BEWARE: Amazon changing your addresses and switching delivery locations !! PSA

[jrista]

Small PSA.

I recently had a very strange and unsettling experience with Amazon. I'd purchased some things, mainly gifts for other people, from Amazon (becoming really tough to find a lot of this stuff locally... ). I ordered around a week or so ago.

When I started getting notices that my items were being delivered, I didn't really read the full emails...but when I went to check, there were no packages at my doorstep. So I started reading the emails. To my surprise, my packages were not being delivered to my doorstep...they were being delivered to lock boxes scattered about town!!!

I have never used lock boxes. I have no interest in lock boxes. I have a nice home, and a few places to hide packages inside on my porch. I have had reliable deliveries for a long time. So how or why packages were suddenly getting delivered to lock boxes was beyond me. I started checking my orders, and lo and behold, most of them were configured to deliver to a lock box!! To my absolute shock and dismay.

I searched around, and apparently millions of other Amazon customers had similar problems, and also found that there were new lockbox addresses automatically added to their accounts. Further, even though these lock boxes were NOT marked as the Default delivery address, they were in fact being given priority use OVER AND ABOVE your Default address, which in my case was the home I've been living in for the past 15 years.

I contacted Amazon, and the first person was just a dolt. Could barely speak English, and clearly did not know what I was talking about. They kept saying my orders were going to be delivered to my home, even though I was trying to tell them that my orders had ALREADY been delivered, to lockboxes! Finally they transferred me to another person, who understood the issue. They CLAIMED it was a "technical glitch" (which just so happened to affect millions of people??), but then proceeded to proclaim all the virtues of lock box delivery, like things would be delivered "faster" there, it was "more secure", etc. (Glitch??? RIIIGHT!) I finally just demanded they fix all my delivery addresses, which they did. A few hours later my packages started getting delivered to my home.

I still had to drive around town and pick up packages that had already been placed inside of lock boxes (why they were placed into different ones, I honestly do not know...) That was very inconvenient, especially as some of the places didn't open until 9am, and I had to wait around at one of them.

SO...for those of you who may have used Amazon recently, especially to purchase gifts. It might be prudent to check the actual delivery locations, and make sure they are delivered to the correct location. For items you shipped to someone else, might want to warn them of where the package may/will actually be delivered. Also check your addresses...you may find you have 2-3 new lockbox addresses that have been automatically added (according to the Amazon rep, they will not be automatically deleted, and if present they could still be automatically selected for delivery of some packages, without any notable warnings in the Amazon UI!!) If you have had some added, and don't want packages delivered to lock boxes, you'll need to delete them manually yourself. Another "BEWARE" from the rep, though, is that some things, such as wish lists/wish list items may ALSO have been "inadvertently" affected by the "glitch" (YUP!! RIIIIGHT!! That is ONE HELL of a well-orchestrated "glitch"!!!) and may by default now, ship items to one of the automatically added lock box locations.


/insert giant SMH emoji here/

Beware, people. My humble opinion, being a technology person myself, is that this wasn't a glitch, but an experiment with AI algorithms designed to be "helpful" and "make life easier" for Amazon customers. I doubt it will be the last. I try not to order from Amazon these days, but throughout the pandemic years there was total devastation of small businesses in my area, and there are far fewer local stores to buy certain kinds of things than there used to be. So, annoyingly, sites like Amazon are the only place I can find certain things. Bugs the crap out of me...but...whaddaya do? Well, I guess...you just BE-WARE these days!!

 

[TonyL]

I don't know if it matters, but I try to see if the product is fulfilled by Amazon. We must have a distribution center close by. As of today, I haven't had that experience...but I who knows what the future will bring.

 

[jrista]

I don't know if it matters, but I try to see if the product is fulfilled by Amazon. We must have a distribution center close by. As of today, I haven't had that experience...but I who knows what the future will bring.

All of the items I ordered were fulfilled by Amazon. All had the Prime logo as well.

Something I did notice, once I realized there was a problem, was that certain delivery date options, when you are checking out, actually did show that they were for a lockbox only. It was in very light gray text, so hard to see. Once I noticed that, I realized I had to be doubly careful about those selections going forward.

 

[bsshog40]

I haven't had this problem, but I have a question. If you don't actually have a lockbox, how are you able to retrieve packages from one?

 

[jrista]

I haven't had this problem, but I have a question. If you don't actually have a lockbox, how are you able to retrieve packages from one?

