I wish we cared as much about the climate crisis as we do about our packages.
26
A very common scam is to "hire" someone to receive packages and reship them. It's a scam because the packages are stolen goods or purchased with stolen credit cards. Someone providing a package protection service could easily fall victim to this.
Pickups? Fascinating to watch all the cottage industries starting up around Amazon.
4
I guess I have not sympathy for on-line shoppers. It is necessary for some people who are disabled or elderly, but the idea that you can't go to the store any more is dumb-founding. Yes, stealing packages is a crime, but does any one care about the environmental impact of everyone having an individually packaged product driven to your home, and then the packaging is discarded? This is an environmental disaster. Wake up. This is not sustainable.
17
I had been under the impression, that USPS registered mail signature required is the safest service available to the general public. However an audit by USPS Inspector General in 2017 found that procedures in place to assure safety were not followed in 14 of 15 locations, including some really egregious mistakes, like leaving the safes open all day in semi public areas. It appears to me there is no safe way to ship. Perhaps the authors care to comment?
See:
https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2017/FT-AR-17-008.pdf
3
How did the Times come up with that 90,000 figure? Seems way too high.
7
She's rewarded with cake and chocolates? Are they trying to kill her? No good deed goes unpunished. SMH.
5
A serious problem even in 'safe' neighborhoods, and it's often hard to ascertain if the package was lost, delivered to the wrong building, or stolen from the front of the building. I recently had a pair of shoes go missing when they were listed as 'delivered' and went through a protracted struggle with the company to be refunded. Like many people, I don't have enough money to just take the loss. While it's mysterious what happens at home, I know that when delivering to my workplace, many delivery drivers will sign for a package themselves, throw packages over the fence, or deliver to the wrong address entirely. It's a point of constant consternation.
6
I have a problem with the numbers here. I'd like to see where the authors vetted the statistics. Firstly, Fedex and UPS did not provide info, says so in the article, so that is guess. But, 1.7 million packages/day lost in the USA seems grossly inflated: that works out to a lost package for every adult in the USA - online shopper or not-every three months. Let's say 20% of adults shop regularly, that means those that do shop loose more than one package a month on average. I know no one who has experienced this. And 90K packages a day lost in NY means that on average, every one of the 5 million adults who live here would loose over six packages a year. Again that includes those who don't shop on line, so if you estimate that 40% do, that comes to over one a month on average for shoppers. I'd like the authors to comment, please.
10
We had an epidemic of delivery drivers failing to ring the doorbell. They just throw the package on the doorstep and split. Then there is a lot more time for the porch pirates, who may have been following the delivery truck. I know because my security camera records a video of every encounter, and I have sent the videos to the shipping companies.
8
Every delivery store or service has a second line for street addresses. I use it to include "Please knock loudly". Since we moved I'm going to change it to "Please ring door bell". Since I'm home, I can get my package asap. Worked perfectly for the past 5 years.
3
Why aren't online SELLING sites being looked at for their part in the "porch pirates" being able to resell their stolen goods? These online sites are complicit in fencing millions of dollars in stolen goods each year.
3
Not only "porch pirates" but the shipping companies
themselves are problematic. I lost a $10K flute by
shipping it via UPS for an overhaul. It was tracked into
the Philadelphia UPS hub on its way from San Francisco
to Boston and disappeared there. I received $100
compensation from UPS.
5
I order quite a bit from Amazon. Often the drivers - UPS, Express mail or private delivery - 90% of them do not even bother to ring my doorbell to tell me that a delivery has been made. I realize they have quotas to reach and must keep moving but they can't simply hit the doorbell before hustling back to their truck and taking off?
11
What a story. 90,000 packages lost...daily? in one city? I have yet to suffer such a problem, yet. But this issue is killing home deliveries via the internet. Who pays for this? So far, amazon, et al. But for how long? They eat the loss and figure it into operating costs and pass it on to customers eventually.
Pay cash for everything in stores. That's the only answer. (My credit card was hacked over Thanksgiving. Happily my credit card company caught an unauthorized $1200 purchase and stopped the purchase. Ugh. Modern life.)
10
I too have been a victim, but I always get a doorbell ring from UPS and USPS. We know our carriers by name, and also make sure they get a tip at Christmas. It seems to do the trick.
7
My mother's credit card details were leaked from a small online vendor.
We discovered this when a box full of expensive (U$D ~1k) thermal imaging gear showed-up. Then, another box showed-up.
I could not figure-out, for the life of me, how someone could be smart enough to select expensive gear (easily re-sold to utility contractors et al), change the eMail address & phone number, but forget to, duh, change the delivery address.
As we went thru the transactions with our new vendor and the credit card company, it became apparent that these were the SECOND and THIRD boxes full of expensive (U$D ~1k) thermal imaging gear ordered by whoever had my mom's credit card details.
Q/ So where was the FIRST box?
A/ The guy was a Porch Pirate. He gave them an eMail address so that he could get tracking updates and swoop-in behind the delivery driver. The 2nd & 3rd time, the home health aide who looks after my mother had taken the packages in.
I've since enabled "text me every time I spend at least one dollar" for all of our credit cards. A bit of a pain, but I enjoy knowing that I can quickly thwart the next thief.
8
I noticed a while back that Amazon deliverers were putting pictures up online of the package sitting on our porch. I suppose as a form of insurance. Amazon has always been quite good about replacing packages. Can't imagine just how many times they have been lied to about deliveries.
Seems to me though, it is a very bad idea to advertise Ms. Cruz and what she does for her neighbors. Very bad idea ...
6
I think part of the issue is these delivery folks, regardless of who they are- Amazon, UPS, FedEx, DHL etc. have sooo many packages to deliver per shift that they simply don't have time to go "all" the way to the door, ring the bell and scoot to the stop.
Some, as mentioned in the article, just toss the package on the driveway and move along.
8
We have serious package theft issues in my neighborhood in Baltimore City. A package left on your stoop is as good as gone. I pay a few hundred bucks per year for a box at the UPS store nearby. It definitely solves the issue and the staff is great, but sometimes I have to ask why I have to even tolerate the issue and find a workaround in the first place. Why can't people be more decent?
72
Because it's not just billionaires who feel privileged?
20
Lisa, because its Bmo.
6
I don't shop with Amazon but I buy items through eBay often that are not replaceable. I had an antique stolen from my hallway partially because no one even bothers to ring a doorbell. And we knew who took it, since his "shopping spree" was caught on a neighbor's video camera- but the cops did nothing. It's all well and good to pay extra for signature confirmation, but I've had multiple instances of USPS *forging* my signature and leaving the package unattended, which then shows are "delivered" and absolves them from responsibility. Not to mention how many times I've been home and I get "undeliverable" notices that usually coincide with bad weather or a heavy parcel. My neighborhood post office doesn't answer the phone, doesn't have even one late night where they're open past 5PM and there's a waiting list for PO Boxes. Other than paying a person to stand outside all day, what are you reasonably supposed to do?
10
the laws have to change. this is happening not only during the holidays season but year round. this has to classified as a federal crime with consequences... first its a felony, and then a 10 yr. sentence without parole... it has to be exposed everyday to the American public that you do the crime you will do the time. also 5000 hrs. of community service. get these political idiots to get off there duff and start some action....or do we have to wait for it to happen to some-one big or a star...
7
Stop being so desperate about owning more and more and more stuff. That’s how to solve this “problem.”
4
I think half of them were stolen out if the lobby of my former apartment building in Inwood.
4
Thank goodness my wife and I live in a doorman building !
Please do an Internet search for "glitter bomb", watch the video, and then propose to the guy who came up with the idea that he could be a billionaire if he'd market this as a service.
4
Even if you have locked cages in the lobby, your own neighbors (yes, my neighbors) will steal packages. And I live in a building where the average rent is $2,500! Really? Are you so in need of toilet paper you have to steal mine??
6
Here’s a novel solution ....How about buying things the good, old fashioned way... at the brick and mortar store! (Online commerce not such a panacea... and look what it’s doing to the environment with all that packaging!)
6
I love this.
Packages disappearing all over the place.
