Amazon IS going to fall

kaiser715

kaiser715

Doing hard time
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Location
7, Pocket, NC
...because their shipping is so screwed up.

We are rural, my house is 2100' from the paved road. We go thru spells of ordering a lot from Amazon (shop stuff, parts, house stuff, supplies, etc.) Sometimes we get 1, sometimes 8 or 10 packages in a day. But not just on 1 Amazon van. Just the other day, Amazon themselves made three trips to our house. 3 different vans/drivers. You would think that they'd sort and load based on address, not just zip or whatever.

The other day, I ordered 5 small items. Four bucks each. All sold by and shipped by Amazon. They all came yesterday or the day before. 1 came USPS, 2 came Amazon (in 2 separate boxes), 2 came UPS (in two separate boxes). Tracking shows all 5 came out of the Houston, TX amazon warehouse. Each one was in a box big enough to hold 20 of them. Instead, one per box, and a box full of air bags. All same oversized boxes = the same guy (robot) packed all 5 probably.

They are just pissing money away in shipping and delivery.
 
I bet that amazon has logistics and costs nailed down better than anybody. While it might not look to make sense I’d bet somehow it’s cheaper for them.

Plus they got that whole aws thing that alone brings in 62+ billion a year. Probably close to 80b this year. Which by itself is a fortune 100 company
 
kaiser715 said:
...because their shipping is so screwed up.

We are rural, my house is 2100' from the paved road. We go thru spells of ordering a lot from Amazon (shop stuff, parts, house stuff, supplies, etc.) Sometimes we get 1, sometimes 8 or 10 packages in a day. But not just on 1 Amazon van. Just the other day, Amazon themselves made three trips to our house. 3 different vans/drivers. You would think that they'd sort and load based on address, not just zip or whatever.

The other day, I ordered 5 small items. Four bucks each. All sold by and shipped by Amazon. They all came yesterday or the day before. 1 came USPS, 2 came Amazon (in 2 separate boxes), 2 came UPS (in two separate boxes). Tracking shows all 5 came out of the Houston, TX amazon warehouse. Each one was in a box big enough to hold 20 of them. Instead, one per box, and a box full of air bags. All same oversized boxes = the same guy (robot) packed all 5 probably.

They are just pissing money away in shipping and delivery.
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I've done a lot of work for Amazon. I have to be very careful about how I say what I say here due to NDA etc.

Amazon has 30+ 1million+ square foot warehouses in NC alone.
They dont house the same products in each warehouse. If you got 3 vans at your house in 1 day those items almost assuredly came from 3 fulfillment centers.

Their vehicle mapping is best in the industry and it isnt close.
 
Here is something that just happened. I ordered a tablet mount for the motorhome. Fulfilled by Amazon and probably in stock in Whitsett as it was next day prime.
This was what showed up. Items mis tagged when received apparently.
Amazon Tablet.jpg

Needless to say, KN95 masks are not a tablet mount. Did the chat with Amazon, No problem, we will ship you another. Ignore the email to return it, Guess what, same thing showed up next day. Spoke to an agent this time, ok, return the second set of masks, we will send you a free call tag. we will give you a full refund as we believe this mistake will happen again.
UPS picks up, the refund was processed minus the cost of the call tag. Call them again, New agent processes a promotional credit for the call tag as the system wouldn't refund it. Asks for a picture of the mis tagged item for his report (finally) and puts a stop ship on them. I ordered a different tablet holder (which was cheaper) that came from a different warehouse, that was right.

They are out a box of product as I was told to keep the first one, out shipping for the item 3 times and now someone has to find and re tag all these items.
 
cranbiz said:
Here is something that just happened. I ordered a tablet mount for the motorhome. Fulfilled by Amazon and probably in stock in Whitsett as it was next day prime.
This was what showed up. Items mis tagged when received apparently.
View attachment 378362
Needless to say, KN95 masks are not a tablet mount. Did the chat with Amazon, No problem, we will ship you another. Ignore the email to return it, Guess what, same thing showed up next day. Spoke to an agent this time, ok, return the second set of masks, we will send you a free call tag. we will give you a full refund as we believe this mistake will happen again.
UPS picks up, the refund was processed minus the cost of the call tag. Call them again, New agent processes a promotional credit for the call tag as the system wouldn't refund it. Asks for a picture of the mis tagged item for his report (finally) and puts a stop ship on them. I ordered a different tablet holder (which was cheaper) that came from a different warehouse, that was right.

