Amazon has their own shipping service?! (Everything You Need To Know)
Hey Guys, how's it going?
I felt that I needed to cover something that myself and many other Amazon users have been experiencing lately and you may be too, let's get right into it.
"AMZL_US", or "Amazon Logistics" is a shipping service that is completely owned and operated by Amazon. It's Amazon's attempt to cut out the middle man(USPS, UPS, FedEx) and do everything on their own, from order to delivery. And while this will usually mean good things since Amazon is a reputable company and they can now be fully independent in delivery, it's only gotten worse.
There have been reports from many users of Amazon Logistics employees being rash with the packages, such as throwing them onto lawns and in some cases, even stealing them outright. Amazon's prime use for this right now(get it "Prime") is with Amazon Prime 2-Day Shipping. I've ordered many games and such with Amazon Prime and so have my parents, I haven't had any problems so far(more later) but, when my dad ordered something, it only came 5 Days after he ordered it! Why is this happening when so many users loved Amazon Prime and are paying members?!
I've tracked as much info as I could online along with reports from YouTubers, Blogger's and more, here it is.
NoRen on NeoGaf Forum :
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"Just learned about their new shipping service this week. 2 of 5 orders were to be delivered by them. One was lost. The other was delivered 3 days late, 5 miles away."
Ivan Amiibo on NeoGaf Forum
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"then I checked the status of my order and saw that it was actually amazon logistics instead of the usual USPS or UPS. I had a conversation with customer service and they told me to give them the building code, to give this guy access to get in the building. Got pretty mad and said that I wasn't going to give some random guy access to the whole building. They gave me a free month of prime and had the guy just leave the package at the door.
I guess this is how they're gonna start cutting costs. No doubt it'll improve, but my prime packages have been constantly late since this started."
Averon on NeoGaf Forum
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"Originally Posted by The Llama:
Never heard of it. Where are you guys located that have had it before? Maybe it's only in a certain part of the country right now or something?
Response:
I'm in Chicago. Reading around, this seems like Amazon's way of cutting shipping costs. If AMZL_US going to be a regular deliverer, I think I will hold off buying stuff from Amazon until they get their sh*t in order."
TheTurboFD on NeoGaf Forum
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"I've received a book instead of my god of war 3 remastered. I even posted pictures in the OT thread showing the package."
Comment on a YouTube Video(see below)
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"According to Amazon, they handed the package to me and I signed for it. Guess what? I wasn't even home at that time and I can prove it! I believe forging someone else's signature is a felony, isn't it??"
User on F169BBS Forum
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"The problem is localized to whoever Amazon hired to deliver their packages in your area. Quite literally it is a average person carting Amazon packages in their own car. I have seen one driver pull up in a beat up Honda, filled to the brim with packages, and with his mother manning the GPS. Nothing wrong with it (except security), but some of these people scan items as delivered to meet a delivery quota, mainly because they can't make it in time (before 8-9pm)."
A User on a Q & A Website
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"I just received an Amazon delivery (a Kindle, actually). The package was delivered by two guys in street clothes in a beat-up sedan -- no uniformed driver in a marked delivery truck. Is this the new normal for Amazon?"
Tweets:
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Ally R. @areilly25 Apr 4
@AmazonHelp My account says my package was delivered to my back porch yesterday via #amzl_us and it's not here. Now what?
Renee Dubois @SteadyDerpin Apr 7
@AmazonHelp Is it now okay for delivery services (#amzl_us) to toss packages to the front door? Video of incident available.
Katerina @ghostkat117 Apr 7
@Amazon Rethink #amzl_us! This service is embarrassing! Late and lost shipments again. Your logistics makes paying for Prime a joke.
POGALTD @pogaltd Apr 6
Amazon delivery service always drops my package off without ringing the bell, and today left it in the rain... #AMZL_US sucks
dabassman @dabassman Apr 5
Dear @amazon, If you're going to be in the delivery business with #amzl_us, step 1 is to actually LOAD the package onto the truck.
Mookie1031 @mookie1031 Apr 4
@amazon #amzl_us seriously, how can you hire delivery drivers who cannot find a front door? Or follow basic instructions?
LJ Eve @Ljeve Apr 2
Packages says delivered but not at my home - who can help #Amzl_us @amazon @AmazonHelp
AMZL Driver Chucking Package Onto A Lawn:
So, let's talk about my experiences. For the first time, since receiving packages from Amazon Prime, I have had it not arrive on time. I have actually dealt with Amazon Logistics before and they were actually really nice. A lady came up to our apartment on the 3rd floor, knocked, waited till we opened the door, and then gave us the package after scanning it to update tracking info. This is one of my first times dealing with it and it was really nice. But, I ordered a package with 2-Day Free Shipping on Wednesday, it was supposed to come "Friday By 8 PM" but Amazon missed the delivery date continuously, the package is yet to be delivered.