So you see that your neighbor who you don't like very much just received a bunch of boxes and figure, what the heck, I'll swipe them in the name of free enterprise.
They turn out to be five jars of pickles, a box of band aids and a 55 inch smart TV.
The pickles and the band aids you decide to keep.
The TV is going up on Ebay after the holidays.
America, the land of the free.
7
Shopping in person can be fun.
7
I get that it is frustrating to not receive something that you paid for, but maybe this will begin to jar people out of their cocoons of laziness. Maybe, just maybe, you don't need to order that item from Amazon, when you could walk two blocks to a bodega or 99 cent store and buy it, without having to worry if someone steals the package before it gets to your house.
The amount of stuff that we order online, because we're too lazy to just walk down the street and then walk back carrying it, is seriously out of control.
53
I have mobility issues and do most of my shopping online. The majority of packages are delivered by Canada Post. We have parcel lockers in my apartment building which are accessed by CP who then leave the appropriate key in your mailbox. Easy to collect your package and then return the key to a slot in the locker which also accepts outgoing mail. The office in my building will also accept parcels if they do not fit in the parcel lockers. I have had more issues when the delivery is from UPS or Fedex or another carrier with things being missing or stolen. If Canada Post cannot deliver they will leave a notice to pick up the parcel at a local post office.
8
When I lived in NYC, I once received an envelope addressed to a famous actress. I walked the envelope to her building and gave it to her doorman. His jaw was on the floor. I think he was shocked to know someone would just return it. Funny, I was at a film festival within a year and the son of the same actress left his cell phone in a theater. It was returned to the box office where I was volunteering and we gave it to her rep. Just a coincidence, but remembering this reminds me some people are honest.
8
This really calls for an design fix. Unless you think that package delivery is a fad, you would think that new or retrofitted entry areas would have a secure package loading door installed.
1
An allure of rural living is that the delivery driver will usually leave the package in your unlocked car in the driveway, if no one is home. The only trouble is she often puts the boxes on top of the car keys. Man I miss living in the city.
3
I can't tell you how many times packages delivered to three different buildings, all of which start with "55 P..." are mis-delivered here in my area. At least all three are locked buildings, so the packages eventually get to their correct destinations.
I hope...
2
With Amazon, I have my packages delivered to their delivery box system at Whole Foods.
With other sellers, those that use FedEx, I ask via FedEx online that the packages be held at the nearest to me FedEx location.
All other packages are left at the mercy of thieves. So far, nothing has been taken.
1
It's hilarious. NYC has every store in the world, but people still have orders shipped to their apartment. People order billions of packages a year, but are shocked when they find a delivery person doesn't have the 10 minutes to treat their specific package like a newborn. I like how these esteemed intellectual powerhouses can't think at scale of how much delivery companies must accomplish in a single day. But I guess it is the fruits of having a job that only relies on one project a quarter, working from home, and generally being superfluous and getting paid for no reason. If you're not willing to go out of your way to get your items in person and say you want to wait to have it shipped to you, stop complaining. You need to stop worrying about buying Nikes if you live in an apartment, you need to hit some life milestones before some certain ages.
8
I loved shopping before NYC turned into a mall and all the stores that were unique either disappeared or became too exclusive,losing their charm and their desire for their old customers.
Most of my online shopping was luggage, giant bags of dog food, perfume and discount dog meds, and brands I didnt have to try on and charity'swith online shop sites.
I don't have to deal with some 18 year old at Victoria's Secret giving me attitude or snarky t milenial tech guy at best buy making me feel stupid for asking too msny questions.
The best part is that I do almost all my online shopping with my banks airlines linked card and have traded shlepping through Macys for flying to Buenos Aires.
35
Nationwide over 1.7 million packages go missing every day! All the analysts on these financial TV shows probably live in doorman apartments or their own mansions, where their packages are guarded. They fail to understand that folks who order online that live in buildings without doormen or lobbies that aren't guarded are not good for these customers. They need to shop at a brick and mortar store. Yet analysts say that these stores are not keeping up with the online trend and should change their policies (ex: Bed, Bath & Beyond). Go out and shop at a store! It's really sad this year without Toys R Us this holiday season.
3
@Carl LaFong
People...they're the worst, aren't they!
1
I'm confident that more people accused of package theft will be prosecuted for a $25 million / year problem than any white collar criminals responsible for the 2008 recession and related mortgage fraud that cost trillions globally. But that's our justice system. Always looking for easy kills, and never aiming up.
12
All the more reason to live in the beautiful, peaceful and honest inner ring suburbs of St. Louis, where neighbors know each other, look out for one another and packages can sit all day on the doorstep waiting for you until you get home!
8
I just came to say that Ms. Cruz is amazing. The world needs more people like her.
19
This problem has even invaded very affluent suburbs like mine - my ring neighborhood watch feature shows porch pirates all the time- not certain what value cameras add though -most are not capable of zoom function to be Able to identify thieves (unlike commercial and Beijing/London quality street cameras) plus these guys are pretty brazen as they wear hoodies- just another minor relentless erosion of civil society as we encourage the twin evils of unrestrained globalization and inequality.
4
We're having a similar problem in California. Because of "Prop 47" property crime has been decriminalized. You can steal pacakges for a living and never worry about going to jail, even if caught.
Democrats, in general, don't see property crime as a crime. They believe nobody has a right to property.
6
I don’t know a single democrat who would agree with you about property crime. The people in the cities getting their packages stolen are blue and I’m pretty sure they don’t like it.
If anything, the unbalanced (nearly Randian) emphasis on private property rights by the GOP for the last 40 years has lead to the fetishization of private property.
Nothing else really seems to matter.
The funniest part of it is that people don’t seem to realize that, for the most part, it has simply directed more power and transferred more public wealth to the already wealthy and powerful — at the expense of everyone and everything else.
10
In my situation, it would be great if UPS take a couple of extra seconds to place our packages on our covered front porch rather than our open and exposed driveway next to the street.
5
Maybe we could get the store to hold them until we get a chance to pick them up?
1
Mrs. Cruz is such a wonderful neighbor. We should all be so lucky.
12
I simply don’t believe the 90,000 a day figure. It must be a misprint. And source of that number is never cited - unusual for a news source.
6
What this article doesnt answer is what are the theives doing with those packages. Just because it says Amazon on the box doesnt mean they know whats inside. Im not sure what most package thieves are doing with baby wipes or academic textbooks. Not every package is jeans or a computer part.
2
The resell them online — eBay or Amazon.
They figure anything in an Amazon box is new and can be easily resold. If it’s something they can’t easily resell, they use it, give it away or throw it away.
3
The article says that "about 15 percent of all deliveries in urban areas fail to reach customers because of package theft and other less frequent issues, like deliveries to the wrong house, according to transportation experts." However, the report linked to is about the need for a parcel-locker system in Seattle, and so far as I can tell after a quick check, does not include support for this statement. In fact, the report says on page 17, "Out of 545 total parcels delivered via the conventional door-to-door delivery method over the 20-day pilot period, data collectors observed seven parcels that failed to be delivered." In other words, only 1.3 percent of packages could not be delivered.
Also, statements from Amazon and the statistics mentioned from police departments suggests the problem is far smaller than the headline-grabbing figure of 15% given the populations of the cities mentioned and the number of packages delivered daily.
My company ships hundreds of small packages a month. Most of these will fit in a mailbox. We were informed recently by eBay that our rate of non-receipt complaints was about 1 in 100. We were further informed that this rate is supposedly ten times higher than that of our "peers" on eBay. It is not clear if these so-called peers are selling in similar categories, or selling merchandise of similar cost, or perhaps representative of the entire eBay selling community. But if eBay is any guide, the number of lost packages may range from 1% to .1%.
4
Readers, please comment on orders that required signatures.
Does requiring a signature help?
Also, deliveries to our door always used to be accompanied by a a ring of our doorbell.
No longer. We happen to find our packages at our doorstep, unannounced.
Does it really take that long to ring a doorbell??
9
I’m old enough to remember when every UPS delivery had to be signed for...on a clipboard!
7
@SB USPS has, on multiple occasions, forged my signature and left the package unattended/ in plain view. Which then shows as "delivered. signed for" so if it's stolen, it's your loss. Can't file a claim, can't go to the police.
