
Why I Canceled Amazon Prime - tkone
http://tck.io/posts/why_i_canceled_amazon_prime.html
======
terrellm
On our ranch, we have an automatic gate opener with keypad. While FedEx and
UPS will use a key code if one is printed on the address label, USPS refuses
to enter through an open gate. Maybe they were just afraid of the cattle
([http://www.LonghornSteers.com](http://www.LonghornSteers.com)).

Fortunately for us, UPS delivers virtually all of our Amazon orders (2-3 a
week since it is easier to use Prime than drive into town). The day that
Amazon uses USPS for us is the day we cancel Prime, too.

The only worse delivery company we have dealt with is DHL, who Microsoft uses.
I think it stands for (D)ump the package (H)aul tail away, and (L)ie that no
one was home. On numerous occasions, DHL has left thousands of dollars worth
in software at our gate which is on a busy country road.

A tip that I have found with delivery drivers is to be nice and get to know
them. Smile, ask them how they are doing, offer them a bottle of water on a
hot day, etc. Many will go out of their way to help a friendly face.

~~~
VLM
"easier to use Prime than drive into town"

cheaper not easier.

My mom and sister live in a rural county with more dairy cows than humans, and
its not just easier, but considerably cheaper. Not sure what its like where
you live, but sometimes around here people assume 50 cents/mile total cost aka
$1/mile round trip so a trip into town to a big box store isn't twenty miles
away, its $20 away, round trip. Suddenly paying less to Amazon than the locals
will charge AND getting it "free" in two days is looking like a great deal.
When I visit I notice rural retail is rapidly dying other than convenience
stores and bulk type stores.

~~~
redblacktree
> cheaper not easier.

Cheaper _and_ easier? Your post came off as immediately combative, but when I
read the rest I realized that it wasn't at all. I don't mean to chastise you,
only to point out how it was perceived.

Have a nice day!

~~~
VLM
Hmm could be. I didn't think either option would be hard, so it must have been
an innocent word selection error, and I have immediate family who go into
repetitive detail how its cheaper, apparently along with everyone else, making
rural retail go out of business...

I've seen combative, and its looks a lot different than suggesting a different
word and giving some back story that's shared experience for two people from
cow country of course, but the city slickers in the audience would need
significant background to understand. Maybe an analogy for urban people, would
be imagine if the subway suddenly changed price to $20 per ride. Or adjusted
for inflation of incomes and expenses in urban areas, if the subway changed to
$200 per ride. Sure, its easy driving, nice scenery, no legendary California
traffic jams, but its still very expensive.

Have a pleasant day

~~~
redblacktree
I see what you mean. It just looked like an argument.

------
PaulHoule
Funny, living in a rural area I have the opposite problem.

I have a driveway that is an 1/8 of a mile long that is threatened by several
beaver colonies trying to flood it out. Delivery drivers are terrified of my
driveway because it has a reputation of eating their trucks. One time we
replaced the water line that crosses out driveway and that evening a FedEx
truck drove across it and, thanks to subsidence, the wheel sunk a foot into
the ground.

The driver was terrified of calling for help formally (which would have
consequences) so we called the highway superintendent and she sent her husband
over to our place with a floor jack and we got him out.

UPS drivers frequently put packages in plastic bags, then drive to the top of
the hill hoping they can make a cell phone call about what they've done.

I'd prefer to get small things delivered by USPS because USPS can put them in
my mailbox and I can get them without any problem.

~~~
tkone
How do you fit a 45lbs crib in a box that is 4'x4'x5' in your mail box?

That's gotta be a huge mailbox sir!

OR the post office could end its monopoly of your mailbox...

~~~
PaulHoule
I get more little things than big things.

Certainly if other delivery services could use the box it would help.

------
cfinke
_You see, the problem with Amazon Prime is that you are shipping almost
entirely via the USPS._

I've never received a package from Amazon via anyone but UPS.

~~~
aforty
I live in Brooklyn too. Not sure if it's a regional thing but lately all
packages have been delivered via USPS. I don't currently have the problem that
the OP has but that's only because I live in a larger apartment building to
which USPS sends a truck with all the packages for the day.

But I can definitely relate. USPS offices are usually in very unfriendly
places as far as public transportation goes. Having to travel, wait on line
and then carry your package home would be a deal breaker for me as well.

