Amazon Prime Strangeness

[Hawkmoon]

And... The fee for my post office box is now over $110 every six months.
 
I need to do some sort of mailbox, but I really don't want folks seeing mail sitting.

Is there a UPS Store near you? Most (if not all) of them rent private mailboxes. Don't know how the cost compares to the good old U.S. Postal Service.

[Bogie]

Back about 20 years ago, they were a LOT higher... I maintained a Clayton mailing address for business stuff...

[Bogie]

And... There are a LOT of Amazon vans around my part of this metro area... I think that they're simply putting assets where they produce the most. And I also suspect that a lot of USPS folks have discovered that there is now more work involved...

[K Frame]

And... There are a LOT of Amazon vans around my part of this metro area... I think that they're simply putting assets where they produce the most. And I also suspect that a lot of USPS folks have discovered that there is now more work involved...

Same here in Northern Virginia just outside of DC.

There were THREE Amazon delivery vans in my community the other week.

[Ben]

And I also suspect that a lot of USPS folks have discovered that there is now more work involved...

Just talked about that with my mail lady this morning. She's not real happy having all the Amazon boxes once again in her little Cherokee, plus having to drive down driveways and get out and walk to doors instead of putting mail into the road boxes. 

[Ben]

Hmm. This might be part of it as well:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-02/amazon-closes-abandons-plans-for-dozens-of-us-warehouses

[Bogie]

They made a LOT of money off the 'vid.
 
But the business model changed when people started leaving their houses again. What could kick it back up? I wonder if they are throwing any cash at Chinese researchers... Seems like everyone else was...

[zxcvbob]

Amazon built a big warehouse/distribution center in my old hometown of Porter, Texas (just north of Houston) a couple of years ago, on what's probably the best property in the county.  They never did open it; it just sits empty.  No idea what they were thinking.  I could see buying the land and leaving it vacant.

Most Amazon Prime deliveries there are one or two days coming from Houston proper, usually in Amazon vans.  A year ago, it was all private vehicles.

[K Frame]

That's the secret clubhouse for the flying space penis association.

[Blakenzy]

Thank you, come again!

[Ben]

So I guess this is nationwide, and like my conversation with Amazon chat, Amazon is calling people who point it out crazy:

https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/9/7/23333406/amazon-prime-2-day-shipping-delays-taking-long

[K Frame]

The last couple of orders I've made I've gotten a mix of whether I'll get it next day or 3 or 4 days.

Glad to know I'm getting what I paid an increased price for this year.

[dogmush]

Mine still seem to be running next day or two day, but there's a fulfillment center literally down the road from my house.  Maybe 5 miles.

If I were to guess, Id say that Amazon is having issues finding people to work in warehouses and drive vans in the conditions they require for the pay they offer.  I wonder if the longer delivery times are inversely correlated to how wealthy an area is.  Lots of good jobs and no one wants to be a Fulfillment Center slave.  Poor places with less jobs, and they can find the people.

[Ben]

Oh, also, I got neither the 50% off nor the $20 credit. It's not worth another hour on chat with these morons to call them on it.

[K Frame]

Oh, also, I got neither the 50% off nor the $20 credit. It's not worth another hour on chat with these morons to call them on it.

 

The modern day equivalent of "send him the bedbug letter!"

[Ben]

Yes I'm slightly obsessed with tracking this right now. 

I have this week had three of the things that said they would take a week to get to me shipped. That is to say, I ordered them a week ago, and over the last two days plus today got a "shipped" notification, with the delivery day being the next day. So a bunch of this stuff appears to sit in the local warehouse for six days, gets packed on the sixth and dropped in the delivery queue, and arrives at my house a day later - essentially one day shipping, except I have to wait six days for it.

Though it is all still coming via UPS and USPS - I still haven't seen any Amazon vans around here for a couple of weeks.