3
@M
I have had this same thing happen when living in NY, GA and Florida. Magically after complaining enough and reporting it to the USPS website it usually shows up in a few days with no explanation. I suspect it's the letter carriers stealing the packages. They hold on to them long enough to see if it's something someone will repot and if not they keep it.
3
Rampant package theft is a consequence of both increased volume of online shopping and intense pricing pressure by shippers like Amazon on delivery companies. Practically no delivery service will now bother to ring our doorbell to see if we are home to receive a package. Instead, I have to watch for an email delivery notice and run to the door hoping the box is still there. The number of wrong deliveries (of a package sent to another address) had also gone way up.
At the same time, with Brooklyn traffic at an all- time high, more delivery vehicles are taking up the finite capacity of the street network, A plan by NYC DOT to commandeer parking spaces on residential streets here for truck loading zones was scrapped after ferocious community resistance.
More surveillance is not the answer. Most of New York City was simply not designed to have its inhabitants get basic needs like clothing and food delivered to them on a daily basis. We need City legislation to control the amount of residential deliveries. Such legislation could set a minimum package size that is eligible for a home delivery by truck. Smaller packages would go to local distribution centers for pickup (or foot delivery), perhaps located in the vacant retail storefronts that are another consequence of the rise of online shopping.
8
I get wrong USPS packages and letters delivered to my door frequently. My post office has a solid 1 star rating on Yelp.
4
I've been selingl on eBay for 20 years. I use USPS exclusively. If it's important enough to complain about, you should pay for insurance or be there to accept the package. If you can not be there, you should be responsible enough to notify the seller before they ship so that the seller can take precautions such as requiring a signature upon delivery. If you can not secure packages upon delivery, you should expect to pick up your package at the Post Office. Or... do not make purchases.
4
Orrrrr we could just have a functioning postal system that is reliable and works?
6
@Michael Burbach - I receive mail every day, 6 or 7 days a week. Once an item has been delivered, the job of the USPS has been completed reliably.
The person receiving an item must be responsible for taking control of it the moment it is delivered. Too heavy to lift it... don't buy it. The only alternative is to bring it home from a store yourself.
2
I agree with some of the comments made about the Post Office and UPS being a large part of the problem. Deliveries are left by my front door without bothering to ring the bell which is right above where they stash the packages. I don't expect them to wait for me to come to the door . . . . . . . . just ring the bell for heaven's sake so I know a delivery has been made.
8
Is it really that much of a surprise that thieves steal packages left unattended anywhere, let alone on a porch, empty vestibule or simply in front of an apartment door? How is this news and how is it nobody has thought about this in their business plan?
8
This is Capitalism, pure and simple. Landlords do nothing in the interests of their tenants, such as installing/using package rooms and safeguarding your mail. Instead, they only care about earning your rent check every month. In addition, online commerce companies couldn't care less about making sure the package gets to you.
5
I had a package delivered late in the evening. I keep an eye out for the delivery truck but this time I missed it. The next morning I went out to find that the local porch pirate had opened the package to see what was in it, ( a couple of books and a protein powder supplement) decided it wasn’t worth stealing and left it. Fortunately it didn’t rain that night.
6
I think this says something about Chase and Warner. I understand the situation. But even if there are “a lot of packages” what percent of what happens at a business is taken up by this? A thousandth of a percent? This seems punitive and mean. Workers there put in a lot of time for their company. This is such a small perk. Maybe people who work there should call in sick so they can be home now for their package.
9
With Amazon shippers using the public streets and sidewalks as their own personal warehouse, it was only a matter of time before the thieves descended on the unsecured nature in which Amazon uses public spaces for private business.
The two trucks that park in the right lane by my condo every morning back-up traffic for miles. Waiting for the one lane to decongest has often left me tempted to start tossing boxes into the river to get them out of there quicker. They get ticketed a lot, but the one driver tells me it's cheaper than renting space to do their break-bulk.
I guess the theft is just another one of the new costs of business being shoved down our throats like the traffic jams and the sidewalks littered with packages.
What I want to know is why does Amazon have the right to turn the woman in the article into an unpaid employee?
I suppose the answer is lower costs and maybe the only thing that will make them behave like civil citizens is to continue to force those costs higher.
Save a major city--steal an Amazon package...
2
The delivery services are so over-scheduled they don't have time to place packages in a secure location or at least non-visible location at private homes, which contributes to the problem. Years ago UPS and FedEx would place packages at the back of my house where they were invisible, now they're all out front despite a bench 3 feet away that would hide nearly anything behind it.
I'm glad I don't live in apartment -- ordinary mail is bad enough there, with large-format junk mail hogging space from mailboxes alone, let alone most buildings without a security guard/doorman that have no secure place for packages.
I actually looked into a brick-and-mortar delivery address, but they're expensive and very intrusive around here. You have to supply a bunch of ID and sign forms, probably to inhibit illegal activity. but it feels intrusive.
3
90K every day? Hadn't realized the problem was that enormous. I mean, that's almost inconceivable.
Sounds like there's all sorts of solutions emerging though.
1
On the other hand--losses due to shoplifting have probably declined dramatically.
8
I was at a conference yesterday talking to someone about an independent retail chain that went bust and he said things went south after the retail jobs were casualised and wages and benefits dropped. Staff, he said, just didn't care any more and their disengagement showed up on the bottom line.
Maybe the deliverers would care more about the packages reaching their destination if they were paid properly and not worked to death. Our cheap economy turns out to have an expensive cost attached to it.
19
UPS was delivering items to drop off businesses, that was working, yet it just cold out stopped. Clicking the signature needed for UPS and Fedex is fully ignored. I’ve clicked that multiple times only to find that not only am I home and no doorbell was rung, but that the package is sitting outside. So what’s the deal with that?
And leaving slips seems to be a thing of the past.
Giving instructions is cute, but they never follow them.
8
Like many I have watched FedEx delivery people throw packages at the front door of a non-doorman building and walk away without even trying to ring the bell. During the holiday season I’ve seen them laughing about it with a colleague. I have been home when a package was left on the front steps of my non doorman building and the delivery person didn’t bother to ring the bell. I realized it was there because I got email telling me it was delivered. When I complained to FedEx, I was told that their delivery people were not obliged to ring the bell. So much for customer service. I can’t recall ever having this problem with UPS although it sounds like others have. If I need to I can have a UPS package delivered to their store on my corner. Still, a very sad situation.
17
Use UPS. Much better than FedEx, which is much better than Amazon. Still what amazon loses to shoplifting, they make up in ring camaeras sold.
3
Interesting issue of morality at play here. For whatever reason, I just would not steal someone else's mail. Can't quite understand the mindset of people who would. Maybe I'm just a chump.
8
What a wonderful place that town must be to live in.
2
My biggest complaint lately is not porch pirates, its dishonest delivery people. Recently, a UPS driver misdelivered a $4k package to a neighbor's house. Notwihtstanding the fact that the package required a signature and I had paid an extra $8 to guarantee deliver during a 2-hour time slot, the driver just dropped it on the neighbor's porch without signature and then falsified the signature. When I complained to UPS they basically told me "It was delivered to your address and signed for." Of course that is your info UPS, because you have a dishonest driver who is committing fraud falsifying signatures. So, now I own a ring doorbell camera.....
25
What a great city NY is.
3
@Richard You realize New York is singled out here because this is the New York Times. Even so:
"The Denver Police Department started compiling data on package thefts in 2015, and has seen a 68 percent increase in reported cases, to 708 last year, from 421 four years ago.
In Washington D.C., 1,846 cases of package theft were reported as of mid-November, already exceeding last year’s total of 1,546 cases, according to police records.
Package horror stories have become so common that some state lawmakers are taking aim at thieves. In Texas, package thieves could face up to 10 years in prison under a new law. A South Carolina bill, called the Defense Against Porch Pirates Act, would make package theft a felony."
2
Try shopping direct with the merchant and getting off your chair if you want to avoid package theft.
