to go to the P.O. Everyday for every piece of mail! I complained and they made our lives hell! I went to the top at USPS and no one ever returned a call! I will never buy from Amazon again, I use Wal-Mart subscription service and they deliver it to my door, even heavy packages and are paid a tenth of what USPS pays! Just change to Wal+mart, it’s so much cheaper than Amazon and you can get it the same day or the next!
You’re heavy parcels is probably what have that poor
Carrier an injury I feel bad for them just go to the store and purchase heavy items postal trucks don’t have lifters or Ramps on their vehicles or anyone to help them lift it ( heavy stickers say team lift) unless you want to wait for him or her when they deliver and help them carry it to your door
Why have weight limits on packages? If it is to heavy for the driver, then they should have never accepted it to begin with! My son works at UPS and he delivers oversized and heavy packages because he was hired to do so, just like USPS! If you can’t do the job then get someone who can, that simple!
Your son works for UPS? So does my husband. UPS trucks are equipped with dollys, guess who’s is not? Our personal vehicles. Try packing 300 Amazon boxes in a 2008 Honda CRV the same way they’re packed into a UPS truck and let me know how that works out for ya. And btw, if USPS was holding your mail, either your box stayed blocked or it didn’t meet the requirements and you refused to comply with the rules and regulations. USPS doesn’t just hold your mail bc they don’t like you. I promise we don’t have room for your mail and packages at the post office. But if your box is too low, too high, too hard to reach, RAGGEDY, or blocked, your mail will continue to be held until you fix the problem.
While I agree that a lot of these mail carriers sound like they’re slacking off, USPS is just not equipped to handle large packages like UPS is. When UPS has an “overweight” package they have a special scan entry that allows them more time for any heavy items. In regards to your comment that the USPS should just hire people who can do the job, they’re trying. Of course te USPS payS half of what UPS does, they offer a smaller pension while requiring higher contributions, offer lower quality health care and give less days off than UPS. Oh yes, USPS employees also have to pay for uniforms; winter gear is about $1000. Personally I love my job but I think you can see why people aren’t fighting for positions with USPS.
We are having a similar issue. Im in a rual area and post is delivered with personal vehicles. Its over 1hr round trip to my post office. Anything oversized should be sent ups. But it never is.
Sorry to hear it Devon
It is not profitable for UPS so they will not deliver.
Thank you for this! This is not a USPS problem, we are literally breaking our backs to deliver for not only Amazon and ourselves, but we get UPS and FedEx dumped on us as well! Those carriers should never leave us boxes to deliver the size of a refrigerator when they know we use our personal vehicles. But Amazon is a greedy corporation and will continue to do so as long as it’s the cheapest way out. Amazon should have been canceled a long time ago, more than half the products they sell are coming straight from China and they aren’t even real! Imagine ordering your dog food only to find out the original food was replaced with God knows what. I’ve had the same thing happen with shampoo amongst other things. I let Amazon go once China took it over.
I live and work on a rural Texas cattle ranch just south of the DFW metroplex. We mostly had no serious issues with Amazon packages delivered by USPS other than the fact that they have always left them outside of our electric gate entrance. USPS refuses to enter a private residence property (non commercial) which requires a gate code (unlike UPS or FedEx). We were told years ago that this was policy.
Then in 2020 when the new Postmaster came onboard everything changed! To access our rural ranch you must drive 1/8 mile down a private road (one lane wide) off of the two lane county road. If you refuse to enter our property (won’t use the gate code) then to exit you must back up (in reverse gear) that same private road at least 1/16 mile (until you reach our front neighbor’s private driveway) in order to turn around and leave.
USPS now says (per several USPS managers) it’s policy that carriers (Postal Employees) cannot “back up” on private rural roads in order to exit a location anymore. USPS subcontractors (non employees) can do this. USPS carriers ARE allowed to “back up” on private residential urban roads or commercial properties to exit locations – ONLY NOT on private residential rural roads! Basically if you’re a rural residential USPS customer they no longer care about you or your service. That’s because there are simply too few of us anymore (everyone has moved to the cities).
As a result the only Amazon packages that will be delivered to our rural location anymore are those that can fit in our mailbox on the county road. All other packages (PS this means ANY packages not just those from Amazon) that cannot fit in the mailbox are now held for pickup at our local Post Office which is 10 miles away with horribly long waits even on good days.
We’re huge buyers on Amazon. As long time Prime members I complained LOUDLY to Amazon and forced them to create an “escalation ticket” (ask an Amazon Team Lead to do this). Make sure the Team Lead documents your request in an email to you and includes the escalation ticket number for future reference. Amazon CAN flag your account for “preferred shippers” which in our case is anyone other than USPS.
This means, once the escalation ticket is approved, that Amazon will ‘avoid’ shipping your items via USPS. This is not a guarantee and only applies to items shipped by Amazon, not those shipped by third party sellers. Yes, it applies to items sold by third party sellers but shipped by Amazon. Again, this change to your account is not a full time guarantee because sometimes the only shipper an Amazon location can use for certain items is USPS. However it will reduce the number of Amazon packages shipped to your location by USPS.
For third party seller items we look for those where we can specify UPS or FedEx delivery or buy the item on another platform that can do this. For now we remain royally screwed by USPS. These USPS “new policies” clearly revolve around charging more and more for doing less and less (much less) if not absolutely as little as possible.
PPS on our last pickup at the Post Office they couldn’t find all of our packages. The reason? Because there are now so many packages being held for customers to pickup at our local Post Office that they’ve been forced to call for trailers to temporarily store these excess packages in. This causes the Post Office staff to lose track of where individual packages are located on the Post Office grounds. LOL
I am having the same issue. Our delivery person uses her own vehicle. Apparently, after 16 years of her delivering to our side porch, she wants us to put a big container halfway up the driveway. Most times after we put a large plastic container where requested, the package was put on top of it. I got fed up and got rid of the container. Now she only delivers packages that fit in the mailbox. We have a steep driveway, but we endeavor to keep it driveable. Her vehicle has difficulty with brakes or something. Why is it my responsibility to do her job by going and getting my package because she doesn’t have the right equipment to do the job. Fed up and Frustrated
Amazon has their own delivery service and are required to drop packages off at a door or in a convenient location. Since Amazon doesn’t not have a contract with USPS any longer they are not allowed to use mailboxes to drop off. Unless an agreement exists between a package carrier and the USPS, then the post office is acting in accordance with federal law. Otherwise postage is due for any item delivered to a mailbox. Amazon employees are told this explicitly during their training.
