Just like everyone else, I am an Amazon.com customer. Their service is practically always perfect and quick. I order something, and it arrives quickly and without effort. If I need to return something, that’s no problem either. Amazon is a company customers can count on. This raises the bar for other companies I do business with. It also raises the bar for Amazon itself: The better they get; the more customers expect perfection every time. And when they don’t get it, they get very cranky.
So, the problems I will discuss are less about Amazon and more about human nature of customers, and the hazards of working with other companies for things like delivery. Amazon does business well from the customer’s perspective. The problem is, as their service gets better and faster, when hiccups do happen and when delays occur, customers get irritated. Heck, we’re now used to ordering today and having it delivered tomorrow. Sometimes we can get delivery today. That’s incredible.
However, some orders take more time. Why do some orders arrive the same day and others in a week or two? Especially when this same item is being sold by so many different operators under the Amazon umbrella, and some of them could get my order to me sooner.
Amazon delivery is sometimes a problem
Hint to Amazon … there should be a preference for quick delivery when searching, and the results would be from those companies that could deliver before you hit send. Just a thought.
To make matters worse, delivery can be a real problem. Amazon delivers using a wide variety of services, including the United States Postal Service. Last week I ordered a copy of a book and Amazon told me when to expect delivery. Then with another email they said it was shipped. Then with another I knew when it would be delivered to my door. How cool is that?
However, it was coming via USPS. And as you know, the USPS does not work on Amazon.com time. On Saturday I was told it would arrive on Sunday. A Sunday delivery? Amazon must pay USPS a lot for this special treatment.
USPS is weak link in Amazon chain
However, midway through Sunday, I get another email from Amazon saying the USPS could not find my address. That means my book wouldn’t be delivered on Sunday. That’s right, the USPS could not find my address. The same address they have been delivering to for decades. The same address that’s in the phone book … that address.
I tried to contact Amazon.com to discuss, as it said in the email. However, there was no link in the email or on my Amazon page. So, I had no way to know what number to call. Finally, I looked at the “help” button on top and clicked it. Within a few minutes my phone rang.
When the person finally answered on the call Amazon.com made to me, I finally felt like I was in good hands. However, Amazon has no power over the USPS.
So, the USPS said they don’t know why they couldn’t find my address. But, rather than make matters worse, I accepted their offer to redeliver the next day in my regular mail. Now I sit and wait.
This left a very sloppy image in my mind for the USPS. And since Amazon relies on them for delivery, it sort of tarnished their image in my mind as well. Not as bad as the USPS, but now Amazon is not the sterling company up on a hill I always thought it was.
Is Amazon using delivery drones better?
However, they did try. And after all, they are not a delivery company, right?
They must have these problems quite often because now they want to become a delivery company. They want to use drones to deliver your knickknacks to your door, while giving your puppy dog a free haircut at the same time if he sniffs too close.
So, while Amazon wants to keep delighting customers with better service, if they cross over the line and have drones zipping around the neighborhood, I would feel very uncomfortable. Are those things watching me? Peeking into my window while dropping off a neighbor’s package?
And what about the holiday rush. The United Parcel Service parks a trailer for six weeks every year in our clubhouse parking lot from Thanksgiving till after the first week in January. So, will there be countless drones zipping through the neighborhood? Soon we’ll need drone traffic control. What about police zipping around on their hovercrafts trying to ticket a speeding drone? You get my point, right?
So, Houston, we have a problem. A problem created by Amazon excellence of the past and increased expectation going forward. However, the solution for this problem is more than most want to bear. Yet we have little control over anything Amazon does.
Anyway, this is where we stand today. Excellence from Amazon.com has risen to a level that it creates new problems. Problems that can only be solved with unacceptable drones and other far-flung ideas. So, what’s the solution? Any ideas?
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