Amazon rant...

[Torvy]

Fedx uses all contract employees

Absolutely not true. Do they have some contract (1099) employees? Yes. Not even half of them. See above about difference between Gound and legacy Fedex.

 

[sandman2234]

I just carried a package down to one of the neighbor's houses, it was mis-delivered to the wrong address. They got it close, out of the 4 digit address, they just flipped the two center numbers. Was easier to run it up the street than to try to get ahold of Amazon or USPS to come pick it up and re-deliver it!
David from jax

 

[MattB4]

My neighbor's daughter is a delivery driver for FX and has been for 3 years now. She gets rather lousy pay (15/hr? I think is the last I heard) and no benefits. She is hoping to get on with UPS. As I understand it in our area there is a company that contracts with FX to provide delivery services and they buy vans and hire drivers (at rather crappy wages which ensures high turnover) to fulfill the contract.

I do not think being paid low is any excuse for someone to do a bad job. over my life I had to put up with a few low paying jobs myself. I did the best I could and at some I was rewarded and others I left for greener pastures when it became obvious that hard work would not get me anywhere.

 

[Tinhack]

FedEx is the worst around here, but they seem to be improving. FedEx used to just throw the package over the fence next to my driveway. My driveway is off a state highway with high traffic. They once delivered an Express Envelope to the hillbillies across the highway. I had to call the Sheriff to get it and they had already opened it.

I cringe every time I see someone shipping items to me through FedEx. The last item was my Bambu Labs 3D printer. Strangely, they delivered it to my back door--Up a 1/4-mile dirt driveway. Amazon does the same thing as well as UPS. The mailman used to bring packages to the house but no longer. He said if the house can't be seen from the road, they can't do it. A change of rules he said.

Amazon seems to be getting worse though. This past year, I've had 4-5 items just disappear and show no delivery. They said wait for three days and see if it shows up. I said you wait and to send me another item--It was supposed to be next day delivery. They did and I got that one. It was my new 25" PC display. I think they've lowered their standards for drivers. The stuff is going somewhere. And it's expensive stuff.

 

[5030]

LOL

Stop shopping at amazone if you want quality anything.

The slaves have it good because I have food on my table and shelter over my head why are they complaining? If they worked harder doing more free deliveries...

Not true and factually inaccurate. When purchasing anything from the Amazon website you have to use discretion and due diligence. Amazon now lists country origin in every product listed and pretty easy to discern where produced by the trade name of said product.

Case in point, I ordered and waiting for delivery, fingers crossed because the 'last mile will be Amazon delivery, a Hougen Hole Slugger magnetic drill and a full set of carbide tipped, Weldon shank annular cutters for it and was sold by Hougen Manufacturing and fulfilled by Amazon and that is most certainly a domestic produced product and I also ordered a tube of Hougen annular cutter paste lubricant, again, domestic made. In reality the Hougen Hole Slugger was a bit less costly from Amazon than if I ordered it direct from the manufacturers website plus it has free shipping, the Hougen website don't offer free shipping at all.

Was it cheap? Heck no it wasn't but it was cheaper than buying direct. All in, for the Mag drill and the cutters (which I can use in the slugger as well as either of my vertical mills) was just under a grand. They offer the 'Chinese' mag drills, I believe Vevor, for a lot less in cost but I want a domestic made unit, not a Chinese unit of questionable quality. I have a definite need for a mag drill and have for a while now, so I purchased one as well as the Hougen carbide tipped annular cutter set. Carbide tipped cutters last a lot longer than HSS cutters btw and the cutters come with pilots and are through the spindle coolant equipped as well.

All about practicing due diligence when purchasing anything from the Amazon website and that is EXACTLY what I do. I learned a long time ago that offshore produced stuff, so long as there is strict oversight used, can be as good as or even better than a domestically made product.

