One of the ways that online shopping advertises itself as being more convenient than shopping in brick-and-mortar stories is that you simply click a few links, enter your payment and shipping information, and your items are delivered right to your door.
Except when they're not. I ordered some items from Amazon recently and, because I pay for the additional Prime membership, I automatically got upgraded to two-day shipping. So, I came home on Friday expecting my package, only to find a note from UPS saying that they didn't deliver anything since no one was home. I've had to go through this sort of thing in the past, so I signed the back of the note on the "X" and put the note back on my door on Monday morning.
When I got home on Monday, there was nothing. No package, no note: nothing. I become worried that the package got lost over the weekend or that one of my neighbors took the box right off of my door mat. I looked up my order on Amazon to get the tracking number to see what happened on UPS' end. It turns out, that they weren't asking for my signature with the earlier note; they just let me know that they would try again on the next weekday. When no one answered the door on Monday, they took my box to an Access Point, which was located in a convenience store, though not one that was particularly close. I called ahead and confirmed that they had my package before I left. Once there, the process of getting my box was easy enough and I was out the door in less than five minutes.
Here's the thing: part of the reason I ordered online was to avoid going anywhere. While I had other motivations (picking exactly the items I wanted, getting a better deal than was available in local stores, etc.), staying at home was still part of the deal. And while I understand why UPS did what they did, they should have left me a note the second time to tell me that I would have to pick up my package.
The moral here is that I don't like being inconvenienced. And these days, isn't the act avoiding inconveniences the American way?
1 comment:
Convenience is certainly high on my list.
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