~~~
apaprocki
I also live in Brooklyn (no doorman) and pay $9/mo for a USPS registered
mailbox at a laundry store so that I never have to deal with the physical post
office. I used to go there to pick up packages and it was a hellish
experience. $9/mo saves all of that hassle and it is definitely worth it.

~~~
aforty
Interesting! I will keep this in mind when I eventually move.

Curious, are there Amazon Lockers near where you live and if so, was there a
reason why you chose not to use them?

~~~
apaprocki
No, Amazon Lockers are nowhere near me (Williamsburg). I just don't see how it
would be possible for them to scale as large as "neighborhood mailboxes" which
are literally everywhere. There are at least 3 cheap mailbox / package drops
on Bedford Ave on the walk home from the L train so I never have to go out of
my way.

------
jcromartie
I live in an apartment complex, and I find that the general issue is that
carriers just can't/won't bring packages to your door. With the exception of
ONE delivery out of at least two dozen, I have never had a package come to my
door.

I always get notified by the apartment building late in the day when they are
either closed or I am out for dinner/errands, so I have to wait until the next
day to actually get the package. It's always N+1 day shipping with this setup.

As much as it annoys me, I am not sure there's an answer. Can carriers really
be expected to actually go to every door in a sprawling apartment building
with all of their deliveries for the day?

~~~
gellpak
Why not? I wouldn't pay my telecom for getting my data only as far as the
nearest switching station. Why should I accept an almost-all-the-way-there
delivery from a shipping company?

------
shittyanalogy
This is a NYC problem not a Amazon Prime or USPS problem.

\- Have your packages shipped to a friends work place or somewhere with a
doorman. I use Amazon Prime in the city and do just that, it's great.

\- You can rent a PO box that accepts packages at many mail-services type
stores. Many of them have notification services too.

\- Get a business address at a co-working space, a lot of times they will
accept your business mail and packages.

\- If you live over or next to a business, especially a bodega, you can
sometimes convince them to let you ship packages to them. Just remember to buy
something each time and keep up that rapport. :)

Otherwise there's just no good solution for shipping in NYC. :(

~~~
jinushaun
Read the rest of the article. Doesn't address his problem of getting the
package back to his apt. He mentions lots of large heavy boxes.

~~~
redblacktree
I'm sure "over or next to a business" is a lot closer than the post office.

------
susi22
Why not use Amazon Lockers [1]?

It's actually sad that it's amazon specific. I'd love to see this rather
implemented for the post services like USPS/UPS. In Germany, we have DHL
Packstation and you can just have it shipped to those location and pick up
your package 24/7\. It started getting a bunch of locations in 2004 and
nowadays they have them every ~300-500m around big towns (like Munich for
instance).

[1]
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=locker_hp_fd?docId...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=locker_hp_fd?docId=1000841451)

~~~
TillE
Yeah, Packstaton is fantastic. It's basically a free PO box.

I'm sure it works out well for DHL not only because they spend less time
driving around delivering packages, but also because I now try very hard to
avoid any online retailer that doesn't ship via DHL.

------
dkrich
_However, I would happily pay more than $79 /year for a version of prime which
guarantees that the USPS will not be involved in shipping: not via FedEx
SmartPost, not direct, not ever. I would venture to say there are a lot more
people like me out there._

Any flavor of the comment "I would happily pay more than <current price> for
<what I claim I want>" is always hysterical to me. This kind of statement does
two things that are incredibly naive:

First it suggests that you as the consumer know at this point what you would
or would not pay. You only know what that figure is when it comes time to pay.
If Amazon upped the price to $99/year and switched to private carrier and gave
you no choice, you might not be so happy.

Second, even if you do know 100% that you'd _happily_ pay more, it suggests
that you as one data point know more about how to price a service like Prime
than the legions of pricing analysts and product managers employed at Amazon
who are privy to years of customer behavior data.

