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.