Random weirdos coming to my door delivering packages from Amazon.


 

Clint

TVWBB Olympian
I'm not a fan of how Amazon has been running their deliveries over the last week or 2.

An unfamiliar car pulls up, trunk pops open, & random stranger dressed in street clothes walks up with a package.

I talked to the first, he said "they're hiring private contractors". Just had another delivery right now, 4:05pm on a Sunday.
 
Could be worse Clint.
The worker was in a U-Haul marked van.
I'll spare everyone the link(s)
"A DISGUSTED Californian is crying foul after an Amazon delivery worker was caught squatting and defecating on her driveway."
 
Could be worse Clint.
The worker was in a U-Haul marked van.
I'll spare everyone the link(s)
"A DISGUSTED Californian is crying foul after an Amazon delivery worker was caught squatting and defecating on her driveway."

OH NO! Not an extra package (foul indeed)

Seem to remember a threat of someone wearing a UPS / FedEX uniform delivering a bomb. Or porch pirates, how are they going to be differentiated from these delivery subcontractors? I guess dropping off & not taking :)

I'm not too big of a fan of drones doing the deliveries - hard to know the operator or purpose.

Suppose it's time for me to get used to it.

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It’s been going on here for nearly a year. Private personal vehicles. They are called On Track. I agree Clint, it sucks. They use their own tracking system and it’s pretty useless. I just don’t think UPS can handle the demand.
 
It’s been going on here for nearly a year. Private personal vehicles. They are called On Track. I agree Clint, it sucks. They use their own tracking system and it’s pretty useless. I just don’t think UPS can handle the demand.

Ontrac moved in a few months (maybe a year) ago, and they seemed to drive unmarked white sprinter vans. I just checked the box that was delivered today & it didn't say ontrac but ???? I know amazon just opened a warehouse nearby, so besides starting to charge tax this is another change I've noticed.

I think this is how Amazon is handling their Prime - UPS was probably strong-arming them so they made a change.

I'd at least like to see vehicle magnets if not full-blown wraps, as well as uniforms.
 
Same here, I got a free 30 day prime from Amazon so I've ordered a bunch of stuff through them to take advantage of the free shipping. Every thing has been delivered in the two day time frame but not one UPS truck just cars, vans and whatever with no identification at all. Creepy!
We even have the USPS mail trucks running around here on Sundays now.
 
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I'd at least like to see vehicle magnets if not full-blown wraps, as well as uniforms.

We've been noticing them for the past month or so in private vehicles. Talked to one young guy in a Camaro, he works just 2 hours a day delivering and it fits his schedule perfectly. Another was an older woman in her Prius, hatchback loaded top to bottom with little Amazon boxes.

We've had the white OnTrack vans for a couple of years, but at least they are logoed. Watching my package come out of the back of someone's Prius was a bit disconcerting, to be honest.
 
A couple years ago Amazon started their own delivery service called Amazon Logistics. If the shipper on your order says AMZNL, that's who's delivering it. This is different from OnTrac, which is an independent delivery service operating on the west coast. OnTrac also does some deliveries for Newegg.

USPS has been making Sunday deliveries for Amazon for a couple years. I haven't yet figured out the conditions under which your package will come this way. Seems completely random. I think USPS needed staff for Sunday Express Mail deliveries but wasn't keeping them busy, so they started doing some Amazon deliveries.

There have been a few articles recently about Amazon demanding ridiculous delivery schedules for their workers and apparently paying them by the package and not by the hour. That was in the U.K. Not sure how things are in the U.S. The AMZNL delivery people here move quickly but don't seem overly rushed. At least they usually ring the doorbell when they drop a package.

I have to admit I feel a bit more comfortable when somebody in a labeled truck wearing a uniform makes the delivery, but if it reliably gets me my package overnight I suppose delivery by just some guy in a Camaro is okay too.
 
Candygram, my foot! You get out of here before I call the police! You're the shark, and you know it!

Wait. I-I'm only a dolphin, ma'am.

A dolphin? Well... Okay.

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I have to admit I feel a bit more comfortable when somebody in a labeled truck wearing a uniform makes the delivery, but if it reliably gets me my package overnight I suppose delivery by just some guy in a Camaro is okay too.
I'm with you on that. Except that we're having lots of package thefts here in the SF Bay Area, people wandering around stealing packages off front porches. So a random guy driving around in an unmarked Camaro "delivering packages for Amazon" makes some people rightfully suspicious.
 
Yeah, they ought to at least give them vests and photo ID cards. Maybe magnetic signs to put on the car. I suppose that would drive the cost up, especially if they're hiring people to work just a couple hours here and there.

The thefts are one reason I get annoyed when the delivery people don't ring the bell. They don't have to wait for an answer but at least ring the bell so we'll look out and find the package. There's almost always somebody home. UPS has been pretty good about it since I emailed them and specifically asked them to ring. USPS always rings. AMZNL usually rings. Not quite as important with them because my phone goes off seconds after they drop the package anyway. Fedex is probably the worst for not ringing. It's always drop and run with them. Our front porch is in clear view of the street and there's a lot of traffic by here because of a nearby school. Somebody could pull up in front, grab a package off the porch, and be gone in seconds. We're fortunate that's never happened.

And no land sharks. Yet...
 
<snip>Watching my package come out of the back of someone's Prius was a bit disconcerting, to be honest.

I have a neighbor('s kid) who spends as much time in-jail as out. ~3 days ago an unmarked car rolled up, I was expecting to see someone with a package but it was a couple of geared up LEOs that knocked on his (momma's) door.
 
Had the ultimate idiot deliver today. We have a patio in the front of the house with a low wall and gate. This bozo jumps out of his car and runs up and jumps over the gate and from about ten feet back throws the package at the front door and turns and jumps back over the gate and disappears. Of course the gates unlocked.
If he had snagged his foot going over the gate he would have gone face first into the cement and I'm sure some lawyer would say it was my fault for having a gate there.
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[/url]100_1053 by Richard Dahl, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
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Maybe it's because we live in a fairly rural area that we haven't had those oddball deliveries.
Probably not profitable enough for the temps to come out this far and have deliveries so spread out.

On another note, Jo bought a candle from Amazon that she couldn't find anywhere else, they sent the wrong one, so it was returned.
The correct one came yesterday, but the glass holder was shattered. I was amazed at how poorly it was packed.
I think Amazon is starting to bite off more than it can chew.
 
On another note, Jo bought a candle from Amazon that she couldn't find anywhere else, they sent the wrong one, so it was returned.
The correct one came yesterday, but the glass holder was shattered. I was amazed at how poorly it was packed.
I think Amazon is starting to bite off more than it can chew.
Amazon can sometimes be a bit of a crap shoot as far as packaging. They do have an area for feedback specifically on packaging, which suggests a desire to improve. This time of year, though, they obviously have to hire a lot of temporary help and they aren't all going to be properly trained on how to pack every single thing. At least Amazon is good about replacing things that are damaged in transit.
 
The ten or so packages that were fulfilled by Amazon only one was pretty poor, a box within a box and one small piece of crumbled paper as padding.
 
I just opened one from Amazon. It was a very small table intended as a base for a statue. It came from the manufacturer wrapped in bubble wrap with a layer of that very thin corrugated cardboard that seems to be used a lot with stuff coming from China. Amazon then threw that in a big box and tossed in about half a dozen of those little air pillows, leaving several inches of open space on the top and the side. It was ludicrously inadequate packing. By some miracle it appears the table survived undamaged.
 

 

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