I am struggling with this as well with an Amazon package. Mine was 36″ x 48″. I got a notice that it wouldn’t fit in my mailbox (no kidding). After 4 chats with Amazon and a week waiting for the two day delivery, Amazon said that “it must be lost. we will send you another with guaranteed 2 day delivery.” Before I could ask for another carrier, the chat person disconnected. Fast forward 2 days and it was shipped by USPS. It made it to my local post office then:
6:30 AM “Package out for delivery”
6:32 AM “Delivery Attempt Failed”
When I was finally able to call someone from the post office the guy told me that the carrier was too busy and they would not deliver my package.
What I found super infuriating was that there is no recourse and no way to complain. The USPS complaint form allows you to fill out 5 pages of info then on the final page throws an error. I found an email for the local post master. The email bounced.
I work while the post office is open and don’t drive currently due to a medical condition. Why is it too much to ask that they deliver a package that they are paid to deliver? I lose an hour plus of work plus a round-trip Uber cost to pick up something that they should deliver.
Is there any way at all to actually file a complaint or that the USPS gets held accountable for not doing their job?
Every time I choose next day delivery and Amazon passes my package off to USPS, I never get my package the next day. Amazon says my package is out for delivery, Yet USPS says the opposite. Amazon drops off my package to USPS like 3am. That’s more than enough time to get my packages when Amazon said I should.USPS is a POS. What’s the point of having prime Next Day Delivery.
My next day often gets marked undeliverable. I think so they don’t miss Amazons requirement and get docked for it.
I thought I was the only one having these issues, but turns out there are others. I had an issue w/ a heavy package not being delivered by the USPS. Amazon sent it via USPS and the post office refused to deliver it 3x. The funny thing is, they didn’t even attempt to deliver it. They literally slapped the piece of paper on my mailbox and wrote in pen “Item cannot fit in the mailbox”. No kidding it can’t, but they didn’t even attempt to deliver it. After a lot of back and forth w/ Amazon Logistics, I was told by a supervisor that Amazon has a contract w/ USPS and that USPS guarantees that they can and will deliver the product to the customers. This is only what I was told on the phone by Amazon. So it sounds like the USPS carriers got this dumped on them, although they are supposed to deliver packages from USPS anyways. They probably have more due to Amazon. Like another person posted above, I asked they do not deliver my packages w/ USPS, but they said they cannot guarantee that it doesn’t happen. Such is life.
Sorry to hear that Byron. Yeah they didn’t have room on the truck or want to take it so they just give you the notice to go pick it up instead of deliver it. Sad reality these days.
I have had the same issue with USPS and not for heavy packages, as mine rarely are. I work from home, so get a lot of deliveries here. I also have a diabetic child, so we rely on packages being delivered and on time as many are medical supplies.
My husbands oxygen supplies and his inhalers are too heavy to be delivered? He struggles to get to the post office, and when I asked them if they could deliver they told me off and kept his supplies longer, and he suffered bad because of it! If we complain then they hold our mail from us! This is abusive behavior, where can we file a complaint? If anyone knows please let me know, I’m not filling out their huge complaint form just to have it not send! No wonder we use the phrase “going postal”
This has been an issue for me, as well. The local USPS is apparently content to blatantly lie to avoid dealing with my deliveries, including claiming that packages are lost, claiming that my mailbox is too full to deliver something that would never go into a mail box, claiming that I personally requested for my mail to be held, or just outright not giving an excuse and just demanding I drive to pick my stuff up. My requests for assistance are just met with redelivery dates that are never met, or promises of callbacks which never come. I have zero faith in my local post office any more, and I suspect they’re lying to cover up their lack of resources due to the changes enacted by Postmaster DeJoy.
Fortunately, it seems that Amazon’s policies have changed in the months since this article was written. I went to Amazon customer service, and have been assured (after my third item delivery failure) that the USPS would no longer be used for orders with my Prime account in the future. It remains to be seen if this adjustment will actually work, but for now, I’m at least satisfied that Amazon is trying to mitigate the issue.
That is good news Alex that Amazon is willing to do it now. Let us know if it was just words or if it actually happens so I can update the article as that being an option now 🙂
One glaring issue that has hampered delivery problems if COVID. It has hit every company. Thanks to Congress post offices began to experience labor shortages. Carriers who didn’t take off were mandated to work up to 12 hours a day 6 days a week. This alone will lead to injuries! I will add that there are carriers who took advantage of free pay merely because they feared contracting Covid.
I spent 21 years at the USPS, retiring in 2005. Before I started in 1984 I used to think, what a cushy job. It didn’t take long for my thinking to change.
In a non-covid environment, a CCA or PTF or Overtime desired list employee would have delivered your packages.
USPS management should have informed you of delays or non delivery, no excuse for their failures.
https://link.usps.com/2021/05/10/emergency-federal-employee-leave/
The Postal Service wants to you understand a new form of leave that has been created for federal workers, including USPS employees, in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The new leave, emergency federal employee leave (EFEL), was established under the American Rescue Plan Act, a law that took effect March 11.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which is overseeing implementation of EFEL, finalized its guidance on the leave April 29.
Under the American Rescue Plan Act, full-time federal employees are eligible to receive up to 600 hours of paid leave when they are unable to work (including telework) because of a qualifying COVID-19-related reason.
Thanks for the great info!
Jesus!! You’re complaining because a letter carrier is unable to deliver Gatorade to your door. Ummm ordering cases of Gatorade online is the epitome of laziness. What if everyone on the mail route orders nonsense like this…like my grandfather used to say… are your legs broken?
Shannon – did you actually read it? I order them because it is the cheapest option by far. Should I pay more because the USPS can’t do the job they were paid for. As my grandfather used to say, reading comprehension is a lost art form 🙂
Welcome to 2021. The majority of Americans order products online and out economy depends on it.
Missing the point. The service paid for was home shipping. The service received was moving the product from one warehouse to another (the USPS office). Where’s the value in that? In my case, the Amazon depot is literally closer than the post office — it would be both faster and cheaper for me to drive to the Amazon fulfillment center and pick my stuff up. USPS is the absolute worst.