There's a reason Comcast and Verizon are constantly bitched about by consumers
yet continue to lead their industries in customer volume. Individual consumers
are fickle but really only care about immediate cost.

~~~
incongruity
_> Second, even if you do know 100% that you'd happily pay more, it suggests
that you as one data point know more about how to price a service like Prime
than the legions of pricing analysts and product managers employed at Amazon
who are privy to years of customer behavior data.

There's a reason Comcast and Verizon are constantly bitched about by consumers
yet continue to lead their industries in customer volume. Individual consumers
are fickle but really only care about immediate cost._

We understand things through the lenses of the tools we use to measure them.
When you measure only "behavior data" (code for limited quantitative snapshots
of transactions at specific prices), then you only see _what_ happens through
the lens of pricing and you talk about people as sources of demand who are
price sensitive or not, etc. etc. -- but you never get to the _why_ and all
you might succeed in doing is hill-climbing optimizations, at best.

Instead, what if we figured out how to measure experiences (not touch points)
and what if we took that ability to actually build demonstrably better
experiences?

One small example in support -- look at the volume of reviews and the impact
of Yelp -- if that's not the antithesis of consumers being price sensitive, I
don't know what is. For better or worse (and ignoring astroturfing), Yelp
demonstrates the power of consumer experiences (and an attempt at measuring
them)

Trust me, the incumbent cable and telco providers are successful not because
people are price sensitive but because the market is broken -- there's no
competition, in large part due to regulated/legalized monopoly (or at best
oligarchy) and they fight hard to keep it. If there were competition, there'd
be a different picture...

------
jonstjohn
I actually have a similar problem with UPS. Last year we had a dyson vacuum
delivered to our house that was left on the front porch, about 10 feet from
the sidewalk. The box was the manufacturer's box with pictures of the vacuum
and the brand written in big letters. We weren't home but when we did get
there, there was no package.

It was ordered from Costco and their service was fantastic. We had a
replacement within a few days. The problem was UPS. After that incident, every
single package had to not only be signed for, but actually have a person
present to receive the package. I'm not sure if this was retribution on behalf
of the delivery person, who probably got into some kind of trouble, but it is
what it is. It is very difficult for us to get packages at home now.

I love prime, but it would be fantastic if I had the option to choose a
shipper, even if I had to pay a couple dollars extra. USPS is actually much
better about leaving packages, which are by far usually under $20 and small.

------
mdip
I've been a prime member for years and I just (naively, I guess) assumed they
ship everything UPS, because that's the only way I have ever received a
package shipped by Amazon.

I'm in a suburb and whether it's UPS, FedEx or USPS, my item is always left on
my porch unless signature requirements were specified. In the nine years I've
lived here, packages have never been stolen. I, however, would prefer if
Amazon shipped via USPS. My mail is delivered, very consistently, between noon
and 1:00 PM. For UPS, however, I am almost always the last delivery, which is
at 7:00 PM and sometimes later.

I also found it interesting that this person received so many credits for
screwed up shipping. I would expect a company like Amazon would have analytics
in place to monitor the frequency of these problems and intelligently pick the
best shipper. Reading the comments and the problems that others have had with
FedEx and UPS makes me wonder if the issue isn't so much USPS vs. FedEx vs.
UPS, but instead the location being shipped to isn't served very well by any
of them and USPS was picked because they have more pick-up locations
conveniently located. Getting the "slip" in my area from UPS means driving
about 20 miles to stand in line versus the USPS, where it's only 2 miles. But
that's just a guess.

------
colmvp
For a second, I read the title as Jeff Bezos: Why I had to Cancel Amazon Prime
and I was this close to picking up my pitchfork.

------
petercooper
So the real problem is that the US government can't provide a postal service
that's fit for purpose despite being obliged to provide a service of uniform
quality to all Americans. Switching providers might help but it seems the
underlying systemic issue is with the USPS not being what it's meant to be.

~~~
eli
It is? Maybe in this one case.

