Are battered and delayed Amazon deliveries the new norm?

With Cyber Monday in full swing, Amazon shoppers are eagerly awaiting their purchases to soon arrive with the internet retailer’s seemingly-supernatural speedy shipping. But as an Ottawa man recently found out, the reality of Amazon’s shipping methods isn’t always so magical.

In an interview with CTV News, Don Turton explained how he had allegedly witnessed an Amazon delivery person drop packages on the ground and leave them in his vehicle overnight.

Turton said he’d seen the delivery man mishandle packages in the parking lot of their co-op building on several occasions since summer.

Coupled with his concern about potentially fragile packages allegedly being dropped on the ground and thrown into the car’s trunk, Turton told CTV the lack of security for packages left in a vehicle overnight prompted him to write an email to the company.

“Anybody as a thief… could easily just go in there and take all of these, [I’m] assuming Christmas items,” he told CTV. “My concern is about people’s goods and the money they’ve paid for all of these things, especially with Christmas coming up.”

Turton said Amazon responded that the company takes “full responsibility” for the delivery of goods from “start to finish,” but said the experience has shaken his confidence in the company.

CTV News reports that when it reached out to Amazon, a public relations manager with the company said it was looking into the matter, and confirmed that Amazon uses independent couriers for some of their deliveries in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

A history of disappointment

This isn’t the first time consumers have reported issues with orders shipped by Amazon.

In May, 2018, Business Insider reported on a growing chorus of complaints online by customers claiming their Amazon orders were arriving late or being delayed by the company.

Complaints about delayed Amazon packages can be found on Reddit, Twitter and Facebook.

One disgruntled customer even complained to Amazon’s customer support team that she had witnessed a delivery person “kicking a package” up her driveway, while another questioned, “will I ever receive an Amazon order that isn’t late or damaged?

While the optics of customers tweeting about late or missing packages might be less than ideal, Business Insider reported data by Slice Intelligence that actually showed the company’s speed and consistency are improving over time.

Still, some experts suggest that factors including Amazon’s expanding member base of 100 million people and its introduction of new delivery services could be contributing to what some people have described as poor customer service experiences.

Have you ever had a bad shipping experience with Amazon or another internet retailer? Let us know by responding in the comments below.