It’s amazing that USPS worker are suddenly feeling as though they are in a position to judge the validity of an online order made by the general public…. Wow! Do all these USPS workers realize how lazy they are? If you have a problem with the tasks that your leadership team has given you – take it up with them. I do hope the USPS leadership works with Amazon to ask Amazon to stop using them, because no one wants this – but if USPS tasks you with a delivery, you are being paid to deliver it – it’s not a favor for the customer, you are being paid to make a delivery. If you don’t like the task your leaders are paying you to do – find a new job! I challenge you all who work for the Post Office – next time you get ANY bad service, be it from UPS or FedEx, or even when you walk in to a Walmart or go to a restaurant…ANY bad service….just remember how as a customer, you are culpable for this bad service you received…you ordered a soda and now the waiter has to walk to get the soda – why can you just drink water!… Next time ANYTHING goes wrong when you are a customer – remember the service you gave to your customers. Customer service is not about asking the customer to “be understanding” or “walk in your shoes”….I get your job is hard, so is mine! That is why I paid for a service so after I gave 100% to my customer I could have the service I PAID FOR….
Wow and I thought I was the only one who had a delivery problem with Amazon. I’ve lived in Sevierville TN for 7 years, 6 years at my present address and been getting my packages that wont fit in the locked mail boxes delivered to my cabin with no problem until about a year ago. The USPS will deliver small packages but that’s it. I called and called my local office and they never answer the phone, ok I went there in person and asked why I can’t get my Amazon packages delivered, he shrugged his shoulders. This happened twice. Then I askes for the post master, he was on leave. Talked to the supervisor, he wrote down what I was saying, I’ll let you know asap. NOT…I also filed 2 complaints, nothing. He let it slip that this is happening because of employees complaining about brining packages to peoples homes. So its the union that stopped the deliveries to our door. Yes, really, this is what the supervisor said. I believe him. If enough postal carriers complain the union comes in and ends it via voting. Excuse me but delivering mail is what the USPS is suppose to do be it “rain or shine or dark of night” etc…If you can’t lift packages you have no business working there. The post office is a 30 mile round trip for me, I have a torn shoulder and can’t carry anything heavy including a cup of coffee (maybe I should get a job there). I explained this to them. I order what food I can from Amazon to make things a bit easier. Now its worse then ever and have no one to help and no health insurance to have surgery, but that’s my problem. Is this 2021? Is something so simple really happening when the world has major health pandemic, tens of thousands of people passing away alone, children hungry, people being thrown out of their home because they can’t buy food and pay rent along with a thousand other things. Come on USPS is this what your suppose to do, or is it?? Shame, shame shame on you. Thanks for listening. God bless America.
Sorry to hear! But you still have a sense of humor. And hopefully a long straw for that heavy coffee cup. Espresso beans are light & nonperishable if kept cool… STOK coffee “shots” are great and light too.
I have the same issue with my mail carrier. She started complaining last fall about having to come up my driveway to the house. She stated she loses 15 min every day she has to deliver. So, I set my stopwatch and drove to my mailbox, got out and went to the back of my car like I was getting something,, then back to my house 2 minutes 34 seconds.
Today while delivering my subscribe and save, she informed me that “because she had to make a special trip back to the post office for my items”. She also stated that when she has to do that, it costs the postal service $50. She said her supervisors informed her that I continue to receive more than a couple packages, I will have to get them at the post office. I called Amazon and they found that she had filed them in to be redirected to another address. Said at customers request which I NEVER requested. After telling me I had to order less because they aren’t equipped to handle orders like mine (2 large boxes, 3 medium boxes, and 2 small), this is what now shows on my delivery details
“An address redirection agreement is in place between the customer and the carrier. Package will be forwarded to the requested address.” There was no agreement nor was a change in the address requested.
That is pure craziness. I would file a complaint with the Postmaster General that they changed this without your knowledge.
Well that’s bad but listen to this: Whether the order is from Amazon or not, USPS will not deliver ANY mail at ALL downtown Ridgefield, Washington on the south side of Main Street. For no reason at all. And City Hall doesn’t care. Everyone has to pay $130/year for a PO Box. It is corrupt & none of the attorneys care either.
+1
If you really want to know all the reasons your article is in so many ways right and in so many more ways wrong why not get a Jonas a rural Carrier? If you have never done it you really have no clue. Most don’t last a week.
In follow up to this, My Amazon delivery of a 12 pack of Evian 1.5 liter water was shipped upside down. The Evian box was placed upside down in a bigger brown box and shipped with the neck of the bottle on the bottom. All 12 bottles were crushed with the caps sunken into the body of bottle. They are drinkable from the bottle.
Amazon did give an immediate refund. I appreciate this. Amazon is good but some workers for whatever contractor or merchant they use doesn’t realize it’s important to orientate the package a certain way.
This is the last time I will order anything over 1 liter bottles from Amazon. Anything bigger can get crushed because the necks are longer. A 1 liter should be ok.
Amazon here in Canada has the same issue with UPS and Fed Ex except the warehouse they send the packages back to is 30 kms away from downtown. Want to see some pissed off people. They uber to this warehouse. Only to be told its out for delivery again. Then they have the slip in their mailbox when they get home. Total BS. Just order to the Amazon locker if you can.
USPS definitely has gone down the drain in the past few years.
I asked them to hold my mail while I went on a 3 week trip, marked ‘I will pick up at post office’ once the hold is up. Came back, went to post office, they said my mail isn’t there. 2-3 days of searching, they tell me it’s been delivered to my mailbox. I definitely did not have 3 weeks of mail in my tiny apartment mailbox, so they did not deliver it. I go back and they say they don’t have it and continued to say they delivered it. They took my number and said they’ll contact the deliveryperson… got nothing out of it.
This was 2 years ago and to this day I don’t know what happened to those 3 weeks of mail.
That is crazy to have 3 weeks of mail vanish
Too funny. I had the same thing happen last year. 5 trips to the post office and I refused to leave till they found it. Guess what, they did.
The Post Office should reassign the mail man with a lifting restriction to a job that does NOT require lifting. Clearly, he cannot meet the job standards of his position and needs reassignment. The customer should not suffer.