At my last office I would fail to get large/heavy FedEx deliveries. It would
say delivery attempted, but nobody came. I'd get the package typically a day
or two later. I assume it was just one really lazy driver.

I think the real problem is delivering millions of packages to people all
across the country is a tough problem and there are bound to be weird little
edge cases that only affect a few people.

~~~
protomyth
Yep, never had a problem with USPS or UPS, but I absolutely hate FedEx Air[1].
They pulled a "we don't deliver in your area from Dec 20 to Jan 2" crap and I
had to drive 90 miles to pickup the package myself. I told the vendor if they
shipped the next package via FedEx, that would be the last one ordered[2].

I figure your local people are the determining factor since consistency seems
not to be a corporate function for any of them.

1) mixing up Air and FedEx Ground will get you yelled at

2) we were getting parts and cables shipped overnight

~~~
redblacktree
"we don't deliver in your area from Dec 20 to Jan 2"

Um, what? That sounds like a WHOLE lot of pissed off holiday shoppers.

~~~
protomyth
It was 1996, so I think most of the folks were buying stuff on shopping trips
and not over the internet.

------
codegeek
So this guy had to cancel his prime membership because USPS delivers shit
service in his area in Brooklyn ? I sympathize with his issue in general but
this has nothing to do with Amazon prime.

I think in general, the moment you talk about NYC boroughs, logistics are a
totally different ball game compared to say suburban New Jersey but I am not
defending USPS with this though. All I am saying is that Amazon Prime already
runs with very thin margins and adding the luxury of being able to select
multiple mail carriers for a region is probably not viable for amazon. Just my
2 cents.

~~~
tkone
I would so happily pay more to choose my carrier. When I started Amazon Prime
several years ago the amount I ordered from Amazon skyrocketed -- 2 day
delivery for free? Crap, I don't ever have to go to Target, Toys'r'Us, the pet
store, etc ever again.

------
jweir
Yeah, we use Prime in Brooklyn. And the UPSP postal slip is something I never
want to see.

Our Post Office has gotten a little better in the last year about delivering
packages. Although they still sometimes try the wrong buzzer.

One thing, with your postal slip you can schedule to have it redelivered
through the USPS website. I have had good success with this.

[https://redelivery.usps.com/redelivery/](https://redelivery.usps.com/redelivery/)

Fortunately very few of our Amazon deliveries are USPS, most of them are UPS.

~~~
tkone
Tried that. We just get another slip since they're still not carrying the
packages. It really does depend on your post office. Bed-Stuy? No way!

~~~
jweir
We have the Brevoort USPO on Atlantic.

------
fotbr
For the stuff you don't want the post office to touch / screw up / fail to
deliver / whatever -- pay the $4 / item prime rate for one day delivery. No
post office involved then.

