Warning!!!! Rant alert.
I deal with Amazon quite a bit, and in the past I've never had any problems with them. Order product, Post Office drops it on my door, life is good. The past year or so, that situation has changed and frankly I'm |<->| that close to terminating my business with Amazon for good.
Ordered a product from a company in New Jersey. Takes them a very long time to ship it - couple weeks. Fed Ex picks it up, sends it to Virginia. Next day checks it in in Maryland, then the day after New Jersey
Can I now assume that the 2 week delivery time that Fed Ex estimates is because it will traverse the country on a grand tour moving state to state? It took my family 3 days to drive from Seattle to New Jersey, it takes Fed Ex 12 days. What is Fed Ex's take on the matter? "<Shrug> Sorry." It's actually worse - because the shipper demanded a signature upon delivery - Fed Ex won't be able to drop because I have an actual job and can't be at home waiting for them to possibly deliver it on a certain day.
That one really put me over the line, but another one is sending me way past my limit.
Maybe because I have misplaced faith I also ordered some new shock dampener units (Progressive 412's) for the CB750. The shipper also inexplicably demanded signatures here, worse they also used some unknown shipper to me at least - OnTrac, whoever they are.
"Sorry, we couldn't get a hold of the local shipping office, so you'll have to contact us on Monday to schedule a pick-up" This was at 3 in the afternoon by the way. The local office closes at 3
Great. Of course if I don't pick it up by Tuesday it gets sent back. Sure, I don't have a job or anything to focus my attention on during the week.
The shippers are bad enough - they are absolutely focused on business delivery and as such have no convenient way to deal with homeowners. I get the impression they don't care at all if that side of their business was lost.
But Amazon, they're worse here. As the origin of the sale, they have enough clout to tell the shippers to change their model. But Amazon refuses to do this, they remain utterly neutral and as a result almost certainly assured of losing customers who just can't deal with the logistics. This is not the 1950's anymore, I don't have a wife in an apron baking cookies all day who can sign for packages or handle problems in between dusting the furniture.