10
I hope this will remind people that shopping locally, in an actual brick and mortar store, is the best remedy. Online shopping and Amazon in particular has up-ended our retail economy. I was almost glad to read this was happening since perhaps it will be a wake up call for people. Stop ordering online, people! Amazon is the evil empire.
121
@Katy Lesser
Or, order on line, get the discount and have the store hold the package for you in one of their lockers.
I have done that when I wanted to use my credit card points and couldn’t find my particular product in my local hardware store. Ordered online and Home Depot held it in their locker for me.
It beats having to look through empty shelves, finding a sales clerk to help and still not finding what you want.
It takes less time and energy.
A win win. Brick and mortar and on line shopping without the shipping carbon footprint environmental impact and package thievery.
25
@Katy Lesser
Really! Glad? Or almost? The only music store that carried the exact harmonica I needed was in a brick and mortar store located in Montana. And guess how I was able to contact them? And purchase it.
Let's not be distracted by the real problem: theft.
26
@Katy Lesser, Golly you are mean. It is not good for those of us who have disabilities that keep us from shopping at those brick and mortar stores. I do get deliveries from local merchants e.g. restaurants when that is an option.
23
90,000 packages each day sounds inflated. Where does that statistic come from ? How is it measured ? 365 x 90,000 = 32,850,000.
9
Does not sound right to me.
3
Newman ( of Seinfeld fame ) going rogue 2.0. All those packages are piling up somewhere due to burdened deliverymen unbeknown to the shippers.
5
So, according to the article, one could order something---say, a sweater---from an internet retailer, claim it is stolen (sorry, "report" it as being stolen), and the retailer will send you another one?
Yes. I'll take another sweater, please. And could you make this one a different color...?
Not that anyone would actually do this, perish the thought.
8
I am thankful for the good neighbors down the street who take the time to redeliver my misdelivered packages. Some addresses and buildings are confusing. Delivery agents new to the neighborhood don't always get it right.
3
My mom lives in Washington heights. UPS and local post office leave packages in her building on the floor in front of mailboxes. They dont take it to the apt, they dont ring the bell for customers to come down, and they dont take it back with them and leave delivery slip for pickup. It's a bad neighborhood but they do it anyway. I called the post office, but they do it anyway. I left a BBB complaint about UPS, an executive called me...but they do it anyway. If you don't care about people's packages, why take the job at all???
99
@joanne Do you seriously think delivery workers took their jobs because they care deeply about your packages?
17
@joanne
Yes, this is a big part of the problem. I've provided explicit delivery instructions to UPS, FedEx and Amazon via their online tools for doing so. However, quite often that information is ignored and packages are left in unsafe locations -- varies from driver to driver.
I live in a small apartment building, I'm almost always home to receive packages. Nonetheless, it is rare for the delivery to make it to my door -- again, usually left in an un-secure common or outdoor location.
13
@joanne
Yes, this is a big part of the problem. I've provided explicit delivery instructions to UPS, FedEx and Amazon via their online tools for doing so. However, quite often that information is ignored and packages are left in unsafe locations -- varies from driver to driver.
I live in a small apartment building, I'm almost always home to receive packages. Nonetheless, it is rare for the delivery to make it to my door -- again, usually left in an un-secure common or outdoor location.
4
Drats. The bandits got off with my plastic kitty box liners and a plastic replacement lid for my cracked coffee grinder. The horror.
4
Professional thieves and criminals aside it's reasonable to suspect that the rise in online shopping would result in a rise in package theft , however the real-time tracking strategy so you can run home from work can't possibly be a good idea for most people . What about work ? What about travel time etc ?
Having been practically addicted to the benefits and ease of online shopping and Amazon Prime since about 2008 depending on where someone lives theft can actually be a reflection of the security of where you live and your neighbors . In my large building in Riverdale deliveries are made right up to your door no matter what floor you live on and there is security in knowing your neighbors are honest and watch out for your packages .
So, we haven't had to designate a neighbor like pictured here , but what's the big deal if your order gets stolen they will send you another . ( PS the free two day shipping with Amazon is hard to beat not to mention the free video library ) . Not an ad just sayin .
2
Anybody that gets packages delivered into their hallway will sooner or later be sorry.
I live in a "safe" eight unit apt. bldg. and on at least two occasions in the last few yrs. around the holidays packages were disappearing in droves.
5
The more brick and mortar stores which disappear because of the online marketplace give consumers less options to find what they need locally. I can't believe some of the things people order online when they are available locally....simple everyday items. So the convenience now turns into worry about your item being stolen. The online marketplace is creating headaches for shoppers beyond the massive amount of pollution and trash being created from consumerism....and don't forget, a large number of those items get shipped back to the seller!
5
I’m a retired UPS driver and when I was a delivery man we always had to leave packages in a more secure location that was out of sight from the street view and protected from the weather.The first step was to alert the customer of a delivery,but if no one was home leave at the front porch if it was shielded from the public or look for a safe place around back.We never left packages in a apartment building with out a signature. I suppose this policy is too time consuming now,but we had few theft problems.
.
14
UPOS has always been best shipper- their employees are decently compensated tho worked hard and take pride in their union and their job. Go, Brown !
4
Not to be a cynic, I also wonder how many so-called stolen packages were actually not stolen but “kept” and just claimed they were stolen by the purchaser to get a refund from the company they were purchased from.
Unfortunately, this happens too.
Still, we need to do more to protect ourselves, and what neighbors like Ms. Cruz is doing is a great way to thwart thieves and build community. A win-win.
7
However, the sellers and shippers will file the first package as ‘lost or stolen’, next they will note the second missing package as ‘suspect’ , then finally they will flag and restrict orders, deliveries and refunds from third offenders. These folks have discrete data operations and systems. Just like any large company. They will sort out the fraudsters via name, delivery address and credit card numbers quickly.
4
Now that Amazon uses its own delivery service with self-employed drivers, how many "thefts" are simply undelivered packages that the driver lied about?
4
I order online and choose in store pickup from any merchant that is close to me that offers a good price. Kohls, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, Micro Center, etc. It is as fast or faster than home delivery and I can pick it up at my leisure. I also don't have to sift through shelves that have been trashed by other shoppers (great for finding your favorite brand of Jeans in the correct waist size and length.)
4
@WelcomeMatt
I think that sounds like the best of both. Shop on line, get a discount, and have the store, the brick and mortar store, hold the item for you to come and get it when it’s convenient.
I hate shopping for the same reasons you do. Let their employees do the shopping for you!
2
Here's what I've posted umpteen times on the neighorhood platform Nextdoor. Maybe it'll help somebody:
Yes, porch theft happens all the time, all over the country. As we've discussed so many times on Nextdoor, options are:
1) Be home to get delivery
2) If you're not going to be home, have packages sent to your work address
3) If you can't have packages sent to your work address, have them sent to that of a friend or relative
4) Use an Amazon locker
5) Use a P. O. Box
6) Use a UPS Access Point
7) Use a FedEx pick-up point
8) Require signature upon delivery
9) Have a neighbor get your delivery
10) Don't have packages delivered to your home.
4
If I have to carry something home from work or stand in line for it at a mailbox store, I may as well support local businesses and just go buy what I need from them. After hassles such as stolen packages and schlepping big packages home, I've cut back on my online shopping to almost nothing. I don't miss it.
13
Having shopped this weekend on both Cyber Monday and Black Friday, I find it strange that retailers are willing to give discounts online for things that require shipping but not honor those discounts in-store, i.e. allowing online ordering for in-store pickups. If they allowed that it would definitely cut down on shipping costs and delivery theft. I know in-store pickup is not an option for everyone depending on their city and mobility, but it could still be more widely offered.
6
Big City Problems. This is why I live in a very small town, at the end of a dead end street, with no traffic except wayward motorists who can't read 'DEAD END' signs in time to rethink their map and GPS skill sets. When the delivery truck comes, I can hear it coming several houses away and the only worries I have about leaving packages on the porch are whether they'll be okay in the heat or cold.
You live in NYC or other ridiculously massive town, you have all the assets associated with that including thousands of restaurants, museums, anything you could want 24/7/365, but you also live with millions of rats both human and otherwise. Tradeoffs.
7
@signalfire
Happens in small towns too. Luckily no one can find my street, often including the delivery people.
