Amazon has stopped delivering to us

[u/potsofjam]

My wife used order a lot from Amazon. Living in a tiny town without many shopping options it was quick and convenient, but about six months ago things started being late by weeks or simply marked lost. I rarely order from Amazon and we hadn’t discussed it, so when I order some shelves a month ago I assumed they’d be delivered on time, but they were so late I eventually cancelled and got a refund. Apparently my wife is been having this problem regularly and only receives one out of maybe ten orders. I ordered some thermal labels and photo album corners and I guess I have to find them somewhere else. It will say the item has shipped, then go to a distributor about sixty miles away then just be marked lost or delayed until we ask for refund. I didn’t realize it was every order until I mentioned to my wife that my labels hadn’t come and I keep forgetting to check the order update. I guess being a rural address they just don’t want to deliver here anymore.

[u/Th3_Meat-Man]

Isn’t that the crux of the public (USPS) vs private (UPS amazon etc) argument? A private company can take your money and still say screw you just because it’s not profitable for them? Whereas a publicly funded service is actually obligated to make that delivery regardless of profitability.

[u/GekkoGains → u/Th3_Meat-Man]

Yep, and lots of people don’t realize that.

USPS is a service established to provide universal delivery to EVERY address in the country at a uniform rate, required by law regardless of location

Private companies are businesses that set dynamic pricing and can refuse servicing entire areas. Amazon is a private company using private companies for delivery.

[u/FatBoyStew → u/GekkoGains]

Amazon also utilizes USPS which is what they should do in rural areas like OP is at. They commonly use USPS in rural areas actually so I'm curious which provider they're using there.

Hell even for me being right outside a city, USPS is often the last mile for my packages

[u/FatBoyStew → u/[deleted]]

There's a Rural Letter Carriers Association for a reason lol. Without USPS rural areas definitely wouldn't be able to shop online.

[u/Square_Barracuda_69 → u/FatBoyStew]

Amazon used fucking USPS to deliver to my old apartment, in the middle of the city. They absolutely can use USPS for OP, but they won't because they're a bunch of sweaty ball lickers

[u/Isla_Tyler_Coleman → u/GekkoGains]

And yet USPS doesn't actually deliver to every address. They make a thousand excuses not to deliver to your address & claim they're only required to deliver to an established hub when you complain. I live in town 2 miles from the post office and they refuse to deliver packages to me because i live in an upstairs apartment. They delivered just fine for the first 3 years i lived here, then stopped the service 2 years ago without so much as a heads up. And they keep lying about why that is since.

People in houses in my area aren't getting their mail delivered either. They'll lie about the mailbox being blocked. People have set up cameras to prove they have the space they require and it's still not getting delivered.

[u/thepenismytea → u/Th3_Meat-Man]

Except USPS can never be held liable unless they have another federal agency contracting them and demanding accountability. Think VA send vets their meds and they consistently get lost.

[u/FatBoyStew → u/Th3_Meat-Man]

I'm curious what last mile carrier they're using for OP, because often times in rural areas they do use USPS. Around me its generally pretty split between USPS, UPS and Amazon doing deliveries. On that same note, where I grew up UPS would go way off the beaten path for deliveries, Fedex on the other hand....

[u/NikkoJT → u/Th3_Meat-Man]

A private company isn't required to deliver everywhere...but that's not the same as "they can take your money and say screw you". If they're not going to offer service to that area then fine, but that doesn't mean they can pretend to offer service, charge you for it, and then not do it. If OP's location is actually consistently "undeliverable" then the order shouldn't be allowed to be placed.

Also, "package lost" is different to "tried to deliver and failed". If they can't deliver, and for some reason they're not willing to refuse the order entirely, then they should at least be recording it as such, not marking it as lost.

[u/Th3_Meat-Man → u/NikkoJT]

Based off the main body text it most certainly comes across as a private company taking OPs money and saying screw you.

OP used to get packages regularly and then something changed 6 months ago and now only 1 of 10 packages actually gets delivered and OP doesn’t say he requests a refund for every single order as he mentions him and his wife often forget about it, so without the refund request and canceled order OP is most definitely paying for a service from a private company and is not getting the service.

Now I’ll admit I did not read through the rest of the replies to see additional information that OP may have added in and my comment is only based off main body text, but my comment also really just raises the questions of, “are we really surprised there are consequences for believing everything should be a for profit business”?

[u/NikkoJT → u/Th3_Meat-Man]

When I said "they can't do that" I meant that it isn't allowed/legal just because they're a private company, not that it's literally impossible for it to happen. Clearly it is happening, but "we're not USPS" isn't a free get-out from doing what you've already taken money to do.

Edit: the obligation to deliver in this case isn't created by a general requirement to deliver anywhere, as it would be for USPS, it's created by the fact that they've said "yeah we'll do that delivery" and accepted payment for it. The principle that if you sell someone a service, you have to actually do that service, still applies to private companies. The difference from USPS is that they aren't required to sell the service, but in this case they did.

[u/Imalsome → u/Th3_Meat-Man]

I mean i dont really see the issue because if they dont deliver the package you get the money back.

Obviously its a bit annoying but its not like they are just stealing your money. If anything they are losing money because they ship the item then dont deliver it so they lost inventory for no reason.