Those were my thoughts as well
I agreed
I work at the post office. I am a rural carrier. It’s like with any job. Until you do it yourself you really can’t see the entire picture. It’s after Christmas but, it always feels like every day is Christmas with all of the packages that we get to deliver on a daily basis. Just this week we had 15 pallets of Amazon packages for the day. That does not include the smaller ones or the super large heavy ones like bed frames, for example. Nor does it include the mail, magazines or other items to deliver for the day. Most days I have to make 2 trips. There are those times where it’s a 3 trip day. My customers are important to me & it’s not that I don’t want to deliver everything for the day. Not all of us are lazy. But, please keep in mind that we are short staffed like so many other places. When we do get new hires in the door they see how much there is to do in 1 day & they quit. A lot of carriers, after finishing their own mail route, end up helping on other routes where we have no 1 to cover. It’s not unusual for employees to get an average of 12 hours a day. Some are so exhausted that they have been getting a note from their doctor stating that they can’t work more than a 12 hour day. I understand customer frustration in regards to receiving what they have ordered from Amazon. And I agree that something needs to be done to fix the problem. I just wish that people would try seeing more than just 1 view.
Some of these responses reflect our increasingly spoiled culture. No, your Prime agreement doesn’t guarantee that your package will arrive in a timely matter or exactly where you would like it to be placed. Amazon loses money on shipping Prime orders, even using their own contract delivery drivers. Prime members spend more than the average bear and are stickier (that’s meant to be figurative). As we found out during the Covid slowdowns, Amazon can and will make delivery/stocking decisions that aren’t convenient.
If you think USPS is the worst, you don’t ship for a living. My small business sent over 6,000 packages last year, 90% of them through the Post Office. Everything did not go smoothly at the end of the year but during the height of the slowdowns, USPS was excellent. My local PO is the best in my state, not everyone is so lucky. As with any organization/business, there is variability across the country. Even a standardized business like McDonalds has varying levels of service. Around here the Amazon contract drivers seem to get paid by how fast they can toss a package out the window like they are delivering newspapers (ask your dad). I’ve had a UPS package returned to me with tire tracks on it and they refuse to pay for the damage. Fedex seems to do better but in Q4, all bets are off.
My thoughts exactly..spoiled culture. Maybe some of these people should put the blame on USPS higher ups rather than their carriers. Many offices are not equipped with proper equipment to handle these huge/heavy and often times off balanced packages! USPS use to mainly be based off letters/flats/magazines. Now, they want to be Fedex/UPS… but have not provided proper handling equipment to their workers. Resulting in injury, ect ect..not to mention…did you know that there are a good amount of rural usps workers that are not being compensated for delivering those amazon packages? Thanks to our wonderful union, and USPS. You know what’s a breath of fresh air? An older gentleman coming in, with yummy baked goods…more then happy to pick up his packages(no notice needed)..versus the spoiled”I paid for delivery to my front door”!! brats… Stop being selfish for once…oh I’d love them to walk in a carriers shoes for 70 miles
Used to work for a company that delivered heavy items daily so I have been in those shoes 😉 and those people paid for a service that our employees had to be physically fit to be able to do. If they weren’t physically fit (injured) we sent someone with to do it for them. You know what we didn’t do? Ask our customer to walk out to the truck or come to our office and tell them to pick it up. They paid for a service and we delivered it.
As I said get the carriers a dolly for these 20 lbs packages if you need to. Never said it was the carriers fault said it was the USPS’ fault for not putting someone on the route that could physically handle the job or give them the proper equipment.
When you walk onto a job expecting that,(heavy packages) and that’s how you are compensated I agree. When your all of a sudden thrown in it, not compensated, no proper equipment, and they are expecting you to ‘carry’, way over a safe threshold, I think I’d prefer the pissed off customer, over my physical well-being elderly self. Sorry spoiled culture, click and buy from their couch and can’t even get up to grab their packages if they see you coming. Nobody wants to work for free. You want to be a do gooder, bravo for you.
I think this falls squarely on the USPS for sure. If the carrier can not physically perform the job they need to supplement them with the tools to do so or put them somewhere why they can perform the duties. Once they took on that Amazon contract they need to perform the work required. I hope they pull out from providing the service in the future since they can’t handle it but they will never walk away from the money.
I work at the post office. Thank you fir saying what you did. When I was hired there was no Amazon. And being a regular rural carrier Amazon packages are yet to be included in our pay. Yet fir 3 years now I deliver them. And I try to deliver all of them every day. There are times when I have to make the decision to leave of notifying a customer because it’s either take the super large package & leave several other packages behind or take the several other packages & notify the customer of the 1 package that I couldn’t fit in my POV. I try to take it out the next day if I can. I don’t like leaving any behind. Customers are important. And I wish they would try to put themselves in the shoe of the postal carrier.
Dolly? Does the dolly take the package the carrier is restricted from lifting out of the vehicle and load it on the dolly? How does the carrier lift the dolly if that is beyond his/her weight restriction? Have you seen a postal vehicle. Where does a second person fit in the vehicle. Theres a huge tray for mail. no place for a seat. Strap to roof? Stick to doing your baseball field visits and being a child the rest of your life.
Did I specify to get a dolly for my carrier? I meant for anyone that requires it to help deliver packages. If they are unable to physically perform the job then it shouldn’t be their job. Once the USPS agreed to take on the business it is up to them to figure out how to make it work. That is how the world works outside of a government job – something I know about that you seem to struggle with Nick.
We should start by providing a vehicle to carry that dolly and all the packages! Many rural carriers have their own vehicle (which right hand is hard to find to start with). Let’s add all those boxes, now a dolly etc. where do you think they put it all? They aren’t Allowed to go back and reload!!! Obviously you didn’t read previous comments, Usps is NOT paid to deliver Amazon. They are working off an old union contract that doesn’t include Amazon! My small town carriers (friends and family) struggle with all these issues. They give Usps so many rules. How can you deliver the mail every day at the same time when one place might have boxes to deliver today and tomorrow it doesn’t?! Common sense has left the country! I laughed at comments about how they time themselves to deliver their own boxes and it doesn’t take that long. Lol. Did you set your brake? Did you find your items amount the other 200? Did you scan them right? Did your scanner work? Did you lock your doors? Did you grab your smock incase there’s a dog? Now you want them to load the dolly also? Come on people…ask your carriers! They are just as frustrated. If they have to make a second trip to the car they have to make special scans and reports. So dumb. Can’t back up more than 15’ and god forbid they get a lunch or bathroom break!