[WLJ]

Just recently had an order where
It said shipped Amazon
Had a UPS tracking number
Whenever you clicked on tracking it took me to USPS where it said not found
Tracking when entered in UPS also said not found.
After two weeks package appeared on front pouch.
Like an idiot i failed to take note what the actual tag on the box said.

[Ben]

I'm not sure if it's related, but sure is coincidental: I ordered five things yesterday. Four of them were either sold or fulfilled by Amazon. The fifth was third party seller and shipper. Four all four Amazon items - I received a "courtesy credit" of $1.50 - $3.00 per item. Not like even numbers, but like $1.87, $2.43, etc.

I have to wonder if they are now doing some kind of Prime shipping "refund" given that these, as everything else for me, are a week out for delivery.

[K Frame]

That's the bedbug payment!

[MillCreek]

https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/9/7/23333406/amazon-prime-2-day-shipping-delays-taking-long

I bet these results in Washington state can be extrapolated elsewhere, like Ben in Idaho.

[Cliffh]

Placed an Amazon order this morning, the first in at least a month.  I placed the order at ~0600, while setting up the order, it said if I ordered >$25 in the next 3 & change hours it'd be delivered today.  It's almost 1800 & I haven't seen the items.  I did receive an email saying it'd shipped to be delivered today.

We're about 50 miles from two large towns (Dallas & Tyler), 4 miles outside of a small town of ~850 souls.  Not sure where the closest distro center is, but it ain't nearby.  I do see Amazon vans cruising the area daily, sometimes more than one on a day.

[zxcvbob]

I sent a secure email to Chase Bank today to see if I cancel my Amazon Prime membership, can I keep their Amazon rewards VISA and can I still use the points.  I placed an Amazon Prime order on August 31.  They said it would be here Saturday, and I wasn't paying attention to *which* Saturday, just assumed it was the one 3 days out.  Nope, 10 days, which has come and gone several days ago and there's no indication they've even shipped it yet.  They generated a USPS tracking number a week ago but USPS hasn't received it yet.  If it's not here by the 15th I can get a refund, but I don't really want a refund I want my damn merchandise.

I've moved stuff from my wish list to my cart and then started the checkout process just to see when it would allegedly be delivered.  It's always about a week now.  There's a big distribution center in Shakopee (near Minneapolis), but it must be empty.  Use to be I got most orders in two days, and every once-in-a-while I got them the next day.  I should try moving a big ticket item to my cart and see if that makes a difference.  Maybe they just screw you on small Prime orders...

ETA: Nope, I added a $600 camera to my cart and it still was going to be almost a week.

[Ben]

I've moved stuff from my wish list to my cart and then started the checkout process just to see when it would allegedly be delivered.  It's always about a week now.  There's a big distribution center in Shakopee (near Minneapolis), but it must be empty.  Use to be I got most orders in two days, and every once-in-a-while I got them the next day.  I should try moving a big ticket item to my cart and see if that makes a difference.  Maybe they just screw you on small Prime orders...

I added temporary addresses (just picking random addresses off google maps) to my account from nearby cities when I was testing and they all had next day availability. Same with Amazon lockers. I was seeing some reddit threads showing that this is getting more and more widespread in the last couple of weeks. Same thing - going from reliable two day to 5-7 days out.

[Cliffh]

And I just walked in with the delivered package.

[Hawkmoon]

Hmm. This might be part of it as well:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-02/amazon-closes-abandons-plans-for-dozens-of-us-warehouses

Hmmm ...

Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy has pledged to unwind part of a pandemic-era expansion that saddled Amazon with a surfeit of warehouse space and too many employees. The company has typically weaned its ranks of hourly workers by leaving vacant positions open, slowing hiring and tightening disciplinary or productivity standards. But warehouse closings are also part of the mix, and workers are bracing for more. During the second quarter, Amazon’s workforce shrank by roughly 100,000 jobs to 1.52 million, the biggest quarter-to-quarter contraction in the company’s history.

According to many current and former Amazon warehouse workers, the productivity standards are already so strict that they get penalized in they need to pee any time other than their designated break time.