by UPDATED: August 11, 2010
A representative from A-1 Courier Services, moments ago, just posted an “anonymous” comment on this article. I replied to “joe blow” in the comments stream, but I also want to be on-the-record here, in the article proper, with the evidence of A-1’s continued betrayal and deceit as a company.
Here is a screenshot of the comment notification email. Notice the IP address and the resolution of such as “mail.aoneonline.com” and also notice the name and email address are also faked.
Doing a public lookup for — IP: 67.151.183.242 , mail.aoneonline.com — provides this result for that IP address:
Amazing, isn’t it? Why did A-1 bother faking their identity? Why not provide a cogent and rational comment that would be on-the-record for everyone to read? I believe that behavior to falsify is powerful, public, testimony against what sort of company A-1 really is in the continued analysis of evidence.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE PUBLISHED: August 5, 2010
Amazon, we have a problem. For years, I have given you the best years of my life and thousands of dollars. I rely on you to bring me music, food, household supplies and pretty much everything else I buy to live a life in a shrinking, modern, world — but those days of my reliance upon your nurturing fame and quenchable celebrity are over. I am currently an Amazon.com Prime member. I will not renew my Prime relationship with you as I wean away my love to find other online providers who will meet my needs.
It all started over your refusal to let us pick my shipper. I love FedEx and UPS — even though FedEx has been having a hard time keeping up lately — but recently, you’ve been using a new delivery service called “A-1 Courier” and because of that change, I will no longer do business with you.
Over the past few weeks or so, my wife and I have had to deal with A-1 Courier Services and it hasn’t been fun or pretty. That service is unreliable and cruel. I spend a lot of money with Amazon and I deserve to be better protected from the purposeful infliction of pain and wanton waiting.
The latest, and most grotesque example of A-1 intruding in my happy life, happened a couple of days ago with the non-on-time delivery of a Water Pik I desperately needed for my recent oral surgeries.
I audibly groaned when I received notification from Amazon late Monday night that my beloved Water Pik would be arriving via A-1 — and not FedEx or UPS.
I waited all day for an A-1 delivery that did not happen.
I called A-1. They told me I’d have the package by 8pm.
When the the package did not arrive, I called Amazon for help. They offered to refund my shipping. I asked them to help me get a redelivery date from A-1. Morgan, the Amazon phone rep, agreed to call A-1. A-1 kept her on hold for 15 minutes.
When Morgan came back to me, she told me A-1 tried to deliver the package twice and that I was not home. I was furious. I told her my desk is right by the front door and I can see the street.
I was painfully waiting for that delivery to soothe my teeth and I would never, in any way, miss that particular delivery. Morgan believed me over A-1 and agreed to refund my shipping and she had set up redelivery with A-1 before noon the next day.
Here’s the proof of the shipping refund. Morgan also told me she’d extend my Amazon Prime membership by a month because of the trouble.
I asked Morgan if I sent my deliveries slower — say, Two-Day, instead of Overnight — if that would help me avoid A-1. She said she did not know. I can’t pick the shipper and neither can Amazon.com Customer support. Only the Amazon.com distribution channel determines the shipper and method. That policy is wrong and that policy must change.
Morgan did tell me my last two A-1 deliveries came from the same fulfillment center — but she also quickly added there was no way I could order, or build an order, that would direct me away from a certain distribution channel or fulfillment center.
The next day, at noon, I called A-1 after seeing the following “twice attempted, twice lost” non-delivery in my Amazon.com account information from the day before.
I wanted to know why the package hadn’t been redelivered yet as A-1 had promised Morgan at Amazon the night before. The guy told me they tried delivery once yesterday and they called me and I wasn’t home.
I told them they tried to deliver twice yesterday — A-1 told me that wasn’t true, they only made a single attempt — and I told him that Amazon tracking for A-1 said two failed deliveries, not one.
I told the guy I had to leave for the dentist again, and since the package did not arrive by noon as promised, I wanted to refuse delivery. The guy told me no promise of a noon delivery was ever made to anyone and he said they would cancel the delivery, send the Water Pik back to Amazon, and I would, eventually, get my money back.
I arrived home from the dentist around 2:30pm and my doorbell rang. It was A-1 with my Water Pik. I signed for the package to put an end to A-1 and Amazon forever.
I went online to end my Prime membership.
Amazon warned me about my non-renewal status.
I didn’t care. I would finally be free from A-1.
When a delivery service lies about delivery attempts and tries to make you a liar for disagreeing with them, it creates a deep hatred and resolves no faith.
If A-1 had merely been honest and said they were overwhelmed and couldn’t make the promised delivery date, I would have been much more forgiving — but having a triple lie delivered instead — and claiming, with a straight face, that they delivered once, and then twice, and also called me, but I didn’t answer… wasn’t going to wash with me.
I’m not the only one who hates A-1. The official Amazon.com discussion forum is currently filled with 1,000 comments across a 40-page discussion thread expressing their loathing of the service.
A-1 are so cunning — or should I say “slovenly” — that you have no way to prove their lies with the truth except by yelling that they are inveterate liars and offering to show them your “missed calls” list and surveillance video from the building Super showing the front door of the apartment house that proves no deliveries attempts were made at all — let alone “two.”
A-1 doesn’t leave a note or a hang-tag that a delivery was attempted — so there’s no breadcrumb trail they leave for you to follow to verify the veracity of their claims. What a convenient cheat, eh?
A-1 provides no solid, social, recourse for getting a re-delivery attempt made — they just make up the rules as they go along, and there is no substructure in place to force them to deliver packages on time, or to just tell the plain truth!
Amazon Prime members deserve better treatment. I told Morgan I would be willing to pay an extra $15 per order to let me pick my shipper — or at least exclude A-1 — and she said that wasn’t possible. Amazon picks the shipper, and we live with the consequence of getting stuck by an organization like A-1.
A-1, by the way, looks to be a freelance service where they hire young people with their own personal cars to deliver items. There’s no A-1 truck like FedEx and UPS. There’s no A-1 uniform or ID tag. In my experience, it looks like high school summer interns are handling the deliveries for A-1 and that is just not reliable enough for me to risk having to deal with, or abide, in future purchases.
Since Amazon refuses to remove A-1 as a delivery option, I’m done with Amazon. I will not be treated so poorly by a company that I pay a lot of money to every single month.
I’ll use Drugstore.com for all my future medical needs. I’ll use Barnes and Noble for my book purchases. I’ll find an online Vegan food supplier. I’ll go to SamAsh.com for my guitar strings and TAB books. Wal-Mart and Target have excellent online stores that will help fill my Amazon void.
Amazon made one-stop shopping for all my needs truly easy — but with A-1 in the picture — I am voting with my wallet, and the morality of my good heart, and I am refusing to do business with them again.
Goodbye, Amazon.com. It was fun while it lasted.
I am so glad you are fighting back against this sort of injustice, David. We need to tell companies to treat us better and when they don’t, we walk. I’m sure Amazon can, and will, do better.
That’s right, anne, it is our right and duty as consumers to speak up and be heard. We have the freedom to spend our money only where we are best treated.
UPDATE:
Here’s an email from Amazon that arrived this morning after I emailed them a link to this article. Identifying information has been redacted.
UPDATE:
A-1 called at 4:30pm today and left a phone message. They read this article and they apologized and basically want me to call them back and repeat what I have already told you here so the problem won’t happen again “for others.”
I did leave out a lot of the hassle A-1 gave me from this article to save time and space — and, perhaps, infuriating boredom — but when the A-1 phone answerer takes your email address to send to dispatch so dispatch will email you back with an ETA on delivery — and it never happens — that just confirms the suspicion that something is systemically is rotting in the company and the anger seed is planted deep within you and the seedling rapidly grows into The Tree of Fury every minute the promised email doesn’t arrive into infinity.
I told A-1 phone representatives several times over many calls that I was taking notes and writing a blog article about their treatment of me. I was specific, and detailed, about precisely what would be written. I guess they didn’t believe me, or worse, didn’t care — and now I don’t care about them.
When Morgan at Amazon called A-1 for me and told them I was waiting for an email with the ETA from dispatch, the phone operator decided to “call dispatch” instead of waiting for them to send an email. I don’t know why I had to go through the email waiting hassle instead of just having dispatch contacted directly for me the first time I called.
I have no interest in calling A-1 back and helping them. They have already wasted my time, and there’s nothing they can do to resolve the matter with me except to remove their company as a delivery option for Amazon.com orders now and forever.
Amazon.com is now large enough, nationally and internationally, to start it’s own courier/logistics company. Following in the excellence of customer service that is Amazon.com, I’m sure it would be very successful!
Looks like you were effective in rattling the cage, David. I wonder if it will make any difference?
The only way any real difference will be made, anne, is if Amazon removes A-1 as a shipper.
David,
A-1 sounds like a rotten company. I haven’t had the misfortune of dealing with them yet. I hope Amazon ditches them soon!
I think A-1 is the “same day delivery” service provider for Amazon and, I guess, they are now also handling the last-minute delivery spillover, too, for some reason.
As consumers, we need selectivity and options, and if we don’t want A-1 touching our Amazon packages, we should at least have the option to opt out.
Amazon have convinced me not to give up on them yet. I still have a lot of time left on my Prime Membership. I also know if they stick me with A-1 again — I know who to call at A-1 to get fast action.
I will use the 2-Day Amazon shipping method instead of overnight from now on to test my theory that A-1 is only invoked as carrier of record if there is a time constraint to get the order processed on time.
I will report back here — or in a new review — as warranted. I thank you for all your privately expressed support and for your public encouragement to soldier on and fight the good fight.
UPDATE:
Here is the latest reply from Amazon. Identifying information has been removed or redacted:
Here the reply I sent:
I feel very bad for you. I used to work for A-1. The office I worked out of, did not handle Amazon orders, but I used to take the hundreds of spill over calls each week, of other customers calling and complaining. The NY office is so unprofessional the way they treat people, and even their co-workers. I tried extensive times, to help alleviate the problems with Amazon, with no avail. This company is also a “boys club”. They only promote MEN. I was promised a huge promotion, and at the end of the day, they promoted a man with no interest of helping customers, or caring about his job. Thankfully A-1 and myself parted ways.
It’s great to meet you, Summer! Thanks for giving us some insight directly from inside A-1.
What is their delivery business philosophy? Did you feel any discrimination as an employee because of your gender?
Give us more of you experience on the inside.
If you would like, email me with your email address, and I will give you more info. Unfortunately I do not how much I can legally say, without getting into trouble.
But I will say this, A-1 could be a better company if they tried . I always felt discriminated against. As do a lot of the women there.Its an unspoken rule that you just “deal” with it. Its a family run company, without the family feel.
I understand your reticence to speak publicly, Summer. You can always reach me via the Contact link at the top of this page.
Best Wishes and Good Luck moving forward!
Here is today’s update from Amazon. Identifying information has be removed or redacted:
Here is my reply:
boy do you have a lot of time on your hands…all you had to do is be home….
Oh, I was home, “joe” — and you know that — since you work for A-1.
Why fake your identity here? Why fake your email address: “joe.blow@aol.com” — why not stand up and identify yourself as an A-1 employee?
Here’s the IP information you used to post your comment:
(IP: 67.151.183.242 , mail.aoneonline.com)
Looking up that IP address the following in a public record lookup:
and this:
Amazon really deserves a much better courier service.
I will update my article proper to include this latest betrayal.
Your two-day shipping theory will not work, at least not in an area that A-1 services. I placed an order yesterday for a book with 2-day shipping via Prime and when I checked the order status today, it says out for delivery with A-1.
So the good news is I am getting the book one day early. The possibly bad news is that A-1 is delivering it. I did a search, found the thread you mentioned and the link in that post to this page. It’s my first experience with them so I’m hoping for the best.
In addition to pointing out that they also ship via A-1 for the 2-day option, I wanted to say that I’ve personally been lied to of a delivery attempt by UPS. They had not delivered by 7pm, I called them, and they checked with the driver who said it would be delivered in 10 min. The delivery never occurred, and when I checked the tracking info, it said it was attempted at 7:08pm, while I was still on call with UPS! Besides being impossible to get from the UPS office to my apartment in a couple of seconds, there was no door tag. In other words, the driver got the call, said screw it, and immediately marked as attempted delivery. So A-1, UPS, and even FedEx if you google it… none of them are perfect.
Hi Rick, and thanks for the comment.
Oooof! I ran into my FedEx and UPS guys on the street today. They both asked me — separately — why I hadn’t been getting as many deliveries, and I told them about Amazon and A-1. They were surprised to learn about the change at Amazon to A-1. My FedEx guy told me these changes are always about pricing. That’s why Amazon won’t let us pick our shipper. Amazon wants to pay the bare bones rate and, obviously, that lowest barrel bottom scratching is now A-1. Ugh.
Thanks for the heads up on 2-Day and A-1. Double Ugh!! Now I know, at least, to not even try to avoid them by using 2-Day. If I’m doomed, I’m doomed — and I’d prefer one day instead of 2-day anyway. Be sure to let us know how it works out for you and let us know if your delivery person wears the A-1 polo shirt, has visible photo ID, and if their personal car is marked with an A-1 identifier.
Oh, I know UPS and FedEx can be terrible and I’m written about their lack of service many times. Here are two examples:
http://urbansemiotic.com/2006/06/17/playing-and-losing-the-ups-waiting-game/
http://scientificaesthetic.com/2010/06/23/is-the-bad-economy-crushing-fedexs-planes/
However, the difference between FedEx/UPS and A-1 are clear and important:
1. FedEx and UPS deliver by 3pm for Amazon. If they’re late, call them, and ask for a delivery time and dispatch will personally call you with an ETA that is verified by the driver.
2. A-1 “delivers by 8pm” — so you spend your whole day waiting until the bitter end. If they don’t deliver on the promised day, they redeliver tomorrow by 8pm… and so on and so on… so you never get put at the head of the queue for a missed delivery.
3. UPS and FedEx leave trackable hang tags with the day, date, and time of attempted delivery. If they do not leave that evidence of delivery, the onus is on the driver to fess up to any lies they might concoct that you were “never home.” If there is no hang tag, the delivery attempt was not made because those hang tags have tracking numbers that are updated into the FedEx and UPS databases every 15 minutes.
4. A-1 leaves no proof — trackable or not — for an attempted delivery. They just mark you “not home” in whatever system they use and you have no way to go online to prove their lie against you reality — so that makes them always right and you always wrong when it comes to you being home or not.
UPS and FedEx can try to get away with no hang tag — “It was lost” or it was “left at the wrong building” — but those excuses play into your hand as a consumer because you can use that leverage to let dispatch know you know what’s going on and that without a proper delivery attempt notification, no attempt was actually made. You win that argument every single time if you are firm enough.
I got the package from A-1 about two hours ago. At least for me, that’s one out of one. The guy was wearing a polo shirt (kind of burnt orange in color) but I did not pay attention to what, if any, logo was on the shirt. There was no visible ID, although I wonder what their protocol is for that. Are they supposed to flash it like an FBI badge? I should have paid more attention though so I could better report back on this post.
Anyways, I printed my name next to a row on a printed sheet he had, and that was the end of it. Didn’t see the car as my apartment unit is in the back of the apartment building. And not that it matters, but the guy was really young like you mentioned (“high school summer interns”).
Thanks for the field report, Rick!
I am definitely encouraged by your experience and I am delighted your package arrived on time and as expected.
As I understand it from A-1, the photo IDs are supposed to be worn around the neck on a lanyard so is no doubt who they are and what they are doing there since nobody knows the company.
I do wish A-1 used electronic tracking for signatures. Paper is out. Trackable, verifiable, communication is what we’ve come to expect in the delivery business today.
Oh, and my FedEx guy also said this addition of A-1 to the Amazon delivery fleet was likely due to the loss of DHL as a carrier. I’m not sure if that’s the reason or not — my sense of it is that Amazon are trying to expand their “Same Day Delivery Service” beyond NYC and into other, adjacent areas, and these new deliveries by A-1 a testing of a larger delivery scheme. In roaming the Amazon website, I have lately seen a few “Get It Today” information boxes next to some products. That’s new.
You may or may not know it, but this crap has been going on for 2 years now! There is a discussion on Amazon.com’s forum about this dating back to February 2008. They still refuse to get rid of these joke carriers. Instead, they’ve added more!! Prestige, Lasership, OnTrac, etc. All garbage. They just recently started screwing me over with Prestige. I’ve decided if I Amazon won’t let me choose my carrier like every other site around, I’ll have to start avoiding them. I still have Prime until October. If I do order from Amazon, I’ll refuse delivery on anything that doesn’t come USPS, UPS, or FedEx (assuming it actually shows up). Amazon’s handling of these matters is simply unacceptable. I hope others will take up the fight against these horrible carriers as well.
Oh, that’s terrible news, Viper. Amazon has almost everything I could ever need or want at stunningly good prices — but if they can’t deliver on time and in some quantifiable, totally verifiable, way then I’m done with them.
I’ve been looking at my other shopping options to replace Amazon.com:
Drugstore.com for meds and health and beauty.
Target.com, Kmart.com and Walmart.com for daily living and doodads and supplies and office stuff. Kmart is surprisingly close to Amazon in the quantity of items I want and need and their prices are pretty darn good.
VitaminShoppe.com for specialty items.
Music123.com and SamAsh.com for all my guitar and musical needs.
I mourn the loss of “One-Stop Shopping.”
I’m surprised to learn this has been going on since 2008! I guess I’ve been really lucky.
Can you tell us more about Prestige?
Well, there’s a thread for that too: http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx20DX5GEB7TUX8&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx3GI4CTRZEIPUN
They appear to be another fly by night joke of a courier, with unmarked vehicles and lazy employees. The first 2 packages Amazon tried to send me through them were both refunded because they never showed up. The tracking reads: “Possible delay in delivery due to arrival at incorrect carrier facility”
I decided to try a new approach. I placed an order today, but I appended “PO Box” to the beginning of my shipping address in hopes of forcing USPS. It seemed to have the desired effect, as the 2-day/overnight shipping options disappeared from the checkout. I haven’t received the ship confirm email yet though, and I have no idea how the post office will react to the address line having both street address and the words “PO Box.”
Hi Viper!
I thank you for that conversation link to Prestige. OOoof. They sound worse than A-1. I don’t understand why Amazon is doing this unless they’re planning a major, nationwide release of “same day service” — that’s the only thing I can think of as to why they’re using these freelance drivers for courier services instead of the established delivery giants. I can’t image that Prestige or A-1 are able to lowball UPS or FedEx on price — so something else is at play here… but we’re paying the price in pain as Amazon tries to figure it out.
Morgan at Amazon told me the ONLY way to guarantee your shipper was to use a PO Box. Then you get USPS delivery only and there’s only standard delivery with option. While I love my local carrier, packages via USPS are a different beast altogether, and I wouldn’t want to have to deal with them on a regular basis in my area. Actually, with a PO Box delivery, I’d have to go to them and stand in 30-minute line in a tiny lobby. Ummm, no thanks on that one for me.
What a mess! Why fool around with a good thing? Amazon Prime should mean just that!
I just had the same thing I was sitting in my house waiting for an item right by the door with no TV reading a book from 9:40 AM-3PM, my buildings Buzzer never rang and I wasted a day the sites tracking says I missed delivery at 11:38 AM which is not true. Amazon refunded the shipping charges (I overnighted it, and I am a prime customer) then tried to resolve this with A-1 which gave me a song and dance about how I wasn’t there (I truly disgust being called a liar) they said they we get it to me monday morning first thing (around 6 AM) I doubt it will come and I will probably have to call amazon to cancel the order due to the fact that I am moving in 4 days and cant wait around having a package sent to the wrong address. This is it for Prime with me I expected at the least USPS but some high school kids in Sentras is a new low, as a loyal stockholder and customer I am ashamed to have ownership or do business with a company that uses A-1 Courier services.
P.S. I am totally going to rip the driver a new one Monday morning (if he even shows up) I hate businesses who don’t deliver on promises but I refuse to tolerate a dishonest business which has the nerve, among all the complaints I have seen, to call me a liar.
P.P.S. Does amazon use this shipper for items fulfilled by other suppliers? I have never seen this with used books (Either UPS ground/2nd Air or USPS) And also what is A-1’s range specifically are they going to be serving Buffalo because if that’s so I will cancel my membership now.
Believe me, Dave, I feel your rage! Like you, I hate being called a liar when A-1 are those doing the lying — and when Amazon continues to use them even though they are blatant, proven, liars over and over again here and in the Amazon forums — it makes one really begin to question the motives and business practices of Amazon.
If A-1 had only said, “Hey, we’re behind. We’re having a bad day. We’re refunding your shipment charges and we’ll see you tomorrow.” I wouldn’t have such hard feelings — but when they lie and ACCUSE us of not being home when we are — I won’t tolerate that behavior or treatment. It isn’t right to call a customer a liar to cover their errors.
If you speak to the driver — look for the uniform shirt, photo ID and take an image of the car if you can so we can see if the delivery car is clearly marked or not.
I believe Amazon only uses A-1 for orders they fulfill out of their distribution centers. If a company, or individual, is selling stuff in the Amazon marketplace, then I believe they pick their own shipper and rates.
I’m seeing “Local Express Delivery” appearing now on many items for my Zip Code in Jersey City. “Order by 10:00am, and get it the same day — by 8pm — for $5.99 if you’re a Prime member.” That’s what going on, I think. A-1, and these other courier services, are being used as instant wish fulfillment centers and Amazon are using us as the guinea pigs as they sort out the horrid transportation details:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200105970&ref=ftinfo_dp_
Don’t cancel your Prime Membership or you’ll lose all the money you already paid for the year. Just set your Prime membership to “not renew” for now until things settle a bit. Then you can later manually rejoin as a Prime member if you’re still interested.
Please let us know what happens with the “re-delivery” attempt that was never made in the first place!
I sent a Long e-mail to amazon they didn’t give me a gift card, this was a blue tooth and I wasn’t in any pain as you were so I am not really that miffed just wish I could have gotten Sunday delivery or had them return Saturday. I am figuring this, A-1 uses kids with cars they might cover gas and tolls but probably just tolls I am figuring the guy got the package probably saw it was the only one in Kew Gardens and figured screw it and marked the package attempted delivery. I am calling A-1 sales to make sure they don’t ship to Buffalo Monday morning and to do some more yelling. Just this stinks if shipping is increasing in price just increase the Prime price and allow us to ship with real carriers I would rather fork out 100 bucks a year and have everything sent via USPS, UPS, or Fedex at my choice than pay 80 and deal with these shoddy shippers. For the record I turned off auto-renewal I have a free year because I am a student, I was thinking I would continue once my free year is over but forget it.
The whole shuffling off to Buffalo thing really does complicate your situation, Dave. I hope Amazon will get directly involved with A-1 as they did with me to get this fixed for your ASAP.
I, too, would pay more a year to be able to pick my shipper. Why wouldn’t Amazon want that extra income?
The gift card was supposed to come from A-1 because I had so clearly proven their lies in this public forum and my article has tens of thousands of readers and is growing every day. When I told Amazon I had nothing from A-1, Amazon stepped in and gave me the gift card.
I remember seeing that .EDU email addresses get free Prime membership. I wondered why. Now I get it. Amazon knows students are usually stuck on campus, don’t have cars, and they can funnel deliveries into the school system. It’s a cheap, fast, way to build an isolated clientele and get them to become reliant upon your services. Smart move. Too bad A-1 are so dumb.
A-1 international – a nightmare experience!
On August 20th evening I ordered a Zune 64GB at amazon. It said, get it by Saturday 21st August for $3.99. I said, why not ? and ordered it. When I got the confirmation email from amazon, I saw A-1 international for the first time. So, I googled, oh boy what mess this service is.
As experienced by many here I had ditto treatment.
On Saturday the tracking said 08:52 AM – out for delivery
no package till 5 PM. I called up amazon and was explaining the rep that the delivery did not turn up. She cut me cold in the middle !?
I called again and another rep said wait till 7 PM and call back.
No package till 7 PM.
At 7:30 PM I checked the gate, there is a pack lying outside the door. Anyone could have picked it up. By chance I saw it, otherwise gone my $385 !?