Yes, agree 100%. Many USPS delivery drivers did not sign up to be Amazon’s delivery people and they have not received any more compensation to deliver your 6 big boxes in one day. They do not have vehicles that can hold all the crap people order from Amazon. The better idea is to get Amazon to deliver their own stuff through their delivery service. Call Amazon and get their delivery in your area, they are literally breaking the backs of the USPS employees.
You don’t seem to realize how spoiled you are with statement – you want the older guy to bring you snacks to thank you for doing what you’re paid to do….
Spoiled….I challenge you to – next time ANYTHING goes wrong when anything you pay for, remember you are spoiled. You paid for a brand new dishwasher to be delivered on Monday, they call on Wednesday and tell you it won’t arrive for another week and you have to drive 2 hours each way to pick it up – only the spoiled would complain! If you get back service in a restaurant – only the spoiled would complain. You better not think of complaining about a long wait for anything unless you spoiled…..amazing how this is only the way of the Post Office….
The sense of entitlement of these postal workers to demand that customers to make their jobs easier.
I have my packages delivered to my garage by Amazon, and UPS. When USPS drops off a package on my front porch they don’t even let me know it is there.
When Dejoy is kicked to the curb, Amazon won’t have problems with USPS any longer. The final USPS board member will be confirmed soon. So he(Dejoy) should be out in a couple of months.
Its not Dejoy instructing postal employees to not deliver. Its your local postal postmasters & managers. Not every office is bad just the ones ran by bad managers. Your the problem with society today. Jump on a bandwagon and place blame blindly. Ive worked in several offices and only the one In. Tempe/Apache in Az has managers that instruct carriers to NOT deliver packages. Speak of what you know so you dont look ignorant .
Yes, the USPS service in general is getting worse. I recently ordered a large package from Amazon and received a pink notice that it could not be delivered because my “mailbox is full”. That package wouldn’t have fit in my mailbox by any stretch of the imagination. I put in a complaint with Amazon, who probably has more pull with the USPS than I do. Hopefully they’ll find another carrier if USPS isn’t going to do its job.
Carrier most likely didn’t have room or want to bring it to the door unfortunately.
Most, if not all packages USPS gets from Amazon have “Carrier – Deliver If No Response” on the label. Carriers should deliver to the door if we can’t fit it in a mailbox. We are supposed to leave in a secure spot. But if it gets stolen/weather exposed after we leave it, Amazon is responsible because of that statement. Safety is a consideration though. If there is a dog in the yard, I’m not taking a chance of getting bit even if your dog is the nicest dog to you and your family. But animals tend to be a lesser occurrence at most addresses. Sounds like the carrier didn’t do their job.
I have had Amazon for a long time, I have ordered all kinds of things.In the past anything that I ordered was delivered either to my mailbox or to my house. Now for the last 8 months anything of any any size or weight ( over 5 lbs) isn’t being delivered. I have called Amazon , and twice I was told it would take 3 weeks and they would switch me to ups. Well, that didn’t happen. This last time, I ordered something and it didn’t arrive, once again on Amazon it stated that the mailboxes were full and the package would be delivered the next day.when I went to my mailbox, there was a slip stating I needed to go to the post office to get the package because it was to heavy ( 21 lbs). I called Amazon, and told the guy that I was supposed to be getting items from Amazon delivered by ups not the usps.He told me that was a lie. That Amazon has a contract with usps, and items bought directly are shipped by usps. Well, anyway the post office called me after I had filed the complaint and told me that since I’m a prime member and any package of any size that won’t fit in my mailbox will no longer be delivered to my home because of the shipping rate Amazon has with the Post Office.
Mark,
I believe it might be your current mail carrier/delivery person.
We can tell the difference when our regular (wonderful) delivery person is on vacation.
Some of the replacement people are clearly not as gracious or motivated.
It is after all, and enormous entity. Any business has amazing employees, and some that will do as little as possible.
Our old guy was amazing. So much with all things service depends on the person that you have contact with for sure.
Move to a different zip code. I get amazon everyday. no issues
Seems like a logical move 🙂
My guess is that this is a new situation that will pull billions from the USPS as Amazon and others will be forced to look to Fedex and UPS for actual delivery where Prime vans aren’t available. I do like the comparision of the USPS to Kohls but I am concerned over the impact of @George’s Echo chamber that he is buying into on his he/him’s mental health. Covid effected everyone. It didn’t dispportionatliy impact the poor or black and brown people. In fact I’m a middle class average wage household who went through 2020 without a job for 6 months of that year and could not qualify for the stimulus payments, internet relief (free phone/internet) payment or a myriad of other programs. While lower income individuals bought big screen TV’s in from of me at Walmart I had to check my bank to see how much cash I had left to buy my family basic groceries. And guess what? yes I did order some food from Amazon. Our USPS carrier is awesome in our rural area but if they have rules she can’t break it matters little.
Unless your taxes for the previous year showed an income of over $75,000, then you qualified for all three of the stimulus payments ($1,600, then $600, and $1,400). Those payments were not dependent on anything at all. If you’re an American, you get those payments.
I’m an American who made zero in 2020. I got no stimulus checks, nor did my fiancé. There are all kinds of reasons that some Americans didn’t get any stimulus checks.
In Los Angeles, we don’t even get are mail delivered daily anymore.
That sucks
I’m in the Bronx, New York. For multiple periods last year, mail came one or two days a week, with all the stuff that had been in my daily Informed Delivery emails coming at once. I did understand last spring, but didn’t understand last fall. And, that’s the stuff that does show up. I have had a number of things in my informed Delivery emails never come. And, those with a tracking number…if you fill out the form to inquire about it when it never shows up (not that I think it will somehow appear because I filled out the form, but, there is a form online.) the only replies you get are an acknowledgement that you submitted the form, and a survey a week later asking you to rate the response they never provided. I mailed a Priority Mail package on April 27. It’s been moving around the USPS, with probably 15-20 scans so far, so, it isn’t lost, but it keeps moving around and never getting there.
