I think that varies by location. The Seattle area people seem competent.
Amazon Key: Giving Complete Strangers Free Access To Your Home
- Thread starter Mr. Laser Beam
- Start date
Pass, no way. Not even if it was free, definitely not when it costs money.
Isn't the real benefit to AMAZON, and not me? If the package isn't on my steps when I get home, I can file a claim that says it didn't show up and it'll be replaced. Sometimes the driver's fault, or maybe it was theft, but Amazon will usually replace. With this, I'm paying $250 so basically the box won't sit on my steps? And opening my house to someone I don't know while I'm not home. I'd rather risk my new item than any of the items I already own, plus risk of pets getting out, they don't shut the door right afterwards, plenty of other issues.
What's the upside for me, exactly? At best, I'd rather install a waterproof box by the door (like one of those plastic deck boxes or something, and let Amazon have the key to THAT. Keeps the risk to just the item being delivered, but provides better security than leaving on the steps.
Isn't the real benefit to AMAZON, and not me? If the package isn't on my steps when I get home, I can file a claim that says it didn't show up and it'll be replaced. Sometimes the driver's fault, or maybe it was theft, but Amazon will usually replace. With this, I'm paying $250 so basically the box won't sit on my steps? And opening my house to someone I don't know while I'm not home. I'd rather risk my new item than any of the items I already own, plus risk of pets getting out, they don't shut the door right afterwards, plenty of other issues.
What's the upside for me, exactly? At best, I'd rather install a waterproof box by the door (like one of those plastic deck boxes or something, and let Amazon have the key to THAT. Keeps the risk to just the item being delivered, but provides better security than leaving on the steps.
What you're describing sounds like Amazon Locker, only the "locker" is just outside your home.
That seems like a totally reasonable compromise that solves the suspected problem from Amazon's end (losing money re-fulfilling lost/stolen packages) while not exposing customers to another theft vector.
Basically, I guess. They can still bring it to me, just lock it up in a safe dry space OUTSIDE my home.
Either way, it seems like the benefit is to THEM, less so myself. They should be offering it for free to make up for their own losses, or minimal cost at best. Having the customer pay so that it saves the business money seems backwards.
I live in a fairly nice neighborhood, plus have security cameras, so not super worried about it, I suppose. If they offered a small-ish (4'x3'x3' ?) onsite locker with a digital lock, I'd probably let them give it to me, though. Or MAYBE pay a smallish one-time fee for it at best for the convenience. But it seems like most/all of the benefit is on Amazon, not me.
99% of the time, the item being dropped off isn't expensive or irreplaceable, so not sure I'm paying to protect their liability for it. and $250 is way too much for the rare occasions where I'm worried about the item and can't be home to get it. Most of those items require a signature anyway, although I suppose inside delivery may cancel out the signature need? Then again, you usually sign to verify that it was received and not damaged, etc. so can't say it's in perfect shape if not home to inspect it...
Either way, it seems like the benefit is to THEM, less so myself. They should be offering it for free to make up for their own losses, or minimal cost at best. Having the customer pay so that it saves the business money seems backwards.
I live in a fairly nice neighborhood, plus have security cameras, so not super worried about it, I suppose. If they offered a small-ish (4'x3'x3' ?) onsite locker with a digital lock, I'd probably let them give it to me, though. Or MAYBE pay a smallish one-time fee for it at best for the convenience. But it seems like most/all of the benefit is on Amazon, not me.
99% of the time, the item being dropped off isn't expensive or irreplaceable, so not sure I'm paying to protect their liability for it. and $250 is way too much for the rare occasions where I'm worried about the item and can't be home to get it. Most of those items require a signature anyway, although I suppose inside delivery may cancel out the signature need? Then again, you usually sign to verify that it was received and not damaged, etc. so can't say it's in perfect shape if not home to inspect it...
Yeah, bad idea all around. I think the idea of Amazon Lockers are much better. I don't know if this is how it currently works, but drivers should be able to drop it off to the nearest locker service if someone isn't at home, and notify them of it. That would solve the problem in most situations: Your package was safely delivered to your nearest Amazon Locker location. Then list the address of that location. That'd be a win-win. The package is safe, for both company and customer, with no compromising situation involved.
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I don't think so.