The site says, its still OUT for DELIVERY at 08:52 AM…
then I checked the site this morning and it says…
DELIVERED at 13:45 …signed by me !!??
Funny thing is that..
there was no door bell and I NEVER SIGNED anything !!? and that too at 13:45….
I even called up Amazon at 17:00 to complain and they themselves confirmed me that its not delivered yet. Then from where they got 13:45 delivery that too signed by me…!? Weird and scary as I ordered zune 64 GB which costs $385 with tax and $3.99 for delivery.
Like you i am not going to sign up for Amazon prime after the trial.
Good bye Amazon…sad to see you go because of A-1 international.
No more shopping at Amazon for me!
A-1 sucks !
Thanks for the comment, Manick! What a terrible episode. If you didn’t find your box by the gate, would Amazon have given you a full refund — after all — you “signed” for it. How enraging!
It would take days to try to prove you didn’t sign for the package — and how could you ever prove that your signature was forged? Sure, you could dispute the charge on your credit card, but that would take at least 45 days to get resolved and the fact that A-1 “has your signature” would make things extremely complicated for you.
I don’t blame you for not wanting to stay a Prime member.
To whom it may concern,
Hello, my name is (Redacted) the e-mail associated with my Amazon Prime account is (Redacted). I am writing this e-mail to inform your company that due to poor delivery performance I will be canceling my prime membership when the renewal comes due. I once thought that Amazon was an innovative customer focused firm which utilized modular supplier linkages to allow the pinnacle of consumer focused capitalism; competition and comparison. Whilst I have still seen the seller base maintain its reliability with some minor issues sorted out wonderfully by your firm, the new shipping practices of using low-end, drive by night courier services to replace effective and safe solutions has completely driven me off of using the Amazon Prime product. The order which pushed me over the edge was order #103-0523416-5588207 this was a product ordered on Friday August 20, 2010, I used the one day shipping option to have the order arrive by Saturday August 21, 2010, the fee for this was of course $3.99 but since I was moving to Buffalo New York Monday and I needed to make several business calls overseas at times when I would be driving it was a necessity that I receive my Bluetooth unit prior to my departure date. I decided to give up my last Saturday in New York to wait for this package to arrive, I also noted the use of a Firm called A-1 Courier Service having read a few reviews I was highly skeptical, however, being this was being fulfilled by Amazon, a firm with 57.21 Billion USD in market cap I assumed you would vet your shippers with care in lieu of DHL’s departure from the niche market.
The end result really surprised me, I want to make this clear, I (Redacted) was in my living room 16 feet from the front door of my home and 10 feet from my intercom (which UPS, FedEx, and USPS uses to call for packages) in complete silence I was reading a book (ordered from your site but shipped via UPS) from 9:40 AM until 1:20 PM there is zero probability that I would not have heard the Intercom system as there was limited background noise as well as continual and periodic breaks to look out of the front window for delivery trucks. At approximately 1:10 PM EST I updated the tracking info using A-1’s website tracking system (http://www.aoneonline.com/pages/customers/amazon.html) my tracking # was (Redacted)the information stated “08/21/2010 11:38 Delivery attempted – No one available to sign” this was startling I clearly remember at approximately 11:30 AM looking out of the front window of my home (still within audible range of the intercom unit and not only not seeing anything resembling a delivery service but also not hearing the intercom. I immediately tried to contact A-1 Courier services but they didn’t pick up on their primary phone lines I switched over to Amazon customer service and had them try to rectify the problem whilst on hold I walked down to my lobby and noted there was no ticket or note of any attempted delivery. After being on hold with Amazon customer service an agent told me that they missed the delivery and that I would be refunded the additional delivery fee due to the shipper’s inability to get me the item. The same agent informed me that according to A-1 Courier service this was a missed delivery and that it was enroute back to the shipment center, that I could not receive the shipment even if I drove over to the shipment center that day and then gave me A-1 courier’s phone number with the proper extension.
I contacted A-1 Couriers and spoke to someone named “Gina” who responded rudely to my request, secondly she insisted that I was lying about being at my home at 11:38 AM, and that the only way to get the package would be to drive over to their processing facility in New Jersey at 8 AM Monday or schedule a redelivery early Monday morning, she also stated she needed to hear from management in order to confirm this request (early morning redelivery request) I waited an hour and contacted her back on the same line Amazon published on the shipping help site. The result was they repeatedly asked me for my phone and address to make sure the information was correct they never once apologized for their inability continually referring to me as someone who was “lying”. I can almost tolerate a business’s lateness in shipment especially with a value item such as UPS ground, however, courier services specialize in critical time dependent needs and they were supposed to provide a specific premium service. The most infuriating thing about this ordeal was the rudeness exhibited by the people at A-1 International essentially trying to refuse my call because I was understandably upset and then continually attacking my truthfulness despite their fowl up. Following this exchange I furthered my research looking on your own site in which I found a 1,000 post thread essentially unanimous in not only highlighting the massive pitfalls of A-1 Couriers but also repeating many stories which bear a significant resemblance to mine (http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg40?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx20DX5GEB7TUX8&cdPage=40&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx1S36AZK6I1PPQ♠) I also found another consumer complaint site which detailed a similar but more painful experience (http://celebritysemiotic.com/2010/08/05/divorcing-amazon-prime-because-of-a-1-courier-services-cheating/#comment-272) the comment page was littered seemingly unanimous with similar stories to mine the only differing opinion was that of an anonymous A-1Courier services employee trying to hide behind an anonymous e-mail, however, his ISP address revealed the message was sent from an A-1 Courier service server. I have a strong feeling that this letter will fall on deaf ears Amazon seems to be neglected its core business and focused more on a risk adverse cost cutting model which favors short term budgetary guidelines while neglecting long term customer loyalty and opens the market for more reliable competitors. As a Business/Economics student and individual investor I am cognizant of shipping snafoos in business operations and understand firms must cut costs to maintain profitability, however, despite this using these low end unreliable shippers will cost you more than slightly higher accounts payable from UPS, FedEx, or the United States Postal Service. I also understand looking for shipping competition to lower cost, this is the same principal applied on the consumer site and it works to benefit many, however, using a company who is so inherently dishonest and resorts to attacking customers and publishing phony retorts to legitimate consumer complaints is the wrong avenue. Thank you for taking the time to read this e-mail, If you would like to contact me about improving your product you may do so by calling me (Redacted) or sending an email to my primary account E-mail.
Thank you again,
(Redacted)
P.s. I can e-mail proof of the ability for anyone in my apartment to hear the intercom, and furthermore my Chinese food delivery on the same day is a further testament to the system’s ability to work and well overcome a audible TV with surround sound system.
An excellent letter, Dave! I love all the details. Fight for you right to be treated the right way!
Hello,
I’m very sorry about this negative ordering experience.
I’m forwarding your feedback about A-1 Courier to our shipping department–I
know they’ll want to hear about your experience.
We’re aware that our choice of delivery services reflects on our business as a
whole, and we appreciate your feedback.
We hope to see you again soon.
I’m committed to providing world class customer service. Please tell me how I
did by clicking the appropriate link below.
Did I solve your problem?
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=cqyewgrx3371710044&q=sn
If not, I’m very sorry. Please click the link below. You’ll also have the
opportunity to contact Amazon via phone for immediate help with this problem.
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=cqyewgrx3371710044&q=sn
Best regards,
Saurav
Amazon.com
Your feedback is helping us build Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.
http://www.amazon.com/your-account
——————————
Note: I doubt this accomplished anything I really want to put A-1 out of business companies like this bother me they leach off others investments and destryo legitimate firms’ names
Dave —
I agree with you that you need to get a better response from Amazon than that auto-bot email.
Reporting it to the “Shipping Department” is not enough cure for you.
Keep hunting. Find a better way to be heard.
Yeah, I got the same exact response when I bitched. The “shipping department” obviously doesn’t give a shit. We need to reach someone higher up.
Viper —
When I read the Amazon forums, I found this email address for complaints: ecr@amazon.com
That is the “Executive Customer Relations” team at Amazon — and they were incredibly responsive to me and opened up the dialogue you read here in the comments flow. ECR also contacted A-1 on my behalf to try to set them straight.
Let us know what happens with ECR.
This week I will test Amazon and A-1 again with what may be my final order — or not — and I will report the results right here in this comments stream.
Well this sure has expanded since I first stopped by. Keep up the good work, David. You’re building a big wave of support here for your position. Keep their toes to the fire. Both Amazon and A1 are doing the wrong thing. We can set them right if we keep at it.
Thanks, Anne! I certainly agree that keeping the focus on service and the customers is paramount. If A-1 begins to deliver as promised, we are happy to celebrate them right here in this same comments flow.
UPDATE:
This morning at 7:15 am, I placed my first Amazon order since the A-1 fiasco.
I decided to try the new Same Day Delivery option, fully expecting that would force A-1 into the delivery picture again. Some things will arrive today. The rest of the order will arrive tomorrow.
At 11:11am, I received notification that my Same Day Delivery was processed and being shipped — via A-1!
When I just checked the tracking number emailed to me for today’s shipment, both the Amazon website and A-1 website tell me no tracking information is available. Hmm… that doesn’t sound promising.
I will continue to report here on the status of my A-1 deliveries. I am here. I am home. I am right next to the front door. I can see everything in the street before me from my window. We’ll see if any tomfoolery happens again today — and tomorrow — or not.
Tracking Information has updated:
Still here. Still waiting.
I’m here. Watching the street.
5:50pm (17:50) – DELIVERED!
The courier was an older gentleman wearing an A-1 polo shirt. No visible ID. White car. No A-1 identifiers on the car.
Good job, A-1. We might see you again tomorrow when the rest of my order arrives.
If so, I will track the live progress with you here as I work throughout the day and await delivery.
UPDATE:
Ooof! Today is another day and another A-1 delivery from Amazon. I ordered two, emergency things for overnight delivery and held thumbs I’d get UPS or FedEx. No such luck. It is A-1 again. We will track them live, right here, all day, until delivery.
UPDATE:
The wait begins.
Still here. Still waiting.
Continuing to wait. Constantly checking the street.
Delivered at 2:37 pm (15:27).
Thank you, A-1!
Sorry I haven’t posted since I moved as I really haven’t gotten my internet setup, Anyway I am just going to write a quick update of A1’s delivery on Monday. As stated earlier the person on the phone assured me that the package was to be delivered between 6-9 AM so I got up at 5:45 went downstairs left a sign saying buzz or call and went back upstairs. I positioned a chair by my front window and sat there with a book and my coffee the front of the building in view. Fast-forward to about 10 AM I check the tracking and it states “package out for delivery” at 9:52, I sit for about 20 minutes then decide to call A1. The person at A1 assures me that the package was marked to leave early but didn’t (as though I care that it was marked) then she states it will be here 12:30 PM and asked if I would wait, which of course I agreed to. 12:30 rolls by then at 1 PM I see an unmarked Toyota Camry pull up in front with Jersey Tags some guy gets out buzzes and I let him in, when he gets to my door I had a bit of a heated exchange about me being called a liar and his cavalier attitude then he leaves I should mention there was no ID visible the guy was sloppily dressed in an orange Polo shirt (didn’t see a logo) luckily it appears that they don’t ship to Buffalo but still a company like this is a travesty. Note I did contact that ECR e-mail and All I got was the auto-bot response I am wondering if there is a better way of contacting Amazon, this shipment really screwed up 2 days.
Hi Dave!
Sorry to hear of your A-1 woe. I don’t blame you for being upset. Give ecr@amazon.com a day or two to get back to you. You should soon hear from a real person. I love your “Waiting” set up! Ha!
I just don’t like the “not knowing” about delivery or not with A-1. I hate waiting all day, posting updates here to “prove” I’m home and alive and waiting for delivery. It’s much too much trouble for me going forward. My only hope is Amazon will let us pick our shipper in the future. Otherwise, I’m looking for alternates to Amazon. I’ll spend my money where I am completely in charge of my purchases from first click to final signature.
I hear you the autobot response I got was from that e-mail though. Also I should mention that A-1’s tracking says delivered at 5:21 PM (no big deal). The shame is not only waiting but dealing with a schlocky company. With UPS, FedEx, and USPS you not only get a real professional delivering your package with professional equipment but also notices of missed delivery and recourse (Being able to pickup package at distribution center/post office) I live in a residential area with out a doorman I depend on being able to go to the post office/ distribution center and pick up my package. All I am saying is that a company with over 50 billion in market cap shouldn’t have the same delivery system as my local pizzeria, Amazons key interactions between themselves and their customers are through shipping intermediaries it is quite illogical to risk their image to save a tiny amount of money.
I’m disappointed you haven’t heard back from ecr@amazon.
I agree with you that being able to electronically track the status of a package is paramount. When everything is paper, everything becomes nothing.
Your point about having a station for pick-up is on target.
It doesn’t make sense that Amazon is forcing so much business to A-1 — when FedEx and UPS were solid, dependable, and predictably reliable.
Amazon is still using A-1, and they are still terrible, based on my experience. I live in a dorm building in Manhattan with 24 hour mail acceptance (the front desk is visible by the entrance doors). After placing an book order through Prime with two-day shipping, it was “delivered” today at 10:42am and signed for by “EMI”. There was no sign of my package, even after a member of the mail room staff and I looked through every package that had been delivered today. Furthermore, she told me that there is no “Emily” or other “EMI”-named person (and no one with those initials) who signs for packages – plus, their policy is to sign for packages strictly using only two initials. There are two possibilities: A-1 is lying about the delivery & signature, or they delivered my package to one of the 7 or so businesses within this block that also reside at this address (a mistake that has never been made, according to the mail room, by any other courier or delivery service, as our building is the only one with apartment numbers included as part of the shipping address).
Amazon customer service tried calling A-1 on my behalf – after waiting on hold, the rep told me the office was closed and he could not get through to anyone. He put a replacement order in with overnight shipping at no cost to me (for either the book or shipping), but as it is Friday, I will not get the package until Monday – and with my schedule, Monday night. He then asked that “if” the first package shows up, I should return it – though he didn’t give me any instructions on how to go about making the return or how Amazon would go about reimbursing me for shipping.
The fact that they replaced it at no cost so easily and shirked off the return process makes me think that Amazon knows the delivery is in the wind, therefore they know how unreliable A-1 is. Granted, they only lost a little over $17 with my order, but that would add up if this is a regular occurrence – maybe it is a sign that things will be changing in the future?
P.S. IF the first package does show up, I think I’m going to ebay it and make a few dollars to make up for this whole debacle (normally I’d like to be honest and return it, but I want to prove the point to Amazon – they only way they’ll really get rid of A-1 is if they lose money on using them). Anyone else receive their first item after a replacement was sent? Did you return it?
I’m sorry to learn about your trouble, Hannah, but your experience eerily matches mine. I used to spend a lot of money a month with Amazon and since my last update here, I haven’t spent a penny with them. I hate A-1 and I now hate Amazon for using them. I don’t like being stuck waiting for a delivery that may or may not arrive as promised — and the worst part of it is being called a liar by A-1 when they lie about delivery attempts — so the only choice you have when A-1 is the delivery service is to “prove” you are available and waiting for their delivery.
My wife teaches at NYU, so I am familiar with the building setup and deliveries issues you mention — and NYU’s system will win against A-1 false delivery claims.
My only concern is that your replacement shipment will also be sent via A-1! Amazon reps cannot pick the replacement shipper and, in my experience, re-ships are sent via the same service as the first package unless you tell Amazon to use the USPS and get a delivery to a P.O. box.
Please send an email to “ecr@amazon.com” to make your clear complain on the record and be sure to check back in here to let us know what happened in the end.
Sigh, my professor has requested all of us to purchase two books from Amazon in order to finish our assignments by next tuesday. Because the assignments are quite long, as are the readings, I applied same-day delivery through Amazon. The books are not sold in Barnes and Nobles, local bookstores, or even borders in the entire NYC area. It is supposed to arrive September 10, 2010.
As of 4:23, it was reported as “out for delivery” in NYC.
Let us just hope that the books will arrive tomorrow morning, or better yet, that Barnes and Nobles messages me that the waitlist for my books are fulfilled and I can come pick them up from the store.
Both look bleak as of now.
Well ladies and gentleman…it is 10:08. Any chances of them still arriving before midnight?
I called customer service, conveniently for them they are off work. Called amazon, said the earliest they could ship me the books is by Monday….but with A1. I found this blog in my attempt to research why in the world A1 is taking so long to deliver 2 books.
If A1 is the reason I fail this assignment…
Hey Sonic —
Thanks for your email and the tale of your sorry A-1 story. You should tell your instructor there is a problem with using Amazon in our area now and thy name is “A-1.” There needs to be a non-Amazon solution to this mess. Let the bookstore deal with A-1. Individual students should not be made to wait for deliveries that do not arrive and then later be blamed for not being available to sign for a package that was never attempted for delivery.
A-1 delivery cut off time is 8pm. In my experience, if they aren’t there by 5pm, then they aren’t showing up.
You need to send an email to “ecr@amazon.com” to go on the record with your complaint. We need to create a paper trail of the A-1 lies that cannot be discounted or brushed aside.
Update:
September 10, 2010 06:12:00 PM New York NY Delivery attempted
September 10, 2010 04:23:00 PM New York NY Out for delivery
Apparently delivery was attempted. I asked my doorman to view security tapes and all I saw were my fellow building tenants and a lot of dogs.
My doorman says that no one from Amazon or A1 ever came to the building today.
I was home the entire time, trying to research topics on my books right next to the front window and intercom.
Sonic —
That’s how A-1 cheats the system! Their paper trail leaves no evidence of a “delivery attempt” and it is your word against the A-1 driver’s and, in my experience, A-1 always believes their own over you to the point of pointlessness. You did the right thing by talking to Amazon instead of A-1 — but you still have no sense of when the actual delivery might arrive, right? I feel for you. You did everything right — and yet you were made to look like a lazy liar by A-1 — and that is absolutely unacceptable.
Please make sure to update us on your A-1 experience and how it all worked out — or not! — in the end.
Hi,
What an interesting website/blog. My first experience with A-1 (what a misnomer!) was when I lived in downtown Philadelphia back in 2007. It mirrors what most everyone else has said….tracking claimed it was delivered, but it wasn’t, and the folks at A-1 boldly lied that no one was home. I called Amazon CS and he sent out a replacement, and promised it would arrive UPS, which it did. He also promised to make certain I never had to deal with A-1 again. This actually happened – I never had to deal with them again until winter 2009…. and, to be fair, they must have changed delivery people because I got 4 same day deliveries from them with no issues whatsoever, over a period of a month – my comments are on the Amazon discussion forum. Then the rot set in again, and no need for me to repeat what everyone here has already said…the lies, and the total non-responsiveness from Amazon. Luckily, I moved from Philadelphia to a seaside town in southern New Jersey and suspended my Prime membership until the move, and luckily have never had to deal with these jokers again. UPS does almost all the shipping here from Amazon – however, Amazon is now starting to use FedEx Smartpak, which, while not as bad as A-1, is slow and not reliable for two day shipping options (never gets to the post office in time – Smartpak delivers to the post office, the they take over).
My thoughts are this: As unreliable a company as A-1 is, this is all Amazon’s fault. 90% (using a guesstimate based on years of online shopping!) announce upfront who they use for their shipping, and it is always UPS, FedEx, or the Post Office. Amazon is alone in not providing this info to customers. Amazon is not a company run by idiots. Over the past three years they must have lost a fortune in replacement deliveries and refunds. Overall though, everything they do seems to come up roses…. even the public relation uproars caused by the disappearing George Orwell books on Kindle, and the books with gay content disappearing from the website over Easter weekend a year or so ago were momentary blips. If they are allowing this to go on, there must be a reason somewhere. My guess is it has something to do with the increasing popularity of ebook readers and downloadable video and music – perhaps Amazon is trying to push its customers into downloading its Amazon video viewers and purchasing its Kindles if they get fed up enough with unreliable delivery services.
That of course does not explain your Waterpik A-1 shipment. As a man approaching 50 and having lost 3 of my molars through decay, I must say I’d be lost without mine!
Keep up the good work – unfortunately, Amazon seems completely uninterested in fixing this very serious problem – something it could do with one management decision. As Judge Judy says … “always follow the money trail!”
Hi Ron, and welcome to Celebrity Semiotic!
I appreciate the time you took to share your full experience with us and you are certainly right: The A-1 problem we’re having is Amazon’s fault for continuing to use them when they are so unreliable.
Here’s the current shipper tracking page for Amazon —
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468530
— I count 19 shippers! Incredible! I count myself lucky that I was exclusively getting UPS and FedEx as my delivery mainstays. I never knew how good I actually had it until I lost it…
We used Amazon for everything. We purchased few books and lots of food and household supplies. We don’t have a car in the Big City, so Amazon became our local superstore that delivered straight to our door. It was divine while it lasted.
We won’t, however, risk meeting A-1 again anytime soon. The only way I can think of getting around them is to order something big — like a box of paper towels or toilet paper or Kleenex or something that wouldn’t easily fit in a courier’s car.
Hello Dave. I am currently, at this moment in fact, feeling your/my/our pain. On hold with Mr. Monroe from A1 Customer Service. (well, one can always use a good laugh.)
Ordered a book from Amazon, PRIME, scheduled to be delivered 17th September. Was up early to wait for UPS guy (he’s great) because they always come in the morning, but got no delivery that morning. Oh well, it’ll come later today, said myself to myself.
By the way, I have now been on “hold” while Mr. Monroe checks with “dispatch” for over fifteen minutes. BUT I get ahead of myself.
Waited all weekend for my book! Finally … finally .. exasperated … tracked it. NOT UPS, but something called A1 Courier. And imagine my surprise when I read that they had “attempted delivery” three times!! WHAT?? Not on MY watch, mister! I was home. No one rang the buzzer. No one left a note. NO ONE WAS EVER HERE!! (yes, I know a lot of exclamation marks, but I am emphatically PISSED.) And still, four days later, I am still sans much needed book.
Contacted Amazon (a most useless conversation with someone named Levi) who simply gave me the number for A1 Couriers. Well, I huffed, they are YOUR delivery company…YOU call ’em and get that book here. (I have no way to contact them, said Mr. Amazon Representative.) Oh really? So I pay yearly PRIME and have to put up with this?? I WANT MY BLOODY BOOK! (Is there anything else I can do for you today, queried Mr. Amazon.) Anything else? You haven’t done anything!
Of course no one answered the A1 1-800-821-3641 # last night, so I left a message. I left two. The recorded message said they would call first thing this morning. And they did! HAHAHAHAHAHA. No, not really. Just thought you could use another laugh.
(Oh. Back to real time. Mr. Monroe just got back on the line (25 minutes on hold) and said that HE COULD NOT REACH HIS DISPATCH DEPARTMENT, but sent them an email. And as soon as HE heard from them, he would call me back and let me know where my package was. Or else the guy on night shift would. NIGHT SHIFT???)
When I didn’t hear from A1 this morning, I called 1-800-821-3641 and actually got someone on the phone. She said they had tried to deliver LAST NIGHT at 6:30.. Now THAT is odd, said I, because I was HOME last night at 6:30 and no one rang! Well, she said, they were there. And that’s when I said, “Well, no they weren’t and I don’t believe they have EVER been! There has been someone here each time they said “delivery attempted. And no one here is hard of hearing, and that buzzer is LOUD!” Come to think of it, just about the time they said they had “attempted delivery,” our exterminator showed up, rang the bell, and came on in. Didn’t see anyone else on the stoop … and he didn’t have to knock someone over to get in. So obviously there is an A1 falsehood.
SO … lady on phone took my Amazon ref # and said “Oh. the problem is your phone number. We are mssing the last digit.” Gave it to her, but said, “you should have checked it with Amazon, dontcha think?” She corrected my number and assured me the package would be “sent out to you today.” It is now 5PM. I have been here all day. AND NO ONE HAS ATTEMPTED TO DELIVER ANYTHING. Needless to say I have been dialing their number all day … put on hold. Put on hold. Called the Customer Service #. No answer. Called the local office. No answer. Called the Corporate Office in NJ. No answer. Went back to the A1 Website and got the name of Orlando Bartolome, NY Director of Operations. Called Corporate and punched in his name … got his voice mail. Left a rather stinging message that his NYC Operations sucked and what was he going to do about it and his people were liars and I wanted my damn book!? Did not receive a call back.