I think Mark has a legitimate complaint. At first I thought you were getting very heavy parcels. I think the USPS limit is 70 or 75lbs. But unfortunately the USPS, my employer, forgets that Service is part of our name. You may want to try contacting the Postmaster of your city, see if that helps.
Thanks John I’ll look into that.
I hate the USPS more than I gate Citi. When I was a kid, we had an AMAZING carrier serving our house, but he retired years ago, and the guy doing it now SUCKS SO BAD.
One time I was expecting a registered mail delivery to my house. I was home all day, but no knock at the door. Late in the afternoon, I go out to my mailbox and find one of those slips that says the carrier attempted delivery (which was bullshit – my study is literally feet from our front door). I call the post office and complain, and the supervisor I spoke to was the most lazy and incompetent person I’ve ever interacted with. He told me that carrier attempted to deliver the package, and I said that wasn’t true, I was home all day. He told me the carrier was right and I was wrong. Asked him if he was saying that I didn’t know who came to my house when I was home all day. He said yes. I was so pissed I could’ve punched a hole through the wall.
The post office is horrible. This is why (in my opinion) we need a smaller government, not a bigger government. The private sector is run better since they are actually motivated by a profit and can be fired.
I have had that happen where they are in a rush and don’t wanna come to the door so just put a no one home notice before. Sucks that you needed it that day.
Now you know how we plebeians feel when we have to deal with those insane airline rules and constantly shifting “policies” imposed on us from on high.
Living as I do in a rural area, I am also a heavy user of Amazon, but I wouldn’t use them to deliver bulk beverages I can buy for the same price at the Kroger just down the hill. I order online what I can’t get locally.
The stuff I order is quite a bit cheaper than what I can get it for at the store unfortunately.
Not that I see a necessity to order that particular item, but I assume you’re suggestion to people who don’t drive, don’t have any decent supermarkets left after landlords jacked up rents and shoved them out, leaving inferior, overpriced, limited selection monopolists, and who can’t haul stuff home up the hill from another neighborhood is ‘eat crap’.
We have a street address and a post office box. We do not get mail st the street address. IF I knew how Amazon was shipping, I would use the appropriate address. They use: USPS, FedEx, On track, Amazon delivery and UPS. I have guessed wrong, and have had packags returned to Amazon as undeliverable. Frequently Amazon’s order page will reject the PO box, even if it’s second line — and then they ship USPS or Sure post . I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone with Amazon to no avail.
Ugh what a mess Tom
Free shipping. Period
I can’t understand how you expect carriers to deliver cases of water at the same price at the B&M stores.
Seriously you guys need to understand the costs of shipping items to your door and understand free shipping is slapping a label on an item and hoping it gets there in one piece.
That’s not the responsibility of the consumer. Amazon and the carrier need to figure that out and increase prices if they have an issue. There’s no grey area here and in my opinion it’s pretty cut and dry.
That’s right. Mark, you knew what you were doing. You saw the price. Unless you don’t have basic common sense, you obviously knew that Amazon wasn’t offering full delivery in useable condition. It was obviously being offered in a where is, as is location and condition delivery option
.
My oh my how the comments on this post have gone off the rails. Nonsense election conspiracy theories, uninformed griping about postal carrier benefits, and complaints that someone is “stuck” using the postal service because they are too lazy to travel to their supposedly preferred carriers. By and large, the postal service is great at what they do, and it’s pretty hilarious to act as though private carriers are so much better. Just two days ago, I got a package sent in February by overnight ups. Yes, it was finally located three months after it was sent. Seriously none of these carriers are perfect but I know it’s fun for the anti government types to spout nonsense about the Usps or make apples to oranges comparisons between Usps and fedex/ups. Well, I guess these posts are good clickbait and I guess I fell for it too.
They all have their issues for sure. Especially these days – things getting lost right and left and taking forever lol.
I guess if you’d spent 24 years mailing a small weekly community newspaper out to your subscribers and seeing the costs increase dramatically over the years while service decreased even more dramatically to the point where you lost multiple out of state subscribers, you might see it differently.
I’ve had multiple incidents where USPS refused to deliver a package with no explanation, and I was forced to walk half-way across town (I don’t have a car and traveling by bus or rental E-bike is extremely inconvenient for carrying larger packages) to pick up the package that should have been delivered.
It’s not an anti-government situation here – if anything, better government oversight of USPS would help alleviate these issues. The problem is incompetence and laziness at the low end, apathy among middle level management and corruption among the higher-ups.
Terrible news but I’m glad you at least discovered the problem. The USPS is an amazing service overall but unfortunately that system apparently doesn’t deal well with certain issues, particularly at present. We have the world’s best carrier at home so we lucked out but my heart really goes out to you having to deal with that mess. Hopefully the incoming Board of the USPS will choose a competent Postmaster General and crazy stuff like you’re experiencing will become more rare.
You’re misinformed if you think more unionist management of the USPS will change it. It’s sucked for 15 years. The current postmaster general has tried to make changes that bring the USPS into the 21st century. He’s been impeded by unionist thugs who intimidate and guarantee poor performance. It’s unfair to blame the postmaster general because postal workers throw mail in the street or in the trash or pretend to make deliveries when they don’t.
The postmaster is awful. The USPS has one job: delivering letters and packages and he’s trying to cut that down. We need a competent replacement for this guy who was unfortunately a political appointment rather than based on capability.
Jackson, unless I’m mistaken, the only things being put in the street by the USPS are their large-scale sorting and batching equipment, as per the directive of the Post-Master General (a directive he later reversed, after it came to light in the media). As for changes with an eye on the 21st century, how about removing the restriction on USPS that requires them to keep nearly 3 times the liquid capital on hand for their pension fund as any other public or private entity must legally maintain? It’s not quite fair to hector the USPS for falling short of its private competitors while also making sure they will be forever financially hamstrung in their attempts to compete.
It does make it a little better that at least I know what is going on now for sure.
Get off your damm soap box George. Do you really think that the post office is driving 10 Miles to deliver one package. They are delivering multiple packages in any given area. I think you need to move to a socialist country where your way of thinking would fit in great! Don’t you think that the people who deliver these items need jobs too or are they disposable?
I thought this was a travel/miles/points blog
Mark enjoys a good rant now and again. They tend to be accurate, interesting, and informative so enjoy the change of pace.