They are out a box of product as I was told to keep the first one, out shipping for the item 3 times and now someone has to find and re tag all these items.
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A former employee ordered a $1,200 dresser/chest of drawers/tv stand "thing"

Amazon ships it. She gets an email that it was delivered. It wasnt. She emails them back and says I didnt get it you sent an email saying I did.
So sorry we will look into it. (story is more complicated said it was shipped fed ex - fedex was always a problem there ...basically a bunch of other noise)
Next day. Furniture appears. Cool. Good customer service.
Week later it arrives again.
She calls amazon and explains that she now has 2 pieces of furniture. They offer to let her keep the othe rone for half price because shipping is so expensive. She doesnt need 2 and its in the way. No problem we will send a pick ticket and pick it up.
2 days later - a third one arrives - this time from UPS marked rush shipment.
 
I'm just going to leave this right here...

www.bloomberg.com

Amazon’s Roomba Deal Is Really About Mapping Your Home

In buying iRobot, the e-commerce titan gets a data collection machine that comes with a vacuum.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com

Amazon is sooo much further downstream than most even realize. I believe we've embarked on the verge of robots taking over and quite literally wiping out the human race. Perhaps you think that's a bit far-fetched, but Google has already shut bots down for taking a life of their own, creating their own language to communicate, etc. We're probably not too far off from AI being able to circumvent human intervention and/or humans knowing what's going on until it's too late.

If you think Amazon is a logistics company, you're delusional. Amazon rivals the biggest tech companies in the world and there's likely so much more we don't even know...
 
Last edited:
LBarr2002 said:
And it's a drop in the bucket.
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For me, it was the principle. I didn't make the mistake, they did. It shouldn't have needed 4 different agents and 3 days to fix this error, nor should it have cost me anything to rectify. If it was MY mistake, sure, charge me $7.99 for a call tag or I pay to take it to the UPS Store.

I realize it's a drop in the bucket for them. However get enough drops in that bucket and it overflows.
 
And you know what? I usually don't do business with companies that I don't like or believe in and after Bezo's crap a while back I considered not using them anymore but DAMN! It saves me so much time on getting products that I need delivered to my door all the time. Plus music and TV programming included in the Prime fee each month. A couple weeks ago I needed a 7mm tap. No problem I
ll go to the local hardware store, oops they're out, I'll go to my other fav store, nope they were out. So I wasted 3 days shopping local, ordered it one night and got it the next day.
But yep, I've seen the Amazon trucks passing one another on my street and all over and I think they have got to realize that their logistics suck!
 
I had an order delivered 2 days ago. It is not the item I ordered when I opened it up. I found the shipping papers, and this was supposed to go to some guy in Florida. So now I am doing the whole pain in the ass return thing. Warehouse worker got label happy and put my shipping label on someone else's box and somebody else got my box. Still don't have a return label yet. When they are on point they are great, but when they screw up it is a royal pain unless they don't want it back.
 
The issues we've had have been few and far between, considering the amount of stuff we have delivered and even the work force and supply problems I think they've encountered since covid. Subscribe & Save not only saves me $, it saves me from having to make trips to Target or Lowes (that invariably end up costing more in things you see and 'need' in the moment). That doesn't even touch what I save on used books that we need for school (or want) and can't get from the library.
 
R Q said:
And you know what? I usually don't do business with companies that I don't like or believe in and after Bezo's crap a while back I considered not using them anymore but DAMN! It saves me so much time on getting products that I need delivered to my door all the time. Plus music and TV programming included in the Prime fee each month. A couple weeks ago I needed a 7mm tap. No problem I
ll go to the local hardware store, oops they're out, I'll go to my other fav store, nope they were out. So I wasted 3 days shopping local, ordered it one night and got it the next day.
But yep, I've seen the Amazon trucks passing one another on my street and all over and I think they have got to realize that their logistics suck!
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You could also have gotten that tap from McMaster-Carr the next day. They work some amazing magic.
 
My old man stopped building houses and started working for UPS about 5 years ago and just retired last year.

It was -insane- what I would hear about Amazon bullying the post office around. And what was charged per box, regardless of shipping size/weight/etc. I hate to throw out numbers without knowing exactly, but something along the lines of Amazon only paying a couple bucks per box even if it's a 50lb bag of dog food.