My only complaint with amazon using usps for the last-mile delivery (fedex
smart-post, whatever ups's equivalent is) is that being just outside a good-
sized city, fedex/ups will get it to their facility in a day or two, and then
the post office will take another full week to move the package 5 miles.

~~~
itsboring
I love the $4 overnight. When I'm deciding whether to do 2-day or overnight, I
always do a little thought experiment: If I'm sitting around tomorrow and
wishing my new thing was here, would I open my wallet and shell out four bucks
for it to show up today? You bet your ass I would! I'm an impatient bastard
like that.

------
adestefan
And since I live where UPS and FedEx don't care about I despise every time I
have something delivered via one of those carriers. Even though I live about 3
miles from a UPS distribution center my shipments usually arrive well after
9PM and usually in pieces.

I'm excited when I see my Prime shipment is via USPS. I know my mail shows up
everyday around 4PM during the week and around 2PM on Saturday. My postal
carrier is also nice enough to put the packages under the bench on my porch
when I'm not home.

Of course, the standard disclaimer of plural of anecdote is not data applies.

------
acallahan
I have the opposite problem - USPS packages are put in a special mailbox in my
building, but UPS and Fedex won't get delivered at all because I'm not home.

Even if Amazon's worried about letting the user choose what shipping option
they want, they should show the shipping method at checkout as a read-only
field, so that I know whether to ship a particular package to home or work.

------
jrkelly
UPS/Fedex doesn't really fix this either in cities, since they can't leave the
package and they always try to deliver during work hours (in my neighborhood)
- so I get slips from them too. Really need after-hours delivery, I'd pay
extra for that.

------
frakkingcylons
A heads up to the author -- I've had Amazon Prime for three years, two of
those in Phoenix and one in Austin, and UPS were always the carrier delivering
the packages, unless I chose one-day or same-day shipping.

I also sell products on Amazon using their Fulfillment services, and the
majority of shipments go out on UPS as well. I only ever see USPS shipments if
the receiver is close to the Illinois warehouse.

EDIT: The real takeaway is that the article implies that USPS is Amazon's
exclusive shipping carrier for Prime shipments, when in reality it varies
based on geograpy, shipping speed and other factors. However, I would say that
UPS delivers most shipments.

------
acheron
I've had Prime deliveries by many different carriers. Since I've moved to a
real house instead of a condo, the only difference I've seen in carriers is
that the drivers will leave packages in different locations -- some drop it
off at the front porch, some by the garage, once there was one by a side
door... so I just need to take a walk around the yard to see if anyone left
any packages anywhere.

When I lived in a condo, some carriers would leave packages by the door and
some would just leave slips. For a long time UPS would only leave a note, then
I'd have to go the next day to pick it up from the distribution center.
Eventually I got them to start leaving packages though. Sometimes USPS would
leave a note and sometimes they'd just leave the package, depending on the
phases of the moon or whatever. But I don't get notes anymore at all at the
house.

------
xacaxulu
Not so much an Amazon problem. As with a lot of services, we see quality
private sector services (OnTrac, DHL, FedEx) being consistently better than
bloated government services operating at a loss and subsidized by taxpayers. I
wonder how much further the USPS would dip if Amazon stopped doing business
with them.

~~~
cfinke
_subsidized by taxpayers_

"The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies
on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations." [1]

[1] [http://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/postal-
reform-...](http://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/postal-reform-myths-
vs-facts#d53bdca2-972a-4146-bf80-0f639ad7b8f4)

~~~
crusso
Not directly, but they get special loans that are government funded. Guess
where the money will come from when they default?

[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/us/politics/postal-
service...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/us/politics/postal-service-
reports-a-nearly-16-billion-loss.html)

~~~
VLM
Other than for hollywood accounting reasons or a political stunt, why would a
profitable agency default?

~~~
crusso
One could ask why a profitable agency would take out billions of dollars in
loans.

"theoretically profitable" is not the same as "profitable"

~~~
VLM
[http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/05/news/economy/postal_service_...](http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/05/news/economy/postal_service_loan/)

"a congressional mandate to prefund retirement health care benefits"

I'm not saying that's a bad idea in isolation. However if you're trying to
make a political point that your enemy is a failure, merely force your enemy
to do something sensible that no one else is forced to do, then when that
destroys them, you can blame them for it, or something like that.

That was just round one. Here's round two of how to destroy the USPS, done in
two simple quotes from the same story:

"In addition, it would give access to another $10 billion loan backed up by
Postal Service property, which would have to be sold a decade later to pay off
that loan."

"And individual Democrats and Republicans are united in their effort to
prevent their own neighborhood post office or postal plant from closing."

Ta da! We require you to take out a loan, which you need because we forbid you
from managing your own business, furthermore we also specifically forbid you
to repay the loan. I'm sure nothing bad could happen in that situation LOL. I
give 100% odds that this scheme will hit the fan as "proof of usps and
bureaucrat mismanagement" when it is actually 100% the fault of congress
meddling, of which at about 50% are trying to manufacture a political point to
fit a predetermined agenda.

The problem with meaningless sloganeering is even if a slogan is generally
correct, there will of course be outliers in opposition. This seems to be the
case with the USPS. It would seem that blind faith based belief is so weak,
the only way to enforce conformity is to intentionally sabotage a minor
outlier.

