Deceptive Deliveries
When People & Machines Mislead
Usually, when I order a single proof book from Amazon, it arrives quickly and without any issues. Books for launches take longer, but again, prior to this, I had no problem. But recently, when I ordered 30 books for a launch, things didn’t go as smoothly.
The first surprise was that Amazon split my order into three separate packages instead of sending everything in one box. They assured me all three packages would arrive by Sunday evening at 8 PM. The first package, which contained just one book, arrived early Sunday morning—well before the promised delivery time. However, the other two packages, one with 4 books and another with 24, didn’t show up by Sunday night as expected.
When I checked the status on Amazon, I was told there was an issue with the delivery. According to the United States Postal Service, they couldn't deliver the packages because my front door or driveway was blocked.
Take a look at the picture of my house above. Does anything look blocked to you? Yeah, me neither.
So, what happened? Maybe the delivery driver was mistaken, having an off day, or just went to the wrong house. But after checking around the cul-de-sac, I didn't see any other blocked driveways, so I ruled that out.
Now, I'm fairly certain the delivery person today wasn't my regular mail carrier. My usual guy would have wrestled wild wolves, dodged zombies, and aced the American Ninja Warrior course—all while balancing a stack of my books on his head. A "blocked driveway"? Please, that wouldn't have slowed him down for a second!
This left me with one conclusion: the delivery person made up the excuse.
Why? Maybe they ran out of time or simply forgot to deliver the other two packages after dropping off the first one.
Here’s the thing: if they had just been honest and reported a simple delay—like delivery people have done before—I would have been a bit disappointed but understanding. But being caught up in a lie? That didn’t sit well with me at all. So, I decided to take action and contact my local post office.
That’s when things got interesting. Turns out, calling my local post office is no longer an option—their number’s been disconnected. Instead, I had to call an 800 number and navigate an automated system that made me jump through hoops just to track my package. After all that, the system gave me the same response I’d already seen from Amazon: my driveway was blocked. And get this—I wasn’t allowed to provide any additional information unless I agreed to complete a survey at the end of the call. The only way I could tell them that my driveway wasn’t blocked and that the driver had already delivered an identical package that morning was to agree to this survey. Seriously?
This experience highlighted a big problem: companies are making a huge mistake by replacing human interaction with AI for handling customer complaints. It’s frustrating and leaves customers feeling unheard.
I’ve already switched to a different audiobook distributor for my new books because of a similar lack of customer support with Findaway Voices. What used to be a great company took a nosedive after Spotify got involved.
But back to my shipping saga. By Monday evening, I still hadn’t received my books. Then, at 8 PM, I got this message from Amazon:
When I got the latest update, I still believed my books were on their way. It said so right there in the message! But by Tuesday morning, with no books in sight, no new update and the clock ticking past 11:00 AM, I decided enough was enough. I drove straight to the hub post office in Wilmington, DE, determined to get some answers.
Armed with all my tracking info, I spoke to a helpful postal worker who dropped a bombshell: my two packages had been sitting at that post office since Sunday and had never left the facility. In fact, they’d just been loaded onto a truck moments before I arrived—talk about timing! If I’d gotten there just a few minutes earlier, I could’ve grabbed my books myself.
She also let me in on a little secret about the USPS: the system automatically generates excuses like "blocked road" or "blocked driveway" when they don’t make deliveries.
What happened to the good old Postal Service motto, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”? Apparently, that’s been tossed aside by some renegade programmer with a flair for fiction.
And those notifications from Amazon saying “On the way” or “Running late”? Total nonsense. They don’t mean a thing when Amazon isn’t handling the shipping. It’s basically code for “We have no clue where your stuff is.”
Even after the packages finally left the post office, the postal worker made it clear that just because my packages were picked up, didn’t guarantee I’d get them that day. It could be tomorrow, she said, and if I didn’t see them by Thursday, I could request a refund from Amazon. Of course, Amazon didn’t want to hear from me until Thursday, even though the packages were promised by Sunday. Talk about frustrating!
Through this ordeal, I realized just how meaningless these automated messages are. But I learned something even more disturbing after the books finally arrived late on Tuesday evening around 5:00 PM:
Amazon provided no way to give feedback on the delivery of those late packages.
Usually, there’s at least a thumbs up or down option, but for these two late deliveries? Nothing. It’s as if Amazon deliberately removed the option to provide feedback. This isn’t just frustrating—it feels intentional. The difference in how Amazon treats authors' orders versus personal orders is striking and disheartening. It makes me want to explore other options when I need things for swag bags or anything related to my author business. I’ve already started checking out Etsy for alternatives and backing off Amazon. Why should I spend my business money to support a company that doesn’t seem to care about my opinion?
While I’ve had positive experiences with KDP support through chat, email, and phone, I’m increasingly concerned about how Amazon is slowly removing ways for authors to provide feedback on the shipping and printing of our own products, unless we report and return them as damaged.
In fact, some of these books were not perfect, and if I had the time, I would have returned them. They weren’t packed properly, with insufficient padding in the large box, and some of the corners were bent.
I want to point out I didn’t wait until the last minute to order these books—I based the timing on previous orders. Yet, this time, the process took extra days to print and more days to deliver, adding up to a week longer than usual. As a result, I had to pay for two-day priority shipping for people on my launch team not located on the east coast, significantly increasing my costs. It’s ironic that I can get a proof copy in three or four days, from Amazon but anything beyond that seems to take ten or eleven days. for the print time alone.
When I’m spending $140 on books, I should have the choice of who handles the delivery. It’s unacceptable for boxes of books to sit at the post office for two days while misleading messages are sent to customers. This not only makes Amazon and the USPS look inefficient but also deceptive. Amazon wouldn’t allow its regular customers to wait endlessly for a package, yet they seem perfectly content letting an author wait. Worse, they don’t seem interested in hearing about these issues or improving our experience.
Have you had similar experiences? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment:
When I format my books. I push the font size up and pick a heavier text, because of this problem and this has helped me. I used EB Garmond and push the size up to 12.5 font which is large for book type, but you can read the darn thing and it does not look large at all when you look at the book. I always get a proof copy and check them out and so far I've been happy. I think people do care but there is only so much they can do. I've heard good things about https://www.lulu.com but I priced them out for 30 book and it was going to cost me $8.00. I would never get my money back. This one: https://bookvault.app seemed more competitive with Amazon and I'm still checking them out.
What a nightmare, Kay! Facebook lets us respond with icons that indicate we're angry or sad, so my "like" is strictly a vote for your text, and NOT for what happened.
The difficulty you describe is endemic with publishing, and it also seems to put us in greater danger of censorship by AI algorithms. Here's a true story from my end.
When I have "gone wide" with digital books, I have used Draft2Digital, with whom I've had good results, and whose software is very user-friendly. However, their AI banned the first two novels in my series (*The Passion of Elena Bianchi*). When questioned, they insisted that absolutely none of their fifteen or so retailers would accept the books because of content. Curiously enough, one of those retailers (Barnes & Noble) lists both titles in paperback.
This is a little removed from your experience, yet the "constant" is that AI-generated responses -- and in your case, excuses (e.g., "blocked driveway" from the USPS; "on the way" from Amazon) -- are now facts of life.
Your last paragraph speaks volumes: << Amazon wouldn’t allow its regular customers to wait endlessly for a package, yet they seem perfectly content letting an author wait. Worse, they don’t seem interested in hearing about these issues or improving our experience. >>
True, but remember: They don't need us. We need them! What would any of us have in sales without Amazon? That crass reality should not alter the rules of courtesy and decency, but apparently it has.