Pretty sure Bezos has some dirt on the Post Master General.
 
Atla said:
My old man stopped building houses and started working for UPS about 5 years ago and just retired last year.

It was -insane- what I would hear about Amazon bullying the post office around. And what was charged per box, regardless of shipping size/weight/etc. I hate to throw out numbers without knowing exactly, but something along the lines of Amazon only paying a couple bucks per box even if it's a 50lb bag of dog food.

Pretty sure Bezos has some dirt on the Post Master General.
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You have to recall that the UPS was basically bankrupt when it signed the contract with Amazon to do deliveries. While I cant imagine it was cost effective, that money allowed UPS from basically eliminating more "services" they offer. Now that they arent the contract holder, it will be interesting to see how long until they are in the same boat.
 
RatLabGuy said:
You could also have gotten that tap from McMaster-Carr the next day. They work some amazing magic.
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Quoted for truth. MCMaster-Carr is the shiznit.
 
If you really think about it though, Amazon sets itself apart almost exclusively because of shipping. Not the products, you can get that stuff pretty much anywhere. Not the prices. Sometimes they are the cheapest, but usually they are not. But the fact that you can get things the next day or even the same day, and almost always faster than anywhere else. This is also strongly affected by where you live. Since we're only 10 miles from a big distribution center, everything is super fast.

That's not to say that they don't do some dumb stuff. A couple months ago, I bought some little RC rock crawler parts, and they were delivering to Roxboro NC where we were staying for the week, And I ordered them on Tuesday, and they were supposed to arrive by Friday, but they did not ship until Thursday night and then they shipped UPS next day air. Any reasonable ground shipping service would have gotten them from Greensboro to Roxboro in one day, but for some reason they chose to use next day air. And wait 2 days to ship it. The craziest thing was that was only a $14 item with free shipping. I couldn't ship it ground from Greensboro to Roxboro that cheap, but somehow they can ship it next day air and provide a product and still make money. And of course that item had to be shipped from China first too.

Just this afternoon, I ordered an RC crawler battery from Amazon, because it will be there TODAY! I ordered it at 3 PM, it was out for delivery by 430, and will probably be here around 8 or 9 o'clock. And of course the reason I ordered it from Amazon is because it will be here so quick. I probably could have shopped around and found it cheaper online, or went to a local hobby store if they were open on Sundays, but the options are limited and the fact that Amazon can supply me some cheap Chinese crap at a whim with Great haste makes them hard to beat.
 
Battery got here at 8:45pm. 5h45min from ordering until it was on my doorstep. Ridiculous.
 
We came home a couple of weeks ago to several Walmart bags of new plastic coat hangers on the porch,that we didn't order.Tonya calls them and they say they will send somebody out to get them.Its been at least two weeks and they are still there.I have been told that big Wally is using door dash drivers for deliveries also.We eat out pretty reg and most of the door dash folks I see pickin up food I would't want handling my food in the back of the restaurant much less haulin it in their pos 90's model Accord w the kids and three Chihuahua's in tow.
 
1-tonmudder said:
We came home a couple of weeks ago to several Walmart bags of new plastic coat hangers on the porch,that we didn't order.Tonya calls them and they say they will send somebody out to get them.Its been at least two weeks and they are still there.I have been told that big Wally is using door dash drivers for deliveries also.We eat out pretty reg and most of the door dash folks I see pickin up food I would't want handling my food in the back of the restaurant much less haulin it in their pos 90's model Accord w the kids and three Chihuahua's in tow.
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Walmart also has their own delivery company / drivers now called "spark"

A lot of people that drive though drive for door dash, grub hub, postmates etc they do them all
Just like a lot of ride share drivers drive for uber and lyft
 
1-tonmudder said:
We came home a couple of weeks ago to several Walmart bags of new plastic coat hangers on the porch,that we didn't order.Tonya calls them and they say they will send somebody out to get them.Its been at least two weeks and they are still there.I have been told that big Wally is using door dash drivers for deliveries also.We eat out pretty reg and most of the door dash folks I see pickin up food I would't want handling my food in the back of the restaurant much less haulin it in their pos 90's model Accord w the kids and three Chihuahua's in tow.
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Walmart is the one I don't get. You have to have $35 minimum order to get free shipping. Several times my wife has added something like a bag of pretzels to get to $35. That bag will show up on the porch several hours later from the local store while the rest ships in several days.
 
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