3
Porch Piracy loss relief by the shipper is analogous to the Credit Card issuers policy ( based on Federal Statute ) to indemnify card users for fraudulent usage. It is a calculated cost of doing business to alleviate the worry and motivate the usage of the system.
2
This theft opportunity will subside. Porch Piracy is a thing now because it is new crime not yet well addressed by shippers, receivers and law enforcement. Package depots, doorbell and exterior cameras, RFID tracking devices embedded in boxes and products along with serious felony charges will put a damper on it soon enough. The shopping trend will not cease and revert to brick and mortar stores. Women and younger generations love shopping online. They care not about privacy and tracking. They are the critical consumer mass now. The retailers, shippers and internet marketers have determined and facilitated this phenomenon. It is here to stay and evolve further.
4
I love Ms. Cruz who takes the packages for her neighbors because she wants to pay it forward. I hope everyone in the building does something nice for her this winter - cash, chocolates, wine, whatever she wants!
16
Perhaps she wants people to do nice things not for her, but for others. You know, as in the novel Magnificent Obsession.
1
@Meighan Corbett
Have her over for a meal.
That’s community thinking!!!
3
I own an online business and although it doesn’t happen often, I do get a few packages that supposedly never arrive, even though tracking says they have. My standard response to the customer is that they should first check with others in the household to make sure someone else hasn’t brought it in and forgot to tell them (unbelievably, this accounts for most lost packages). If that doesn’t work, they must then contact their local post office and ask them to contact the carrier to get the GPS coordinates to ensure it was delivered to the correct address. If that fails, they must check the bushes and shrubs (in rural and suburban areas). If that fails before I do ANYthing myself, they must file a police report and show it to me. Only at that point will I consider resending. I tell them that my responsibility is to get the package to their door and I will do anything in my power to do that. Once it’s on their property, though, they are responsible for providing a safe place for deliveries. I can’t bring it into their house for them. This is a hard concept for most people to grasp.
5
I don’t care at all about stolen deliveries - I’ll continue online shopping as long as shipments are guaranteed.
The companies who ship will have to bear the burden...until they decide otherwise.
Those who don’t want to take the chance, walk over to Macy’s.
Until then, send me my package.
2
This is not a surprise.Every time I travel to the US and leave I find TSA has pilfered i.e. stolen from my "inspected" luggage--something totally unrelated to "security." Good luck complaining or getting heard.
14
Most businesses take packages through security guards. If a neighorhood banded together and hired one guard to take everyone's packages, this problem would be solved at far less the cost than paying for insurance. I believe it's called self-help.
1
Hire a guard? And pay him how much? They'd be lucky if he didn't make off with some packages himself.
Chicago 5-building high-rise complex. We have a locker system where packages are logged in by delivery drivers; we get text & email with an access code. Great with UPS, USPS, and FedEx.
However, Amazon drivers not so much. Often they just toss packages on the floor of the open locker room or even in the lobbies of various buildings. One has to search all 5 lobbies plus the locker room hoping to find those packages. With Amazon's focus on speed, the drivers likely simply care about ditching the package quickly than getting it to the right person - and, although the customer goes through anxiety and hassle, Amazon generally simply shrugs and replaces. I order from Amazon as little as possible.
5
@Anne-Marie Hislop
I suggest you complain to Amazon. It might seem futile, but if enough people do this it will work. They listened to my concerns. Time will tell if they do anything about it.
Power in numbers.
2
There is a very simple solution to all of this. Stop ordering online! Visit a local shop. You'll get what you want faster, see it and touch it before buying, and likely have a pleasant social interaction with a retail shop owner who can counsel you on options and provide you with more confidence when you make the purchase. You'll also be spending your money in your own community where it will most likely be recycled into the local economy. And, in the long run, your home area will flourish with economic and social vibrancy.
12
So I use to work as a mailman, just in the Netherlands. I was told pretty much the first day that leaving and parcel or piece of mail on the outside of a door was a fireable offence. As just the regular mail man I would only get packages that fit through the standard mail slot (which is still a good amount), anything large was felt with a delivery van. So I would go door to door on my bicycle with all the mail sliding everything through the mail slot. If it didn't fit, I'll ring the doorbell and wait for you. (when I was working we had to ring twice with a minute between, now it has gone done to only once). If you weren't home I'll would go to a neighbour to see if they were home and give you a letter it is next door, if all else fails it is just reprocess for delivery the next day. This seems like a nice solution, however I've been bombarded for even suggesting your neighbour could take your package. Something about privacy. Even though I would see all the same info, that is apparently fine. Maybe it is something different in the culture?
7
Yes, something different in the culture.
And also our mailmen have many, many more deliveries than you. Our mailman, poor guy, is still working at 8pm, with a flashlight on his head. That's when our letters come through the slot, or the doorbell rings when something's too large to fit.
This is New York City, not Maastricht. Or even Amsterdam.
5
@B.
Recently in one of the Facebook craft groups I belong to, an American lady posted that a package with supplies had been stolen. People from all over the world coincided replying that in their countries the postal service or the couriers must deliver packages to an actual person. New York City is a big city, I know, but it's not the only big city in the world. And package are also stolen in smaller cities and rural areas. The problems isn't the size of the city, it's the American way to deliver packages.
1
I just had an excellent idea.
An actual building, brick and mortar, centralized for convenience that accepts packages for customers. They could even specialize in certain products and start anticipating customers needs and keep shelves stocked with items.
I’d call it a store.
35
@networthy Online shopping is not so cheap when you must factor in potential theft or the measures required to protect your delivery.
The extra police work that results in tracking the uptick in package thefts should be financed by the online retailers in some way, since they are profiting from the convenience
2
The simple solution to at least half of all package theft is to buy local.
Don't order on line if you can avoid it. And if you must, order for pickup at a local store. Some times this is actually faster than having it delivered to your door step.
Either way, you will reduce climate emissions, congestion and wear and tear on your local roads. Plus you won't be contributing to the abusive conditions under which the drivers and warehouse workers toil who scramble to meet increasingly impossible instant delivery deadlines (you wondered why they don't take the time to time the doorbell anymore?). And finally you will be able to try the item before purchase and will likely get better advice before and support after.
13
In my apartment complex, packages are received in the office and placed in a locked room. Residents then receive an email or text message with a code to enter the locked room to retrieve their packages. In the locked room, packages are sorted on shelves according to apartment numbers so that you can find your package more quickly. This worked well until everyone started ordering anything and everything online. Now, there are so many packages delivered that there's not enough room on the shelves and the packages get dumped in a big pile on the floor, where you have to search for your packages. There are so many packages delivered that the office staff simply wouldn't have the time to sort them onto shelves, even if there was enough space for them. The system broke down because it was overwhelmed by the massive shift in the number of people who order online, the sheer quantity of their orders, and quantity and size sometimes, the size/weight of what gets ordered online.
For my particular apartment complex, it's also not an option to deliver to apartment doors because we have a four story building with over 400 apartments connected by extremely long hallways and inconvenient placement of outside entry points and a single elevator. In addition, for security purposes, entry to hallways might require opening/holding multiple doors accessed by an electronic key fob. It's a nearly impossible situation, and it's only going to get worse.
8
Impossible ? 1. Put a $1.00 fee per package received. 2. Put a $1.00 fee for each day after Day 3 that a package remains unclaimed. 3. Apply a $5.00 fee for boxes not conforming to storage parameters. 4. Hire someone to administer the program. Certainly the savings and convenience and security of the program will not be lost upon reasonable folks. As for the others, well we know they are out there no matter what fair solutions are proposed or implemented.
3
I've seen many times Fed Ex employees and UPS employees organizing/sorting packages in parking spaces outside in the open. So this raizes the question why is this going on and is it part of the problem.
3
I have found it crucial to get to know the "regular" delivery people, be they USPS, UPS or Fed Ex. A kind word and a Christmas tip doesn't hurt either.
That said, when my son sent an expensive gift from Amazon that was indicated online as having been delivered the Amazon deliverer left it at my neighbor's back door. (They were away).
It was only because of the photo accompanying the online delivery notice that we were able to retrieve it.