Now I’m snorting. Was this even a real company?? A front for the mob, like “waste management?” A gang of thieves? O just the biggest, ****** ** company on the face of the earth? I was NOT going to NOT get through. So … so … what would be most important to these greedy little turds? HHHmmmm. Kiddies, I called the BILLING DEPARTMENT! and SOMEONE ANSWERED THE PHONE. I laughed out loud! Of course. We won’t deliver your package, but we sure as hell will charge you for it! She was actually quite nice, and when I told her what was going on, she said she would call Customer Service on my behalf. And she did. And soon I was transferred to Mr. Monroe. Who told me about all the “attempted deliveries” his little gang had listed. I refuted each one. Then he said the problem might be my phone number, because they were missing a digit. “That was corrected this morning,” I CALMLY replied. No, he said, my record still showed you missing a digit. And you KNOW the rest. Guess none of his fellow employees have called him/emailed him back, because I sure haven’t heard anything yet. They are all probably very busy filling out fake “attempted delivery” forms while they toss back a cold one.
Are we in the Twilight Zone? Is this even for any kind of real? Is Amazon content to let so many of us not get out stuff? I don’t pay PRIME for this kind of mistreatment! WHAT the hell is Amazon doing still using this “service?” Come to think of it, what they hell am I doing still using AMAZON? Deal breaker, babies. This ludicrous experience with a non existant “delivery” company is an absolute deal breaker. WHY doesn’t AMAZON do something about it?
OHMYGOSH!! I wonder if A1 has attempted another delivery while I have been here sharing with you. Probably they did. And I just didn’t hear the buzzer … three feet away. I WANT MY DAMN BOOK!
And you know what Dave. I’m gonna divorce AMAZON too. And I want some stinkin’ alimony!
Wow! Your experience is a template of my experience! They obviously have a script. They follow a set pattern of events to put all the blame on you. Even the lies matched! I also think I dealt with “Mr. Monroe” a few times — I wonder if all their phone answerers are named “Mr. Monroe” to help keep all the lies straight?
A-1 told me they attempt delivery three times and then they send the package back to Amazon as “undeliverable” and that needs to happen for you to get your money back. They sure seem to be visiting you a lot only to find you not at home even though you are. Ridiculous!
The only difference in your experience and mine is that Amazon stepped in to help me. Now it looks like they’re refusing to help and just making you deal with A-1 on your own as if they’re on the same moral ground as UPS and FedEx. How terrible! It’s inexcusable, really, for a company like Amazon to to that to us. They hire the devil and expect us to pay the price.
Oh, and the “last digit of your phone number” is new, too. How utterly convenient for them to double-blame you!
The contact you named in NYC sounds familiar. I think that’s the guy who called me. I never called him back. I guess he’s the one with my $100 Amazon gift card! I did save his Voice Mail somewhere.
Have you sent your fury to “ecr@amazon.com” yet? Do it. Even if you don’t hear back from a person — get on the record with all the lies A-1 is telling about you and their “delivery” non-attempts.
Good luck, and keep us posted!
Hello again Dave:
Closing in on 10 pm. Without delivery. Book. Phone call. OR explanation. Am going to tell Amazon that we are through. Then go buy my book somewhere reliable. And not for a MOMENT will I consider keeping PRIME. Or using AMAZON again, as long as they keep using this non-delivery service.
xoxo
P.A.
A-1 stops all deliveries at 8pm, so waiting beyond that cutoff is only causing yourself greater harm. SMILE!
I’m surprised nobody is helping you. There must be a better solution available other than just cutting off Amazon. Until they get rid of A-1, though, I guess Barnes and Noble is our next best bet for paper books.
Let us know what happens next!
Same exact experience here, 3 delivery attempts and no package or note, I wouldn’t even know that they were trying to deliver it if I didn’t check Amazon’s site. Tried to call A-1, and of course no answer. Now I just got a notice from my mailbox in the city (I live in Brooklyn but keep a box there), that the package arrived. Only, I never listed that as a shipping address and now need to go fetch it myself. This is absurd. I don’t even know how they got that address.
Well, that’s just bizarre, JT. I really wonder how they were able to finally deliver to a place where you were not were and did not want delivery!
I truly don’t get them as a company. I would avoid speaking to them on the phone if at all possible. I haven’t met one person yet who was ever told the truth when they called for more information.
Let us know if it works out in the end for you or not!
I am still just flabbergasted at what Amazon is doing here. I am, of course, using Amazon for my Kindle content (no chance of A-1 or their ilk delivering on that!) but my Prime lapsed and I have not renewed it for one reason only – my fear that Amazon will start to hit me with constant A-1 non-deliveries. I hope one day to discover just what Amazon is playing at with this shoddy treatment of it’s customers. Now it seems, based on JT’s treatment, they are now not being so accommodating at replacing orders or refunding payment. What are they thinking? I’d really like to know.
I have decided to do something that may, in a small way, help, and I hope others consider this as well. Everytime I make an online purchase now (and it is frequent – I shop almost exclusively online, and until recently 95% of the time with Amazon), I send Amazon an e-mail telling them what I bought and how they lost the business, totally due to A-1. This is money lost to them. I doubt at this point I will ever shop Amazon again (excepting digital purchases and gift card purchases) because I simply don’t trust them to get it delivered to me, but at least this way they will feel a teeny bit of the pain they have been causing their loyal customers.
That’s a keen idea, Ron, but I wonder if Amazon cares? My sense of it is that they don’t care any longer. They have “A-1” fatigue — but instead of killing them as a courier, they’re killing us instead with their new indifference. You can’t blame the customer when the customer isn’t at fault for “not being home” when they are, in fact, home and not expect a total, furious, outrage in the end when we are basically called liars.
Where are you sending your notifications about things you bought elsewhere that you used to buy from Amazon? Do you have any response from them yet?
—-Where are you sending your notifications about things you bought elsewhere that you used to buy from Amazon? —-
I just go to the regular “Contact Us” page and click on I need assistant with “something else.” and choose “other non-order questions”. I have done this twice in a week – won’t have an opportunity to do it again until the beginning of October. I was planning to send it to the executive e-mail but just thought this would be more effective (don’t know why). I doubt Amazon cares, (and I have only received one e-mail back, the usual canned apology nonsense, i.e. we realize our choice of carrier reflects on us….. we can all recite it in our sleep) and I doubt they are losing money on this. Somewhere, there is a reason. All I can say is I find the whole thing alarming. That a company – built on excellent customer service and getting customers their orders on time and at a fair price – should be so non-responsive to courier services that are, at best, inept, and more than likely criminal, and indeed, seemingly rewarding them for their bad behaviour. Doubt I’ll be back to Amazon anytime soon. .
I’m baffled by it all, too, Ron. It doesn’t make any sense. Any good business would have jettisoned a company like A-1 long ago. Amazon only need to read their own forums to read the plethora of customer complaints over a long period of time.
Please let us know if you get any sort of quantifiable response from Amazon concerning your new email plan. I like that way of fighting back a lot and I sure hope it gets some good results!
Just one more thing to add, for now, and that is I grew up in New York City, and worked as a bike messenger/courier in the mid-late 70s and early 80s. No cars, no cell phones, just me and my feet and bike dodging traffic, weather and pedestrians from Chelsea up to Columbia University and a few times, WaHi. Everything got delivered. There were never any excuses that were acceptable by management…if I got hit by a cab I’d better have saved the documents! If we didn’t deliver, the company suffered, and we got fired. I would have loved to have worked for a company like A-1 then….no accounatbility whatsoever!
I don’t want this to sound like one of those, “when I was young I walked five miles to school in the snow” kind of things, but I am flabbergasted at the way things are done, or no done, today.
Will let you know if I get a decent response from the good folks at Amazon.
P.S. How long until a phone call to them gives us only a bot to talk with, and not a person?
I used bike couriers all the time in NYC, and you’re right! They are nimble and fast and completely reliable. A-1 could take a few lessons from those tough road warriors.
I know Amazon doesn’t like to talk to us on the phone. They hide their 800 number pretty well. With A-1 — more often than not you get their Voice Mail with the promise to call you right back. It’s all becoming some sort of strange, sad, dance.
Corporate
2226 Morris Avenue
Union, NJ 07083
(908) 851-2288
Fax: (908) 688-3733
http://www.aoneonline.com/index_flash.html
Hope this helps.
People @ A-1
Ronald DeSena, President
Michael Pollack, Vice-President of Sales
John V. Rutigliano, Vice-President of Operations,
Barbara Knapp, Vice-President of Finance,
Definitely helpful, Summer — but do you think directly contacting A-1 makes any difference in getting better service or not?
Yes I do. If you can’t get through where you need to, go higher up! This is as high as you can get at A-1. They can get all the other offices moving and getting a quicker solution for you.
Thank you, Summer!
I called Amazon to complain about A-1 this morning (they had claimed to deliver a package that they did not deliver, which has happened before) and I was told to wait until the package was deliver, and then use the feedback form.
it is flummoxing for a company like Amazon that is so religious about customer service to work with these guys – I would love to just have all my prime shipments go through UPS!
Hi David!
Welcome to Celebrity Semiotic!
I’m sorry to hear A-1 is still working with Amazon. Things had quieted down here a bit. I’d secretly hoped A-1 were shown the shoe. I guess I’ll have to keep my non-bulk ban on Amazon purchases in place.
Did you call A-1?
I have in the past, but not this time. Amazon simply re-shipped the package UPS and it arrived promptly. But for Prime customers – who care primarily about timeliness – I’m shocked they’ve let the A-1 debacle gone on as long as they have.
Well, well, well. This morning I found out the package I ordered with Amazon Prime 1 Day shipping was being sent by A-1 Courier Service. It was scheduled to arrive today. As you can probably already guess… it did not.
Around mid-day I started wondering to myself about this A-1 as I usually distrust anything that isn’t UPS or FedEx. I searched and found this site. Read your original troubles, read the comments and now myself several hours later, am the latest victim.
I checked and re-checked the tracking all day long on A-1’s site. It forever read:
11/10/2010 16:24 Shipment has left Amazon Facility and is in transit to A-1
Then I checked again at 7:10 Eastern tonight and it had changed to:
11/11/2010 18:55 Delivery attempted – No one available to sign
Fair enough… Except, Oh.. Wait… I live in a 24 hour full service doorman building. There is a doorman who stands *AT the door* 24/7/365 to help people in and do other things like umm…. *accept and sign for packages*.
Oh… Also at that time I was walking in the door with my dogs from their walk. I asked him if any deliveries had been made. No, there hadn’t been.
I get back to my apartment, feed my dogs, settle back in at the computer and see this message… Hmmmm…. I called A-1 using the number listed on Amazon’s site. It says, if you are calling in relation to Amazon packages press “2”. I do so. It rings about 10 or more times then makes a weird clicking noise. I get excited that someone is finally picking up. My joy is cut off by a beep.
“Hello?” I say. No one answers. Then a voice: “If you are happy with your message press 1 to send otherwise… *click*
I call back. Same results. I find Amazon’s number on the internet. I call them. Get a very nice man on the line, practically instantly too I should add, by the name of Charles. He is very apologetic for this. However, he wonders if they might still deliver it. I mention to him, unsure of his time zone, that it is now 7:30 PM here and that A-1 seemingly only delivers until 8PM. He sounds as disheartened by this as I am. He asks if I have re-checked with my doorman and if I have called A-1 to check with them. I assure him that I have on both counts.
He apologizes profusely and suggests that I try to get them on the phone again using a different number that he supplies me. He also says that he’s not supposed to reship until November 15th but if I call back tomorrow without result from A-1 that he can probably try that as well as refunding my one day shipping costs. I thank him for his help.
I hop in my elevator and ask my doorman once again if he received anything. He of course, has not. Now I have firepower.
I try the new phone number given to me by Charles. It goes immediately to that “buzz buzz buzz” noise that you get for calling disconnected lines. I try the first number again, hoping someone just stepped out for coffee. I get the voicemail box again. Except this time, instead of a click and beep I get, “(Female computer voice) Sorry but the mailbox belonging to… (Gruff man voice) A1 INTERNATIONAL …(Female computer voice) is full. Please try again later. Goodbye. *Click*”
So I guess that I am clearly not the only one calling tonight trying to figure out what happened.
I guess I should have lost all hope from reading all these previous posts, but I hung in there and got spanked for doing so. What a disappointment.
Did I need the package to be here today? No, it wasn’t life or death. But I pay for Prime and I paid for the fast delivery and get the same lies you have all unfortunately faced. I just thought this might add to the mix as I have someone that my building actually pays to stand at the door and sign for stuff like this ALL DAY LOOOONNG. And they still have the balls to update the tracking info with “Delivery attempted – No one available to sign”. Unfreakingbelieveable, no? Why not just, “Delivery not attempted, too backed up, SORRY!”.
I’ll hope for a delivery tomorrow, but if not I am calling Amazon back and asking for an immediate re-shipment via 2nd day delivery which always comes to me as UPS.
I’ll let you know what happens too. In the meantime.. A-1… Epic FAIL.
Hi Pete!
I’m so sorry to read about your A-1 trouble, but I really loved reading your comment. It is so detailed and so “nailed-on” perfect because you totally pinpoint why we all hate A-1 so much: They Are Liars Who Blame Us For Their Lies.
I have no idea how Amazon can continue to do business with a courier service that routinely lies to its best customers. I can abide a late delivery, and a refunded shipping charge if they confess the fault — but when they fail to deliver and then lie about it by BLAMING US for not being around for delivery — well, that just winds us up and sets us into a revenge rage.
I wonder how A-1 can so easily lie and deceive us — lying must work wonders for them in their personal lives — but when you’re dealing with a wide-ranging public, you have to be really careful when you tell accusatory lies, because those mistruths have a habit of getting vehemently repudiated in public social forums where the truth can be set free to live again.
I would be careful — because it seems A-1 is also delivering 2-Day packages as well. There’s no predictable way around them now. A-1 used to only handle medical things out of the Amazon warehouse in Delaware, but now it seems they’re handling much more and you can’t pick and choose what to buy to avoid them. I don’t think they handle grocery items yet or big, bulky boxes — so for now, anyway — those Amazon purchases should be safe from A-1 non-delivery intervention.
Well, I called A-1 this morning and got a woman on the line after a while. I explained to her how I have a doorman at the door and it’s never left unattended. They couldn’t really argue this point so she just apologized and said she’d put in a message to both dispatch and her higher ups about this having happened and that it should be delivered today. We’ll see.
In the meantime I have a lot more faith in A-1 the steak sauce than I do in A-1 the courier company.
Love it, Pete! You’re getting the same sorry runaround as the rest of us!
If you’d pressed them about the lying — they would have eventually told you the courier “went to the wrong address” or something similar, and was turned away — it excuses an “honest mistake” and gives them an extra day to deliver it to you.
Let us know how it goes — and I’m with you all the way on the steak sauce being more reliable than the delivery service!
Do I really even need to say it? No, my package has not arrived.
As I look at my clock it reads: 7:54 PM. A1 has 6 minutes to make things happen. I am not a betting man but if I were, I’d bet a chicken dinner on no one showing up tonight.
At this point I don’t have a tracking number lie for you. They haven’t bothered updating their site with new tracking info today. I’ll check again later, but it was already long since posted yesterday at this same point in time.
I do have a human lie. The woman I got on the phone this morning that I previously mentioned told me it would get here today. A1 made their customer service agent a liar. Or did she secretly know it wasn’t coming all along…
I’m actually temped to walk to what I have found on Google Maps to be their closest location. Knock, knock fools. Who’s there? OnTimeDelivery. OnTimeDelivery Who? Exactly.
Anyway, I called them and their mailbox is still full. I’m also now convinced that it is a cellular phone mailbox that it forwards to as it did one of those Nextel sort of messages saying, “Please hold while the customer is located. (repeats a few times then connects)”.
I then called Amazon again. Got another nice person, this time by the name of Anna. I don’t know that Charles wrote down any virtual notes on the file as she didn’t immediately seem privy to the ordeal. So I repeated everything at length, including today’s events of course to add required flavor.
This time Anna offered to give them a call instead. Before she could put me on hold I mentioned to her that she’d probably be getting the voicemail line but that perhaps she’d have better luck than me. Her response, “I’d better!”. Way to go Anna!
After a few minutes on hold Anna came back and apologized for the wait but informed me that she had met the same full inbox as I.
I told her how Charles has mentioned refunding the $3.99 next day fee and re-shipping the package. She unfortunately said nothing can be done until Monday the 15th as far as re-shipping and that she’d have to check about the fee as she didn’t know about that.
In a non-rude way I reminded her that despite it being a trivial sum, I did not receive the item “next day”, nor the day after, so it seemed silly not to be refunded that amount.
Regardless, she has set up a follow up for someone to call me Monday to check if the package has been received. I understand that A1 delivers on Saturdays, but I also understand that A1 doesn’t reliably deliver much of anything, so that pretty much cancels the first part out.
Now I no longer care about getting the package on time. I actually sort of hope it does get “lost” as the Amazonians put it. If it never shows up I have some more grounds to really demand a refund and try to get someone to take notice that this courier is made of more garbage than the Fresh Kills Landfill (You know, Staten Island’s #1 tourist attraction.)
Oh, btw it’s 8:10 now and my doorman hasn’t called me to let me know my package has arrived as I so kindly asked him to do, should it show up. Also still no tracking update. ::sigh::
What a ragged story, Pete, and so totally unnecessary!
Amazon should refund your shipping the day after the item isn’t delivered.
I, too, hope Amazon will reship for you on Monday — because I want to see if they can get you the item and promise NOT to use A-1 as the delivery service of record. If they ship out the replacement via A-1 — which they claim can happen because they don’t control the shipper — you’re going to be in for another go around with A-1!
Now we also know that, using A-1, “Overnight Delivery” in Amazon’s eyes can mean — “between Thursday and Monday” — that’s a pretty huge delivery window… but that must be the “end of the rope” number of days for A-1 to safely deliver an overnight package without getting penalized by Amazon.
What a terrible joke on us all!
Keep us informed, my friend!
Well, I’m still waiting for Monday obviously, but I thought I’d mention something interesting that happened in the tracking.
Previously I told you how they didn’t deliver but had posted this update anyway:
11/11/2010 18:55 Delivery attempted – No one available to sign
Well it never changed all day yesterday. I popped on this morning however, and I found that message removed and replaced instead with:
11/13/2010 08:31 Package was not received at A-1 Distribution Center
I have no idea if that means they are saying it didn’t come back to the center after the first “delivery attempt” or if they are now trying to claim they never even got it from Amazon.
Either way, unreal.
Pete!
I am completely uncomfortable — yet familiar — with A-1 doublespeak, and what they’re saying is they never received the package in the first place that they tried to deliver. It’s a whole new level of parcel delivery: The Phantom Package! A-1 is so great that they will attempt a delivery even if they don’t have the package in hand! Make sure your doorman uses an invisible pen to sign the delivery manifest.
Seriously, though… how hilarious! And so sad.
Amazon deserves better — but A-1 is their demon child and if they refuse to discipline it — then the rest of us must perform their job of oversight and mete out the punishment.
Don’t you think Amazon would’ve told you the first time you called that your package was delayed at the distribution center? So silly!
I hope you took screen captures of those delivery screens.
You know, I didn’t even though I had intended to do so. But on the bright side I’ve documented it word for word here, and Amazon’s own tracking system still has the old “delivery attempted” update.
What’s unique if that is in fact the case, is that A1 are now apparently also calling Amazon liars.
I get the impression that in reality, the probably young delivery boy tasked with dropping off my package, (a copy of the new Call of Duty: Black Ops game for Xbox) is in fact sitting at home playing and enjoying my copy over the weekend while I am not.
Ha! You made me laugh, Pete! Who wouldn’t think that? Your paid-for order is sitting in someone else’s hands enjoying what you cannot.
Yes, A-1 do call Amazon liars. I’ve experienced that firsthand. I know Amazon is earnest and they try to help when we call — but the fact that the big muckities keep using A-1 tells me that Amazon are using us as fools.
I don’t know how A-1 won the same-day delivery contract from UPS or FedEx or whatever else is out there — and it’s clear they aren’t going anywhere soon — even thought A-1 clearly put in such a lowball number to get the Amazon contract that they now cannot perform up to spec, and we alone suffer the consequences of that winning bid.
Well, I called Amazon this morning and my package is finally being reshipped. Amazingly, I had to practically beg for this to happen however.
Talking to my CSR, she informed me that they would wait until the end of the day today to see if it arrived, and if not, they would ship it tomorrow morning… What!? I reminded her that since A1 is now claiming they never received any such package from Amazon in the first place, that I was most likely not going to be receiving it today.
I did manage to get a refund of my shipping costs but again, it took asking on three different calls into Amazon to get that done. It should have been a no-brainer. They should have offered that to me the first time I called, not the other way around.
And of course, they are reshipping with 1 day service again and without the promise that A1 will not be used. I can see right now this whole mess repeating itself very shortly.
At this point in time the package shows as “Shipping Soon” on my Amazon activity page. I’ll update with what shipper ends up getting used.
In the meantime I thought I’d share the letter I sent both to the follow up survey the Amazon CSR sent me as well as the above listed ecr@amazon.com email address (thank you for that by the way). I am hoping to get soem kind of response from either because frankly this whole thing has left a foul taste in my mouth.
What a nightmare, Pete!
Amazon seem to be reeling downward as fast as A-1. I don’t like the way they’re treating you when you call. You should not have to ask for — or beg! — for anything! They should be proactively soothing you.
Yes, the twist of re-shipping, is that they might actually use A-1 again — and yet they claim there’s nothing they can do about that! I don’t believe them. If distribution can PICK A-1, they can also NOT PICK A-1.
Good luck with the ECR email. I fully support that effort, though it seems like after I wrote to them and started my article and comments thread here — ECR have stopped responding to A-1 complaints with a human being. They just troll you off to auto-reply and leave you to pick through the shells in search of the nuts.
Keep us posted!
Just got my re-shipped package notice…
“Shipped via A1 International”
I’m speechless. Really and truly.
Oh, Pete.
I am truly sorry for you. What a hassle. What a cruel and ridiculous joke with no end or punch line.
Did ECR reply to you?
Have you called Amazon to ask why they’re sending you the replacement via the same lousy carrier?
I really do feel sick for you.
Well, the replacement package was supposed to be delivered today by A-1. It wasn’t. I guess they still have time, but again… yea..
Some funny tidbits of info…
Remember the original package which had the two status changes (first claiming they tried to deliver, then removed that and replaced with never received at A-1)? Now the second status update has also been removed. Replaced with nothing. I am starting to wonder if someone at A-1 is a loyal reader of these comments and are trying to cover themselves.
The new package has had no status updates of any kind.
I called A-1 this evening to see if I could get someone on the phone to let me know what’s going on with the new package. After sitting on hold for a bit the line picked up and I heard the equivalent of a butt dial. You know what I mean. When someone butt dials you they call you but don’t know they did. So they might be talking with friends or singing show tunes blissfully unaware you are hearing everything.
Yup, there was at least 2 guys at first and they were talking about random things. The few main lines I could pick out was a debate about whether something was on time or not and then one complaining that there is “only one person to answer the phones” and something about not being able to take all of the calls. Meanwhile he was also just having random personal conversation with whoever else was there.
After I while the other person must have left because it got quiet. I kept saying, “hello?” hoping he would hear but nothing. Eventually I heard the *beep* of a nextel walkie talkie and he started asking presumably whoever was on the other line of that about something to do with someones hospitalization.
Not making this up. I sat for 5 minutes listening to this before I decided to hang up and try calling back to see if it would ring and he would pick up. Of course, I don’t know what I was thinking because during that whole time listening he never fielded any customer support calls, just personal conversation with fellow employee and nextel friend.
So of course I never got anyone to pick up.
