Amazon/FedEX issues

shipping times are WORSE than ever with untrue notices of shipments. they are not able to keep up as more buyers on line are scared to go out!! i see unmarked trucks delivering a lot + think they TRY to determine whats more important to ship while earlier orders set a WHILE!!!
 
With the old FedEx/UPS to USPS hand-off, my experience is the tracking is worthless with this arrangement.

It can say it's still in transit in another state yet show up at your door. You never know.

Pretty funny to be complaining about this when something you bought with one click takes more than a few business days to get. Who woulda thought.
 
This is an old-fashioned technique but it still works great - pick up the phone and call them ! Amazon, that is, not the carrier.
There's a mythical Amazon customer service phone number. I've heard there might be something available if one has an account based on a mobile phone number (and not an email address based account). Over a decade ago a coworker gave me a number but I lost it.

I've actually had success using their customer service chat, although I'm sure they have one agent handling multiple simultaneous chats. My problem was that I had some batteries in the same order as a book, and to save money they tossed them together in a book mailer that was never meant for small items. The batteries must have slipped out. The mailer wasn't fully sealed but should hold a book securely. I spent a few minutes with Amazon on chat and had no problem getting a replacement sent out.
 
With the old FedEx/UPS to USPS hand-off, my experience is the tracking is worthless with this arrangement.

It can say it's still in transit in another state yet show up at your door. You never know.

Pretty funny to be complaining about this when something you bought with one click takes more than a few business days to get. Who woulda thought.

True, I remember as a kid ordering stuff from the Sears catalog. After 3 to 4 weeks we'd start anticipating a call from the local store where we still had to go pick it up.

That said, now that it's been proven to be possible to get MOST customers MOST products in ~2 days I'm not willing to accept excuses for anything less.

It's also just the way the world is going....as much as we want to lament it brick & mortar is flat-out impractical for things like mechanical supply, fasteners, and auto parts. There's just no way any store can stock everything. Auto parts increasingly are struggling with this as more makes and models hit the roads than ever before. Used to be the local corporate place would carry most any part for common applications....now they just can't afford the shelf space as "common applications" have multiplied many times over.
 
In some cases FedEx delivers it to the local post office and they deliver to you. The FedEx "delivered" time/date could be the time/date they left it at a post office.
That's not accurate. It's not "delivered" and the tracking will show it properly until it's left at the final destination. When Fedex or UPS hand things off to USPS, the tracking details will indicate exactly this hand-off.
 
Update- 48 hrs past and i looked all around..nothing.. so i called 1 (888) 280-4331.

With a little bs i made it to a customer service rep. Since its a 3rd party seller she said she will email them and within another 48 hrs i should have a resolution.. She asked if i wanted another part sent..told her NO i want a refund that i am forced to buy the part at a local business.. that i tried Amazon and it failed me. I told her that FedEx or whoever can investigate it and call me. So she ended with she will email the 3rd party and if i dont get a refund they will suspend their business and they will refund my money thru them.


Part at dealer cost me $30 more... its installed and done.. was in stock. I try to save a buck when i can.. but time is money in this case.

Ebay is easier with the 'contact seller' i think.
 
You can't depend on shipping times in our current situation. Everything has changed.
And the post office is reducing overtime to "save money". Jeez, you want to stimulate the economy, pay the mail carriers who want to work.
 
I know UPS will require most if not all signature deliveries to be sent to the closest UPS store. I assume fedex is no different due to the world's current circumstances but you have to go to the carrier's (FedEx) website to see and not amazon.
 
If the package was shipped by Fedex, then it was sold and shipped by a third party. Amazon stopped using Fedex as a carrier after their contract expired, and the latter declined to renew. Amazon even banned its 3rd party sellers from using Fedex Ground for a month due to performance issues, before reinstating that option at the beginning of the year.

Fedex Ground/Home is not the original overnight company of lore, Fedex Express. It is a subsidiary created when the company acquired RPS, a low-cost alternative to the other shippers. The SmartPost product, where the USPS does the final mile delivery, was also the result of an acquisition.

That's the simple story, but the takeaway is that there is a good Fedex, which you pay dearly for, and a not as good Fedex, which is cheaper.

Since it was shipped directly by the seller, Amazon was never in the chain of custody, and is limited in what it can do; not any more than eBay can do with its sales. Neither has a direct role in the shipping process, and has to rely on the tracking provided by the actual carrier.

The 48 hr grace period if there is a shipping discrepancy is a policy that applies to all Amazon sales, even for Prime members. They want to ensure that a shipment is truly lost, before taking action. Sometimes, the package turns up, and sometimes, it doesn't. It's sucks, but that's the way they approach it.