A call to Amazon elicited the same response that others have indicated here, "we would have sent out another one".
8
Same has happened to me, though the shipper doesn’t always send the very helpful photo. This doesn’t account for my neighbor not calling or emailing me, a very simple act of consideration. For some reason there has been a delivery mix up to the same house number on the street a block away with a totally unrelated street name. I always call or email right away. I bet plenty of people just throw it away or keep it. People are not as honest as they used to be. Just look at our government: whatever you can get away with. It’s an outrage when a majority of people have no morality or accountability and are thought to be role models.
1
I have to spend about half my time overseas for work. This is not a problem I have anywhere else.
In the US, a major part of the problem is the delivery people. Unfortunately, many of them can't read or reason adequately to get the delivery address right or--once there--to leave the package somewhere sensible.
Also, in most other English-speaking countries, it's possible to get delivery to a local store, where packages are safe. Again, in the US, store workers often lack the basic skills to make this a secure option.
Another issue is that it's more expensive for retailers to replace products elsewhere (because of higher employee wages) and they are made to provide decent customer service because of consumer protection laws that we don't have.
This kind of inconvenience and loss for the consumer ultimately arises because of the other issues in our society--the cruelty of not paying a living wage (so that parents are never home to parent), not funding certain schools adequately (so that kids grow up to do low-wage jobs like delivery and lack basic skills). Life elsewhere is really much less stressful because of not having to deal with the frequent employee mistakes and lack of services that we have in the US.
14
The greed of Amazon leads to tracking employees by the second, setting impossible quotas, paying subsistence wages, and expecting workers to push at top speed every second of every shift.
No wonder they dump the package and run. The subsequent pilfering is an indication of how bad this “greatest in history” economy is for poor people. We’re barraged with ads for stuff, and cards to make borrowing money to get even more stuff. And then boxes of stuff sit untended, and people raised to deeply need stuff steal them, because with high rents and low wages, legal life is unsustainable.
14
Boo-hoo that our packages of frivolous Chinese plastic are being stolen by poor desperate people left behind by our amazing 21st Century economy. What a crisis! Forget ice shelves cracking and melting - my new shoe organizer got stolen. What will I do?!?
12
Poor desperate people indeed.
Here in Brooklyn, Chinese grandmothers slog around all day collecting bottles and cans to get nickels together. Presumably they are collecting money to help purchase books, possibly study guides, for their grandchildren.
Package thieves are healthy guys on skateboards. They skip up porch stairs and sail away. Not desperate, and most likely not poor either. We'd all be better off if these young men were sitting in the library and trying to do well in school.
5
Source of ino?? please. Who makes $$ when a package is stolen. Frankly. I think these figures are major inflated.. I did have the USPS ship a package of books back to Europe, rather than attempt to deliver, and I had a package of books get lost on the way from Boulder to NYC. Other than that...
1
I have a confession to make. I take them. I take all of them.
9
And the left wants us all to live in cities. Go figure.
4
@Eric What left is that?
1
@Laura
"The idea was that a new "socialist man" - an individual uninterested in private gain and dedicated to the promotion of a collective good in a classless society - could be produced through the means of architecture and urbanism." Sonia A. Hirt in O Sofia, Wherefore Art Thou: Suburbs as Stories of Time and Space
Mr Landlord said it more passionately:
"It’s the dream of leftists everywhere to have everyone packed like sardines in apartments, a la Eastern Block countries. But it simply isn’t happening.
People still like having a plot of land to call their own, a yard, a pool, a garage, greenspaces, etc."
Mr. Landlord August 11, 2017 at 6:57
Making money off other people’s misery is not “help on the way”, and not for anyone. The solution is simple- stop ordering online so much. It’s selfish and inconsiderate in the bigger picture of the hazards that the entire operation presents to humans and environment. I won’t cry for your first world problems. Reconnect with your community and support local business instead. You just might see this “problem” as a blessing one day.
3
Tangential point, perhaps, but I'm stunned that JPMorgan Chase and Warner Media no longer accept personal packages for their employees. Sure, there's a cost, but it has to be miniscule compared to other employee benefits, and it's really helpful sometimes. Typical pennywise and pound-foolish corporate decision. I'm glad I don't work in either of those places; morale must be terrible.
19
Tangential point, perhaps, but I'm stunned that JPMorgan Chase and Warner Media no longer accept personal packages for their employees. Sure, there's a cost, but it has to be miniscule compared to other employee benefits, and it's really helpful sometimes. Typical pennywise and pound-foolish corporate decision. I'm glad I don't work in either of those places; morale must be terrible.
1
If Washington DC and Denver have had only 2500 such thefts this entire year, I do not believe the claim that NYC has 36 times that total daily. The reporters should have questioned this claim more thoroughly.
5
The reporters clearly did not substantiate the claim of amazing loss volume. There is not citation of a source. Clearly, NYT was preparing this article to publish THE DAY AFTER Cyber Monday. They did not put it out there beforehand to raise worries for the opening of shopping season on Thanksgiving. This national theft phenomenon is not so new or so pressing as presented. The article could have been far more investigative, analytical and less anecdotal.
3
Umm, youve never lived in NYC it appears. It ISNT Kansas, or Denver !
Wow. I'm glad I live in a condo with 24/7 staff. Pros and cons to everything. This is definitely a pro.
4
This may be the salvation of neighborhood mom and pop stores! Imagine being able to walk less than a half mile to get everything from clothing, hardware, housewares, etc. That was the world I grew up in, on the upper westside of Manhattan. But now we're all so busy that making a home cooked meal is out of the question. Use UberEats or whatever and not even appreciate the delivery person. Is this really a better world?
7
My husband and I got a box at a UPS store. They take deliveries from all carriers, including the postal service. They are open six days a week, into the evening. Problem solved.
4
At first is was kinda nice, lots of surprises, sorta like Christmas, but what am I going to do with 7 panini makers?
6
Or - in response to the NY PD's suggestions,
obtain a U.S. Postal Box and use the street address as a mailing address.
US POSTAL SERVICE WITH MAIL BOXES HAS AN ADDRESS
Buyer's Name
1234567 MAIN STREET, Number 100900
New York, New York, 10008-0900
it is the delivery equivalent to
Buyer's Name
P. O. Box Number 100900
New York, New York, 10008-0900
Most Post Offices allow the use of its street address as a physical address, and thereby permitting UPS and FedEx which by the way are doing poorly do to Amazon, to deliver there. Neither organization likes it. But that is how they have to suffer with Amazon for the moment.
Online retailer will alert their buyers when and how their package shipped by email. Then, they will alert them as to the day and time of their purchase's package delivery.
It doesn't always work out as planned.
But a nice post office will do its best to place a notice in the mail box of the recepient that a package of somekind was delivered for him or her.
The downside is that the buyer has to wait IN line at the package receiving door with the card that states there is a package, and then the US Postal Agent has to retrieve said package, which could be very large.
Bring your own dolly.
However, the whole system works to protect goods from being stolen.
Lately the claims of when the package is to appear on one's doorstep are made in error. Too soon, many days earlier than that which the buyer planned.
1
Checking the math here. Assuming that packages are delivered 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and 90,000 packages disappear each day per the article, then 23.4 million packages disappear annually. Given that there are roughly 8.9 million people in NYC, that's 2.6 packages per NYC resident annually.
I'm not disputing the problem, which is all too real. Nor am I questioning the year to year increase in loss. But 23.4 million packages have gone missing in NYC alone annually? If we assume the average package value to be $25, then that's over half a billion in losses in just one local.
16
Is it still possible to not order online but actually go to a shop to buy stuff in the U.S? Like here in France? I still prefer that to anything else. I only order online what I can’t find anywhere else.
9
@Zeger Of course there is but retail in the US has definitely been impacted by online shopping. There are about a half dozen empty storefronts on my 5 block long shopping street but I can get most of what I need and good public transit if I need something farther than I want to walk. What kind of shocks me though are some of my neighbors that can't seem to find the time to walk around the block to buy items easily carried but instead have a fossil fuel truck deliver them from Amazon or some other online retailer packed in packing material inside cardboard boxes. I also order online what I can't get easily … and that's not much.