Next up was a call into Amazon again and I got probably the worst CSR from them yet. He didn’t talk clear, was hard to understand and offered no help at all. He called A-1 and eventually came back and told me they were closed. I asked to be given to someone higher up, heard a mumble then silence for about a minute. Finally he came back, said his supervisor was busy on another call and that he was going to call A-1 first thing in the morning to check. I asked him if him or someone else from Amazon would be following up with me with the results of that call. This completely took the wind out of his sails. He didn’t know how to respond, mumbled a bit more, threw in a few “hang on”s then finally repeated that he would call them tomorrow morning and I could call amazon that day as well.
I asked him how the next person I got would know what was said between him and A-1. he mumbled something about making a note of it.
::sigh::
This whole thing is like one big slow downhill slide into logistics hell with no end in sight.
Also to answer your question I haven’t gotten even so much as a canned response from ECR. And no one at Amazon seems to care or acknowledge that they’ve now lost more money than I initially spent on a replacement package and shipping costs. You’d think they’d try to cut their losses if not mine.
Yikes, Pete! What a great comment. I’ve never heard of “butt dialing” before — but now I have, thank you, I think! SMILE! I would’ve stayed on that line all day long and listened to everything they said just because it gives a real time look into precisely what’s happening behind the A-1 scenes.
You’d think if A-1 were actually reading this they would be leaping to your defense to stop your fantastic comments from breathing more fire into their Pits of Hell!
I think we’re seeing the first line effect of this rotting economy — customer service is the first chit to go, or get reduced, when the axe has to fall — it seems I can’t get any satisfaction the first time I get in touch with a company nowadays to buy something or to fix a problem. It takes four times as long now to get something done as it did a couple of years ago to just get what you want when you need it.
So what now? Amazon have forsaken you. ECR won’t respond. A-1 won’t deliver and refuses to answer the phone. Do you go the credit card dispute road — or do you wait another five days for “overnight delivery” and give Amazon and A-1 a third go around?
Oh no, I’m seeing this through to the end, whatever that end may be. I am not letting them off the hook that easy.
You’re a brave man, Pete! Keep us updated on your two MIA packages.
Definition of ‘butt dialing’: Putting phone in pocket (presumably the back pocket for reasons of the slang definition, but any pocket will do) and not locking the key pad. Then the ‘call’ button gets pushed (or in Pete’s case the timing was wonderful; the phone RANG and a certain movement ANSWERED the phone! 🙂 )
It’s a term used all over in my neck of the woods. 🙂
Last night A1 claims that my package was delivered and signed by my “Dorman.” (who wasn’t on duty at the time). They continued to say that their customer service representatives were busy. When I tried a chat with Amazon, I got cutoff after the representative thought that I should wait until the 21st to follow up (Seriously?). When I called they offered a replacement or refund. Why do they use this service?
It’s total madness, Dan. Amazon are driving us crazy with this awful A-1. There’s no reason to continue to keep using a service that is so verifiably rotten.
I’d go the refund route — because if they send a replacement to you, they’ll use A-1 all over again — and you’ll be right back in in five days with the same story.
I actually risked a reshipment. Shipped UPS overnight this morning. So, there’s hope. I’m vaguely curious as to what they do. Do they just never bother to deliver? Does the driver just keep some boxes? Do they just leave it outside the building for anyone to take? i.e., is it just laziness, cheapness, stealing stuff?
You’re a brave man, Dan! I’m glad you were able to get UPS on the second go around.
I think the problem is pure incompetence. I think lost deliveries are charged back to A1 from Amazon and then A1 can do as they please with the non-delivered/lost/never-shipped-but-delivery-attempted-yesterday fiasco way of doing business.
Interestingly, a little over a week after A1 claimed that they delivered my package, they actually did deliver said package.
Oh what silliness, Dan!
A-1 always disappoints, but never fails to entertain.
Well, interestingly, since this little debacle with A1, I have not had another shipment that has gone through A1 (somewhere between 10 and 15 orders, maybe). Most have been UPS, a couple lasership, and one usps (though i think the ups maybe was through another seller and was the only one of the bunch that was a problem because the doorman must have been on break). lasership , so far, seemed at least better than a1 (at least their tracking web page is a bit more polished, which is one step up).
Hmm. That’s fascinating news, Dan. I wonder if something did change somewhere? I haven’t ordered anything “A-1” deliverable from Amazon for at least six months.
This article is still the #1 “Top Post” on this blog — so something out there is still lingering — otherwise people wouldn’t be doing a search for A-1 and Amazon and landing here.
Sorry I didn’t update yesterday, but this whole situation had me flabbergasted…
Got this email from Amazon’s ECR yesterday:
My response:
I also called Amazon last night and got a woman on the phone who was only slightly better than the last guy. I asked her to check the notes, she said she could find no information about him calling A1 as he had promised to do. Saw that coming. I asked her to call instead and I would wait.
She tried but couldn’t get through so told me that she would be researching my account and she would call me in 2 days. What? I told her while I appreciate that ( I guess?) I was calling because I wanted to know where my package was. So I asked how I should find that info out. She suggested I call A1. Unreal.
Let’s recap, shall we? It is now the 18th. My order was placed on the 10th. The first package was supposed to arrive the 11th. A replacement package was shipped on the 15th, it was supposed to arrive on the 16th. It has not. No one at Amazon seems to know how to deal with this situation.
After today another 48 hours will have gone by. If it’s still not here I’m considering getting on the phone with them and telling them to send a third copy.
That’s a devastating message thread, Pete, because it proves Amazon is now just as bad as A-1. They’re co-enabling each other to NOT deliver your packages. It some sort of strange collusion that makes zero sense.
So what happened to the first package? Was it just never sent? Was it somehow sent back to Amazon? What is the real story in the midst of the covering lies?
Amazon has done nothing on their side to resolve this issue for you — and it isn’t right in any way. Amazon needs a way to OPT US OUT of having A-1 as the courier of choice or — at the very least — to NOT allow A-1 to be the courier of a second shipping attempt.
Hi,
I am still following these comments and those on the Amazon Carrier Feedback forum and sit in amazement at the answer Mr Labrozzi received from Amazon’s executive branch. At this point there is no way anyone at Amazon can claim they are unaware of the incompetence of A-1 Courier, as well as that of OnTrac, Ensenda, Lasership, and their ilk. It seems the more incompetent they are, the more business Amazon ships their way. I have written Amazon, as I mentioned I would, of every purchase I make at other online stores along with the dollar amount of money lost to them, and I have yet to receive even one response! It has amounted to over $500 in two months.
It is almost as if Amazon has hired someone to intentionally destroy this leg of their business. And as I mentioned in a previous posting, I am becoming more and more certain that Amazon is slowly trying to phase out most of it’s actual physical shipping of items, or leaving it to their authorized sellers and merchants, and wants to become a digital online retailer of books, videos, software, etc. After all, it is those items that made them what they are today. Again I will point out my first A-1 shipment occurred about the time the Kindle was introduced.
Indeed, I wonder if anyone has had a Kindle shipped by any of those courier services?
I just can’t think of any other reason why the once customer friendly company Amazon would suddenly do something so stupid.
Thanks for checking in again with us, Ron!
I agree that Amazon’s behavior makes no sense. Perhaps you’re right. They just want to be a landing website — a sales portal, if you will — that will process payments and funnel the redline tasks like distribution and shipping to other companies. That way, Amazon’s profit margins can be evaluated strictly through a digital lens: Delivery via bits and bytes and not tires on the ground or engines against the sky.
On Tuesday, I placed my first Amazon order in six months. I bought a bulk box of facial tissue, toilet paper and paper towels — I was betting they’d be shipped via UPS or FedEx and not a private courier because the boxes would not fit in a delivery car — and I was right! The toilet paper came via UPS and the facial tissue and paper towels arrived via regular FedEx delivery, not FedEx Ground Home Service. The paper towels box was destroyed and taped back together and was sopping wet. Luckily the paper towels were dry. A soggy box is FedEx’s mistake, not Amazon’s.
I also needed to order two three-packs of PUR water filters. I normally order them via Amazon, but that box would be sneaky enough to slip to A-1, so I went to Target.com instead and placed my 2-Day delivery order. It’s funny that on the Target.com website, I can login and pay using my Amazon account! I created a Target.com account instead and the water filters are set to arrive today via UPS.
Amazon used to be The Place to shop — and now it is quickly becoming a hollow and fallow shell of what it used to be. Nothing lasts forever — I just didn’t think Amazon would up and die on us so soon.
I wonder if Amazon’s creeping away from distribution and delivery has something to do with the $269 million tax bill the State of Texas recently presented to Amazon:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/taxes/texas-bills-amazon-269-million-sales-taxes/19687338/
Amazon must have some sense that “no State tax” is going to become a thing of the past — and that will kill Internet sales across the board and people turn back to the convenience of local community businesses — and this new courier system might be their first step in backing away from having to figure out those multiplicity of taxes that vary city by city and county by county and State by State.
We know the reason for Amazon’s sudden bad behavior has to be based in them losing money in some massive way — I thought the courier services were lowballing UPS and FedEx and Amazon was taking the lowest bidder to save the most money — but now I think this change is a tax juke on the Amazon side to brush off the burden of having to figure local and State sales taxes on internet sales.
Hi again David,
Thanks for that link. That is a lot of money, even for a company like Amazon!
I read with interest your ability to manipulate what has become a crazy process in your purchase of bulk boxes of facial tissue, toilet paper and paper towels. I have also bought those items along with cruelty free liquid soaps and shampoos from Amazon in the past, along with cheez-it crackers and those new curly energy saving lightbulbs. (Sorry can’t think what they’re called, and if I could I am certain I couldn’t spell it!) And that brings up another issue of Amazon’s non-responsiveness; several times one or two out of 10 bulbs would arrive cracked; the crackers were stale due to inside packaging being ripped open (not little mouse bite holes, but actual rips) and the shampoo and soap have both leaked through so badly that UPS had to return the package to the shipper because they were such a mess due to faulty packaging. Amazon would always give me a full or partial refund depending on whether or not I kept the shipments, but would never address my queries over the continued problems which originated at the shipping center and what could be done to fix it.
Another thought – I wonder how much all this downloading done off sharing sites is affecting business. When everyone bought DVDs or videotgapes or CDs perhaps the cost of shipping “the big three” was met by volume; while I myself am from a generation that believes there is something wrong about downloading, everyone I know downloads movies, music, TV, software, etc. (Of course years ago I saw nothing wrong with taping my friends albums off my record player!) Nowadays the most valuable commodity is apparently bandwidth! So perhaps all these factors and possible future tax bills from various state governments have all contributed to the nightmare that is now Amazon shipping.
PS – Were all your paper good products from Seventh Generation? Mine were
Hey Ron!
Yes, I think Amazon is going to have a rough time of it in Texas. Texas claims Amazon has a distribution center there — and should pay taxes on it — but Amazon claims the center “really isn’t owned by them” and should, therefore, be exempt.
My water filters just arrived via UPS! I am a happy man.
I know if I order something large and heavy from Amzon — it will be delivered via UPS and FedEx… for now, I guess — because the local couriers need to work fast and light and carry multiple small boxes when they go out on a delivery run. Now, if you ordered a bunch of small stuff that would create a large shipment box, that might work, too — but Amazon are famous for individualizing bulk purchases when they can to charge you more and make the boxes smaller for easier delivery. Bulk items that cannot be divided seem to work best right now.
Yes, I order those compact florescent light bulbs, too. I love them. Yes, at least 2-4 are always shattered in the packaging. I have given up asking for refunds. I just order two packages instead of one because I know I’m going to have broken bulbs in both packages.
I have had liquids problems in the past, too. Reporting to Amazon doesn’t fix anything in future shipments, but it does get my money back.
Yes, all my paper products were Seventh Generation! I love the brand. They make excellent dish soap that I use for shampoo.
Online delivery is big — and that’s why I think Amazon wants to secretly become only a Kindle seller — and everything else you buy from them is digital and gets installed on your Kindle. They want to be a content delivery service, not a big box shipper.
Hahaha, wow. I had a similar experience just yesterday.
I order video games from Amazon about once or twice a month and have them shipped to my office so I know there will always be someone there to receive them for me. I also know the UPS guy, the FedEx guy and the mail woman. I like the convenience of Amazon and their cheap prices, and since I use them so much I figured I may as well sign up for a Prime account. I looked at the shipping info for my latest purchase and it was from the aforementioned A-1 courier service.
On the 17th, my shipping info changed to attempted delivery, at 7:11pm. I was working late that night and I was definitely in the office with 5 other people. There was NO delivery. No knock on the door, no note, nothing. I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. The next day, the 18th (the expected delivery date) there was no attempted delivery, even on the tracker. Great.
So yesterday, I decide to call A-1. I dialed the 1-877 number and got the recorded message you hear when your cell phone is shut off and the tracking number didn’t work on their site (it turns out today I had the wrong A-1… whoops! But still.) so I sent an email to Amazon customer support. I got a canned email response from someone in their outsourced customer service dept. saying “Please wait a little longer, until November 22, 2010, before requesting a refund or replacement.” “Did I solve your problem?” Hell no you didn’t!
I sent another email saying that this was a bigger issue than the package not being on time, they didn’t deliver it and I could not get in contact with them. I got another canned email shortly after from the outsourced customer department saying it had been delivered!!!! There is no way, I asked the receptionist go downstairs and check the mail box just in case. Nothing. To add insult to injury, the email said this: “Since your order wasn’t delivered when you expected it, I’d like to give you a $00 promotional certificate, which you can use the next time you order an item shipped and sold by Amazon.com.” Really Amazon? I’m pretty sure a $0 promotional certificate is already applied to all of my orders.
I called Amazon and spoke to a really helpful woman. I explained my situation politely and how frustrating it was. She agreed and said she had a number for A-1 and she would try calling and seeing what was up. She put me on hold and came back 2 minutes later to let me know that SHE was still on hold. Another minute passes and she comes back to tell me someone picked up the phone, said “please hold” very nastily and put her back on hold. She seemed legitimately annoyed at this now. She offered to ship me the game via one day shipping through another carrier for free, or to refund my money and give me one day shipping on my next order. I chose the refund as I was looking forward to unwinding this weekend with my new game, and I figured I could just stop at Gamestop on the way home from work.
Helpful Amazon customer service woman on the phone, thank you! Weird foreign email support and A-1, I really hope I never have to deal with you again.
Sorry to read about your trouble, Matt! Deception comes much too easily to A-1.
I, too, used to honor Amazon for trying to set things right as they did for you — but I’ve now come to realize our problem with A-1 is 100% Amazon’s fault — because without Amazon, we wouldn’t have this A-1 hassle!
Amazon needs to get rid of A-1 and get back to serving us as they should.
WOW, so glad i found this site, i thought i was mr. anti-A1, but you are way ahead of me buddy. I have had numerous A-1 horror stories. I did some research, A-1 is not a BBB (Better Business Bureau) accredited company. UPS, and fedex are. I placed an order of 2 of the same book, that did not arrive, amazon resent, did not arrive, then i ordered him a cook book, did not arrive. said it was signed by someone named Carlos Guitierez. No one in the building has that name. Refunded on all items. Amazon prime is great if you live in a rural area, or nowhere, MA like me. but if i want to ship something home, forget it. Also, i find that amazon chat is not as good as phone and email.
p.s. i am a college student with free amazon prime so i guess i cant really complain. this order was to my father in NYC and i go to college in a suburb of boston and am just out of A-1’s reach :D.
What a crazy story, Chuck!
It does seem if you’re in the NJ and NYC metro area — your new curse of the day is A-1. I don’t know why Amazon ever picked them in the first place. A-1 have actively been torturing us on a daily basis for at least six months. Every day we get new complaints from unhappy customers. I sure hope Amazon will soon get the message and bring back the good old days of FedEx and UPS.
David,
I am soooooooooooooooo glad that you posted this! I too have had an awful experience with A-1 Couriers as well. They said they tried to deliver my book on Friday and no one was home. I was in the front window all day!! But I called Amazon today and the rep was more than helpful. When he looked at the order and saw the shipping service he changed immediately! He is overnighting me a new book at no extra charge. He did inform me that if I continue with AmazonPrime I would have to deal with A-1 again. No thanks. I am done. I am so glad this happened during the trial and that I didn’t actually shell out money for this. But this has wounded my with Amazon. I am currently a grad student in history and will be needing TONS of books. So it is with great saddness that I leave Amazon. Don’t mess with my books!
Hi Heidi!
Thanks for sharing your tale of woe! I think the only way for Amazon to get over A-1 — and other, similar, awful, private couriers — is to do what you suggest: Don’t Buy From Amazon.
Voting with our money is the only language Amazon comprehends.
I ordered a bunch of undershirts from Target.com on Saturday and less than two hours later I had an email that my order had shipped! That’s service! Delivery is via UPS and it is quick and fast and hassle-free — just like Amazon used to be.
I had my first experience with A-1 today. When I saw my items were being shipped by them I googled the company since I’d never heard of them before and stumbled across the amazon forum and this site.
Needless to say I was pretty anxious after reading those, and reviews of the company on other sites. Fortunately I received both packages, though in two separate deliveries. I would be still waiting for the second one had I not check my mailbox. There tracking system is bad and they can’t do automatic updates since you have to sign a physical slip of paper to receive some packages. I’m really just thankful I got both packages.
I don’t want to risk using them another time though. Luckily my shipment tomorrow is being handled by Fedex. I’m going to have all my shipments come on Saturday to see if that helps avoid them.
I’m glad you got both deliveries, Damen!
I, too, wonder if Saturday delivery is one way of always avoiding A-1.
I’ve never had a problem with packages being delivered from amazon.com. Until now.
A few days ago, I placed an order for a laptop (of which I was very nervous because I’ve never spent so much on an item that I wasn’t physically holding). I paid for one day shipping and my package was supposed to have been delivered on the 26th. I waited all day long, I paced around, looking through windows. I was worried that I had not received a tracking number and by 2pm, I decided to find out why.
After clicking around on the amazon website, I found out that my laptop wasn’t being shipped by the usual means (fedex, ups). Amazon was using a local courier service called A1 International or A1 Courier. I went to their website, got even more worried when I noticed the completely amateur layout. I went to their tracking page, and noticed that everytime I refreshed the page, the security code at the bottom of the amazon.com tracking information form was always the same. I tried several computers, and even had my sister try accessing it on her work computer a few miles away. That security code never changed. It seems to be either not working or just total crap.
I continued waiting, checking the door, the porch, the bushes around my house (the website literally instructs you to look in bushes for your package, I don’t even know how that can be considered a professional delivery service.)
By 9:30, and no delivery, I was livid. Especially when I noticed on the A1 website, that the tracking number now pulled up a status update that said my package had been delivered at 3:30pm.
I’d already called A1 THREE times between 4pm and 8pm and was immediately directed to an answering machine service that told me it could no longer take messages because the mailbox was full. Amazing.
So I called amazon around 10pm – they told me to wait another day, despite the “delivered” status on both A1 and on amazon.com tracking pages.
I’m so disgusted, after seeing all these complaints that amazon continues to employ A1. I’m in total disbelief that they entrusted my laptop with a company full of people who can’t seem to run a website, or even deliver a few books.
I can only hope I have a solution tomorrow, or I know I will spend weeks on the phone with countless CS agents trying to get my money back.
I posted the above at amazon.com, on a thread for people who’ve been ripped off by A1. And I’m so glad to find someone blogging about this mess. I wasn’t seriously considering not doing business with amazon.com again, but I certainly am now.
Thank you for your tips, I will try to be insistent about my money/laptop tomorrow.
That’s a pretty scary story! A-1 really tells you to check the bushes? Do you have a link for us to read?
Please let us know what happens. I don’t know why Amazon makes you “wait a day” when the status of the package is “Delivered” — what does waiting an extra day prove?
Hi,
Yesterday I ordered a Gaming mouse from Amazon along with a usb hub. I ordered them separately as the mouse was for me and I need to leave tomorrow for two weeks.
It’s now past 8:13 PM and I know that I will not be getting this package. I have never had a problem with any deliveries before but of course I have never used A-1. After reading through all these comments I am doubtful of ever receiving this package and it makes me physically tired just thinking of all the talking I’m going to be doing tomorrow with CS agents in between flight transfers.
I’m shocked at hearing about all these lies they tell, and changing their tracking info as well. That is why I’m going to be making periodic screen shots everytime something changes just in case they try to play me over.
Anyways, there is always someone home so they can’t pull the “no one home” story even though I know they will. But what surprises me is that I live in Virginia and I didn’t expect them to ship to me as they seem to be located generally in New York although my order shipped from Ohio.
I was just wondering if there was anything that we could do as a group to fix this. Obviously Amazon doesn’t care enough to do anything about this because if they did they would have done something by now.
Maybe we could create a petition (which won’t do anything). Maybe an attempted lawsuit!? I say attempted because I doubt we would win but it would definitely catch people’s attention. New’s sites and channels would report this news and more and more people will hear about it. Amazon cannot want the bad press.
Maybe go on strike or something? Just anything to make this work. I’m willing to try anything at this point because not only will I never shop at Amazon again, but I want everyone I meet to do the same as well. Even though this is the first time this happening to me it still happens to a lot of other people and I don’t want that.
I have trusted Amazon but an ongoing problem like this is absolutely unacceptable. I Amazon was actually doing something to fix this I would understand but nothing at all? I will not stand for it.
What do you think? Is there anything we can do? I think if everyone that was wronged by this worked together we might have a chance at making a change.
I’m sorry to hear of your trouble, Michael! I’m glad you took the time to record the specifics of what happened to you today. That’s how we win: By recording the truth of what we know with Amazon and A-1 through direct experience.
I wouldn’t bother arguing or tracking anything until Monday at the earliest — and then I’d only call Amazon and tell them you want your money back. Going around and around with A-1 and their waiting game is the new meaning of insanity that we’re forced to define.
I used to get 3-5 deliveries a week from Amazon for the past three years. Since all this started with A-1, I think I’ve placed one order for bulk paper products. That’s it. I’ve gone on strike with Amazon with my wallet and purchasing power because I refuse to be treated to A-1; and as long as A-1 is the shipper of choice for my area, I won’t be buying anything from Amazon unless I know I can avoid A-1 with my product order.
It’s hard to explain to other people — like lawyers and media types — just how awful the experience with A-1 is… if they can’t directly feel the outrage of their lies. That’s why commenting here and telling Amazon directly how we feel and buying from their competitors is the best way to fight back that I can currently think of, because the more Amazon uses A-1, the more powerful we become as the majority voice instead of the whimpering, wronged, minority.
Wow, I still can’t believe. I will continue to tell Amazon this and I hope it works one day. But, me being too impatient to wait until Monday to talk to Amazon I sent them an email:
Your Name:Michael Stewart
[redacted]
Comments:I’m really disappointed with Amazon lately. I’ve read a lot about the A-1 international shipping service lately and now it’s happened to me. I got one day shipping because tomorrow I am leaving on business and wanted to take this with me. But I cannot do that as it didn’t get here. A-1 has struck again.
I will not order from Amazon again unless I am assured that it will come with either UPS or FedEx. I guess by using A-1 you are trying to save money but it’s losing you customers.
But enough of that. I just want my order, and of course my $3.99 back. Tomorrow is Sunday and even though I’m leaving late I know there is no shipping on Sunday’s. If I could please have this problem rectified I would be most grateful.
Thank you for your time.
Michael
Selected Order Items:
Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Gaming Mouse for PC
I was vastly surprised when I got a reply not 15 minutes later:
Hello,
I’m sorry your order didn’t arrive when you expected it. I issued a full refund for the shipping charges on this order in the amount of $3.98. This refund will appear as a credit to your Visa within 2-3 business days.And i requested you to wait for the EDD so that it can delivered to you.
We’ll send you an e-mail when the refund has been completed. You can see completed refunds on the Order Summary in Your Account:
[redacted]
I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Thank you for your recent inquiry. Did I solve your problem?
[redacted]
Best regards,
Ramesh Ippilli
Amazon.com
Your feedback is helping us build Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.
Now I know that the EDD stands for the Employment Development Department but what exactly can they do for me? I didn’t want to reply because I don’t if she (or he) actually helped me or not (I’m guessing they can’t help me until Monday anyways.)
I verified the $3.99 back. But I have to say I’m impressed with how fast they replied (although I don’t think I’ll tell them that). I was about to go to sleep and when I noticed their email.