We cover a lot of Amazon deals etc. so figured it would be good to show the other side of things too. Feel free to not read anything you don’t find of interest to you bo 😉
Yes it is. It’s about the mailman traveling to Mark’s house.
Amazon locker – I refuse to use them if I pay for an annual fee which is to include postage. If I were to agree to use Amazon locker, Amazon should give me some kind of credit. Why should I make Amazon richer at my expense? USPS, correct it was meant for regular mail such as envelopes and small packages in order for them to survive they had to take on Amazon contracts. Amazon to a degree has saved them. Agreed, no need to have regular mail delivered by USPS – why not have 3 day delivery (M, W, F) that would suffice and be efficient but they are unionized and will not allow it! No one cares to receive mail on Saturdays, no one. Even if it is a bill, I prefer to wait for the regular week. IF you really want mail during the weekends I am a firm believer we should pay more for it. I am even okay with Amazon delivering M-F. Our country has been on 24/7 for the last 10 years COVID19 did bring a reality check, stop and see what monster WE ALL have created. We all have contributed to the 24/7 monster – whether that be buying in person at your local store, gas station, Walgreens pharmacy, restaurant, etc. We stopped respecting as “CLOSE TIME”. That is wrong. We need to slow down a little and agree that it is okay to not have access to material things 24/7. Really, what is necessity 24/7 besides urgent medical care? Everything else really can wait for the next business day.
USPS, if it cannot keep its promise/bargain with Amazon then Amazon should terminate their contract. Otherwise, USPS fulfill your end of the bargain. It does not matter what was purchased (Gatorade, a TV, clothing, essentials, etc) the point is if USPS cannot fulfill the agreement someone else can and should. I was annoyed with the concept that USPS did not fulfill their deal. If their carrier is unable to do that job, that is understandable, move the carrier to another job which may mean a desk job until s/he gets better. I am surprised Amazon has not put their foot down with USPS to get the problem fixed because ultimately the one that is going to look bad is Amazon. If I were paying a membership fee I would except a refund of some kind. No membership, I agree with Mark, I would stop shopping with them and make sure others know of the issue and look elsewhere. Don’t judge others for choosing to use convenience that is being offered as a service. If you choose not to use it that’s fine but we should not frown on others for using it. When the pandemic hit most ran to online shopping and now see the value that whether you are poor/rich your TIME is valuable why should you waste it at the USPS line! I find that silly to waste your time which is irreplaceable. Once it is gone, it is gone can’t get it back. That’s priceless!
“No one cares to receive mail on Saturdays, no one.” Well, unless you’re waiting on that birthday gift, or your pet food, or life saving heart meds. Not all of the other 160 million addresses in the US have the same postal needs as you.
No locker fee.
Supposedly the USPS has a 91% approval rating, higher than any other government agency. Count me squarely in the 9%
We probably should distinguish between regular letter mail and packages/priority mail envelopes. Aside from the occasional stolen checks in greeting cards by postal carriers and dumping of mail in the trash by postal workers, probably everyone agrees the USPS does a really decent job at it. Informed delivery is very helpful because it allows the public to track down their missing mail more easily and the USPS can correct deficiencies if enough are identified at one location.
It’s the package/priority mail envelope service that needs massive improvement. The USPS is optimized for letters instead of packages and envelopes. Most on here know it’s not a once in a lifetime thing. The USPS has a pattern of losing or misplacing packages. It has a pattern of outrageous delays even on priority mail and priority mail express. Most like postal carriers but recognize package delivery needs improvement. Most here probably would use fedex or UPS for packages if they had as many locations and accessibility as the USPS. FedEx and UPS have their own problems but at least they are incentivized to track down all lost packages.
Clearly you don’t ship for a living. I’ll put USPS up against Fedex or UPS anyday. Any organization can benefit from some improvement but USPS can’t be beat in my experience. Fedex and UPS won’t deliver to every address in the United States, much less a PO Box, FPO or APO address. The only reason Amazon switched to UPS is the sweetheart deal they got. Fedex told them what to do with their business!
This is the sort of nonsense complaining that pollutes the internet. Just… unreal that someone would take the time to complain about this.
Mark, you generally write decent articles… but this is just crazy.
You are paying people to drive gatorade to your house.
Just think about that.
In 2020, rich Americans stayed inside, and paid poor Americans do their shopping for them.
In 1/5 of the world, people don’t have access to clean drinking water.
Of all the things to complain about – that a human doesn’t bring your heavy gatorade to your door.
Man, I dunno, I think you need to look in the mirror and see if this is the stuff to spend energy complaining about.
There is a reason I don’t give any money to Amazon. They promote this lazy culture of entitlement – and no one says a word when a blog entry is dedicated to someone not waiting on you like you’re accustomed to. Bonkers.
No wonder the world shut down in 2020. Life is way way way too easy for the rich and powerful anymore.
This man is providing employment for many people by using his earnings to pay for convenience. He doesn’t want to carry a case of Gatorade. I don’t want to carry a case of Evian water or 6 gallons of Poland spring when I used to order fresh direct. That’s why I get it delivered. He has a legitimate complaint. He’s paid for something and hasn’t received what he paid for.
Many jobs wouldn’t exist if upper middle class people didn’t spend their earnings on convenience. We don’t need tutors, personal trainers, landscapers to cut the grass, upholsters, painters, handymen, interior designers, florists, and etc. However, upper middle class people paying for convenience creates millions of higher paying jobs and puts food in people’s mouths. Even eating at a $40 per person restaurant can be considered a luxury. People eating in these restaurants keep waiters and waitresses employed and some with very good tips and keep restaurants open.
I ask you George how you would feel if you paid for something and didn’t receive what you paid for. You’d be upset. This is not a one time fluke of minor inconvenience. This is now a pattern for his post office where union workers enrich themselves with fat pensions and benefits against the will of the public.
Don’t know what your smoking Jackson, but exactly how do union workers enrich themselves? Postal workers work under negotiated (and sometimes arbitrated) contracts we negotiate with our employer. Does the public get involved in all business’s contracts? Fat pensions? That would be nice, but after 20 years my pension will be about $1000 per month. Nothing to complain about, but not like I can stop reading Miles To Memories and just start paying cash for all those first class trips I’ll want to go on. Maybe it’s other unions you’re apparently intimately familiar with, I don’t know. And for your other comment, “steal, alter, or add ballots at any time.” You know there are Republican / Democrat / Independent postal workers at every station, right? You know at least that, right?