6
I live in STPVC. Everyday I see deliveries left at the building front door, rather than brought to the persons apt door.
Even though STPVC has told these deliveries services NOT to leave packages in the door or at the mail box areas.
Just today, I saw a delivery made and left outside in the foyer.
I suggested to the delivery man, please at least put it inside where it would be safe.
His response, if you let me in, I don’t have time to do this with every package.
I let him in and told him packages have been getting stolen, and this is the busiest time of year.
I said in the spirit of the holidays do a good deed, earn a blessing, and next time deliver to the recipients apt door please.
He smiled, wished me happy holidays and promised me he would.
This is what has become of the convenience of our on line ordering. Everyone has a dead line...and no one cares.
Fortunately STPCV has a paid for concierge service where they receive and send out packages.
I think more people will pay for this service if this keeps happening.
5
@Mandarine OK. I'll bite. Where or what is STPCV?
4
@A. Cleary
A housing project development called Stuyvesant town Peter Cooper village.
3
Fun retelling of this story: vigilante Robin Hoods fight the plague of online convenience shopping that is helping destroy our planet, our small businesses, our social fabric, and our souls.
I sense a novel.
12
Could New York City become a low trust regional area? If so no one I'm sure would accept a check. It appears that is a downward trend.
3
I wish people were as quick to pick up litter.
22
I have ordered products from Amazon.mx on a Sunday and they have been delivered the very next day to my home in San Miguel de Allende. If I am not home to answer the door, they don’t leave the package on the porch. How stupid can that be? They try to deliver again the following day or leave their phone number if you want to call to arrange a different delivery date or time.
1
I once shipped my son and his wife a $400 Pendleton blanket. I stressed when ordering that it needed to be delivered to my son's actual office in a multi story office complex or left with a reliable person at a front desk if staffed. He did not receive it but I got the delivered notice. So I called again and asked him to go down to the desk and inquire. He said there was no desk in the lobby. Well OK I said but before I call and say it is not there please go see if someone on the first floor has it. He went down and reported that he found the box water-spotted and muddy being kicked about the floors in a Seattle lobby. Well, it's an honest city and thanks for that. When called Pendleton to report that this was how the delivery of a $400 item was handled the person who answered the phone was unconcerned. The blankets are beautiful though.
5
@Consuelo
" . . . . the person who answered the phone was unconcerned?"
I run into that about half the time. Think there is any hope?
3
You get what you pay for ....
2
Make America great again....good luck. It’s good my father is not alive !!
2
@Maco
If he was born when I was, I can understand. The good old days . . . really were. Then along came LBJ and company.
2
@Eric
My father was born in 1912. When the entire country sacrificed. They had morals and respect.
When my father had me put the flag out, it was always old glory.
Monday you sentence a thief to the maximum, whether for misdemanor (petty larceny) or felony (grand larceny). Tuesday everyone receives their packages.
8
LOL Help? Really? We gluttonously order every single little thing to be delivered regardless of its detriment to the earth or or jobs or industry and we wonder that packages are going missing? We deserve it. Get over it.
Get off your behind and walk your behind to a store and buy things instead of so being so determined to end up a Wall-e like blob floating around drinking smoothies and having everything done for you.
18
Yesterday I went to three local hardware stores, not the big box ones, for a very small item that I assumed every hardware store carried. They didn’t, but I found and ordered it on Amazon in less than a minute and I’ll have it Wednesday.
Should I have gone to every hardware store within a 10-mile radius of my house?
10
@Joyce No, you tried. If everyone made the slightest effort, that would make a massive difference. There's a whole world in between one extreme and another.
5
A national shoot the package-jacker law would be a good start. It falls under inter-state commerce.
6
Are these thefts part of NYPD’s crime stats or is this another category they are misrepresenting to create an illusion of low crime in NYC?
2
Good grief - have them shipped to lockers all over the place.
This is not a COD culture anymore.
Take on some responsibility.
4
It's not my fault that these folks don't live in buildings with doormen.
1
The equivalent of “let them eat cake”
9
I have all of my on-line purchases delivered to the maximum security prison in my home town. I've never had a package stolen.
6
Brilliant idea, too bad they just closed Rykers.
2
It seems to be coming full circle already, even within this one article...somehow the actions of an actual person, "Ma", was required to facilitate all these orders. Stores could make a comeback.
6
I don’t understand why people don’t just schedule the delivery time for when they’ll be home. Seems like a simple enough solution to me.
1
@Ashwin
I can think of two reasons:
1. People can't take time off from work to stay home waiting for a package.
2. Deliveries often don't arrive when tbey're supposed to.
27
Delivery companies do not deliver packages reliably in the time frame they allow you to set, at least not where I live. They can be delivering something that is signature required and even when given a 4 hour window as to when someone will be home, they will still attempt delivery outside the window. It is maddening.
11
Hats off to Ms. Cruz. What a great neighbor to have. And I’m sure it brings everyone in the building closer. Such a small gesture but it can build a community.
28
Eventually the more well off will have security to protect their cars and delivered packages...that'll help employ more people at minimum wage. I guess that is good but wouldn't be nice to have a larger middle class again so fewer people feel the need to steal. Lowering taxes on the wealthy is a very questionable solution for the good of society.
9
In an economy where every large company is looking to squeeze every last penny out of consumers, through, real time demand driving yield managment pricing , monopolies, service charges, broken 'health insurance', then on the flip side offer only jobs paying poverty level wages, looking to those employees it can into contractors with no benefits, meanwhile all the cash accumulated from all these schemes accrues to the tiny majority of those who own most of the stock or control the private equity that seems to run the economy, is it any wonder that if you leave a box worth potentially hundreds of dollars lying around that it's going to get stolen? I recognize that's not the only the wealthy being stolen from, but I doubt all the people being left behind in this economy are the ones ordering the majority of the packages. Until we figure out have to have an economy that works for everyone then it probably isn't going to work to just leave valuable stuff lying around just waiting to be stolen. And yes I do think its wrong to steal. However the economy is such that the larger corporations have legalized their coercive commercial relationships to the point that those as the bottom of the ladder see no hope.
8
How about taking the power yourselves?
L
Organize on your block or in your building. If one or several someone’s spend substantial time at home. A lot of people, especially after retirement, don’t know what to do with themselves in free time, so it might give them focus and enable them to meet and get to know their neighbors. The responsibility can be swapped among several, so no one is overburdened. But that would mean working together, and volunteering your labor something that too many people can’t be bothered with. There seems to be a dearth of “neighborhoods ” t hese days. They’ve just become places people live.
If you have the money to shop online all the time, consider investing in your apt building. Hire someone! Say, 12pm to 5 pm, weekdays, so there is
someone there to a/sign for packages ANd put them by apt doors. Perfect summer job for a resident teenager.
7
Stepping back to see the big picture, this is all quite amusing. Here we have customers seduced by one-click convenience, giving all their business to low-wage mega-internet retail companies, and desperate people pushed to the margins by growing wealth inequality stealing packages and causing inconvenience. And no surprise that states like TX and SC are passing "get tough" laws that will only benefit the private prison industry. America...land of the insane.
27
I wonder how many "stolen" packages were actually misdelivered.
Several times, Amazon drivers have delivered parcels to my building that belong somewhere else. And Amazon refuses to pick them up and re-deliver them! "Oh, just keep it and if the customer complains, we'll send them a new item." Seriously, they told me to commit theft.
178
@JoanP -- could be worse! When I had trouble with many (many!) deliveries from Amazon USA to Australia, I dared to complain. First, Amazon sent me a free (I didn't order it) coloring book filled with LOTS of expletives! (I tried to report it to an authority, since it's technically a crime, but the US Postal workers in charge of that are ignored me). Not long after that, when I had trouble with some items (tea cups) ordered at Christmas, the entire order was delayed in customs because (get this) Amazon workers (I was told by DHL) listed the contents as knives!
4
@JoanP in upper Manhattan you find the empty opened packages on the street or in a nearby park. Neighbors track them and try to photograph them. Most here are not mis-delivered, but are sadly stolen. It appears to be rampant in some neighborhoods and increasing.