No, you have to specifically request to have it delivered to an Amazon Locker when you place the order. It's probably not easy to change once in transit since by that point it's been handed off to another delivery carrier (UPS, USPS, FedEx, LaserShip, etc.) which already has a final address in hand (and it's not the Locker).
That said, if Amazon decided to have everything shipped to local distribution centers via traditional means then handled last-mile themselves, they could do this easily.
This is insane. Hell no, Amazon.
Me too. I love the idea of Amazon Locker - unfortunately there aren't any in the city where I live.
I'd love it even more if customers could have lockers placed on their own property. That way they wouldn't worry about missed deliveries and they wouldn't have to drive to a center to get them (would especially help for elderly or disabled customers who can't drive).
The only issue I can see is, how do you open them. Perhaps the customer could select a keycode every time they order. The code would be shared with the driver as well. Then either the code would change for every order, or the customer could change it themselves.
There are myriad ways to handle access to the locker. Biometrics, encrypted fobs, PINs, voice commands, etc. Depends on how fancy you want to get and what your preferences are in terms of ease-of-use/security tradeoffs. (Obviously Amazon would dictate the latter.)
A
Amaris
Guest
I want an Amazon locker so I can make the combination to it 12345.
Weird, that's the same combination the President had on his luggage in Spaceballs.
Ok, but let's say you get the order sent to a particular address, but with the option of sending it to a locker if not home? That wouldn't be entirely dissimilar to how the post-office operates, at least in Canada. If they can't deliver it at the home address after a number of tries, or even if a package is a certain size, it just goes to the post-office and then you get a notice to pick it up there. Seeing as how Amazon now owns Whole Foods, positioning them as a pickup point, it wouldn't be too difficult for them to eventually make it part of their standard shipping system. And I'm sure they'd love more reasons for people to step into the places they own to possibly do a bit more shopping.
The individual shipping carrier would have to support that.
I can tell you from experience that most of them are operating hilariously antiquated and inflexible systems that have a difficult time handling contingency addresses. (I think FedEx is the most equipped to deal with that, the others much less so.)
Right now, as long as my order gets shipped by Canada Post, then it gets delivered to my community mailbox, and then there's no problem, and no possibility of theft. (Well, OK, significantly less possibility. I guess someone could still pick the lock or pry it open somehow if they really wanted to.)
The "leaving it on the porch" thing only comes into play when I happen to be "lucky" enough to get my shipment delivered by UPS or another courier company.
Guess which I prefer...
The "leaving it on the porch" thing only comes into play when I happen to be "lucky" enough to get my shipment delivered by UPS or another courier company.
Guess which I prefer...
I work as a delivery driver for a small courier company here in Seattle. Our main hub is in Kent, with various satellite - feeder hubs located throughout Washington.
Around the same time Amazon announced they were buying Whole Foods, representatives from Amazon's delivery service were in the warehouse enquiring about partnering with our company and using our hubs and drivers to beta test a new delivery system they were working on.
I'm guessing this is what they had in mind.
Anyway the owner - management turned them down.
I talked to a couple of drivers who were more in the loop than I was and from what I gather, it came down to risk vs benefit.
The company would be taking on all of the risk and liability while Amazon would benefit.
If anything were to go wrong and our company could be involved in a lawsuit, Amazon could walk away and say that the company didn't properly vet its drivers; and being such a small company, any multi-million dollar lawsuit could potentially bankrupt the company and force them out of business.
All in all I think it's a good thing management turned them down.
We're more of an inter-office mail/courier company than a door to door company.
Around the same time Amazon announced they were buying Whole Foods, representatives from Amazon's delivery service were in the warehouse enquiring about partnering with our company and using our hubs and drivers to beta test a new delivery system they were working on.
I'm guessing this is what they had in mind.
Anyway the owner - management turned them down.
I talked to a couple of drivers who were more in the loop than I was and from what I gather, it came down to risk vs benefit.
The company would be taking on all of the risk and liability while Amazon would benefit.
If anything were to go wrong and our company could be involved in a lawsuit, Amazon could walk away and say that the company didn't properly vet its drivers; and being such a small company, any multi-million dollar lawsuit could potentially bankrupt the company and force them out of business.
All in all I think it's a good thing management turned them down.
We're more of an inter-office mail/courier company than a door to door company.