The TLDR is they're being set up. (Edited to add, its the old game of take
away authority needed to succeed, while leaving behind the responsibility of
resulting failure. For a .gov, the USPS is actually pretty well managed, which
is why its being targetted).

~~~
crusso
_TLDR is they 're being set up_

They're being set up the same way that Social Security has been set up to go
bankrupt, Medicare has been set up to go bankrupt, Obamacare has been set up
to crash and burn, the Community Reinvestment Act was set up to cause a
housing bubble, government backed student loans were set up to cause hyper-
inflation of education costs...

You see a pattern?

They're being set up because they are part of a system that has failure baked
in from the beginning. Not failing is the odd surprise when it comes to
government control of large complex business entities -- and even then the
question of whether or not some apparent success is actually failure depends
upon how closely you look at how much it cost to prevent catastrophic collapse
(ie, the military).

------
akassover
Here in Amazon.com's home town of Seattle, Prime works flawlessly (no surprise
there). Sometimes things arrive by USPS, but most often it's via UPS.
Occasionally Amazon will even deliver package themselves. In fact, they once
delivered a three item order to my house via all three methods in one day.

I'm sure NYC is a big market for Amazon and no matter what the root cause is
of the problem you are talking about, I'm sure it's one worth solving for
them. Have you emailed Jeff B. about this? From the below Business Week
article, it sounds like he pays attention...

[http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-10/jeff-
bezos-a...](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-10/jeff-bezos-and-
the-age-of-amazon-excerpt-from-the-everything-store-by-brad-stone)

~~~
itsboring
Also in Seattle, and prime is great, except for when they use Ontrac. I once
had a next-day shipment fail to show up, and on the third day I called Ontrac
to find out why. The rep told me, and I'm completely serious, "the driver just
decided not to do his job."

I actually appreciated the honesty, but I hope they fired the driver.

------
giardini
In these posts read the woes of what happens when a new system is created that
does not reveal it's externalities - factors at first not noticed and that are
not put into the cost equation but which, over time are revealed.

When I was a boy in a small town most goods were available in local stores.
Local dealers maintained inventory. I could handle and inspect goods before
buying them.

Some items were not available locally. I would call long-distance, order a
part, give an address and a credit card number (or mail a check) and wait a
week - what could be easier?

Today we order stuff on the Internet.

But is that better for the end-user? Although focused on delivery problems,
many of these posts would suggest that it is not. And we haven't yet broached
the subjects of expected vs received product, returns, overcharges, identity
theft, etc.

------
swalsh
I have more of a problem with lasership, but really my problems are kind of
petty.

I once ordered a hand plane on Amazon. I was planning on going to home depot
(about 20 minutes away) but Amazon had same day delivery for $3 extra (prime).
Easy choice, it was 10am, and by the time I get home i'd have the tool to
continue work on my project. The website said delivery would be at or before
8pm. It ended up showing up at my door at midnight.

On one side, its incredible that at 10am I made an order, and about 14 hours
later I had the order... on the other hand I probably would have just picked
up a similar item (granted worse quality) at the store had I known it would be
late.

~~~
danhood
I used to share you pain - lasership was the worst!

Routine non-deliveries that they'd report as delivered, only to have it
randomly show up 1-2 days later. Customer service was pretty bad too.

------
ukdm
In the UK Amazon has its own parcel delivery service that is used to deliver
the majority of the larger parcels in my area. But it's not great. Some of the
drivers decide they don't have time, or it's near the end of their shift, and
log deliveries as no one home. I've had this confirmed by some of the drivers
that do bother delivering.

So while I've been home all day, I get an email (usually around 6pm) claiming
no one was in when they attempted the delivery.

This is frustrating when it happens once, but it has now become a regular
occurrence and complaints just end in a free month of Prime being added to my
account (had 4 extensions this year so far).

~~~
teh_klev
If you live north of Perth in Scotland and a parcel is sent via one of the big
couriers it often gets subcontracted out to a local courier or franchised
operator who can add another two to three days to deliver something that
should be next day. I used to live in Perth and never had a single Prime
delivery arrived next day as promised - in one ridiculous example, they
shipped a parcel from their Greenock fulfilment centre to Perth and it took a
week to arrive!. I ended up getting half the money back and cancelling Prime.

