The other day I ordered something off of Amazon. Since it was rather large I had it shipped to my apartment instead of delivered to the office because I wasn’t sure it would fit safely in my car.
In the past I have never had a problem getting deliveries at home. However, my apartment complex is the kind where you have to be buzzed into the building, and there isn’t necessarily someone in the office all day. Since both UPS and the post office have special keys which give them access to our building, they usually bring whatever in and leave it by my door. This time, however, my package was to be delivered by Amazon logistics–or whatever they are calling themselves these days.
The package was supposed to be delivered Thursday, but since Amazon does not have a key (which I found out just then), they were unable to get in to deliver the package, and would try again the next day, Friday. Since I also worked Friday, this didn’t sound like it was going to be any more successful than the failed delivery Thursday. So I gave them a call and asked if it could be delivered between 12-1 on Friday since I could be home for lunch. “Sure, no problem,” the helpful customer service person said. “I’ll make a note and someone will call you if there are any issues.” Great!
Wrong. Friday came, and I sat home patiently from noon to 1 awaiting my package. At 1 I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be receiving my package. On the way back to the office I called Amazon to see what the problem was, and the person who answered directed me to the delivery manager for my area. I explained to him the situation–I usually work 8 am to 10 pm, and if he could give me an eta window, I could be sure to be home (take my lunch) at that time.
“The delivery window is 8 am – 6 pm” he said.
I tried explaining to him that I work two jobs, I’m single, and I can’t just sit at home all day waiting for them to show up with my package. It just wasn’t a feasible option. I mean even Comcast will give me a two-hour window and they are notoriously bad at customer service. I tried negotiating–can your delivery person text/call me when they leave their previous delivery? I work five minutes away; I could come home and intercept them. Nope, they don’t do that; they have a delivery window between 8 am and 6 pm. If i can’t make that work I should have used Amazon Locker (which would also mean transporting the package, so at that point, why not just have it delivered to work?).
The whole thing was ridiculous. I was practically bending over backwards to accommodate a company who wanted MY business. I mean, when did we become the kind of society where the needs of the corporations are more important than the needs of the customer? If I’m honest, at this point I’d rather shop at Meijer.
Krista M. Doud 
I agree Krista, I haven’t had the problem with Amazon, but I have with other companies. And it is frustrating, as well as unprofessional. Yesterday a insurance person with whom we had an appointment calls seven minutes before the appt. to say she couldn’t come. It was for a reason she had known about all day. I took time off of work to accommodate her appointment. Inconsiderate, rude.
LikeLiked by 1 person
To be fair, they’re also people. They have to organize, select, pack, drive, and deliver your package. There are a lot of logistical factors that go into delivery, including traffic, accidents, mistakes and the like.
I’m sorry they couldn’t deliver at the exact window you were available, but it was a tight window, to be fair.
I would’ve called them and told them to leave it with your apartment office. At least that way, it would’ve been close for you.
Totally different topic: we’ve literally always been a society that values the needs of a company over the individual customer. That’s kinda how capitalism works.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I understand that they couldn’t make the delivery window, but the point is they never even intended to try – which is so incredibly frustrating to me, not even when I was willing to try and work around their schedule, there was literally NO accommodation. (My apartment complex office hasn’t been open for a month now, we are between owners – or something stupid like that.)
And yes, I agree, society tends to value the needs of a company over the individual; especially their employees, but I’ve worked A LOT of customer service jobs in my years of working, and one of the things companies are usually pretty good at is accommodating customers, because without customers, they don’t have a business – sometimes they do so much accommodating, that all I can do is stand their dumfounded as my manager completely contradicts all of our standard “in place” protocols to appease this one person.
LikeLiked by 2 people