Amazon sends you an email with a barcode, and a code. Supposedly you are supposed to be able to just use the barcode scaner, but none of them worked for me. You can manually enter the code, and your particular box will open. These things are pretty large...they were taller than me, and I'm 6', and were probably 8-9 feet wide. There are a good number of lockers in each one.

Even if you haven't had anything actually delivered to a lock box, I would check your account, and make sure you haven't had any unexpected addresses suddenly added. I didn't know, until I had the problem, then started trying to figure out why it happened. I had three new lockbox addresses added. I don't know when, but, it had to have been a couple of weeks ago or so.

 

[Velcrodog]

Small PSA.

I recently had a very strange and unsettling experience with Amazon. I'd purchased some things, mainly gifts for other people, from Amazon (becoming really tough to find a lot of this stuff locally... ). I ordered around a week or so ago.

When I started getting notices that my items were being delivered, I didn't really read the full emails...but when I went to check, there were no packages at my doorstep. So I started reading the emails. To my surprise, my packages were not being delivered to my doorstep...they were being delivered to lock boxes scattered about town!!!

I have never used lock boxes. I have no interest in lock boxes. I have a nice home, and a few places to hide packages inside on my porch. I have had reliable deliveries for a long time. So how or why packages were suddenly getting delivered to lock boxes was beyond me. I started checking my orders, and lo and behold, most of them were configured to deliver to a lock box!! To my absolute shock and dismay.

I searched around, and apparently millions of other Amazon customers had similar problems, and also found that there were new lockbox addresses automatically added to their accounts. Further, even though these lock boxes were NOT marked as the Default delivery address, they were in fact being given priority use OVER AND ABOVE your Default address, which in my case was the home I've been living in for the past 15 years.

I contacted Amazon, and the first person was just a dolt. Could barely speak English, and clearly did not know what I was talking about. They kept saying my orders were going to be delivered to my home, even though I was trying to tell them that my orders had ALREADY been delivered, to lockboxes! Finally they transferred me to another person, who understood the issue. They CLAIMED it was a "technical glitch" (which just so happened to affect millions of people??), but then proceeded to proclaim all the virtues of lock box delivery, like things would be delivered "faster" there, it was "more secure", etc. (Glitch??? RIIIGHT!) I finally just demanded they fix all my delivery addresses, which they did. A few hours later my packages started getting delivered to my home.

I still had to drive around town and pick up packages that had already been placed inside of lock boxes (why they were placed into different ones, I honestly do not know...) That was very inconvenient, especially as some of the places didn't open until 9am, and I had to wait around at one of them.

SO...for those of you who may have used Amazon recently, especially to purchase gifts. It might be prudent to check the actual delivery locations, and make sure they are delivered to the correct location. For items you shipped to someone else, might want to warn them of where the package may/will actually be delivered. Also check your addresses...you may find you have 2-3 new lockbox addresses that have been automatically added (according to the Amazon rep, they will not be automatically deleted, and if present they could still be automatically selected for delivery of some packages, without any notable warnings in the Amazon UI!!) If you have had some added, and don't want packages delivered to lock boxes, you'll need to delete them manually yourself. Another "BEWARE" from the rep, though, is that some things, such as wish lists/wish list items may ALSO have been "inadvertently" affected by the "glitch" (YUP!! RIIIIGHT!! That is ONE HELL of a well-orchestrated "glitch"!!!) and may by default now, ship items to one of the automatically added lock box locations.


/insert giant SMH emoji here/

Beware, people. My humble opinion, being a technology person myself, is that this wasn't a glitch, but an experiment with AI algorithms designed to be "helpful" and "make life easier" for Amazon customers. I doubt it will be the last. I try not to order from Amazon these days, but throughout the pandemic years there was total devastation of small businesses in my area, and there are far fewer local stores to buy certain kinds of things than there used to be. So, annoyingly, sites like Amazon are the only place I can find certain things. Bugs the crap out of me...but...whaddaya do? Well, I guess...you just BE-WARE these days!!

The only problems I have had was that a couple times package was left nexdoor. Other than that, I have had more than a few with packages being sent but " lost in transit according to the tracking number. Then this happens I either ask for refund or, in some cases, a resend. Get the refund, sometimes the same day or the next. Resend have always been timely. I will keep an eye out for lockbox addresses. The closest one is not very far but I want them to deliver as I instruct and not how they may want to do it another way.

 

[jttheclockman]

Well you made me go look my order from last night and I see it is being sent to my house as always. I will have to pay attention to this in the future.