Four years later I found myself eligible for the free trial and have given
Prime another shot, so far so good with 3 out of 3 orders arriving next day
via Royal Mail.

"Some of the drivers decide they don't have time, or it's near the end of
their shift, and log deliveries as no one home" \- yes that is truly annoying
and verging on fraudulent behaviour.

~~~
redblacktree
I wouldn't say "verging on." It's an outright lie.

------
thebiglebrewski
Does anyone else think that USPS in New York City is just horrible and shitty
in general? I had a similar experience at the branch in Chinatown where I was
treated horribly just for asking to speak to a manager (which took over 45
minutes to happen). You just feel so powerless to do anything because even the
people "in charge" can't even seem to help you or are mysteriously "off the
clock". The package was eventually delivered but only after 2 hours of time
were wasted on my end...

------
tootie
You're blaming USPS, but the problem is that you live in an apartment
building. Such is life in the city. I live in Brooklyn as well and I solve
this problem by having a doorman :)

~~~
tkone
Must be nice to have enough money to pay the astronomical rents that a doorman
building costs!

~~~
tootie
Oh, it is.

------
quesera
> However, I would happily pay more than $79/year for a version of prime which
> guarantees that the USPS will not be involved in shipping ... I would
> venture to say there are a lot more people like me out there.

On the surface, it sounds like it would make sense for Amazon to let you
choose your carrier for some additional cost.

But that sort of active, involved, optimizing customer is probably where
Amazon takes the biggest loss on Prime.

Bezos has probably done the math on the value of the goodwill of those
customers.

~~~
the_watcher
In a lot of cases, they do let you upgrade for $3.99

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danhood
I used to have similar problem where I lived...

The USPS guy would regularly heave a package over a fence onto a stone patio
(fragile packages be damned). Or lasership (a last mile carrier) would never
actually deliver on time despite marking it in their tracking system as
delivered (yet they would magically show up the next day claiming that it must
have accidentally been delivered to a neighbor, though none ever claimed they
did).

I would gladly pay a premium to choose delivery companies.

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jpdus
> You see, the problem with Amazon Prime is that you are shipping almost
> entirely via the USPS. Normally, I bet, in most of the country, this doesn't
> bode a single issue.

Nah, we have exactly the same problem here in Germany. I think that this will
be one of the biggest challenges for Amazon in the coming years and can
imagine them building their own delivery service for that reason.

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PagingCraig
This post is just bitching at Amazon for a problem with USPS in his area.
Thanks for the misleading title.

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threepipeproblm
Thank you -- knowing this makes me certain I will not be signing up for Prime
at this time. I think the USPS squirelliness is not limited to any particular
region... I have had nightmares with various post offices over the past few
years.

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davidw
> I would venture to say there are a lot more people like me out there.

How many people reside in areas where they go around on foot vs by jeep?

Also:

> doesn't bode a single issue.

Should probably be "doesn't pose a single issue". Bode means:

indicate by signs; "These signs bode bad news"

~~~
steveklabnik
> How many people reside in areas where they go around on foot vs by jeep?

Cities have a _lot_ of people, last I checked.

~~~
davidw
> Cities have a _lot_ of people, last I checked.

Sure, we know that, but that wasn't the question I asked, which probably
requires some more detailed knowledge of the USPS to answer. I'm sure there
are others like him, though, but to really reason about it you'd have to take
all the numbers into account.

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njharman
Totally addressed to wrong person. Should have been sent to Patrick R.
Donahoe.

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Zoomla
Isn't it cheaper to deliver a given list of packages in a more densely
populated area? It looks like some of USPS' customers are getting screwed.

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Aloha
I'm in Seattle, and 80% of my Amazon packages come via OnTrac and UPS. USPS is
mostly books - and only from 3rd party sellers.

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joshdance
Definitely a problem, but mostly for those in a large city. I have never had a
package come via USPS in Utah.

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Splendor
It must be a regional thing. I've never had an Amazon Prime delivery made by
USPS.