What do you think about this?
I’m glad you got your shipping back so quickly, Michael. That’s the way it should happen.
I haven’t heard of EDD before — perhaps you’re seeing the result of an Amazon Black Friday ramp up in holiday customer service — and that’s why the response was so fast?
Now what’s next? When did Amazon say you will get your stuff?
Yeah I am too. Maybe they are changing because of my heart warming speech!
What’s funny is that it was delivered. My neighbor got home late last night and found it at his front door! There are only two houses on that private driveway so I guess he flipped a coin and hoped for the best without bothering looking at the address. Luckily my neighbor (an ex-CIA agent) is nice and old and brought it over this morning. So they did deliver it but just at the wrong house.
What surprises me is, they claim they do not leave the package at doors because they require a signature yet they just left my package obviously without a signature on someones front porch!
Ah well, I’m just happy I get to take this with me on my trip.
But I still am on strike against Amazon. I might have gotten my package (the wrong way!) but there are many people who have a problem with this and I won’t rest until its rectified or my fingers fall off from typing so much where I will use speech to text to rant!
Thanks for listening to my rant!
Definitely odd, Michael. So “delivered” now means not to you, but to your neighbor? How silly of A-1 and Amazon.
I, too, am unconvinced that A-1 is worthy of our business. They’re just too shrill and unreliable for my taste. UPS and FedEx are here by 10:30am every day. A-1 can deliver anywhere between noon and 7pm to not at all. No thanks.
Wow. Just wow.
My third delivery problem with this service caused me to think “There must be others with issues with this horrible company, let me look online…..” and here I landed.
My first experience with these people was a package that I paid overnight shipping for and they didn’t show up at all. Finally, the following day they delivered the package. I let it go.
The second experience was worse. They noted on their tracking page that delivery was attempted and it was not. I was furious. I wrote to them and to Amazon. Amazon gave me the whole “we’re forwarding your message to the shipping department” where I’m sure it went right into a junk/delete-without-reading folder. A-1’s response was that no one was here. False.
Uur gate is manned 24 hours by a guard who signs for all packages and of course no one had shown up at all. I then wrote to Amazon and asked them if there was any way that I could get my account flagged to instruct them not to use this service for future orders. They, of course, said I cannot.
This last event was the last straw and was just bizarre. I ordered an iPod from Amazon that was to be delivered on the 10th to my office. Of course I got the dreaded notice that said A1 was handing this order and I knew things would go downhill fast. Of course, they did.
The package never showed up on the 10th and I checked the tracking page throughout the evening. Nothing. The following morning, it was updated to indicate that an attempt had been made to deliver the package at 10:05 P.M. and no one was there. Of course, yes, the guard was on duty and when I asked him, he said no one delivered anything that evening.
I wrote to both Amazon and A1 and not long after that email was sent, the tracking page was updated to reflect not only that an attempt had been made the previous night at 10:05 P.M., but right under that was the notation: Delivered at 8:14 P.M.
Okay, now maybe it’s me. If it is, please tell me, but how can you attempt to deliver something and find no one available to sign at 10 at night and the next day add that it was delivered two hours before that attempt? Please tell me it’s me. I may have to jump out a window.
I waited a few days, searched the mail center, again asked the night guard that was on duty– and I might add, s/he is required to log all visitors/deliveries after 5 p.m.– and the package was nowhere to be found.
So again, I wrote to Amazon who cheerfully replied that they were very sorry that the package was marked delivered but I never got it and they placed an order for an additional iPod and were shipping it out. The problem is, the item was a gift, hence the urgent need, so when it didn’t show up on time, I bought one locally.
It was nice of them to ship another one but Amazon is taking the loss on the price of an iPod because these people never showed up with it? That’s insanity to me. I returned the second one (which I received the next day via UPS) and now have a rock in my stomach every time I browse Amazon and consider buying from them because I know if they use this service there will be problems.
I’m really disgusted and tempted to cancel my auto-renewal as well.
What a terrible, but familiar, story, Beth.
Obviously, Amazon doesn’t care about these “delivered, non-deliveries” — because A-1 keeps doing it to us. We’ve all had enough hard evidence about what’s happening in the street and Amazon isn’t listening to us.
The “rock in your stomach” when you see A-1 is the delivery service is the PERFECT way to describe that awful, sickening, foreboding.
I ordered a same day delivery and knew I was in a world of hurt when I saw A1. It all started when I received a phone call at work (hey at least I got a call) it was the A1 driver claiming my apartment did not exist!!! He claims to have gone to my apartment complex and not see my buzzer (FEDEX and UPS seems to always find it) anyways I told him I was getting out of work and could meet him in front of the building. Instead he counter offered with a “Can you meet me at this location” a full 12 blocks from where I live and 25 from where I work. He said it was too much of a hassle to go back! I needed the package so I went to get it. It was a average guy dressed in gray shirt (no logo or ID) in a gray van. The kicker was he was enjoying his friend chicken when I pulled up. sad to say it was 7:30 when I picked it up and I saw 5+ AMAZON packages in his front seat I guess those customers wont get those packages that day
What a story, Luis!
If that happens again, take a photo and send it to me! I’d love to see all those boxes sitting in the front seat at 7:30pm with a drop-dead delivery time of 8pm.
Will you risk ordering from Amazon again?
I haven’t written in a while so I thought I’d update you.
Third time was the charm apparently. The ECR sent me a third package at my request (he offered to reship or just totally refund the item). It arrived, and amazingly, on time.
I actually have to say I’ve also gotten two more packages shipped through A-1 since and they also came right on time without fuss.
Now I have no idea if it really was Amazon messing it up the whole time or not. I’m sure the truth still lies somewhere in the middle. I’m just hoping they stuck a little gold star on my account that says, “Deliver on time or will call and email incessantly”.
Thanks for the update, Pete!
I did successfully receive an A-1 delivery yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised!
That’s a great update, David! We need to track the good and the bad.
Hey – just wanted to thank you for having this blog post available. I ordered something from Amazon using 1-Day Shipping, and I was surprised to see the “A-1 Courier Services” thing appear, so I Googled it and found this page. I really didn’t expect any problems, but the item wasn’t delivered, and at 8pm last night, their tracking site magically said that they never received the item from Amazon! (I e-mailed Amazon and they refunded my shipping charge, although their site still states that the product will arrive *yesterday*, which is hilarious.) Please keep fighting against this company.
Thanks for checking in with us, chris.
The new scapegoat for A-1 seems to be blaming Amazon for not delivering the packages to THEM so they can deliver.
Now the question becomes: What Amazon carrier is failing to deliver to A-1?
I wonder if Amazon knows A-1 are now blaming Amazon for the failure to deliver?
Let us know what happens and if or when you finally get your package!
Just thought I’d update – I didn’t get the order today, so I e-mailed Amazon again. Literally two minutes later, I got a reply apologizing for the shipment being “lost in transit” and informing me that they were sending a new one. (If they use A-1 for the new shipment I am going to lose it.) I wonder if anything with A-1 gets an automatic red flag in their system? I doubt that they would do this without asking any questions had it been UPS/FedEx.
I’m pleased that they refunded my shipping charge, but this entire thing has been a waste of time. I did find your blog, so at least I got something out of it! 😉 Just wanted to let everyone know – A-1 has not gotten better, at least in my experience.
Thanks for the update, chris! You might very well get A-1 as the second attempt shipper. Read back through the comments here. It has happened to others. The Amazon distribution decides the shipment method and Amazon orders, and ECR and supervisors cannot request a special courier — or deny a certain carrier — on your behalf. It’s a gamble to just reorder a replacement because you stand a great chance of just getting A-1 again.
For over 5 years I ordered weekly deliveries from Amazon. UPS and FedEx were the couriers. Never ONCE in all those orders across all those years did I ever have UPS or FedEx or Amazon tell me my package was “lost in transit” or “not delivered” to UPS or FedEx. Weather delays were the main culprit for non-delivery. Something strange is going on here with A-1 — and this new “we never got the box from Amazon” is proof positive that something stinks in this new “same day courier” service that we didn’t ask for or want!
One bit of good news – the replacement shipped today, via UPS! So I’ll actually get it now 😉 I wonder if they intentionally decided not to send the 2nd one via A-1? That would be great, although it was probably random.
I’m so glad you have the replacement in hand, chris! I hope A-1 can be avoided now as the service of re-delivery. We must keep holding thumbs!
My experience this far with A1 has been very interesting. I say interesting because, while somethings seem similar with other’s experiences, there are a few key differences.
Those key differences being that A1 knows they’re wrong here.
My package was due to arrive in New York, NY on Dec. 3
All of that day, the tracking looked great until about 5 pm, when the tracking still had the item listed as having just been received at the A1 facility.
At about 7 pm, suddenly, the tracking was listed to say “delivery attempted – no one available to sign”.
So, it was friday, called Amazon, was told to wait until Monday to ask for a refund or reship. Okay…
Wait until monday morning, give A1 a call… FINALLY someone picks up. This man probably was ready to give me the run around, but he didn’t know what I knew.
The man told me, like the
I live in a dorm of NYU, where the mailroom in FRONT LOBBY of my building stays open every night until 10:45 or 11:00 depending on what day it is.
There was no way he could fight me. The courier simply lied.
I could tell in his voice after he heard the hours of the mailroom that he now was not confident. He knew he couldn’t beat the mailing system at NYU and he knew the tracking was a lie and that I knew.
Very hastily he asked for more info about “will there be a security guard? where is this door to the mailroom?” (to which the answer is, you can’t miss the door, it’s right next to the front door, first thing in the building). He then said “I’ll take care of this and you’ll get it today”.
We will see…
Thanks for sharing your A-1 experience, JD. I think A-1 are starting to catch on that a lot of apartments in the NYC area actually have full time doormen who are happy to accept packages. That puts a giant ding in their fabric of delivery lies.
Let us know how it turns out for you in the end!
As the page turns in the story, they have listed the item as “DELIVERED” on 12/3 before it even ever left the AMAZON WAREHOUSE. Turns out A1 is now “not sure if they lost the package or not” and wants me to “give Amazon a call in case to get a reshipment”.
On the phone with an Amazon employee who “doesn’t know what she can do because as far as she can tell the package has been “delivered” and she needs to know what happened. She’s on hold for 20 minutes with A1 now.
This is going to be fun!
Oh, no! Now you’re a bit stuck, JD.
Amazon will likely make you wait five days before they refund or reship just in case the package “shows up” somewhere.
The problem with A-1 is that they don’t get an electronic signature. They only use paper and pen for signatures, so if Amazon are giving you a hard time on getting you happily resolved, you need to write to ecr@amazon.com and loudly complain.
You are one of many NYU students who have been similarly burned like this by A-1 and Amazon.
Good luck and keep us posted!
Long story short, Amazon refunded me. I will be buying the item in person at a retailer. I will be calling Amazon sales while I am checking out at the store so they can feel the burn of their sales loss.
I’m glad you were able to take swift action, JD, and I’m sorry you had to spend so much time running around trying to get a handle on what should be a quick and seamless delivery process.
How do we let Amazon understand who these people are? They should not be in the courier business!
A1 is holding my expedited shipment to NYC for four days now with fake delivery attempts to my office. They had me waiting in the office until 8 PM every night with a promise that today is the day I will finally receive my packages. The doorman was notified and ready to call me. But A1 never came.
My shipment was partially shipped with Fedex and the Fedex box arrived the next day…
The people at A-1’s customer service (if you can call it service) already recognize me when I call. One of them admitted and accused the delivery drivers for lying about the delivery attempts. He also said that the driver will be called in and be asked to explain what’s going on.
If Amazon ships with them I am not renewing my Amazon Prime ever again.
I’m sorry to learn of your trouble, Sharon. Getting the A-1 song and dance is always a cruel experience because they really appear to know nothing at all when you call. There is no intra-comms between dispatch and driver that produces a predictable reliability.
Be sure you mark your Prime account to NOT auto-renew. That will keep your options open.
I can only imagine now that we’re in the holiday season that A-1 deliveries will only become worse and more disappointing — they were terrible in the dead of Summer when nothing was happening — now they’ll probably continue to sink even further.
Be sure to let us know how it all turns out for you.
Hi again David,
A followup of sorts for you and you readers. Like you, I have placed no orders (other than digital) through Amazon for approximately six months or so. I should point out, at the risk of repeating myself from previous posts, that where I now live I have never been subjected to A-1 or its ilk, although I unfortunately did have to deal with them at my former home in Philadelphia. Knowing it was simply a matter of time until a courier service raised it’s unreliable head here as well, I chose to shop elsewhere, making certain Amazon knew the amount of each purchase it had lost from me. They have yet to respond to any of that!
Anyway, as a Christmas bonus this year, my boss gave me a $50 Amazon gift card. My first thought was to put it towards digital orders only, but then, remembering one of your posts about how a way round having courier shipment was ordering heavy, bulky things I decided to give it a try.
Anyone who has a cat knows one of the heaviest things to lug around is cat litter. So, I ordered four-20lb boxes of cat litter from Amazon with free shipping. After all, nothing there for a dishonest courier to want to steal (hopefully!) and I would assume way too heavy for them as well.
Absolutely right! It was split into four shipments – all to be shipped UPS! So the only way around the couriers right now appears to be what you discovered earlier – heavy, bulky, large shipments! At least for now – I have a feeling sooner or later the once wonderful Amazon will find a way around that as well…..
Now my only problem is lugging all four boxes up to my third floor flat!
Hope the UPS driver is a young one who will help!
Happiest of Holidays and Healthiest of New Years
Ron
Thanks for the update, Ron!
Cat Litter wins the day! Every. TIME! Love it!
It’s just so sorry that we have to go through these malingering deceits in order to get Amazon products effectively delivered. It doesn’t seem wise or smart on Amazon’s side to make us guess these games.
When I can get items shipped via Super Saver Shipping to my
parents’ home in PA via USPS and UPS with no issues and yet the one
Prime order I have is mucked up to high heaven, you know there’s a
problem. Amazon is killing their brand equity by continuing to use
this disingenuous outfit, and I hope my husband forgives me if his
Christmas presents (which I ordered over ten days ago!) don’t show
up in time!
I agree with you, elizabeth. Amazon’s use of A-1 is their fault, not ours and not even A-1’s. Amazon must step up and fix this for us.
Let us know if your gifts arrive!
I have had problems with amazon as-well I have email the
ecr@amazon.com this is what I told them. Hello, I wanted to inform
you of problems that need to be addressed by Amazon.com. I have
trusted Amazon.com for a very long time a bought a flat screen HDTV
from Amazon and a lot of other big items just check my account. In
the past couple of months I have noticed Amazon is not following
through with what they say they are going to do. I use to be able
to buy a item and when I pick the shipping speed and it would tell
me the date I would receive it, I would just know that it would get
delivered on that date I would just about bet my life on it. But in
the past couple of months Amazon has has been choosing the cheaper
route and I and others are noticing it. Because of these problems I
would have to go to the store and buy the item that I did on amazon
but at the store because amazon could not follow through with what
they told me. I have probably lost about $100.00 because I would
have to buy a item twice. Let me give you some examples: Order
number: 002-4143740-9349857 paid for one-day shipping item was
shipped by a Carrier I have never heard of and it ended up taking
about a week to receive the the item. Carrier: OnTrac Order number:
103-8203822-6665017 two day shipping Carrier marked as delivered
never received the item. Carrier: Ontrac This is the order that put
me over the edge to write this email to you: Order number:
002-4906594-9732257 paid for same day shipping Carrier marked as
delivered never received the item. This was a Christmas gift to a
family member I trusted that Amazon could get me this gift in time
for Christmas but Amazon used a cheap Carrier and they could not
follow through and delivery the item. I am going to my dads house
for Christmas tomarrow its going to be very embarrassing showing up
at his house with no gift. I would go out and buy one but all the
stores are closed for the night and they will be closed tomorrow
as-well. Carrier: A-1 I wish amazon would use UPS and FedEx more
often. When I get the email telling me the Carrier that it was
shipped by if it dose not say FedEx or UPS I know there is going to
be a problem. It seems like amazon trys to save a buck by using
these carriers but it hurts the customer. If I could I would pay a
extra $15.00 per order to select the carrier. I’m not sure what
extra you get with amazon prime because when I try to use Same day
or next day service I either never get it or I get it in about a
week. I await your reply to let me know what is going on.
Sorry to learn about your trouble with Amazon shipping, Sam. They really need to get these courier delivery problems figured out. Please let us know if you get a response from ECR at Amazon. I’m always curious what they have to say beyond the robot reply.
This is so amazing that this company has dozens of shipping
complaints lodged against it. I am adding my two cents. I ordered a
WD 2.5 HD. It was slated to be delivered on December 29th. December
29th comes and goes…nothing. Meanwhile two other shipments via
UPS from Amazon HAVE arrived safely on time and in one instance one
day before the delivery estimate. These orders were place AFTER the
HD Order. So of course I head into tracking my order to find out
what the heck is going on. This is what I saw: Date Time Location
Event Details December 29, 2010 10:34:00 PM New York NY US Delivery
attempted December 29, 2010 05:14:00 AM — Shipment received by
carrier December 28, 2010 11:30:00 AM Breinigsville PA US Shipment
has left seller facility and is in transit On the 29th, I was HOME
ALL DAY because I was on vacation. The complete explanation was
‘delivery attempted no one available’. No one rang my buzzer so
this was an obvious lie. I was HOT, because my buzzer is really
loud. I happen to work for a courier service and I understand that
this is a big no-no. You do not lie about deliveries or attempted
deliveries. I called Amazon to cancel the original order because I
have no faith in the ability of this courier service to deliver the
item. I did this because last night an Amazon agent told me that
someone from A-1 would contact me this morning. It’s 10:30 AM, no
call as of yet, another no-no in the courier business. So I did
what I had to do. As mentioned before, working for a courier
service gives me a insider’s knowledge of how this process should
work: 1. If a courier arrives at a destination and cannot deliver
said pkg and has access to the phone number of the addressee,
someone (he/she or their dispatcher) needs to call and verify that
someone is not available. 2. A message should be left with the
addressee if possible, giving them options for future delivery. 3.
If A-1 cannot contact anyone, a delivery attempt should be made the
very next day. AS EARLY IN THE DAY AS POSSIBLE. In my experience
this really clears things up and usually people are happy to have
received their items, even if it was a day late. It shows that you
care. From what I’ve seen here and experienced personally, A-1
needs to be dropped immediately. I’ve never seen this many
complaints about a courier service. Unbelievable.
I agree, Ron, it’s becoming ridiculous. All these A-1 stories just keep piling up — and they all deal with A-1 lying to Amazon and customers about delivery attempts. It’s outrageous Amazon allows this to continue to fester and infect us.
Found this thread while being frustrated with A-1. I’ll throw in my 2p.
Ordered Jan 03 and paid $9.98 for next day delivery. Amazon.com tracking says:
Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit – Jan 04, 2011 2:06:00 PM
Today, 05 Jan, with no product, I call Amazon– who kindly refund my $9.98 shipping– and after they contact A-1 they tell me that A-1 has still yet to pick up the package from the fulfillment center! Not sure how the Amazon.com tracking statement is supposed to jive with what A-1 told Amazon, but somebody is lying and I still don’t have my package.
David, I agree with you: I just want honesty. I understand things happen and our expectations aren’t always met, but just apologize, be honest, and I’ll likely still do business with you. I hate being lied to.
Thanks for the post and platform for us to sound-off.
Thanks for the on-the-record comment. I am glad the A-1 experiences are being publicly shared here. It’s important we keep pressing forward for their ultimate reckoning.
I am having the EXACT SAME THING happen with these A1 Guys.
They said they came at 7:30pm on Monday and I wasn’t home. – I was
home (all day) – No door tag that shows they were there – Door
person never saw A1 come to the building. I called A1 to find out
what’s going on and when I mentioned the door tag and I offered to
buy them some post-its if they needed them, they said the delivery
guys have “tons” of door tags on them. He then said they would
deliver BEFORE 8pm. I told my door person the story. I checked the
shipping info and again tonight they came this time at 9pm. (what
happened to before 8pm?) – No door tag – Door man never saw them I
called Amazon (I have 3 packages coming from A1 now) and told them
if they keep using A1 I can no longer shop at Amazon.
Thanks for sharing your story, Carmine.
Additionally… I think you should create a Facebook Page
called something like, “Amazon needs to stop using A1 Courier
Services” and we can all click on it. I’m sure if you get thousands
of people on it, it will bring more attention to the
issue.
Hey all, I started a discussion on Amazon’s Carrier Feedback message board about how A1 never leaves door tags:
A1 Never Leaves Door Tags
Please stop by it and reply to the thread there with a simple +1
-Carmine
I had a problem like this today. I got something shipped
from Amazon 5 days ago with Free Shipping, but they shipped it via
A-1. This morning, it said “Out for Delivery.” I was home ALL day
and so were two other people. An hour ago, the tracking info
changed to “Delivery attempted – No one available to sign.” What a
bunch of bull!!! WE WERE HOME ALLLLL DAY! No one attempted crap.
I’m annoyed. Now I have to wait until Monday to receive this. Today
was the expected delivery date. Arghh!! Thanks for the lie,
A-1!!
Thank you for sharing your outrage. You know this “Delivery attempted” scheme must work more often than not — because A-1 keeps using it even though we keep calling them on it. There must be thousands of others who were home, but who were convinced they were not, and just accepted what A-1 said at face value instead of exposing it as a lie.
I sent A-1 an email requesting an explanation for this. Let’s see if they respond. All I know is that if A-1 plays this game two more times, I won’t get my package because they only make three “attempts.” If that happens, I’m requesting Amazon for a refund if they get the package back as a failed delivery. I’d rather not get my order than to deal with A-1’s nonsense. I never thought that there would be a worse carrier than USPS, but I was wrong. USPS may be slow, but at least they ACTUALLY attempt delivery. And since I live in a building, someone is ALWAYS there to accept the package, whether it be the security guard or the super. So, I always get my package. In A-1’s case, no one was available to sign. Yeah, right! Like I said, me AND two other people were home the entire day. And even if we weren’t, the super or the guard could’ve accepted the package. So nice try, A-1. You don’t fool me!
Let us know if A-1 replies to you. I don’t think they’ve ever written anyone back so far yet — which is another reason they should be dumped by Amazon.
Nope, no reply as of today.
Why am I not surprised? Let us know if they ever respond.
Still no response, but get this….nobody was home at all yesterday. I arrive in the evening from work and guess what? They left the package on my door step!! Now why didn’t they do that on Saturday? Instead, they didn’t deliver that day and the tracking said “no one available to sign.” So in the second attempt, they don’t require a signature?? Hmm. Interesting!
I’m glad you finally got your package.
They didn’t leave the package on Saturday because they were never at your door. They lied about the attempted delivery and nobody being home.
The second delivery attempt really doesn’t make any sense — but that does seem to reflect their work ethic.
I’m having the same troubles and will no longer use Amazon. I was such a fan of amazon, but no longer due to them using this courier service. Goodbye Amazon.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Every bit of dissatisfaction helps build our case against A-1.
Interesting. Amazon isn’t including the “tracking” number in any of my ship confirm emails lately. It’s USPS, so it’s hardly useful anyway, but it’s still a change. Something else to note though… I was using that fake PO Box address (“PO Box” appended to real address), but they won’t ship games to PO Boxes for some strange reason, despite the fact they’ve been sending them USPS anyway. I got a call around September from a customer service person of some sort at Amazon who saw my ranting on their forum and also noticed the fake PO Box thing. Ever since I talked to her, every order has been USPS (with my standard address). Bottom line: They must be able to lock you into a specific carrier. The people you normally get on the phone when you call probably just don’t have access.
That’s interesting information we should watch. I wouldn’t ever want the USPS, though, because in my area they ring and run and if you don’t answer the door in 10 seconds, they don’t leave the package, they take it with them and you have to wait TWO DAYS for the honor of going in person, far away, to pick up your package. Or, you could wait FOUR DAYS for a “re-delivery attempt.” No thanks! I like UPS best right now. FedEx is a close second.