Oh George I really don’t like you…
Oh Georgy boy, the irony is palpable. Your first paragraph was written just for you, by you, about you.
I’m all for people not feeling entitled but this is far from the case here. You pay for a product or service and you expect them to fulfill their end of the deal. The terms changed and now you’re not only paying for a service you aren’t getting, you’re having to go out of your way to pick up packages that would have been all together avoided if you had correct information and therefore could make an alternative decision to buy during your next grocery trip.
As informed, paying consumers we damn well should expect the terms to be honored. To think otherwise is itself a double standard because you aren’t getting free Prime membership because life’s been hard and you can’t afford it.
Well said Anthony
The problem is your carrier/the carriers are in the middle of this mess. USPS agreed to a contract with amazon after thousands of carriers were paid according to routes pre-amazon. Pre amazon usps rarely received any packages with any type of weight. Rarely if ever, the size that amazon ships through usps now. There are 60 year old carriers trying to carry 50lbs of dog food, and those cases of gatorade up to your door. Imagine, that’s Grandma. Would you allow your Grandparents to do that? Move that? Rural drives/walks are rough. Many are having to take early retirement because of it. Pre amazon(dumped on carriers) Letters were the priority, the backbone of USPS. USPS is the problem. USPS and the Unions letting them getting away with it, and everyone, EVERYONE suffers. They don’t even provide the proper equipment to handle these packages.
George if you can find a store where 12 20oz Gatorade for $6 let me know and I’ll go there. Not sure why you care so much but I hope you feel better now 😉
He is paying for a service. The delivery cost is included. And maybe he works long hours, need electrolytes. Water’s not so good in some places.
He is paying for a service. They offer delivery. The delivery cost is included. If they can’t deliver, then that needs to be up front on the click page. Otherwise it’s fraudulent advertising.
And maybe he works long hours, need electrolytes. Water’s not so good in some places.
Jackson’s comment about the problem resting with the Union is, as usual – let’s blame the workers – as we certainly couldn’t blame management, could we!
Especially not Head Postmaster Louis Delay…
Helpful
Yes I have issues with my Post Office box. I am aware you cant request who delivers package.
Thanks for writing
Dude-
If you are buying Gatorade from Amazon, you are paying way too much.
12 – 20 ounce Gatorades for $6….cheapest I have seen
The next time you have to pick up a package ask the supervisor what the delivery section of the employee handbook PO-603, section 3 subsection 33.331. They should be delivering packages to your door, I would contact your local Congress representative and file a congressional complaint. Give him the above information.
The USPS is a disaster and has been for 15 years. It gets worse every year. The USPS was designed to carry regular mail. It is not optimized for package delivery. Less and less regular mail gets sent and this means they lose money because they don’t invest in efficiently transporting packages and the postal unions prevent any positive change. We don’t need Saturday mail delivery of letters. We’d be fine with 4 days of mail delivery. Then maybe the USPS can invest in transporting packages.
I’m stuck using USPS because there is no UPS store or FedEx center where I live in NYC within walking distance. Walgreens accepts UPS packages which comes in handy if I have a label already for return. Never send anything of significant value with USPS. They have a history of losing envelopes and misplacing packages. One time we returned vitamins and it was stuck at a facility in upstate New York and it could not be located. One time I paid for a Priority mail express envelope to ship the coin deal in late 2019 I sold on eBay. They sent it to the wrong zip code and post office. Thankfully it was located but I paid for next day delivery guaranteed. Claims about mail in ballot fraud are accurate. It’s not just dumping ballots in the counting places at 4am or not matching signature and no voter ID. It’s also USPS employees picking up the ballot boxes placed through a city. They don’t actually put them through the mail system where it is scanned and recorded for informed delivery. They directly send it to ballot counting centers locally. They can steal, alter, or add ballots at any time. It’s madness.
I hear you on the beverages. I recently get Evian delivered via prime. It’s actually cheaper for a 12 pack of 1 liter water than buying it in the store. It’s not worth it to carry water everyday when I can get a 2 week supply every two weeks to my building. If I had to pick it up, it defeats the purpose of having it shipped on prime. I hope you raise the issue with the postmaster for your area and Amazon. Amazon has leverage as they do a lot of business with The USPS. Admittedly, the Amazon business tends to be unprofitable for the USPS.
Some good deals to be had for sure and the convenience is usually nice as well.
Are you able to deliver to an Amazon Locker? They are great as they are automated and good options for homes that can be impacted by porch pirates.
I don’t think that is an option but I’ll have to double check.
Try googling phone number of your postal station, and talk directly with the station manager, not supervisor. Tell mgr not delivering the packages is unacceptable. Make some noise ie. you will be talking to your congressman, or ask for his name and postmasters number to call the pm.
Post office phone numbers used to be listed, but they replaced them all with the 800, or whatever it is number years ago. Unless someone wrote something somewhere complaining about something, and had the number of your post office, and included it in their rant or post, you won’t be able to get it.
Man, what a pita. Did the supervisor tell you what the threshold is for a package to be marked as “heavy”?
Nope – Amazon slaps that sticker on stuff I think and if they see it they just leave it behind right now.
Come spend a day on the work side at the post office. It’s so easy to speak from the other side when you haven’t done the job yourself.
I guess you work for USPS.. job is a job, got paid to complete. UPS and Fedex does.. why not you?
Whatever it is, they could give their employees dollies & ramps to make the load easier, or hire more workers. Two people can carry a heavy item together. They have the money to do it because at Amazon, some of the CEOs make about $40 million per year. At UPS, over 5 CEOs make over $4.8 million per year each. It would cost them very little to have employees share the load.
Throw the same nonsense right back at USPS. Call them or next time you stop by the counter tell them that you are disabled and your doctor restricts you from picking up heavy packages. Them not delivering your packages is disability discrimination. Report back what happens. Good luck.
I think you should file your ADA complaint directly with the USPIS for review. Notarized, or coarse, to expedite your complaint.
That will achieve nothing. Good luck on getting a doctor to back your attempted fraud!