Like many customer service operations, Amazon would prefer to first funnel inquiries through FAQs, and automated systems that may help resolve issues, before having to get a human involved. As such, it stopped publishing its telephone number long ago, and the channels to initiate contact are a bit obscured. Buy, they do exist, in the form of online chat (preferred) or a callback option.

Delivery drivers are under enormous pressure, especially given the higher volumes during current times. Unintended mistakes can be made, and less scrupulous drivers can fudge with the process and enter false inputs, which result in false tracking results.

The USPS was created with higher service standards in mind, and its carriers don't have to learn new routes daily, and deliver to the same addresses every day. That's why the mailman is more likely to know where you live. But things can go wrong with them as well, so it's not necessarily the perfect benchmark.

Stuff happens. If it is a mission critical part, then it would have been wiser to pay the increased cost for the convenience and assurance, rather than see any savings lost to wasted time and aggravation. I've been there too, and had that lesson forced on me.
 
If the package was shipped by Fedex, then it was sold and shipped by a third party. Amazon stopped using Fedex as a carrier after their contract expired, and the latter declined to renew. Amazon even banned its 3rd party sellers from using Fedex Ground for a month due to performance issues, before reinstating that option at the beginning of the year.

Fedex Ground/Home is not the original overnight company of lore, Fedex Express. It is a subsidiary created when the company acquired RPS, a low-cost alternative to the other shippers. The SmartPost product, where the USPS does the final mile delivery, was also the result of an acquisition.

That's the simple story, but the takeaway is that there is a good Fedex, which you pay dearly for, and a not as good Fedex, which is cheaper.

Since it was shipped directly by the seller, Amazon was never in the chain of custody, and is limited in what it can do; not any more than eBay can do with its sales. Neither has a direct role in the shipping process, and has to rely on the tracking provided by the actual carrier.

The 48 hr grace period if there is a shipping discrepancy is a policy that applies to all Amazon sales, even for Prime members. They want to ensure that a shipment is truly lost, before taking action. Sometimes, the package turns up, and sometimes, it doesn't. It's sucks, but that's the way they approach it.

Like many customer service operations, Amazon would prefer to first funnel inquiries through FAQs, and automated systems that may help resolve issues, before having to get a human involved. As such, it stopped publishing its telephone number long ago, and the channels to initiate contact are a bit obscured. Buy, they do exist, in the form of online chat (preferred) or a callback option.

Delivery drivers are under enormous pressure, especially given the higher volumes during current times. Unintended mistakes can be made, and less scrupulous drivers can fudge with the process and enter false inputs, which result in false tracking results.

The USPS was created with higher service standards in mind, and its carriers don't have to learn new routes daily, and deliver to the same addresses every day. That's why the mailman is more likely to know where you live. But things can go wrong with them as well, so it's not necessarily the perfect benchmark.

Stuff happens. If it is a mission critical part, then it would have been wiser to pay the increased cost for the convenience and assurance, rather than see any savings lost to wasted time and aggravation. I've been there too, and had that lesson forced on me.

As someone who's been delivering for Amazon Prime since early April, when I was furloughed from my main gig in aircraft maintenance (thankfully I've been called back to my main job and start back Monday), I can tell you that a lot of what Carmudgeon said is right.

I, and every other driver, have made mistakes. Sometimes addresses aren't marked clearly (if at all), or you have so many packages that you're trying to get delivered that day, that you just simply accidentally take the package to the wrong address, for whatever reason.

It makes sense that Amazon would try to have people resolve delivery problems without human interaction first, but, I don't think they're trying to hide their customer service number. Every driver is issued a tag that goes on his lanyard that has the customer service number that we're instructed to give customers who have issues: 877-252-2701

If anyone has questions that I might know the answer to, from a driver's perspective, I can try to answer them.

Just a couple of things: Most of y'all already know this, but, when you place your order, there is the opportunity to include Special Instructions, that I will see when I go to scan your package. You can instruct anything - whether you want the package delivered to the front door, side door, back door, garage, etc. Or, you can let me know that your dog is friendly or not friendly, or, that you would prefer me not to knock or ring the doorbell, etc.

When a package is delivered, we mark it on our device, so, the customer is always supposed to receive a notification that it has just been delivered. This comes either in the form of an email, or, if you have the Amazon app on your phone, a notification.

We do take photos on delivery, most of the time. There are cases when it's not practical. You can request to always have a photo taken by the driver on delivery.

All this information is also available online or in the app.
 
Any issues i’ve had with deliveries, Amazon or not, have been with FedEx. Never with USPS or UPS.

