Sorry for the rant. I'll feel better after having written it. Last week I ordered a new computer from Amazon. It was scheduled to arrive yesterday. It didn't but it arrived today. Not a big deal. The driver came to the door and asked for a verification code for the delivery. I told here I had no such code. I asked for the reason. She said it was to verify that they were delivering to the right person. I explained that her truck was in my driveway and she was at my door speaking directly with me. Would she like to see my driver license? She asked for the last four digits of my phone number so I gave her all three. None of them matched. She showed me her screen and it showed that the last two digits were 02. We do not have a phone number ending in 02 and, to my knowledge, never have. She asked again about the code and said that it could be in an email. I went to the computer and found it and showed her the code. It didn't work. She called the office and they explained that she had exhausted the three telephone verification limit so she couldn't make the delivery even though I now had the code and was standing in my own house speaking with the driver. I wondered what a code would do that a personal contact failed to do and came up with nothing. If they wanted to avoid a porch pirate stealing my package that is fine but to deny who I am even though I am in my own house talking face to face with the driver makes no sense. It is a policy designed to make some management idiot feel better that accomplishes nothing at all. The office should have OK'd it. The driver can't get the code without knocking on the door and asking for it. When someone comes to the door, that is a better verification than any code can provide. The policy should require the driver to knock on the door when they are afraid of porch pirates out here in the country. Drop the code nonsense and I will come back. Amazon can have any policies it wants to have but they can't have this one and still do business with me. I cancelled the order and hope I get my refund by next week some time. Thanks for listening. I feel better now. Back to the search for a new computer.
I don't think it makes sense for an apartment either. The driver still has to get to the resident in order to get the code. I can't justify it on any level.
Well it would be much easier to impersonate a neighbor through a phone number or name than a code sent to an email address would be my point. I mean if I live next to someone in an apartment and I know their name and phone number, I'd have a better chance of stealing their package than needing some code.
My guess is they have risk analytics that tell them where to put in overly protective, seemingly customer hostile, policies. Your item and location fell into this bubble. It’s an unlikely policy for small ticket items. I can’t blame them even though it’s incredibly silly how it shook out this time.
A test in progress to see how the coming dictatorship will control distribution of all goods and services including medical, food, water and, fuel?
The UPS driver goes to the door to deliver the product. The driver cannot get the code without going to the door and getting it from someone. The driver is at the address and interfacing with the package recipient. How are you going to impersonate anyone and steal a package whether there is a code available or not? There is no sense at all in this policy anywhere for any reason.
Generally I view business as way more competent than government but there are some exceptions like this one. In this case business copied government by making a policy devoid of common sense. I wish senior management was aware this is happening. I'm not going to write them a letter. I'm just going to shop on Walmart online from now on. I checked and they have oustanding deals on computers and a wider selection.
A one-time password (OTP) was required on delivery because the item was really expensive. I have never bought anything more than $100 on Amazon.
Yes I know only too clearly. When the driver arrived, I hadn't looked at email since morning. When she asked for the code I had no idea what she was talking about. If they had sent the email the day before, then at least I would have gotten the products I bought. It still makes no sense. The driver was parked in my driveway, speaking to me personally and I offered to show her my driver license. Instead, no delivery. Beyond stupid. At least I know it won't happen again.
Can you imagine what would happen to the poor driver who went out of process and gave it to the wrong person? Good luck with Walmart. They are far from perfect, too.
Thanks. At least Walmart doesn't refuse deliveries. I'm not criticizing the driver. I'm criticizing the policy.
No, but they will send you an email that your package is out for delivery when it's still 10 states away. LOL. True story; this just happened to me last week. I've been bouncing back and forth between the two. So far, no notable differences have been detected. Smart companies don't put policies into place to pizz off customers. They do it after the loss department tells them that too many xyz get reported as not having been received. jeff@amazon.com - send him your thoughts. As I understand it, he does read his mail.
That isn't what happened. I read my email at 10 A.M. There was no such email. The attempted delivery occurred at around 1:30. How was I to know I would need to read my emails again in order to get a delivery? Incidentally, when the driver suggested I check email for the code, I did so, found it and showed it to her. She was on the phone with her office. The office told her to refuse delivery even though I had the code. It's nuts. I'm sorry you support the policy. It accomplishes nothing and causes potential customer service issues. No point in emailing Bezos. I've gone my way. I was a customer for over 20 years but they won't miss me. They have millions of customers.
I’m just getting frustrated with delivery times. Before Covid “2 day” shipping was averaging 4-5 days here. Now it’s 10-14 days, no different than any other retailer. There’s no advantage to their prime service anymore.
My experience with Amazon deliveries was pretty consistent before the subject of this thread. Packages all arrived within 5 to 7 days when I chose free shipping. There might be some regional differences. Walmart is usually 2 or 3 working days here.
We are just too far from the source for most things. We never had two day shipping even when they used to promise it. I understood why and didn’t care. But two weeks is ridiculous. I can’t believe you couldn’t get your computer. That’s messed up. I’ve had a few items delivered that require signature and verification. I’m seldom home during the day so I have an agreement with the driver he will “take care of it” if I’m not here and leave the package. Porch pirating isn’t a problem here so it’s no big deal. I’ve never had anything requiring an email and code like that. My driver probably wouldn’t be able to circumvent that.
I can order stuff at midnight and have it by 8 am. It depends where you live. Most items I get next day. I often get digital credits for accepting a two day window. nah, I don’t support that silliness. I suspect it’s an over correction to a real problem. They can’t fix it if nobody says anything.
Not only are there no porch pirates in my area but there aren't even any criminals or serious crimes. The county sheriff cruises for traffic offenses and that's about it. I suffered a garage break-in several years ago. They finally caught the cretin who was from out of town. No local would have done that. He didn't know how effective our county sheriff is. The stolen items were returned to me. I provided a statement to the county prosecutor. The thief spent a month in jail and paid a fine. We had a murder here about 25 years ago also caused by out of town criminals. They still talk about it. It hasn't happened since. And we wonder why rural people like us oppose the policies city people make.
Yeh, it looks like the policy that messed up your delivery is unnecessary in your area. Thing is, whoever set the policy probably has no idea such places exist. And the total number of people who live in such areas are too insignificant to justify two policies.
A single policy will do. It should read that items over a certain selling price must be delivered face to face instead of being left at the door. It is what the current policy requires anyway. Common sense says a face to face delivery is better verification than a code.
That probably depends on how many deliveries are lost to stepsons needing drug money or one night stands or live-ins that weren’t completely satisfied etc. I would guess there are a lot of folks opening the door that are the equivalent of a porch pirate, just on the other side of the door. That’s just my guess. Either way they are driving off some business with the policy. They better get their code generation system fixed.
