Long time lurker here. Amazon has let a lot of shady business in lately. Abuses on all sides.
Even my local USPS abuses the system for the 2 day delivery. (They marked a packages as incorrect address, and than, not available to sign... I called them, the woman said the were too heavy, so I now get it on day 3..). Now I know about the free months of prime, but I would have to get USPS to confess to Amazon what they told me. And I'm not as dedicated as the author.
And the preditory tactics they allow sellers to implement are crazy. I paid to return a dead on arrival ipod, and I had to send multiple emails to confirm I was getting my money back. (Seller stated they needed RMA or no refund, seller never provided RMA after 3 emails. Never even sent an RMA after all that, Amazon just ended agreeing to refund after multiple calls). Seller is still active with same terrible return policy.
Good article, I feel less crazy now. Hopefully more of these stories circulate.
Calling your postmaster about the USPS will get the problem fixed. I had a similar problem where my carrier refused to do Sunday deliveries – they'd always use the disposition of "nobody available to accept package".
I called the postmaster and complained, and she said they'd look into it. Two days later, she called back and explained that they had pulled scan records for the packages going to my apartment building and that all the Sunday packages were scanned as "nobody available" while the packages were still at the post office (!).
Apparently, the USPS has GPS attached to all their scan records, so she was easily able to tell that there was chicanery and to deal with it. I've not had a problem with Sunday deliveries since.
Even my local USPS abuses the system for the 2 day delivery. (They marked a packages as incorrect address, and than, not available to sign... I called them, the woman said the were too heavy, so I now get it on day 3..). Now I know about the free months of prime, but I would have to get USPS to confess to Amazon what they told me. And I'm not as dedicated as the author.
And the preditory tactics they allow sellers to implement are crazy. I paid to return a dead on arrival ipod, and I had to send multiple emails to confirm I was getting my money back. (Seller stated they needed RMA or no refund, seller never provided RMA after 3 emails. Never even sent an RMA after all that, Amazon just ended agreeing to refund after multiple calls). Seller is still active with same terrible return policy.
Good article, I feel less crazy now. Hopefully more of these stories circulate.