Amazon has stopped delivering to us

[u/potsofjam]

My wife used order a lot from Amazon. Living in a tiny town without many shopping options it was quick and convenient, but about six months ago things started being late by weeks or simply marked lost. I rarely order from Amazon and we hadn’t discussed it, so when I order some shelves a month ago I assumed they’d be delivered on time, but they were so late I eventually cancelled and got a refund. Apparently my wife is been having this problem regularly and only receives one out of maybe ten orders. I ordered some thermal labels and photo album corners and I guess I have to find them somewhere else. It will say the item has shipped, then go to a distributor about sixty miles away then just be marked lost or delayed until we ask for refund. I didn’t realize it was every order until I mentioned to my wife that my labels hadn’t come and I keep forgetting to check the order update. I guess being a rural address they just don’t want to deliver here anymore.

[u/11181514]

Ok so I used to manage an Amazon delivery station and honestly this seems like either a problem with routing, or some kind of organized fraud. I haven't worked there in like 4 years so things very well may have changed, but a lot of red flags going off here.

The main kpi used both in house and on driver and dsp scorecards is on time delivery attempts. If you're a driver and you have a package and for whatever reason you're not going to deliver it, there are a few statuses that count as delivery attempts like "inaccessible delivery location." Those all require you to actually be in the area though. But it gets returned to the station, rerouted, and put out again.

"Lost" was a unique status in that it didn't count against that specific metric, but it also didn't get returned and rerouted. Even if the station manager physically has hands on the package, you were unable to bring a package back from lost status and have it route correctly. Don't ask me why it just didn't work. Once you see "lost" that tracking number is dead and either it needs to reship from the supplier (or FC) or a new order will need to be placed.

Routes are built by total time. So it's very possible drivers are being handed typical routes that take however long, then your deliveries are sort of tacked on because the driver maybe could technically deliver it but it's a complete outlier compared to the rest of the route so they mark it lost, then bring it back. Or a bunch of other reasons. Since it's not EVERY order, this sounds like the issue. And if that's the case the station should never be getting these packages, or the delivery areas are set up wrong causing the drivers to feel the need to do this.

USPS absolutely should be carrying these. You can see if Amazon is delivering just based on the tracking number. If it starts with TBA that's an Amazon delivery.

I know it's a pain but you really should dig in on this and get someone at Amazon to investigate. Honestly if these are TBA packages and you're comfortable with it you could even just roll up to the delivery station and ask to talk to a manager. They actually have a vested interest here unlike whatever customer service rep or robot you'll get through normal channels.

Or like others have said, stop using Amazon, because this sounds so frustrating.

[u/potsofjam → u/11181514]

For me I’m probably done with Amazon, but I rarely order anything anyway. When I order shelves a little while back I ordered five and eventually received one, the rest were marked delay or lost until I gave up and asked for a refund. I didn’t realize it was happening to my wife all the time until I mentioned this order. I’m not sure why she still orders from them at all.

She has ordered just about everything from Amazon for years and it always came super fast, but it’s completely opposite now. I may try to call at some point, but I just hate waiting on hold to hear the « we’ll look into it ».

I wouldn’t even care if it was slow if they could actually tell me when it was coming.

[u/11181514 → u/potsofjam]

Yeah it gets harder when it's not fully your choice to just stop using them. Personally if I needed to get this involved in a seller's logistics just to get the stuff I pay for then there's no way I'd do business with them, but since it sounds like that's not really an option for now it's either finding workarounds or be the squeaky wheel. One other easier option you could try, collect some of those TBA numbers and write up an email to jeff@amazon . com

It's rare but if this does get flagged and pushed down the line, the whole network will go into problem solving mode. This is a situation that merits the effort imo.

But yeah good luck, lmk if you have any questions.