I agree Amazon can pick the shipper — and they do… they just won’t let us pick our own shipper — they pick the most convenient shipper for each of their distributions centers that will save them the most money. I would love to pick my shipper and I’d pay extra for that choice and I’d even accept a delay in delivery if I can pick my shipper.
Hi David thanks for posting this article about A1. I’m
often a nice person but when I get screwed I hit hard with
vengeance. I’m currently dealing with A1 right now and as i read
your article I saw similar connections to what I been haven’t to go
with. False delivery claims, Repeated lies over the phone about
having my package before 8pm. I’m sick of it and Amazon is getting
a bad rep for using this service. I’m a college basketball player
and I need some equipment sent to me fast. This would be the second
time I have to deal with this service and it will be my last. I
spoke to an Amazon rep and I told her the full story about false
tracking information, and lies over the phone. She said she will
send out another order and I ask her to make sure it isn’t A1
delivering and she said she will put that as a note and sent in my
complainant to the management and hopefully discontinue with A1
(She sounded like I’m not the only one complaining about A1) But
that is my comment on this subject and seeing the evidence you
listed A1 Services are truly Unprofessional. I hope you sent this
blog and all its comments to Amazon.com management for them to
see.
I am glad you are standing up to them. It’s important that we not take this sort of purposeful and cruel service. If we make enough noise on the Amazon bottom line, things will have to change.
I stumbled across this searching for more info on A1 as they were listed for a Local Express Delivery I have set that supposed to be delivered later today the 24th of Jan. I have done the overnight and Local Express before using Prime and its always been UPS or FEDEX…. now its A1. Well let me say I am extremely worried I will not be getting my package as I need it for school AND its an electronic item and from reading this page, and the thread over on Amazon’s own message boards I fear it will be thrown out the window of the vehicle, or just never arrive and then I will have to start and hassle with Amazon and A1. I am in Phoenix, Az and there is a warehouse near I believe, but now I am very worried I will too encounter issues. I will be sure to return here later today, I fear with bad news as well. My current tracking info states:
Date Time Location Event Details
January 23, 2011 10:57:00 PM Phoenix AZ US Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit
They start almost at midnight the night before and in the same city, there is no reason NONE at all they should not arrive on time except for lack of effort and professionalism. Now I know this is my first A1 shipment that I am aware of, and I should not insult before being insulted by them, however reading all these posts, the thread on Amazon, the threads on other message boards, it just astounds me and angers me that Amazon is allowing this.
I was given a free Student Prime Account for a year, and the last 6 months I’ve had it I have I think ordered more than in the entire history of having my account because of the fast and excellent service, if A1 is now going to be handling shipments for Prime Customers I will not be purchasing it once my free year ends, and I was really considering doing so. I may no longer order anything from Amazon except books for my Kindle.
Thank you for your comment, Jessica. We need to stand together and demand we get what we were promised when we paid for it.
Oh and one more thing, between the people here, and over on the Amazon board I hear a Class Action Lawsuit screaming to be had.
Something needs to be done! I’m sort of surprised Amazon hasn’t acted more proactively on this mess yet.
It’s disgusting that, after spending almost four hours between last night and this morning on this blog, that amazon.com can still look at its customers with a straight face and delivery this shoddy service with a smile.
Yes, I blame amazon.com for all of the screw-ups mentioned here. They shouldn’t allow their name and reputation to be run over by some cheap courier service.
Here’s my story. I live in Henderson, NV. I ordered three text books on SATURDAY (22nd) afternoon for classes I’m taking in school. One was delivered via FedEx from Whitestown, IN, and arrived on my doorstep on Monday morning. With my Amazon Prime, courtesy of the student email address, I’d say paying $3.99 to have something delivered by Monday morning after ordering on a Saturday afternoon is VERY impressive.
Another book wouldn’t be able to arrive until the 26th due to the stock at the Amazon warehouse. No big deal, this is common, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s on a FedEx vehicle as we speak to be delivered today (the 25th). Again, awesome service.
Now, that third book. I paid $3.99 extra for local carrier delivery. From who? A1….
I never heard of this company, and when I couldn’t plug my tracking number into their website, I became nervous. I waited all day on Monday, the due date, sitting at home, constantly refreshing my Amazon order page, to get some sort of shipping update. Finally, 7:15 p.m. rolls around, and the tracking progress on my order history states that a delivery was made at 6:58 p.m. “Signed for by: FRONTDOOR.” Not kidding.
Hmmm…strange…the doorbell never rang. I opened my front door.
Hmmm…strange…no book there. I walked around the yard as I read horror stories of people’s books being thrown in yards, behind bushes, etc. Nothing.
I waited until 8:15 p.m. to have amazon.com call me. The rep was very helpful. As soon as he saw “A1 Courier,” he had a slight bit of hesitation, then quickly offered to have the book re-sent or offer me a full refund. “Buddy, I need that book pronto, and frankly, I think you guys owe me a refund of $3.99 for shipping.” Look, I’m not going to be unreasonable. I still need the book, and as long as I get it, that’s all I care about. I paid for an extra service, didn’t have it fulfilled, and that’s all I want refunded back.
The gentleman quickly processed my shipping refund and put in another order for the book. In that regard, I appreciate the amazon.com service.
So, I spent the rest of the evening reading posts here, and finally went to bed shortly after 11. I made sure, however, to take one last look at my front porch…NOTHING.
So, I get up at 6:20 a.m., and because I’m just OCD like this, I opened my front door to see if my book arrived. Sure enough, it had. So, sometime between 11 p.m. and 6:20 a.m., A1 Courier quietly sneaked my book to me. WTF??? No one rang the doorbell, I never signed for it, it had just been sitting on my front porch. What if that had been an expensive electronic item??
Hey, I’m happy I got the book, but after reading all the craziness that has happened to others, and the strange incidences with my book here, I just can’t fathom why amazon.com continues to do business with these shoddy carriers.
Before I had an Amazon Prime membership, I always used Free Super Saver Shipping, and I ALWAYS received my items a day or two before the expected delivery date. I’ve come to trust Amazon.com for their cheaper prices and quick shipping. It’s not uncommon to receive items with two days after ordering using Super Saver Shipping.
Why can someone using CHEAP, FREE shipping as a non-Amazon Prime member receive better service than someone paying for a PRIME membership?
I just don’t get it. I’ll never spend a nickel on that tier of membership.
I haven’t been wronged nearly as bad as a lot of people on here, but I want to share my disgust with how Amazon.com continues to use this shoddy shipping service.
I hope that enough voices can be heard through this blog and other media to wake up the folks at Amazon.com and get rid of these clowns…
Thanks for the details of your experience. That sort of fine grain information really hits home the point that something must desperately be fixed. It sounds like your Amazon rep called A-1 and made them deliver your book in the stealth of night.
Hello again! Beth of the iPod saga (posted way above) once again.
I have been lucky at the Amazon roulette wheel for the last couple of months in that this horrible company wasn’t used for any of my recent deliveries. Every click of the Add to Cart button provoked anxiety though and it has not dissipated since that fiasco and the others that preceded it.
We are expecting snow this evening and I was desperately in need of an item from Amazon so lucky for me, when I searched for it yesterday it was a “Get it tomorrow!” item. Gleefully, I put it in my cart and checked out to be delivered to me today, at my office.
I woke up bleary eyed this morning and checked my Blackberry to see if I got a “Your Amazon order has shipped email” and there it was! Score! Hooray! I will get my item today! Whew!
I scrolled to the bottom of the message and discovered that A-1 will be delivering this box today…. I have my fingers crossed but it’s snowing pretty good here so I fully expect to see an “Attempted delivery – business was closed” message even though we are open 24 hours….
Maybe I’ll get lucky this time. Maybe? I’m not holding out much hope. One has to wonder what kind of business thinks it’s acceptable for their customers to assume the worst of them due to past experience. And further, why on earth would Amazon, with such a great reputation for getting product to its customers on time would utilize such a painfully poor carrier service?
I’ll post back if and when the box appears…
Hi Beth!
I can’t wait to see if/how/when/why your package is delivered by A-1 today. We look forward to your updates!
Checking in. My package is out for delivery since about 9 this morning. Oddly, I thought Amazon used A1 when a local supplier had this merchandise. At least I don’t remember a package traveling through multiple states in order to reach A1 and then be delivered.
The package I am expecting went from KY to OH and into Manhattan for delivery. Why on earth didn’t they use Fedex or UPS Next Day Saver. We are closing early due to the snow so there’s no way I will be here if the package is delivered after 2:30. Of course, the desk will still be manned so we’ll see what little gem pops up on the tracking page later today.
Perhaps this time it will say they delivered it a few days before I placed the order!
Hi Beth!
Oh, A-1 locally delivers for lots of national Amazon warehouse distribution centers. There’s one Amazon center in Delaware that would regularly ship to me for local delivery via A-1.
The snow today will be their out, I bet. I was lucky to get a UPS delivery early this morning, but the snow is falling harder now here in New Jersey and all delivery services use the weather as a reason not to deliver on time. If you don’t get your A-1 package today, I’m betting you won’t see it or its replacement before next Wednesday.
Still “Out for Delivery” at 8:01 p.m.
Ouch!
I feel for you, Beth.
Let us know when they update it to: They Delivered It This Morning at 4am.
Ah yes. Just got the old “Delivery attempted, no one available to sign” notation on my tracking page….. I’ll have to tell the 24 hour guard that’s currently in the booth outside the office that he doesn’t exist next time I see him….
Oh, it’s just so sad, Beth! How did we know it would end this way?
So I just have to share this…. my iPod post upthread contains accurate information. My brain might be old but when that situation was occurring, I was reading the A1 tracking page while I was posting details here so I know that it was accurate. The order for the iPod was placed at about 6:30 est on November 18th.
I am composing yet another an email to Amazon to express my dismay with their continued use of this company and planned to include the bizarre iPod “attempted delivery at 10:30 p.m.,” followed the next day by the addition of “delivered at 8:30 p.m.” weirdness so I pulled up that old tracking page to verify I had my info correct. It has been revised since the last time I looked at it. This is what it says today:
Tracking Number:AZxxxxxxx
Package Destination Location: New York, NY xxxxx US
Tracking Event History
11/18/2010 20:14 Delivered – LEFT BEHIND DOOR.
11/19/2010 12:36 Shipment has left shipper facility and is in transit to A-1
11/19/2010 22:05 Delivery attempted – No one available to sign
So let’s see if I have this right. I ordered this iPod from Amazon at 6:30 p.m. on November 18th. It was delivered and left behind “DOOR” about two hours later. Then the next day at around lunch time, Amazon put the iPod in transit to A1 who eventually got it and attempted to deliver it at 10:05 p.m. but couldn’t because no one was there to sign. Yeah, that’s what happened.
Just to add: there is no DOOR. There is a gated parking lot. Just inside the gate which is a chain link fence that contains no obstructed views in or out, there is a large glass booth with a very visible guard. The guard would walk to the gate, open it, take the box and sign. The courier would not get onto the premises so I’d love to know exactly where this DOOR is located.
I simply love the detail! It all makes your mind explode.
You won’t get it today because of the snow. Tomorrow? It will become yesterday and the snow will still be an issue.
I can’t wait to find out how Amazon handles this for you.
I sent off an email to Amazon’s Executive team yesterday but haven’t heard back yet. The tracking page has not been updated since the “attempt” on the 26th.
Unacceptable, Beth! They need to be much more responsive and dynamic with you. Keep us posted!
I received a reply indicating that they would have their Transportation Team investigate this situation and will follow up with me once they do that. I have no idea what that entails, but I’m not expecting much.
I suggested that they may wish to read this page or the 50+ page thread on Amazon’s own discussion board about the gross practices of this company and wondered aloud why Amazon would work with a company that is dragging down their reputation.
They asked me if I ever received the item I ordered and whether I’d like them to send a free replacement or get a refund. I told them I’ll take the replacement only if they use a proper delivery service.
A1’s tracking page was updated to say that another attempt to deliver was made at 6:17 this evening and no one was there to sign. I called the desk a few minutes ago. No one came to the gate at all.
Welcome to the Wacky World of A-1! They are a maddening service. It’s the fakery and the lies that just grind right into your eye every time you see one of their phony “updates” online.
What did Amazon say when you told them you would like a replacement but no A-1? Did they agree or not? What was their story?
They have not yet replied to my response to them. I got their first reply while I was in transit on the way home from work so I couldn’t reply to them until I got home at about 5:30.
I sent them a second reply indicating that the tracking page was updated (falsely) again.
I would guess the ECR team is a 9-5 type gig so I’m not expecting to hear anything until Monday. And all the while, my poor package, wandering like Diogenes in search of a honest shipping company continues….
I just received a reply. They have placed a new order for me, with One Day shipping.
They did not mention the carrier, nor did they address that part of my email to them.
I was somewhat annoyed, however, by one part of the note. As I said above, I had written them a second time to let them know that A1 entered a “delivery attempt at 6:17” to their page, which did not happen. The rep responded that they were understanding of the “inconvenience caused by the missed delivery.”
I again wrote back to stress that this was not a “missed delivery.” That implies that they came and no one was there to sign. I called the desk. No one came.
I am irritated that I have to engage in multiple email communications with Amazon every time this company is used, not to mention the absolute pain in the ass it is to order something for overnight shipping and not receive it. I order (and pay) for overnight delivery for a reason. Once the package doesn’t show up on time, we begin this dance of emails back and forth and by the time I get the (replacement) package, it’s a week later. That is not what I’d call Prime and definitely not a service worth paying for.
Hi David and Beth,
Wow, it now seems Amazon Executive offices are using canned responses that do not address your issue! The “inconvenience caused by the missed delivery” line proves that no one but a bot is reading the complaint. Truly unbelievable – almost as if someone were deliberately trying to ruin this arm of the company (which I have now long suspected).
Looking at the increased, angry activity on the Amazon Carrier Forum thread with many new complaints about the various couriers being posted everyday, and Amazon’s complete silence on the issue, I have never been happier that I all but abandoned Amazon.com for my purchases (save the cat litter – which I suspect ended up costing Amazon more than it did me – that stuff is heavy!) .
I’m expecting the follow up to be on the order of the ECR rep’s post way upthread. “We contacted A1 and they attempted to deliver on X but no one was available to sign. Then they tried to deliver on y and no one was available to sign.” Nothing else to investigate. A1 will say they tried, I will say they did not and Amazon will apologize to me and send me a replacement item.
Replacing items is not dealing with underlying problem here. In fact, it more than likely encourages A1’s behavior because there appears to be no penalty to them when items go missing, they miss delivery deadlines, throw expensive packages onto dark doorsteps or driveways…. the list goes on.
I agree, Beth. It makes zero sense. I don’t know why Amazone keeps using these local and regional couriers instead of the international shippers like UPS and FedEx.
I think if you want a reply from a real person at ECR, you have to keep responding to the AutoBot with questions it cannot answer. Then a real person steps in to handle you.
When I have had other problems in the past with Amazon that demanded a real answer, I always put, in all caps, ‘do not send me a canned response’ (this was on the advice of a Canadian customer service rep I got on the phone once.
It always worked.
That’s smart, Ron. We do have to always be wary of the auto-reply. Google and Apple are also famous for “autobot-ing” us when we seek their direct help — and I, too, always start my reply with, “Are you a robot or a real person?” The next reply is usually from a human. SMILE!
The only thing worse than an AutoBot reply is a human reply that is cut and pasted. I HATE THAT! If you’re going to be a person, be one! Write to me one-on-one. Don’t redirect me with links and canned responses that have zero bearing on what I’m really after.
No response yet. The replacement package arrived today. No attempts from A1 since 1/28.
I’m resigned to getting the canned message back that is posted way up top about “We investigated, they said they tried to deliver it…” blah blah blah.
Hi Beth —
Was the replacement sent via A-1?
Nope. Good old Fedex and showed up on time!
Great news! Let’s hope going back to FedEx is the trend for the future.
Just saw on the tracking page that the original box, that I paid One Day Shipping for on January 25th, was delivered at 7:30 this evening. A week later.
I’ve heard nothing from the Executive team at Amazon but will now probably hear that we can all sing Kumbaya now because A1 finally showed up with it. I’m truly disgusted.
Wow! Weird! Did A-1 actually deliver the first box at 7:30, or is that another “tracking” lie?
Hello David
This evening was my 2nd experience with A-1, both of which have been horrible.
I found this thread, after this evening’s famous “attempted delivery, no one available to sign” , as I sit in my house without even an attempt.
My first experience happened over Christmas time 2010, and it was weird! I ended up getting my item as expected, which was nice, however, the tracking information showed the item was going from Phoenix (where I am) and was out for delivery in New Mexico!!
So on top of having horrible delivery service, their systems for tracking their own deliveries seems to be horrible as well. I was very disappointed I wasn’t able to get my item today as promised, and Amazon did refund the shipping price. Luckily it wasn’t critical.
I did want to mention a point that may not have been said so far. Of the thousands of threads and posts we see of complaints about A-1, remember that pales in comparison to the actual number of people using the service. We are just the loud ones.
So with Amazon’s roll-out of same day service, the amount of extra money they are making, is way above and beyond the money they have to refund from people not getting their items.
We can sit here all we want and say how can they do this, its costing them so much! When in reality, most people will continue to use Amazon, as its so huge, and convenient. On top of this, I bet plenty of shipments are actually being delivered just fine, much to Amazon’s benefit as they line their pockets with the extra cash.
Simple example, I would have shipped my item with standard free shipping (not a prime member). But I saw same day for $10? I jumped on it. This is where Amazon is making so much extra money.
You’re right, Chris. We’re a vocal minority here, but if we can get some changes made for the general goodness of others when it comes to dealing with an A-1 delivery in the future, I’ll feel we accomplished something helpful.
I agree, and this blog post seems to have gotten more attention than any other of the pleas for better service, and/or to drop A-1 as a shipper.
I wish we could all say that it made a difference, but I’ve long since turned cynical against situations like this. Look at all the people emailing ECR and getting canned responses. You were lucky, and most won’t be nearly as lucky. Form letters, and promises of passing the information onto the transportation or shipping departments, and that’s all we ever hear. They are playing the “acceptable annoyance” game, and winning. Do we get our items as promised? Most of the time, in the end we do. Are their screw ups enough to stop us from using Amazon completely? 95% of the people with issues? nope. It’s annoying, but not so much that we stop using Amazon. Again, they are playing the game, making big money, and winning the game very well.
My item is at the whim of A-1 at this point, and there is nothing I can do. As with everyone’s experiences, this is the part that is extremely frustrating. But again, there’s nothing I can do, and I just have to sit here and hope they are able to deliver.
The funny thing is? Remove the signature required stipulation from A-1 shipments, and that would eliminate most of the troubles. Now they are forced to actually leave the package at your door. No more lies can be made about delivery attempts.
I think it’s important to record what really happens, Chris — because to do otherwise is to suggest that things are happening as expected — and that isn’t the case in our expressed experiences here with A-1.
If the signature requirement were removed — it would be worse — they’d still not deliver the packages and they’d say they “left it on the doorstep” and they’d claim they had no idea what happened…. The problem they have IS delivering, not getting signatures. They lie about us not being home to sign when we are here to sign — they don’t show up! — so removing the signature requirement doesn’t really offer a remedy for those of us in this conversation.
I agree that Amazon was probably losing a fortune using UPS and FedEx for it’s two day shipments, especially for “power shoppers” such as myself. I recently bought a DVD from DVDEmpire, and chose FedEx Ground Shipping, 3-5 days. I received it the day after shipping because the shipping point is just 90 miles or so from me. Regardless, the shipping charge for that one DVD was over $10!
But it was my choice and I chose to pay it. My problem with Amazon is their complete lack of accountability and response. They are promising two day shipping and are not meeting that on a sizeable number of shipments. They are not acknowledging there is a problem and, worst of all, they do not offer their customers a choice of shipper options for an additional charge. (To be fair, neither does Walmart or BestBuy – but they also don’t use cheap, unreliable courier services). Eventually, this will catch up with Amazon – perhaps even through a class action suit. I am one of those shoppers that has abandoned Amazon for all but digital orders. I miss having the convenience of using Amazon for everything, but at least when I order something now I know I will get it without a headache.
That’s worth the $10.
I agree, Ron, this really needs to get fixed. It’s ridiculous. At least offer us the OPTION of paying more to pick our own delivery service on Amazon.
Now that, like you, I buy my non-digitally delivered stuff away from Amazon, I’m amazed at the Overnight shipping charges from other companies. Because of the unpredictability of my work schedule, I oftentimes have to use Next Day because I know I’ll be available for delivery tomorrow and I have no idea where I’ll be the day after tomorrow.
Carhartt.com charges a flat $40 for Overnight via UPS no matter how large — or small! — your order.
Gap.com charges a flat $19.99 for Overnight via FedEx no matter how large — or small! — your order.
Kaz.com give you no choice in delivery. You just pay for UPS ground and that’s that.
TheraBreath.com charges $60 for Overnight UPS delivery.
Target.com seems to offer the best value for the Overnight dollar as they use a variable rate based on location and what you’re actually buying to determine your pay rate.
Well, I found out that they didn’t actually lie. The times listed on the tracking are EST time, and being that I’m west coast, the 2 hour difference, I for sure wasn’t here at the time they tried to deliver.
So I called them today, and spoke with someone, and authorized them to leave it at my doorstep, as I trust my apartment complex. Not only did they leave a note on my door saying to check my balcony, but for safety, the courier put it up there. Now, he may have thrown it, which wouldn’t have been hard to do, which is worrysome if it were a breakable item, but he did go through the effort to leave me a note to tell me where it was.
So for me, A-1 actually has delivered as promised twice. It’s not their fault they require a signature and I wasn’t around for it. At first I thought they lied.
Now more to my point, for every one of you, that have a bad experience? how many of me are there that receive their items just fine? If it were a majority they would be doing something about it, and because they are not, tells me that its a small percentage of their shipments.
I’m sorry to those that have issues with them, and I fully support Amazing giving everyone the ability to choose the delivery method. I hope that it all works out for you in the end.
It has happened to me. I was waiting for an overnight item from A1 that was supposed to arrive at 7:00PM but never came. When I checked the status it showed delivery attempted. The funny part is that next day when the product was ACTUALLY delivered it was just left at the front door and the tracking information clearly states that. If they really were trying to deliver on the actual date (which they weren’t as I was waiting right by the window and my street is a dead end street), why couldn’t they have left the package then.
Thanks for the detail of your experience. I don’t understand how they can just dump a package without having a signature. Did something change with their delivery system?
Well…. an interesting turn of events here….
My package, as noted above, was delivered at about 7 pm on the 2nd. The following morning, I arrived in my office and had two voicemail messages from A1. The first one said they tried to deliver it but no one was there (untrue), but then a little while later they called back to say they had delivered it.
Yesterday, I received an email from ECR letting me know that they are still investigating this issue. More importantly, the email said:
“Our transportation team is still investigating this with A-1 on their end, in the meantime, we’ve taken measures to prevent your orders from shipping with them.
Although we can’t guarantee all of your packages will ship through UPS, FedEx, or USPS, we’ve adjusted your preferences with our fulfillment center. They’ll do everything they can to get your parcels to your home using one of these carriers. ”
We will see.
Oh, WOWSER!, Beth! That is Big News!
I wonder if the rest of us can get our “No A-1” preference set by Amazon in the same way? It can’t be that hard. Amazon does amazing logistical things, so they can just as easily NOT use A-1 as easily as they use them.
Please order 100 things from Amazon for overnight delivery in 100 different orders so we can track the reality of the “No A-1” flag they set on your account!
CONGRATS! You have cracked the A-1 wall better than any of us — and A-1 still owe me a $100 Amazon gift card.
P.S.
I thought my Amazon Prime account was ending Feb. 2 — so I quickly ordered a giant, 24-box carton of Kleenex to get in one last mega-delivery at the cheap rate — and the big box was delivered today via FedEx Ground at 10:00am… which beats my regular FedEx delivery by about two hours.
Then I realized Amazon initially tried to placate me — as evidenced way back up this comments stream — by extending my Amazon Prime account by a month. So I actually have 30 more days to watch and wonder and plan another big paper delivery of some sort before my Prime time runs out.
