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I have not purchased a single item online since before March, due to multiple bad past experiences. In no particular order:
1) drivers can lie or misrepresent delivery by marking something as delivered when it has not yet been delivered ( even if they customarily take a photo of something on your porch , a driver can simply skip that step entirely with no repercussions to himself/herself and thus no accountability).
2) items can be lost en route due to various logistical mishaps
3) warehouse workers can screw addresses up
4) items can be stolen from one’s porch
5) a roommate can steal or misplace your item
6) you can get sick of sitting around all day for an 8- hour delivery window and venture out, only to miss a delivery
Etc.
Google says failure rates are commonly in the range of 10 - 40%.
This is alarmingly high. Imagine if your car wouldn’t start 10-40% of the time. You would be absolutely furious. So why do so many people accept this rate for online shopping?
And why is there no greater push to actually solve the problems? Even amazon locker is limited and doesn’t accept some types of items.
If you want me to shop online, you either have to reduce the failure rate 10X or you need to give me continuous video surveillance of the item and fire workers, including executives, with a high rate of botched deliveries. Until that time, I will continue to shop in person ( with a mask and face shield until pandemic ends).
Some of you are probably going to say you shop online a lot and it almost never goes wrong. But unless we can determine exactly what factors make the risk lower for your mode of online shopping, that is not exactly helpful to those of us who have results more in line with the commonly quoted statistics. We don’t know whether it is because your address is less frequently mistyped, less frequently skipped by drivers, less prone to package theft, or what not. In other words, anecdotes are not data.
This is alarmingly high. Imagine if your car wouldn’t start 10-40% of the time. You would be absolutely furious. So why do so many people accept this rate for online shopping?
First thought off the top of my head is that most people "accept" it because the mishaps you enumerated rarely to never happen to them. In other words, there is nothing to "accept." They order online, they get their shipment. Speaking for myself, even though this will be a dreaded anecdote, the worst that has ever happened is that a package was delayed by a few days. Which, considering the logistics of delivering the volume of packages that are sent from one end of the world to the other these days, can be understood.
Second thought is that the people who actually have those really terrible experiences don't accept it either. They stop ordering online. Like you.
My anecdote is that the mistakes you listed do not happen to me. Ok it happened once that amazon delivered the wrong cat food because the box was mislabeled but it was acceptable because they quickly shipped a new box and didn't even ask for the wrong food back (my cat is super picky so I ended up taking it to the shelter).
ISome of you are probably going to say you shop online a lot and it almost never goes wrong. But unless we can determine exactly what factors make the risk lower for your mode of online shopping, that is not exactly helpful to those of us who have results more in line with the commonly quoted statistics. We don’t know whether it is because your address is less frequently mistyped, less frequently skipped by drivers, less prone to package theft, or what not. In other words, anecdotes are not data.
\ diatribe
I don't know what you're doing wrong, do you order a lot from 3rd party sites?
I order a lot from Amazon and Target (and many other places), and have never had a lost package. I live on the 4th floor of a building with 6 letters in the address. I don't have an easy address, and you would think drivers wouldn't want to walk up 4 flights of stairs to deliver a package, but they always do.
I don't order from 3rd parties though. Amazon purchases are always shipped and sold by Amazon, same for any Target or Walmart purchases.
Got a link for that 40% failure rate? I can't find anything on a Google search except one article that gives the rate of failed deliveries at 2.77%, which seems more accurate. If there was something wrong with 2 out of every 5 deliveries, I think we'd be hearing more about it. I don't know anyone who has delivery issues.
6) you can get sick of sitting around all day for an 8- hour delivery window and venture out, only to miss a delivery
Do people actually do that?!
I've never thought to sit around at home waiting on a package. I don't typically order anything that needs a signature, so the driver is going to leave it at my door whether I'm home or not.
But if you really need to sit home and wait for your package, most delivery companies have pretty good estimates these days, and even have a real time map where you can track your package once it is out for delivery. Im usually given about an hour time frame of delivery, and it's typically pretty accurate.
I don't know what you're doing wrong, do you order a lot from 3rd party sites?
I order a lot from Amazon and Target (and many other places), and have never had a lost package. I live on the 4th floor of a building with 6 letters in the address. I don't have an easy address, and you would think drivers wouldn't want to walk up 4 flights of stairs to deliver a package, but they always do.
I don't order from 3rd parties though. Amazon purchases are always shipped and sold by Amazon, same for any Target or Walmart purchases.
Got a link for that 40% failure rate? I can't find anything on a Google search except one article that gives the rate of failed deliveries at 2.77%, which seems more accurate. If there was something wrong with 2 out of every 5 deliveries, I think we'd be hearing more about it. I don't know anyone who has delivery issues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sundaydrive00
Do people actually do that?!
I've never thought to sit around at home waiting on a package. I don't typically order anything that needs a signature, so the driver is going to leave it at my door whether I'm home or not.
But if you really need to sit home and wait for your package, most delivery companies have pretty good estimates these days, and even have a real time map where you can track your package once it is out for delivery. Im usually given about an hour time frame of delivery, and it's typically pretty accurate.
All of this matches my experience too. But we've been warned by the OP not to use anecdotes, so I guess we have to wait for him to validate that up-to-40% rate. Seems dubious as a general figure, maybe more accurate under some very specific, rare circumstances??
I feel for the deliverypeople these past several months. They're working their asses off.
I order online when I need it delivered to somewhere else, ie a gift, or when I cannot find the item I want at the local level and beyond when I try to hunt it down (Jelly Belly individual packages or granola bars from Sunbelt Bakery). I don't order third party, use Amazon sparingly, and love Ebay. I have never had a problem.
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