That makes sense if they partner with specific local couriers.
I suspect some insurance companies might not be very keen to pay out if you suffered a loss due to granting access to your home in this manner.
I heard about this on the radio program Handel on the Law a week or two ago.
He made a great point, which I'll save for last. My thoughts:
[li]Of course, people are going to steal you stuff and deny it. The government-sanctioned molestation and theft squad known as the TSA, gets Federal background checks and/or general background checks and work within the confines of airport security, yet they are sexually molesting people and repeatedly stealing their property. And we're gonna trust some Amazon dude or dudette to go in your house? CinemaSins: "Hahahahahahahahahahahaha."
[li]Let's say you have security cameras. One: the Amazon delivery guy has to know they are there in order for it to be a deterrent and two: even if he knows they are there, unless they cover all areas with stuff you don't want stolen, it's not going to be easy in a court of law. And even if you catch the guy dead-to-rights, it's still a bitch legally.
[li]Unless you have a bump key or lock picks and have knowledge on how to pick locks, you're not getting into somebody's house very easily. With an electronic lock on your door, all it takes is for some asshole with a gun or pretending to have a gun (or some other kind of object, like a knife), to threaten the Amazon guy and let him in, wiping you out.
[li]And finally, it's only a matter of time before some tech' savvy thieves find a way to hack that lock and get easy access into your house. If it's as complicated as your standard garage door keypad, a thief can get into in ten to thirty seconds without even touching the lock.
And Bill Handel's great point:
Let's pretend he isn't going to steal anything, regardless of cameras. All it takes is for some dishonest guy to pretend to slip and fall because of anything, and he'll sue you into the ground. For goodness sakes, about fifteen years ago there was a burglar here in the U.S. (I don't remember the details or where) who was in a guy's roof and he broke and fell threw a skylight. He sued the home owners for his injuries and the court awarded the burglar because the home owner hadn't provided adequate protection for somebody on the roof who could face the same accident. Which is, of course, an accident you have while ROBBING somebody.
Just know your neighbor and if you're friends with him or her, and he or she is home while you are away, ask if a delivery person can leave your package with him or her and lease a note on your door advising the delivery person of such.
when it comes to strangers entering where ever I live when I am not there, my policy is: NO.
He made a great point, which I'll save for last. My thoughts:
[li]Of course, people are going to steal you stuff and deny it. The government-sanctioned molestation and theft squad known as the TSA, gets Federal background checks and/or general background checks and work within the confines of airport security, yet they are sexually molesting people and repeatedly stealing their property. And we're gonna trust some Amazon dude or dudette to go in your house? CinemaSins: "Hahahahahahahahahahahaha."
[li]Let's say you have security cameras. One: the Amazon delivery guy has to know they are there in order for it to be a deterrent and two: even if he knows they are there, unless they cover all areas with stuff you don't want stolen, it's not going to be easy in a court of law. And even if you catch the guy dead-to-rights, it's still a bitch legally.
[li]Unless you have a bump key or lock picks and have knowledge on how to pick locks, you're not getting into somebody's house very easily. With an electronic lock on your door, all it takes is for some asshole with a gun or pretending to have a gun (or some other kind of object, like a knife), to threaten the Amazon guy and let him in, wiping you out.
[li]And finally, it's only a matter of time before some tech' savvy thieves find a way to hack that lock and get easy access into your house. If it's as complicated as your standard garage door keypad, a thief can get into in ten to thirty seconds without even touching the lock.
And Bill Handel's great point:
Let's pretend he isn't going to steal anything, regardless of cameras. All it takes is for some dishonest guy to pretend to slip and fall because of anything, and he'll sue you into the ground. For goodness sakes, about fifteen years ago there was a burglar here in the U.S. (I don't remember the details or where) who was in a guy's roof and he broke and fell threw a skylight. He sued the home owners for his injuries and the court awarded the burglar because the home owner hadn't provided adequate protection for somebody on the roof who could face the same accident. Which is, of course, an accident you have while ROBBING somebody.
Just know your neighbor and if you're friends with him or her, and he or she is home while you are away, ask if a delivery person can leave your package with him or her and lease a note on your door advising the delivery person of such.
when it comes to strangers entering where ever I live when I am not there, my policy is: NO.