Hey – I’m the same Chris that posted back in December (I think.) just had another A1 experience that ended well, thanks to the warm weather and me leaving my windows open. I’ve avoided fast shipping, and just used UPS normal, but I did a 1-day thing and got the dreaded A1. At 7pm, I could hear through my window a woman next door calling out my name to someone in a truck (who must have driven her) – I ran outside, gave my name, and she was delivering my package. It was dark out, so she couldn’t see the label on the box properly. Anyway – she was actually very nice, and said she didn’t want to leave the package outside b/c it was going to rain (which it is) and was extremely friendly. I think she probably would have left it with a neighbor or something, but at least I got it. One thing – I mentioned A1, and she had no idea what I was talking about – she said “Amazon”. And she wasn’t lying either, she wasn’t that way or anything – like I said, a very nice person trying to do her job. So – still a lousy service, but I think it depends on who actually is delivering your stuff. Will NEVER do one day shipping again, though. 😉 (and, for the record, I love the rest of your blog, not just this page.)
-Chris
Hi Chris —
It’s been quite a while since we’ve had any comments on this article, and I was secretly hoping that mean A-1 was getting retired from Amazon delivery.
You seem to have good luck with the service, so that’s a good thing.
David,
Elizabeth and I signed up for a program called Amazon Mom (should really be called Amazon Parent but ‘whatever’ as the kids say) and as part of that they put us on Prime for three months. Since we started, we have ordered perhaps 8 different items and all of them have been delivered by UPS. Luck of the draw? Perhaps. Elizabeth is always happy to see the UPS man when he comes knocking at the door.
Are you ordering with one-day delivery? Are you given any shipper options when you order? I believe if you have access to a .EDU email address, Amazon will give you a year of Prime for free.
We order with 2 day delivery (the only free Prime option we see) and no shipper options. (We also have no .edu addresses.) I have been thinking about Prime more because of their new ‘free streaming’ offer but Elizabeth is happier with Netflix.
It seems like most of us who were getting A-1 were using the overnight delivery option. Check your school for a .EDU alumni email address! Most universities offer them now.
The Prime streaming is intriguing, but I don’t think they have as many big titles, or as deep a repository, as Netflix.
I almost never upgrade to overnight with Prime, but by default to a NY location you frequently get overnight at no extra cost. I see more stuff that seems to originate in NY (I suspect that given the fact that they have to charge sales tax anyway, it became worthwhile to have a local distribution center). But as I said, I haven’t seen A1 in a long time and I’ve gotten Lasership a couple of times.
That’s interesting, Dan. Shipping out of NY makes a lot of sense. Amazon is going to have a lot more State tax problems soon, I imagine.
According to a person on one of the Amazon message boards, they had the same delivery person make deliveries for both A-1 and Lasership. I suspect they are the same company
Ooo, Ron, that’s very “A-1-like” to “become” Lasership because the A-1 name has been ruined in the marketplace. I wonder how we could find out if they’re related/the same?
Here’s a not-so-kind employee review:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Lasership-RVW525641.htm
Hmm… sort of feels familiar…
I found this blog post when trying to research A-1. They are starting to use them here in DC. I’m sad to say they are still the same. The tracking information stated that delivery address was incorrect and the package is being returned to Amazon. No delivery attempt made at all.
I contacted Amazon and have to wait for my refund and got a gift certificate on my order. I live in the NW part of the city, there are alternate addresses here, so drivers can be confused if they do not know the city.
I’ve always had UPS do my prime shipping as they know when to deliver to the building manager and the guards are aware of them to keep packages in the office when tenants are not at home. So after this experience knowing they are using an alternate unknown carrier, I’m worried. I will try my order again and if the same thing happens again I will complain higher up than Amazon, to people in an Agency that would look into this “contract” with Amazon and the issues.
Thanks for checking in with us, Phill. I’m sorry to learn A-1 is still alive and now spreading into DC. Looks like they’re moving westerly from the NYC epicenter. Keep us updated on what happens next!
Thought I’d put an update since this is funny. Amazon tracking says the package is on its way back to them since my address information was incorrect.
Today, guess what I see when I come home. I have a package, and it was delivered by A-1 and in the office. Amazon tracking still show that it wasn’t delivered to me.
This is way too much headache to deal with when you have a busy life.
But at least I have my order completed. A day late, but completed.
By the way, thanks for making this blog post. It is important and I found it easily searching for A-1 in google.
We’ve had so many stories like yours, Phill, that the whole process just doesn’t make logical sense. How can a package be undelivered and sent back when it was, in fact, delivered? Something is wrong here on a basic level of delivery competence and we pay the ultimate price for having to deal with the inefficiencies.
Continuing to read the comments on this board as well as the carrier feedback forum on Amazon itself (and most amazingly still marveling at the complete silence on the part of Amazon customer service itself on these issues) I can’t help but think one day soon some law firm/lawyer will fall victim to this incompetence and decide Amazon is not making good on its promise of two day delivery. It’s bound to happen – Amazon is a giant, is 100% in the wrong here, there is no shortage of proof, and there are a lot of hungry lawyers.
I for one would love to see it happen. As I have stated before, Amazon’s complete disregard of its customers issues is, by this point, appalling, and I for one will never go back. And when my Kindle goes, I will only use Kindle for PC and the Nook or Ipad.
Keep fighting the good fight though!
That’s what I don’t understand, Ron. Why isn’t Amazon actively fixing the problem and publicly addressing our concerns? Maybe they can’t get rid A-1 as a delivery contractor because of contracts and such, but certainly they can appear to care and force them to abide by the same delivery standards we’ve come to expect from UPS and FedEx!
That’s my wonder as well. What I left out of my post above (senior moment I’m afraid) is that I really think only a class action lawsuit is going to force the issue.
But with Amazon now offering free streaming of content to all Prime members I am more certain than ever that my theory of Amazon being a “content only” provider is coming to pass.
Delivery just does not seem to be their focus these days. It’s all Kindle, Kindle, Kindle!
You’re right that there’s a void that a lawyer could fill up with a lot of money! SMILE!
I agree that Amazon is moving everything to the cloud. They want to be a content provider and a publisher and an electronic delivery service. Paying people to carry boxes isn’t in their long-term benefit.
LOL.
Everytime I see someone post on the Amazon board “if Amazon does not rid themselves of (A-1, Ensenda, Lasership, etc) I will do my shopping elsewhere” I see an Amazon bottom liner with a big smile on his/her face!
Right! People have to follow through on what they say. Amazon has no reason to change as long as we keep accepting these sub-par delivery services.
I ordered a backordered motherboard on Amazon last week, it came in stock on Friday and was changed to “Shipping Soon” until about noon today when I finally saw that it was coming to me via A-1. Never having heard of them, I did some research and found this post (and plenty more), so naturally I was skeptical of receiving my package on Wednesday, which was the ETA. Four hours after getting my shipping info, A-1 arrived (from Manchester NH to Boston MA). They found my little doorway in Mass Ave, found the scary elevator in the way back, and came right up, two days early.
No A-1 logo on his shirt, no ID badge. Just looked like a punked out 20something. He was really nice, actually. I’m not one to judge based on looks, but you asked about this info.
Thanks for the report, Brian. It’s good to get these ongoing percolations along the East Coast in the Amazon delivery network. I’m glad your product arrived early and in good shape!
My Amazon order by A-1 order arrived early. I’ve also used Amazon Prime for years and so far things have been going well. I ordered a Blu-ray from Amazon last night and selected 2-day shipping. This afternoon I received an email that it was being shipped by A-1 Courier Service. I Googled the name, found an Amazon discussion forum and started getting very worried. Through there I found your blog.
I sent the package to my office building. This afternoon I got a call from the courier and said he was currently delivering packages across the street. He said his schedule was very busy and may not make it to the mailroom. But if I could meet him in the lobby in 10 minutes he could hand me off my package. He was polite and friendly, but dressed as you would expect a bike messenger. He handed me my package from a courier bag, had me sign for it and ran out to make another delivery. I could see dozens of packages with the Amazon logo on his back. They seem to really push these guys.
I did receive a tracking number and this was the timeline:
April 20, 2011 04:38:00 PM Boston MA US Delivered
April 20, 2011 02:40:00 PM Boston MA US Out for delivery
April 20, 2011 02:03:00 PM Boston MA US Shipment received by carrier
April 20, 2011 12:37:00 PM Nashua NH US Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit
So instead of 2-day shipping I got 1-day. From reading the other reviews the quality seems to vary, but I lucked out and got a good delivery guy.
Thanks for the report, Ed! I see you’re coming to use from Massachusetts — I’m glad to get a report from that part of the East Coast to help reason out the wider A-1 service coverage.
I ordered a few things from Amazon late last week and chose to have them delivered with the usual Free Super Saver Shipping. When I got the shipping notification I was puzzled to see that it wasn’t shipping by the usual USPS but by A-1 International! After some work on Google, I ran across this blog post and feared for the worst on delivery day.
I am happy to report that my package did come on the day they specified (2 days after initial shipping). Delivery was made by a 30-something fellow driving an unmarked and fairly old Dodge Grand Caravan. If I wasn’t expecting an Amazon delivery, I probably would’ve mistaken him for a restaurant deliveryman. All in all, not the worst delivery experience I have had but I’d still prefer my packages to come by USPS or UPS when it comes to ordering with Super Saver Shipping.
For references purposes, I live in Queens, NY, not too far from the local “distributing center” in Long Island City.
Oh man this is NOT what I want to hear…
This company’s website doesn’t even support tracking (the feature is broken and loops back on itself on every browser I have tried.)
Sorry to hear about your trouble. Please let us know what happens with your package!
A-1 didn’t even attempt to deliver my package. Instead they just decided to return it to shipper. The only notice I got was when I checked the status of my order. No excuses… my wife is home on maternity leave so there was someone home to either answer the door or the phone. I contacted Amazon and bitched at them that I pay for Prime for 2-day delivery. They resubmitted the order and bumped it up to next day delivery which was nice on their part. Must be nice to decide if you “Feel Like” delivering a package. If they don’t feel like it they just send it back to Amazon.
Thanks for this update! It’s disappointing to learn A-1 are still up to their old tricks just when I was considering joining Amazon Prime again!
I was looking to my Amazon purchase. Supposed to be delivered today by A-1. Jeez hope I have better results.
It’s Beth. I’m back to report that I have not had A-1 as a courier since Amazon adjusted my shipping options a while back and I have ordered a ton of stuff…. Sorry to bore you with non-A-1 stuff but I am beginning to wonder if Amazon hung out a shingle saying “All inefficient carriers, sign up to deliver our stuff!”
I may have another dilemma. I ordered a treadmill and it is coming via a delivery service called Pilot Freight. From what I’ve read, it’s not really Pilot Freight. Pilot just handles putting it on a plane and some “dudes with trucks” type operation picks it up on the back end and delivers it.
My dear Amazon, why have you become so confusing? This treadmill had two options: Schedule a delivery, in which you pick a date and time, OR “Get it by Wednesday, if you order within the next 4 hours….” The soonest scheduled delivery was Thursday so the Get it Wednesday seemed like a no brainer and made me think Fedex or UPS would deliver it….. At this point, perhaps it is I that is lacking in the brain department. I knew it was gonna bite me in the behind!
I just got the shipping confirmation saying it is coming via Pilot with an estimated delivery date of Wednesday. The Pilot web site stresses that this is only a test…. er, an estimate and that “a scheduled delivery must be made.” So they are going to call me when the package is in town and schedule a date. Will they really do all this by Wednesday? Does Batman fly? Are cookie diets really worth it? Perhaps the Shadow knows…
Of course, I thought of A-1 when I saw the word Pilot because the name elicited the same “Who?” reaction followed by my furious typing of “amazon pilot delivery” into the Google search box. They seem to be Amazon’s choice delivery service for large screen televisions and boy oh boy have people had doozy experiences: being told they were not home for the scheduled phone call, being told there was no order in their name placed, losing packages, boxes being dropped outside of doorways, damaged merchandise, surly delivery people and the list goes on…. sound familiar? Has A-1 branched out and acquired a new name?
The palpitations have begun. We could be in for a wild ride here…. or things could go smoothly, I suppose. Just wanted to share in the potential fun that could unfold.
Thanks for that great update, Beth!
Here’s my experience from 2008 when Amazon used a “big stuff” courier for a Pilates Reformer I purchased:
http://urbansemiotic.com/2008/07/31/when-curbside-service-means-we-drop-it-in-the-street/
Good luck, and let us know what happens!
I sure will. Just read your Reformer story…. wowee.
I am a small woman. About 5 feet tall. And 40-something. Carrying a 110 pound box up the flight of stairs into my unit is not something I will be able to do. And of course, I ordered a treadmill that is fully assembled in the box so there will be no piecing it out and carrying it up one bit at a time. This will be interesting.
I have no idea what level of service Amazon uses with these people. If they say it’s curbside I’m in a bit of a pickle. I’ll try to give the guy $20 bucks to at least put it in the hallway and maybe I can grab someone from work to come by and bring it up.
Of course, in keeping with the joys of these types of things, there is an icon on the Pilot tracking page that indicates that this is “Special Service.” Looking at their web site list of services offered we have Premier, Deluxe, Standard and Basic for residential customers. No Special listed anywhere except on their b2b services list and I’m having this delivered to my apartment. So it’s anyone’s guess. Many people who have had televisions delivered got unboxing and set up. I’m not holding out hope for that. I’ll settle for them bringing it up the 12 stairs and leaving it outside my door.
Will post all the potentially delightful details once the tracking page begins updating!
It will depend on the driver you get. You might be able to tip them to bring the thing into your apartment, or if they’re busy, they might not be interested and just leave it in the street. I think it’s also an insurance liability issue for the trucking company. Dropping a delivery in the street costs them less than bringing it across a transom and then having to drag it into an apartment.
When I bought two big TVs from Walmart online, customer service told me the delivery guys would “bring the TVs into my apartment.” The delivery company told me otherwise. I called Walmart and spoke to the delivery manager and he was furious. He told me they would bring the TVs into my apartment because that “was the contract” they had with the delivery company. It was a matter of manpower. The delivery company wanted to use one guy, have him leave my stuff in the street and leave. Bringing the stuff into my apartment meant turning off the truck, unloading the TVs and then having a second guy help carry the things. In the end, it all turned out and Walmart got their way, but I definitely had the feeling from the delivery guys that this was highly unusual. I tipped them both $20 just to make sure everyone felt okay in the end.
Well today’s the day! Well, maybe. Perhaps. Possibly. I think so. All this jive about the carrier telephoning to set up an appointment is something that doesn’t happen regularly according to some of the people that have dealt with this company.
Monday evening, I decided to be proactive and search around their site and found a Schedule a Delivery interface. The only date available was today, Thursday (So much for “Get it Wednesday……”) and only one time slot was available. I grabbed it because I figured in an hour that would disappear and it would be Friday or later before I got it. Not sure if they ever would have called me to schedule a delivery if I hadn’t done that. Some folks finally called in frustration and were told that the carrier had been waiting to hear from them…
I sent off a quick email and asked the carrier if they could bump me to Wednesday if anything opened up because that was my scheduled day off and Amazon indicated that that is when it will be delivered. Their email reply noted that this was sent economy and therefore would not be delivered until at least 8/2. Hmm.
Of course, Amazon is covered here because the Get it Wednesday…. was free shipping and their support page indicates that they will cheerfully refund my shipping charges if the date promised was missed…. cue up Billy Preston’s Nothin’ from Nothing LeeeeAHeaaaaaves nothin’ please. Sing with me if you like.
I emailed the local hub and they replied that I am scheduled for today. I had forgotten to ask about the whole drop it to the curb treatment so I emailed the main customer service address again. They replied that they will bring it inside the front door only. I didn’t want to get into a ping pong match about what constitutes inside the front door. Inside the lobby? Inside my apartment door? Sigh….
I called them and the woman that answered the phone sounded impatient and said “is there an elevator?” I told her that there was not but it was only about 12 stairs. “Well, they should bring it in for you…” Should being the operative word.
So here I sit. Home alone with a mammoth package coming today that may sit in the lobby until I can call someone (no idea who) to bring it up for me. If that happens, I’ll open my door and wave to it every once in a while so it understands that it’s not unwanted. I wouldn’t want it to be sad, as I will be sad enough.
I have two crisp $20s on the table that will hopefully serve as appropriate grease for the delivery folks and help them take pity on me and bring it up.
I will post the outcome later today!
Oh, I love your story, Beth! Such rich detail! I can’t wait to see what happens.
Just make sure you give the delivery guys the $20 upfront for “helping you” get it inside your apartment. Don’t wait until the deed is done or in risk of not being done. On a side note, I find that tipping the Comcast installation techs upfront to “get me the best modem/cable box/DVR in your truck” works wonders as they find you a new modem/cable box/DVR and one that hasn’t been previously used by 20 other households. I always say something like, “I want to buy you lunch…” as I give them the money so they don’t feel like I’m tipping them directly for the favor of doing their job the right way. SMILE!
Success!
A nice, young fellow rang the bell and when I answered he said “Second floor right? I’ll bring it up for you.” He struggled. I figured there would be multiple people since these services are usually used for oversize and overweight pieces. I gave him a big tip for being so nice. I managed to maneuver it into place and it’s calibrating now. So we have a very happy ending.
It’s kind of a shame that any time Amazon uses anyone other than Fedex or UPS it causes such anxiety though. Two thumbs up today though. I don’t have windows that face the street so I don’t know if it was actually Pilot that delivered the box but whoever it was, was great.
I’m so glad it all worked out for you, Beth. I agree these secondary and tertiary intermediaries can be maddening when it comes to delivery.
I am sorry for your experiences. I was so worried that my items would come late just like yours as my only source of knowledge of A1 International is your article (and various other horror tales I found online). Fortunately, my first experience with A1 international was a good one as my package did arrive on time as promised. The only problem I have with A1, however, is that their only tracking system does not update when it should, I was never told the package left its distribution center and that I was never told it was being delivered. And they never replied my e-mail…
Great thread. Sorry to all of you who had trouble. It gave me pause before placing a “same day” order, but I went ahead anyway and, FYI, it all went fine. I’m not trying to defend A1, who I have no doubt could be a messed up company. But since on the web in general unhappy customers seem (neither surprisingly nor unreasonably) to post more than happy customers (why would happy customer bother to post things, after all?) I thought I’d post my experience to give some data on the other side.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, and i have had similar problems with UPS (although i think that my delivery guy or neighbor just felt like having a new video game.) and amazon helped me out.
when they lost my PSP, amazon gave me a refund, and i walked over to my neighborhood target and bought one.
If i were in your position, after the first day i would have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and been on my way to Duane Reed.
We are buying for $79 unlimited second day shipping and next day for $3.99
Honestly I think Amazon.com does a pretty darn good job. Express shipping is very expensive, so Amazon is left with two options: raise the price of Prime, which will probably make you equally unhappy, (but maybe I’m wrong) or try to lower their shipping cost. We cannot have it all.
I’d gladly pay an extra $20 or so for a “Super Prime” that allows you to choose your carrier. It’s utter shit that we still have to deal with this while almost every other e-retailer worth a damn allows you to choose your carrier. Look at NewEgg. Most places only offer UPS or FedEx. They offer both! I was reminded of this page because I just got screwed by Amazon UK for the first time. In the past, they’ve always shipped to my in the US via Royal Mail, and things showed up fast.. However, they’ve started sticking everyone with DHL. DHL is apparently incapable of delivering anything to the US now. I had to wait over 3 weeks for them to declare the shipment lost. They shipped the replacement with Royal Mail. I had it in THREE DAYS! I’m tired of this goddamn runaround. I shouldn’t have to pay 10x the price for express shipping to avoid it, IF that even avoids it.
I think the economy is pressing these mandatory delivery changes. Apple.com now ships ONLY via “FedEx Home.” You can’t buy early AM delivery any longer. They ship it slow and messy now — very un-Apple like, too.
Got my package via A-1 couriers. My building super took
delivery and asked for the name of the courier company
that delivered my package when he brought it to me. I asked
him why. He has the deliveryman on video urinating in the
elevator. I guess you get what you pay for. I’m done with
Amazon.
Oh, my! How fitting and how sadly funny. I’m so glad they got caught on video, though. Proves our point! SMILE!
I apologize if this isn’t the appropriate arena for me to vent my frustrations with Amazon Prime. My issues are with Amazon itself, and not the companies they use for shipping. I am an Amazon Prime member which means I pay an annual fee to get free 2-day shipping on any Amazon Prime eligible item. I placed an order for a few dvds that all said they were Amazon Prime eligible and in stock. All of the items said very explicitly, order within the next 10+ hours to receive it Wednesday, November 23rd for free under Amazon Prime shipping. Before actually placing the order I contacted Amazon via chat to verify when I should receive the items. He confirmed they should all arrive Wednesday the 23rd. Once I placed the order, it said they would all arrive on November 28th. I contacted Amazon and after an hour-long conversation (where they confirmed all items were available and eligible for free 2-day shipping), they finally decided I should cancel the order and place it again with 1-day shipping. Amazon charges $3.99 per item to ship 1-day. They said they would reimburse my credit card for the $3.99 per item. I placed the order with 1-day shipping, and even though each item said 1-day shipping for $3.99 per item would get it here tomorrow, the shipping estimate date is Wednesday, November 23rd (the date I should be receiving the items for FREE under Amazon Prime anyway). After all was said and done, I’m not getting reimbursed on my credit card. They gave me an Amazon credit for the shipping fee instead, so the money stays with Amazon anyway.
After hanging up with Amazon, I took some time to think about what happened, decided I still wasn’t happy with their resolution attempts, and I decided to call them again a few hours later. I basically got nowhere. I never raised my voice or swore or did any of the customer service no-no’s. She was nice, but basically said there wasn’t much she could do. She offered to take the credit for shipping back and wait until the items arrived and then she’d refund my credit card, which I suppose is something, but not really enough. I went back and put the same items in my cart and they all still said they were available and eilgible for 2-day free shipping, but now they say if I chose 1-day shipping I would actually receive them tomorrow instead of Wednesday like my current order. It’s not like I live in the middle of nowhere. I asked her if this same situation were to happen to her, what would she would want done, and she pretty much refused to answer the question–gave a lot of “Amazon tries really hard to fulfill each customer’s needs, but we’re a world-wide company yada yada.” It’s not that I want something for nothing, but I just want more than they’re offering! Yet again, I sat and mulled the experience over and decided to try one more time, and this time I would ask to speak with a manager.
The manager did nothing. She said she’d have them update the website stating the items may be delayed so that no other customers had the same issue as I had. Gee thanks. That’s so helpful to me and fixes my problem. I’m just really angry that I placed an order well within the Prime stated time (the website STILL said you can order it to get it by Wednesday) to get it by Wednesday, then had to pay an additional $23.94 for it to get here tomorrow, AND IT STILL WON”T BE HERE UNTIL WEDNESDAY! That of course assumes I don’t have any problems with the carrier. Thus far I’ve been fortunate enough to have good experiences with the actual shipping companies, so I suppose at this point there’s nothing more I can do. I still have almost a full year left on my Prime subscription, and I’m afraid if I try to cancel it I won’t be reimbursed. I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and not turn to Amazon for my every need any more. Thank you for having a place for us to voice our concerns with Amazon Prime and their shipping practices.
I know this is far from the original date of your article, but I found it when looking up other reviews of A1’s Courier services to add story to the list. Amazon had still not changed their delivery service, I just had A1 deliver a book. And when I say deliver I mean stand from the door of their car on the sidewalk and literally fling the package (which was fortunately a book and not something breakable) at my door with an audible clang (my office window faces the street). As they sped off, with my neighbor asking who she worked for, she nearly hit my neighbor’s husband driving off. There was no logo on the girls shirt, no logo on her car. I’m calling Amazon later tonight to file my complaint.
Welp, Kristie, it’s good to know bad things never change. SMILE! There’s no freshness date on the awfutility that are A1. I’ve been tempted to buy an Amazon Kindle Fire — but since I know it will be delivered locally by A1, I’m not buying. I don’t want the hassle and the dangerous silliness you describe so well in your comment.
Hello, dave!
I’ve been reading your article about A-1, and their awful customer service.