Fedex is pretty bad right now. Pay one price for a label, and then a week later they charge more money. Eight business days plus a weekend for Fedex ground from NC to NJ is ridiculous. Label on package was replaced twice during shipment.

If you use Fedex(don't!), make sure to declare a value, and pay the extra money for insurance. And don't use a drop off like Dollar General or Walgreens to ship packages. Read the Fedex service agreement.
 
If there ever comes a time when I have options for shipping..

A)FedEx Ground
B)UPS
C)USPS

I will never pick FedEx Ground.
On big parcels i will always choose UPS.
On small items I will always pick USPS.


Since i paid for shipping, i wish i would have had options.


I think this is the third time that FedEx Ground has got me... i wish i could learn a lesson but there were no options for other shipping.
 
Not here to bash FedEx but we try to avoid them like the plague right now. I've had deliveries with them and the driver has sometimes left them at a neighbor's house, I finally caught up with him a few days after and said it's easier for them to leave at a residential house than it is at a business when there isn't anyone around who can sign for it. It seems like the company I work for almost always shuts down for lunch which is the time they try to deliver, sometimes there is a person there that handles it but they are only part time so it's hit or miss.

I had recently ordered a part to repair my car through AutoZone and didn't know they shipped FedEx until the end of checkout. It shipped on a Mon. from CA and scheduled for delivery on Thurs. which I should've known better being all the way across the other side of the country. It got held up NM then sat in OK for awhile and went up to IL, the first rescheduled date was for Sat. so I wasted practically the whole day for them and they never even showed up, said they attempted delivery but I was there all day and he never showed, the delivery was FedEx Home Delivery or at least what the tracking showed. I called them and asked if they could deliver on Mon. and that I'd be there to sign for it, sometimes you can have FedEx hold the package for pickup but all of their locations are not open to the public right now and because of shipper restrictions placed by AutoZone they couldn't leave it at Walgreen's or any other places where you can go and pickup your packages. I received an update on my phone that the package was then rescheduled for Sunday so I'm very upset by this point. I had some stuff I needed to get done with the bike that's fine I'll just kill another day, I changed the oil, lubed the chain and went over the rest but FedEx never showed up and wasn't until that night it was then rescheduled for Mon.

So they finally they showed up on that day but it was their Ground service and not Home Delivery, I've had some Home Delivery packages before but instead was delivered by the Ground driver. I had made an appointment to get my car repaired which was for Tues. so I was really stressed getting this part in time. I could've fixed the car myself and have done this before on my other car but dad offered to pay someone else to do the work for me which is just the exhaust manifold with cat converter that's all in one unit on those Civic's they are prone to cracking and with 200k+ miles I knew it couldn't last but so much longer and it finally gave up.

So in a nutshell please avoid them at all costs, especially right now with everything the way it is, honestly I go out of my way to not even use them and go with UPS or USPS whenever I can. What irks me the most is that I didn't even sign for anything when he showed up, he just handed me the packages and went on his merry way which is probably due to the shipper restrictions placed by AutoZone that FedEx had to physically leave the package with someone or needed a signature and he could've used the signature on file since he handed it to me and I didn't sign.
 
We do take photos on delivery, most of the time. There are cases when it's not practical. You can request to always have a photo taken by the driver on delivery.
What's the policy/rule on this ? Only curious, mind you. We receive a text with a picture maybe 1 out of 10 deliveries, with the most recent one showing our item on someone else's porch ! 🤣 I've never seen the option to select, at least not on an order-by-order basis. In fact, our son said he gets text notifications for every order our family places (we all access "my" account) but we can't find where this is set anywhere. I realize this really isn't part of what you do with Amazon, of course....
 
People need to remember that "Left at doorstep" or similar is not proof of delivery. Many companies will try and push back with a customer that didn't receive an order and claim that is sufficient proof that they did deliver it but do not let them ! Thing is, many customers accept this and place an order and pay again as if they made a mistake or it's their fault. Tell the business "I'm going to review my RING doorbell video" (even if you don't have one) or even better, "I'll dispute this with my credit card company". The CC company will ask for real proof of delivery, like a signature, and without it, they're do a backcharge.
Do that more than a couple times, and you might get blacklisted by Amazon.
 
Any issues i’ve had with deliveries, Amazon or not, have been with FedEx. Never with USPS or UPS.

I have had UPS leave not one, not two, not three, but FOUR deliveries on the steps exposed to rain...instead of putting them three feet away, under the porch overhang. Fortunately, the order of out of print, irreplaceable books was packed well enough to stay dry inside.
 
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