Case in point is the Vevor chainsaw sharpening grinder. The Vevor is substantially less that the corresponding Oregon chain grinder (which is actually made in Italy (by Tecomec Manufacturing and sold by Oregon (Blount, Inc.), and branded with the 'Oregon' trademark. The Vevor unit is almost 200 bucks less and the deth stop as well as the chain vise is superior to the Oregon grinder, I know, I have both of them and I was hesitant about buying the Vevor unit, but my fears were totally unfounded. The Vevor unit is a quality made unit, clean aluminum die castings and well finished. For me, saw chain grinding is an ongoing thing as I grind dull chains for all my arborist customers as well as their chipper knives.

With the rising cost of new saw loops today, it's become much more economical for them to have me resharpen dull chain loops rather than just replace them when dull or rocked. I have a real steady diet of chain sharpening and it's a nice value added aspect to my business.

I also purchase most of my carbide insert tooling from the Amazon website and it's all high quality Tungsten Carbide inserts and no offshore wannabe carbide of questionable quality. Even Kurt Manufacturing offers their domestic produced machine vises on Amazon as well as Aloris Manufacturing, another domestic producer of highly accurate tool posts for production and toolroom lathes at a better price point than say MSC for instance and like Hougen, MSC don't offer free shipping but Amazon does so long as you meet the minimum purchase criteria, which I usually do anyway.

My beef with them (Amazon) is their terrible delivery practice and their less than stellar drivers. Other than that aspect, I'm good with them.

I don't hire them but I do have to endure their shoddy hiring practices.

 

[ruffdog]

To the people having a problem getting stuff delivered to the wrong address....do you have good signage showing addresses at the road? The townships around here have installed new signs recently so it makes it easy which address you are at. Sure, it costs money, but it sure solves the problem.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

The UPS trucks are well maintained...

FedEx not so much and Amazon are often rolling wrecks within a year...

Our Fed Ex deliveries come in a U-Haul van. And one of them look like they had been a long term rental that lacked maintenance. Only thing Fed EX about the delivery is the shirt they are wearing.

 

[5030]

Interestingly, around here, print newspapers are no longer delivered by contract drivers paid by the publishers and are now delivered by USPS and we hardly ever get them in a timely manner and my wife requires a print edition to check her Township notices that are put in them by law. Typically, we get the Sunday rag on Tuesday if at all and the weekly rags are delivered at least a day late usually.

The local papers did that to save money and put their contract carriers out of business. I find that disgusting myself. Contractors were dependent on them for a living and got hammered because they cheaped out and bolstered their bottom line at the expense of their contract employees. Only rag that we get delivered now by contract carrier is the Toledo Blade and it's always on time and neatly put in a plastic sleeve and my wife and I appreciate that and always give the carrier added compensation on the holidays. Just the right thing to do IMO.

General consensus is the economy is sliding downhill and employment at a decent wage is declining and then you have print papers eliminating jobs in the name of a better bottom line. That really disgusts me.

Learned long ago you have to spend money to make money and the only difference between making it and going broke is being shrewd about things in general. I always make money with my business, not as much as I'd like to make (naturally), but I still do regardless.

 

[Eagle1]

Our Fed Ex deliveries come in a U-Haul van. And a one of them look like they had been a long term rental that lacked maintenance. Only thing Fed EX about the delivery is the shirt they are wearing.

Everything here is contract, every new postal carrier will drive an absolute POS until they make enough to afford a better vehicle. Lots of missed mail deliveries until they upgrade.
FedEx Ground and UPS both will have the gravel roads destroy their trucks in less than a year. Running 80-120 stops without seeing pavement does a number on the step vans and they will deliver using a rental box truck until a new ride shows up.

 

[5030]

To the people having a problem getting stuff delivered to the wrong address....do you have good signage showing addresses at the road? The townships around here have installed new signs recently so it makes it easy which address you are at. Sure, it costs money, but it sure solves the problem.

Of course we do and always have. Our street (road address) is prominently displayed on the 3 rail fence next to the main drive and it's also displayed in a lighted sign that they can easily see after dark, plus it's also displayed on the roadside mailbox on both sides in large reflective letters and numbers. That don't seem to help any as they still deliver to the wrong address or don't deliver at all and that applies in spades to Amazon, which brings me to believe their quality of delivery drivers is either lacking or they just don't give a hoot.