I recently ordered two games via same-day delivery at 5:30AM this morning.
Its now 6:30 PM, still waiting.
(Tracking Information:
We’re sorry. We are unable to retrieve tracking information for this shipment at this time. )
I go to A-1’s website, to see if I can find other information
02/14/2012
6:30 AM
Shipment manifested for transit to A-1
What is the point of doing same-day delivery if they cant provide the product at a SOMEWHAT reasonable time?
I’ve never understood the A-1 system. It makes you crazy because it makes no sense and I don’t think they really want us to know in “real time” exactly where they are and when they plan to arrive. Let us know what happens!
I’ve been DUP’D…I ordered something same-day express from Amazon this morning, then as I went to track it I stumbled across all of the reviews for A-1 — it was my first time ordering same-day, but still, I feel blindsided as I hadn’t ever expected Amazon to engage in horrible business practices.
The tracking says “out for delivery” as of one hour ago. It’s not a matter of life or death, but I really wanted to go out tonight (Friday) and I have a feeling I’ll be losing some social life, possibly to discover that the thing comes tomorrow, Sunday or not at all.
Thank you all the same for your making us aware; your post has not gone unnoticed (ref: http://www.marco.org/2010/08/05/a-1-courier-service-has-ruined-amazon-prime).
Hi Julia!
Thanks for the sad confirmation that A-1 is still a big problem. I haven’t ordered anything from Amazon for delivery because of this A-1 mess. I do order the ocasional MP3 from their music store, though — because their prices are good and delivery is instant online. I won’t risk another, non-virtual, A-1 debacle, though.
Hey, thanks for the link to Marco.org! I love that guy! Excellent software and I read his blog every day. I don’t know how I missed that cool link to this article from two years ago.
Hi David,
Just thought I would add my most recent experience with A-1:
My regular USPS mailman just brought me an opened empty box that he found in the street about a mile away that was addressed to me. He, said that he hoped it was just trash that had fallen off the garbage truck but thought he would bring it by just in case… Well it turns out that it was my package that was scheduled to be delivered today by A1 Courier service. When I checked the tracking info it said “delivered” and “Signed for by: White Door”.
This is the 3rd item that I’ve ordered from amazon that has been lost within a year after moving to this area; Yet in the previous 15 or so years of ordering from Amazon I’ve never an issue.
Area is Baltimore, MD if anyone is curious… not sure if A1 is national or regional…..
In the future I will be canceling any orders being shipped via A1 as a previous poster said
You have a good mailman! I’m sorry to hear of your woe, but I did laugh out loud when I read, “Signed for by: White Door.” Now that’s some comedy genius there!
I understand A-1 are ruining Amazon. You’re smart not to allow Amazon to use that service to sell good to you. I confess to buying MP3s and Office Mac 2011 from Amazon last night — but those purchases are instand-deliver downloads, so I don’t mind rewarding that non-A-1 behavior. SMILE!
P.S. — I have NOT renewed my Amazon Prime subscription, though! Big victories are won in small steps!
UPDATE:
We lost a few comments in a blog hosting move. If your thoughts are missing, please take a moment to repost your comments and we’ll get them back online ASAP! Thank you!
Wow! I have not had A-1 deliver anything to me here in TX, but I see A-1 as my delivery service I will just immediately cancel the order and buy whatever it is I want from somewhere else.
Sorry to hear all of the A-1 disasters. As poor as this service is and as many times as they have had to offer refunds, re-send items, and give gift cards, I’d think they still be losing money.
Here’s my story:
Ordered a new macbook pro on 7/18/12 and selected 1 day delivery through a local carrier. Paid about $3.99 w/ the prime discount. Guess what? It was A1 Courier. Throughout the day on 7/19 I checked the tracking progress. Everything seemed normal as they reported when it was received at the facility and in transit. At about 5pm I sat at the front of the door at the place I work with the door wide open. That way the delivery person could just walk on in.
At 6:29pm I receive the following text notification: “The carrier attempted to deliver your package and will try again”
Grrrrr, I was so mad. I ran outside hoping to see a delivery car pulling out. No such luck. I called Amazon customer service and was fuming. They said on their notes it said there was no one available to sign. I told them that was a flat out lie and no one even attempted to come up to the delivery location. They did the usual I’m sorry about that routine. I asked if they could instead delivery it to my home (thinking I would just sit by the window all day to make sure they wouldn’t do a quick drive by). They said they would try to contact the A1 to see if this request could be made. Since at that time they were closed the suggested I call back the next morning.
7/20/10 @ 6:05am: I called Amazon and they connected me to an A1 rep over in New York. I explained my story to her. She said that the business name was not listed on the order. Seemed like she was implying that this was a reason why I didn’t get the package. Instead of arguing with her I said what are they going to do about the situation now. She asked for my company name and the time we closed and assured me it would be delivered today before 5pm. She gave me her number to callback at around 2pm in case it hadn’t arrived yet.
As the day goes by…..nothing. 2pm rolls around and I give A1 a call. The girl I talked to gave me this “ugh” reaction when I told her I hadn’t received the package yet. She put me on hold and said that I WILL recieve the laptop by 5pm. Thinking A1 would close at 5pm I decided I would wait until about 4:45pm before I tried calling them again for an update. Well, when I called back at that time I could no longer get through nor leave a vm. I checked my tracking information online and saw that they had not updated it yet. So I decided to go outside and just wait………
AND NOW THE GOOD PART (if that’s what you want to cal it)
I’m walking around outside the office building and I see this dark blue small sedan car pull up to the building next to mine. I see a guy get out running to the door. He tried opening it up but it was locked. He was also carrying a large box. HMMMMMMMM.
So I yell out to him “Hey! Are you A1”
He looked at me all confused and walked over to him. I ask him again if he’s with A1. Still no answer. So I tell him my name. He looks at the box and……DING DING DING…..its my package!! So I’m pretty excited and I ask him
“Do you need me to sign anything?”
He…..says…….no. Then jogs back over to his car and takes off.
In the end, I am even more upset than I was the day before. I’m sure you can imagine why. So as soon as I get home I call Amazon again. Tell them my whole story and how no signature was taken. They said that they it shows on their system that I signed off on it. That made me even more angry! I said that’s flat out forgery. I told them that I could have easily called them up and said I never received. They would have had to refund me or send me a replacement and I would have had a free laptop. I was seriously thinking of doing this but I would’ve been just like them. She apologized using the same script that I’m sure she used with others. She said she would notify A1 about this order so they could be……….educated. I was speachless. I told her that this isn’t good enough. She said she would have the shipping department notified. She offered me a $20 amazon gift certificate.
I’m still in shock just thinking that any Joe Schmoe couldn’ve walked up to the delivery guy and said “Hey, that’s my package”. The second thing is that they said I signed off on it. Anyways, I’m not sure how much further I should take this. What would you suggest?
I really do appreciate you opening up this forum so that many of amazon’s customers can see the extent of A1’s corrupt and irresponsible business practices.
Thanks for sharing that outstanding detail, Tony!
Stories like yours will become the norm as Amazon begins to build new warehouses in states like TX and NJ so they can promise even more products for “Same Day Delivery” and that unfortunately appears to mean, at least in the short term, that A-1 will be their delivery service of record. Ugh!
I just had a crappy experience with A-1. I had my package shipped to my office, and instead of just delivering it where I paid to have it sent to, A-1 decided they would simply drop it at another building down the street. Not in a next-door apartment, not at a next-door building. At a building DOWN THE STREET. The front desk employee was nice enough to drive around to find the building with the correct address, and then look up the phone number for my building and call me. What a joke of a shipping company.
I’m not asking them to ship it in my general direction. I’m PAYING for it to be delivered TO me. Like, at the address listed on the label. What a joke.
Thanks for the comment, Amanda. Based on the comments here — A-1, for some reason, just doesn’t seem to care about precise delivery. I guess the company is not held responsible if these packages are actually delivered or not.
For my address, they are not reliable. They consistently show up late at night on the delivery date – we’re talking 10pm! And when they can’t, they lie about delivery so that the tracking says delivered and really just show up early the next morning – AFTER the delivery date – we’re talking 7:30 AM next day! I asked soap.com to stop employing them for my orders but Amazon Prime doesn’t give me the choice. Not so “Prime”
I find their behavior so strange and I am uncertain how they are able to stay in business treating customers so poorly.
Also, disgusted, but not even slightly surprised by A1s comment. So happy you caught their IP!
Right, sid! It was a delight to catch them right here in their deceptive deviousness!
This thread has been consistently commented on for TWO YEARS! Is this a record? I noticed you metioned the popularity remaining #1.
I’ve noticed a few things:
A) ALL complaints come from Amazon Prime members
B) Majority of complaints come from NYC proper (if not all, my eyes got buggy after a while 🙂 )
Is it a safe assumption to think that Amazon’s shipping faux paux is relegated to the Big Apple? I’ve been doing business with Amazon as a ‘regular’ customer, utilizing ‘free super saver shipping’ every chance I get and I have had zero complications with shipping or customer service.
I suspect if you chose two day shipping and lived in the NY area you’d most likely also get A1. The reason that most of the complaints here are from NY is that A1 is local (and people are hitting the blog by searching for A-1). Now that I”m on the other coast, we get Ontrac for these types of shipments. I don’t know that they are that much better, but I suspect if you searched for any of the other shippers that Amazon uses, you’d hit similar types of complaints.
As of the last quarter, Amazon now ships more items through Prime than from the “free shipping”
Amazon really needs to get this fixed. It’s their reputation on the line and the age of this article and thread suggest things are not really getting better!
Non-prime, Baltimore resident here. I used the free super saver shipping. So I think it’s safe to say that the problem is spreading…
It will likely get worse before it gets better. If there is a verifiable delivery complaint path for claimed “not home” deliveries, we wouldn’t be complaining because we’re all available when the deliveries are allegedly attempted. It’s the contemptuous lying is what makes us angry.
A-1 is not just the NYC area, Lillian. They are in other cities, too.
The “locker delivery” at convenience stores approach that Amazon is starting to use is a much more preferable, and reliable, way of getting a package if it oversteps these “same day” independent delivery companies.
For the record: I’ve never seen a courier service deliver anything to me. It’s always been USPS, hence I’ve used a commercial address rather than “Dorman” (hee hee 🙂 ) to get my stuff.
The more I see ‘lost’ shipments, I’m thinking mob. The more they refuse to change, the more the customers complain, and the more nothing is done screams GODFATHER to me. Just saying. Maybe I’ve watched too many movies, but this just doesn’t make sense.
P.S. —
No, we have lots of old articles that still get lots of interest — like my American Chopper piece:
http://celebritysemiotic.com/2010/02/11/the-family-tragedy-of-american-chopper/
Other blog stories on the other sites also get comments on articles that are five or six years old.
Interesting. 🙂
It really boggles the mind how a company like A-1 can stay in business. It’s even more unbelievable that Amazon is still using them after what, 5 YEARS, of people complaining about them constantly? I know UPS and others suck for some people but nothing like these 3rd rate a**holes. I live in a rural area that’s not plagued by A-1, but we were getting Prestige for a while there. That’s why I got rid of Prime. Amazon UK started failing too. They used to send everything to the US via Royal Mail, but now it’s g*ddamn DHL and the packages don’t show up. Royal Mail takes less than a week, but these a**holes expect me to wait 3 weeks or more just for them to declare the package missing, then wait for them to re-ship it. What’s really p*ssing me off lately is everyone else using this UPS Mail Innovations and FedEx Smartpost garbage lately. Worse than media mail. Took like 6 days to get a package from Ohio to WESTERN PA! I’d gladly shell out the extra 50 cents to send a DVD First Class but nobody will give the g*ddamn option. It’s either free super eco snail mail or spend $5+ on shipping.
[Comment edited by David W. Boles for language content.]
Allow me to add my name to the list of A-1 skeptics. I’ve been at home waiting all day for my package to arrive (Ordered “The Killing Joke” with free 2 day shipping from Amazon Prime). When I first saw A-1 as a the courier service, I was confused, as I had never heard of them, but now, after having looked them up and seeing their reputation, I do not have high hopes for the arrival of my book. Even worse is that around 6 pm, I was still waiting, and the tracker said out for delivery. Mysteriously, after 8, the tracker updated to say attempted delivery around 2:30.
I am not pleased.
I feel for you, Malcolm!
The trick that A-1 have figured out is to only update delivery status after the day is over and you have no recourse to argue with the faked delivery attempt times until the next day. Let us know when the package actually shows up!
And so it has arrived as of 6:00 PM yesterday! To my immense surprise. I waited outside of my apartment building for about an hour around their last supposed delivery time, and no show, so I assumed the worst, and called their offices. Had to call quite a few times before I got in contact with someone, and that person couldn’t really help me beyond letting me know that the delivery guy stays out until 8:00, so my package could still be in transit. Some hours later while outside in the downtown area, I get a phone call from their hub, courteously telling me that there’s a delivery agent waiting to be let in downstairs, and asking if I could let him in.
Imagine my surprise!
I get home later on that night, and lo and behold: package!
I don’t know what to make of this.
Wow, what a story, Malcolm. I’m so glad your finally have your package but what a hassle full of unnecessary lies and deceptions to get it!
What will you do in the future? Will you risk another A-1 “delivery” experience or not?
I’ve been doing my best to avoid A-1 so far by buying from sellers who sell through the Amazon website, rather than Amazon directly. I would truly rather not have to deal with A-1 again if I don’t have to. Ending on a positive note aside, I think the overall experience simply isn’t worth the trouble.
Thanks for listening.
Reading the positive outcome of Malcolm’s experience with A1, an old saying comes to mind that is meaningless today but will mean something to those over 40: “even a broken clock is right twice a day”! They are just not dependable, nor is Amazon in ridding itself of substandard delivery companies
Another Amazon Prime member here in Baltimore, MD. Ordered a bluetooth headset on 9/7 for delivery Saturday 9/8. Did not arrive. Order tracking says “Delivery attempted – September 8, 2012 8:11:00 PM,” which is hard to believe since someone was at home. Spent quite a lot of time on the phone with Amazon already. We’ll see what happens. Unfortunately the item is an important, time-sensitive birthday gift. Birthday party’s today and I will not have the gift. Very disappointed. Amazon has refunded the $8.99 Saturday delivery fee but the damage is done. Why does Amazon keep using this company? There seem to be so many similar complaints. Is there more I can do with Amazon to express dissatisfaction with the shipping service?
You make an excellent point, Phil. When we call Amazon to complain about a messed up A-1 delivery, Amazon needs to go in fast recovery mode — no discussion — apologize, make it right and re-ship immediately using an established national carrier. I hate it when Amazon defends A-1 and asks us to be patient with their lies.
David, I stumbled on your page when I Googled for A1’s tracking page. This order from Amazon was the first time I had ever heard of the service. I may have received parcels from Amazon via A1 in the past without knowing it. To the best of my knowledge, Amazon has always used one of the major carriers, UPS?, to deliver to me.
The twist here is that I am expecting the parcel at an Amazon Locker. I have used Amazon Locker twice before with great success. UPS delivered both times. My house is somewhat hard to find but Fedex and UPS have been fairly good about finding the address. Still, I don’t like the uncertainty and the risk of a parcel left outside before I can take it inside. The Locker eliminates those issues and I’m in one of the early test markets, so I avail myself of it.
Until I stumbled across this page, it didn’t occur to me that I would have to worry about the parcel not reaching the locker. It would not be as easy to lie about a delivery to a Locker as they have about the attempts to your residences or offices in the stories I have read here. The Locker is in Amazon’s control. I suppose they could hack the protocol and claim a delivery to a Locker that has not be actually made. Or they could be incompetent in other ways like stick it in the wrong Locker or be late and require me to contact Amazon. To be fair, I am expecting delivery today and they have not messed up yet. (I will report back how it goes.)
It seems to me that Amazon is a cold hard numbers driven business. For all the complaints that are reported here–and the number that are suffered without being aired publicly–enough must succeed at a cost savings to justify in Amazon’s calculus (or econometrics) to continue the use of these third tier delivery services. That is why the complaints and figuring out who lied on a particular delivery doesn’t matter to Amazon; error rates have already been factored into the equations. They have already made the cost benefit analysis. Prime is a winner and they do what they can to continue parading it as an affordable service to the masses, even if that means pissing off a lot of vocal customers.
I suspect the savings are significant for Amazon. UPS and Fedex in my area–and probably in most places in this country–are high quality professional services. You feel the difference when dealing with DHL. How much cheaper must A1 be?
So getting to choose USP or Fedex would probably cost a lot more than a $20 bump per year. Whatever it does cost, there are probably loyal Amazon customers who would pay the true difference. At least make it available. Titanium Prime for $300 a year?
Thanks for the excellent analysis, Ming. I think you’re right on target. Amazon doesn’t care about pockets of non-delivery because A-1 does just enough to stay out of hot water with them — though we usually have a stronger defense on the other side of the realm in these sorts of critical analysis pieces. Nobody really ever comes here regularly to rave about A-1.
Hearing that A-1 delivers to the Amazon locker dismays me. I loved idea of getting around A-1 games by, perhaps, using locker delivery in the future. Now that I know A-1 would still be my delivery service of record, that option is out for me.
I’d love to publish a review of the Amazon Locker. If you have a review in you, along with some images of what one looks like and how it all works with codes and things, I’d love to publish it here!
Well, using locker won’t let you get around A1. Look at this:
Shipment Date: November 28, 2012
Destination: Vienna, VA, US
Estimated Arrival: November 29, 2012
Track your package
Date Time Location Event Details
November 29, 2012 11:16:00 AM Beltsville MD US Delivery attempted
November 29, 2012 01:02:00 AM Beltsville MD US Shipment received by carrier
November 28, 2012 03:28:00 PM Breinigsville PA US Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit to carrier
Today is Nov. 30. Nothing happened!
What a raw experience, Ethan! I wonder why they can’t get their act together? Do you have an ETA for redelivery?
I called Amazon several times. Finally, A1 delivered my package on Saturday Dec. 1st, instead of Monday. This is just awful. I won’t trust Amazon for overnight/1-day/2-day shipping any more!
Thanks for the update, Ethan!
It’s sad to me that this blog post is 2+ years old, and nothing has changed. I recently went through my own A-1 purgatory experience. Why is Amazon still using this terrible company?
Also, something else besides missed deliveries and lost packages: I had one particularly obnoxious and sleazy A-1 delivery guy who blatantly hit on me as I signed for my package. He asked me how old I was, if I had a boyfriend, if I lived alone, etc. I refused to answer any of his in appropriate questions and did nothing to encourage him. The fact that he knew where I lived gave me the CREEPS. Ick, ick, ick. Shame on Amazon for doing business with a bunch of crooks like A-1.
Thanks for writing this post.
That is definitely a creepy experience! Please call Amazon and report the inappropriate behavior! The more of us who refuse to take this sort of treatment and go on the record with Amazon directly will help make a future difference!
I always do a Google search when I get an unfamiliar shipper from Amazon, and I’m not really excited to find this. Fortunately for me the fact that I have a doorman to sign for packages should prevent them from blatantly lying. I also had an okay experience with one of the other undesirable carriers, Lasership, a year ago so hopefully I’ll continue my lucky streak.
It does sadden me to see that so many people have had bad experiences with this courier and Amazon has made no move to get rid of their services or to remedy the problem.
Hi Andrew —
Unfortunately, a doorman may not mean much when it comes to A-1 — because we have all been aware and waiting for a delivery from them THAT NEVER ARRIVES — even though they claim we were not home. Living in a doorman building only means they’ll make up some other excuse that will drive you mad.
Be sure to lets us know how the delivery experience works out for you in the end.
I guess I’m one of the lucky few to come away unscathed. I was pleasantly surprised when my doorman told me I had a package, which had arrived two days ahead of the estimated ship date.
However, I wouldn’t give A-1 too much credit, the fulfillment center closest to my home in Boston is only an hour away in Nashua, New Hampshire. Also, the item didn’t ship for two days after I ordered it, so I’m just going to count myself lucky and hope I don’t get these guys again.
Thanks for the update, and I’m glad you received your package. You’re in Massachusetts, right?
That is correct.
Thanks for the confirmation! We’re trying to track down these problems and successes by region. NYC and the surround area appear to suffer the worst.
Please note that this A-1 Courier that delivers for AMAZON is really A-1 International !!!!! and unfortunately for other A-1 Companies that use the name A-1 they are screwed by this sham of a company . Please tell everyone that has a delivery coming from AMAZON that they are known as A-1 International and have nothing to do with a company based in Cherry Hill NJ that is Aces above these poor examples of a delivery company . I am the owner of A-1 Courier in “South Jersey “and I get my fair share of calls from people looking for their pkg. I have even complained to AMAZON myself telling them to list their number when they attept to deliver a pkg. ! We have nothing to do withis company and are consulting with our legal dept about taking action against them for tarnishing our name
Hi Brian!
Thanks for sharing information about your A-1 service vs. “THAT OTHER” similarly named service.
Please let us know how it goes for you getting everything worked out to help clarify your position in the marketplace. We are with you!
A-1, at it again. I paid for overnight delivery, and it’s now day 3 since I ordered. Amazon refunded my overnight charge after day 1 with no package. They supposedly re-routed the package from my office to my home after day 2 with no package. (I say supposedly because Amazon told me they emailed A-1 to request a re-route, but I never heard back after that.) Now I see today that delivery was attempted without any success, which is crazy because there are doormen at both buildings. I’ve been a Prime customer for years and somehow managed to avoid A-1 until now. I’m shocked that Amazon still uses them after years of problems like this. I don’t have a blog, so I don’t think I’ll be hearing from any Deborahs at Amazon, but I hope they eventually figure out how bad this makes them look, having selected a vendor like this.
I, too, am amazed, John, that these identical stories keep piling up and up about failed deliveries. Clearly, Amazon doesn’t really care about getting it fixed and had no real, vested, interest in making these problems go away for us. It’s shameful, really.
Is there any new news on A-1’s status (or perhaps demise)?
I don’t know if anything has changed, Lillian. I haven’t ordered anything from Amazon for delivery since I wrote this article.
A1 is still a problem in November 2014…
Yikes! What happened?
I’ve been lucky, then, that my last few Amazon orders have arrived via UPS!
Still a problem in January 2015. I paid extra for same day shipping, I needed the items today and could not get to a store to purchase them.
Amazon guaranteed delivery at 9:00 pm. At 8:55 pm my account shows the shipment as being delivered.
It was not. Nor was it delivered to any nearby neighbor’s house. I’m not only ticked about the unfulfilled service guarantee, but the fact that who knows what part time undocumented driver has my info on the packing slip.
I’m not paying to deal with creepy and unreliable companies. I’m saying goodbye to Amazon Prime after 9 years. They’ve let third parties destroy their business, from sleazy sellers that they partner with to shady delivery companies.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I have been thinking of rejoining Amazon Prime — but now that I understand their delivery problems are still askew — I don’t think the time is right.
UPDATE:
Well, it took Amazon five long years, but they pulled me back in this January with an irresistible deal:
https://twitter.com/DavidBoles/status/559063590271844353
Welp, it was good while it lasted, but Amazon kicked me again today!
They now run their own “delivery service” and if you see “AMZL” or “AMZL_US” as your delivery service, be prepared to hurt!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/forums/ref=cs_hc_g_tv?ie=UTF8&forumID=Fx1SKFFP8U1B6N5&cdThread=Tx8142H9XD2VVZ
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/forums/ref=cs_hc_g_tv?ie=UTF8&forumID=Fx1SKFFP8U1B6N5&cdThread=TxCWSSDKY2O04K
You call Amazon and they blame you — check your hallway, ask your neighbors, go look outside, check your mailbox, wait a few days to see if it shows up and then call us back…
https://twitter.com/DavidBoles/status/614145288660512772
Will I ever learn?
Goodbye forever — AGAIN! — Amazon Prime!
This is officially crazy. I ordered my speech text book before the beginning of the summer session. A1 again. Here we are at the end of the session and yet no book. I ordered a bluetooth headset, had A1 again. I live in Gaithersburg MD and that is where it had to be delivered. I track my package and get bullshit like, delivery attempt in Beltsville MD.I have never been there. I really don’t understand all this nonsense.