Now, let's see what Amazon and their employees have to say of Amazon Logistics and of some of the consumer complaints.
"If no one is at the address when delivery is attempted, we will leave the package in a secure location."
This quote from Amazon's official page on Amazon Logistics conveys that they will "leave it[the package] in a secure location", what that secure location may be is a mystery to me, however. UPS, has a page on their website that lists all of the default "secure locations" that your package may be delivered to, but AMZL has no such thing. And, reading some Tweets above, people say that packages were left on their back porches, nice "secure location" isn't it? And, you can provide delivery instructions, such as an entry code, leaving it with a neighbor, or "leaving it by my house"; when this option is selected, you are presented with a variety of options. And while this may be useful, as some comments below suggest, Amazon doesn't let you type anything of your own, they only give you options.
Here are some comments made by AMZL employees in response to the above YouTube video of an AMZL employee chucking a package onto the front lawn.
Comment From Employee
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"I work for Amzl...and not all of us are like this...just like any other company or business....you have your bad lazy workers and your nice good hard workers....don't think all of us are bad people...😑"
Reply To Above Comment From Employee
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"Same, I also work for Amzl, rotten eggs that come though give the good ones bad names, but hey give us the same area enough they will see which ones are good and bad. Where do you deliver?"
Comment From Employee
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"i work for amzl not everyone is like that there are people who acually work hard and follow all steps those people seriously give the company a bad name and if all you people order give as much information as you can if your scare your pakage will get lost or tossed over put some instructions and it wont happen we love instructions"
Besides these employees, Amazon's tactic of addressing these issues has so far been to give out free Prime Memberships based on the severity of the problem. They haven't addressed anything publicly and as far as we know, haven't made any internal moves to extinguish the problem either.
In Amazon's defense, running your own shipping company is extremely hard, especially when they're just getting off the ground. But, Amazon is a big, trusted, loved company; they can't let down their paying customers by hiring people like this. And, yes, the bad service is only some employees in the company, but it's Amazon's job to hire good employees and do background checks. And with how big of a company Amazon is, that should be easy!
Along with that, the only presumable advantage of AMZL over USPS would be cutting costs and cutting out the middle man. But AMZL uses vans and services that aren't even their own! As a comment mentions above, they hire people to use their own cars and deliver packages on their own! It's like Uber, but with a multi-million dollar business and with your packages.
They don't just let anyone deliver your packages, they also outsource to companies. I've personally seen them use Enterprise trucks to deliver and I've heard that they outsource to delivery companies and use rental trucks such as Ryder.
Now, we have talked about what AMZL looks like right now, let's talk about what it looks like it's going to be, and what it could be.
As we covered above, AMZL right now, looks pretty bad. But it has the potential to be an awesome service and accomplish all the goals that Amazon and it's users have for it.
Step 1 - Hire people who are not lazy and do extensive background checks on everyone you hire or even think of hiring.
Step 2 - Get access to Property Management Offices in Apartments and after a while, post and mail boxes.
Step 3 - Operate for a while with very little issues and kinks in the service.
Step 4 - Uniform your employees and their vehicles with Amazon Logistics branding so that they look legit along with being legit.
Step 5 - Emphasize customer service. Offer the customer a refund, send the package out once more, try to get them what they want, not what you think they want.
Now, let's expand more on why Amazon might be doing this.
> Cut out the middle man
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Amazon can have complete control and info of their deliveries and users by having their own employees and companies take care of everything, from leaving the manufacturer to arriving at your doorstep.
> Cut Costs
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Doing everything on your own is often cheaper and offers more control as described above. This is even true for most of us, instead of buying a new phone because your old phone screen cracked, just replace the phone screen on your own with some tools such as IFIXIT Tools.
> Expand Their Business
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Amazon is already a HUGE, multi-million dollar company. It's about time they take charge with their own delivery service.
All of this is a part of Amazon's recent move to expand jobs and open up more at home or easy to hire jobs. They recently opened up Customer Service Jobs online, this lets people work from anywhere, get competitive pay, and have an extremely flexible schedule.
They've done this really well and it's great to see with Amazon, but I've seen forum posts when I was researching AMZL, about overseas customer service associates having very poor English. So, there are some limitations to this type of a move for Amazon, but this is an awesome move that will really benefit Amazon in the long run.
On the other hand, we have AMZL. As we saw above, Amazon is also making this very flexible and open to all kinds of people. As we read in some comments above, that hasn't worked out so well for Amazon. Anyway, this isn't the end of AMZL, they can definitely improve upon it, once they do; I'd love it.
I'd really appreciate it if everyone reading this shared this post on their social media accounts or just any method of sharing in general! It helps drive views to the site and it will hopefully let Amazon know what they need to fix!
Thanks for sticking around till the end of this 2000+ word post, and I'll see you guys later!