10
@JoanP
No they didn't. Amazon often tells me to just keep the item I want to return and gives me a full refund anyway.
4
8 Million People divided by 90,000 missing packages a day means that every day in NYC 1 in almost 9 people LOSE a package. Which would mean what? On any given day in NYC EVERYONE is getting a package? They lose TWENTY FIVE percent of packages? I mean, this simply makes zero sense by the math.
6
Your math is off by a factor of 10. Try again.
5
This article's assertion that "About 15 percent of all deliveries in urban areas fail to reach customers" isn't true.
The linked source actually states: "The rate of failed first delivery attempts is as high as 15% in some cities"
3
Of course failed first deliveries does not mean the items were stolen, but just that the packages could not be delivered due to reasons such as signature required.
6
My street mailbox is insecure because it is on a heavily traveled street and has been vandalized. I have a Post Office Box at my nearby post office and the The Postal Service offers an agreement whereby they will accept packages from Fedex, DHL and UPS at the Post Office. This is where I have my Amazon orders delivered. I might have to wait till the day after the packages are delivered to get them at the Post Office but I don’t have to worry about packages being stolen. The downside is that the packages can only be picked up during Postal Service hours.
8
The truth is the police do not have the time, resources or willingness to address this problem.
It is time for a little frontier justice and some good ol’ vigilantism.
6
I use the Lockers Amazon has outside 7-11 stores. I order the item and have it sent to a Locker. On my way home I stop and put my code in and one of the yellow locker doors swing open & there’s my package! Oddly the lockers have no numbers. I like that I have not had the package sitting on my front step all day. You only have 3 days to pick up before the item is returned. Then you simply can order it again.
Twice now I have returned Amazon items to Kohl’s stores. Wish I could pick up there too. Isn’t it strange brick & mortar’s are selling online and Amazon is looking for a brick & mortar? Wish Amazon would buy Kohl’s.
7
@Sheela Todd Most of the time lockers near me are full so I can’t use one.
Buy local.
Consume less.
Too much weight on the planet
At the rate we are going we may all perish beneath a giant pile of unbroken-down packages and plastics.
Slow down & breathe.
Talk to your neighbors, share a meal or a cup of tea - don't let them get stuck with all those packages!
291
@JDK Free Prime delivery is nice even for the yearly fee, if you order enough. Or send gifts to people in other states. Plus the often better prices. And reviews.
Why would I spend the afternoon shopping for something that I can order tonight and get tomorrow?
12
@Maggie
"Why would I spend the afternoon shopping for something that I can order tonight and get tomorrow?"
Oh, I don't know, maybe to support local small businesses?
41
@Maggie
"Why would I spend the afternoon shopping for something that I can order tonight and get tomorrow?"
Oh, I don't know, maybe to support local small businesses?
8
It would be less of a problem if the deliverers would lock the screen doors if they leave a package and can lock the screen door after they leave the package. Some delivery drivers are a bit dense.
2
Before my Dad passed away, he collected packages for people in the building and the loved him for it.
13
As a lifetime member of the NRA there are many situations where property thieves don’t live to tell their side of the story.
5
@Legendary Economist We'll aren't you special.
12
Glad you live in Colorado. We don’t shoot people in the northeast for theft. I guess we’re just more civilised
11
They don’t in Colorado either. Somebody is being Internet tough guy.
5
My wife had a 12,000$ insulin pump stolen.
It shipped with tracking, in a neon box that said "LIFE SAVING MEDICAL DEVICE" that was supposed to require a sign on delivery. We were home waiting in the yard for it.
The driver marked "non deliverable due to weather" on a clear sunny day. UPS basically said nothing they could do. Police said nothing they could do. Medtronic basically said "don't die while we overnight you another nothing we can do".
I will NEVER order anything important online again.
208
@Eli
I would imagine that a company will never ship an item worth $12000. They would rather send a personal courier to deliver the package by hand. It's a lot of money. I have never seen anything that expensive shipped.
30
@Indisk It would be rather easy to rack up twelve grand in computer equipment. Even for a single item, there are people out there buying fine jewelry online. And, yes, the random piece of medical equipment.
With so many people's drug plans making them get prescriptions by mail, you know there's a fair amount of that stuff turning up missing too.
32
@Eli I ask this in all seriousness with no disrespect meant, but what else would you have wanted Medtronic to do besides overnight you another one?
44
A sedentary lifestyle is not healthy! That's what I always think when I hear about all these lame "problems."
Yes, I know there are people who really can't get out of the house, but I doubt any of them appeared in this story.
4
Ah, those crippling 1st world "problems".......
I want it cheaper, delivered with no shipping charge, and I want it TODAY! What could possibly go wrong??
5
@J Darby Oh God, someone else banging on about “1st world problems”. Do you imagine that people in the 2nd and 3rd worlds don’t suffer from thievery? And how is the speed of delivery at all relevant? If it’s stolen, it’s stolen.
7
This is a complete nightmare in San Francisco too. If a package is left on a stoop, it is stolen. We had to get a gate so that deliveries were left at least inside the gate if not the building. Last week, someone used a long pole to steal something that was left behind the gate, but that was narrow enough to get through the bottom of it.
Forget about my paper NYTIMES. I have to be outside at 5:30 AM to pick it up, or it's gone.
Nightmare in SF.
16
A nightmare? You are being dramatic. Try the awful housing shortage or homelessness, perhaps the weather in your state of CA...
3
Here's to having more "Ma"s in the world.
3
If only some VC tech bro would design an experiential place where you could purchase and walk right out of it with your stuff!! No need to worry about porch pirates..
10
Once upon a time residents had mail delivered by mailman (and women) who knew each apartment and house on their route. These kind individuals took time and watched over us. How did their presence prevent theft, and how does their absence encourage theft? The loss of the community "Mailperson" is significant, but the awful cuts that the USPS have endured is the result of a clear plan by certain elected officials. Ask any Republican, those who have worked tirelessly to destroy the USPS in favor of private companies like FedEx or UPS if they care when packages are stolen. Are these legislators so different than the common porch thief?
257
@et.al.nyc
Your writing is spot on. The delivery people are overworked and underpaid. Impossible targets have to be made while they sit in traffic. Amazon monitors every move an employee makes and they are held to account while Jeff pays no high wages except to his technology group nor taxes.
The GOP have destroyed everything that makes people human. Greed is what the GOP worship and now people are complaining about missing deliveries. Well there are people who because they cant get a good paying job due to AI, they might be watching your house. However when everything is technology driven and not human then there will be problems.
38
@et.al.nyc
Bernie Sanders four years ago campaigned on his first promise to assist the nearly .75 million Postal Carriers in the US. While it is true, that the USPS has deliberately slashed the number of its employees radically, it is also, by necessity, collaborating with FedEx and to some extent UPS, because all three are suffering revenue losses due to Amazon. There are a few articles in recent issues of the Time's magazine section that discuss these facts. FedEx is NOT a partner yet, but take a look at the new signage at your local USPS office. There on the board is FedEx's rate's and logos for shipping overseas. Soon enough, their other shipping services will be on the same ship rate quote boards at USPS offices throughout the continental US.
4
@et.al.nyc -- couldn't agree more (regarding underpaid employees). On the other hand, when in the US Army in the late 1980s, I saw -- first hand -- how future US Postal employees (those working for the Army Post office almost always move over to civilian) handle a LOT of packages (especially those that were damaged). I was sent from Communications job/post to assist in Xmas mail sorting, package handling. I saw lots of letters that were just tossed (because something was amiss on the envelope) rather than having someone do a little detective work. And I saw (more than once) a partially torn package purposely ripped open even further and declared damaged, with the Postal agent tossing it aside (no kidding)! Before that event, I (a silly romantic) had mailed a card with a long love letter, stuffed with rose petals, to my then-wife, mailing it from my post in Georgia to my post in Germany where she was stationed (and I was headed). The card never got there. And it was handled by the relatively small APO system (the same folks who did all of the above, and who would one day work for the USPS).
4
So why are so many companies refusing to ship to a PO Box? Safe and secure vs left on a door step.
3
Brilliant idea, package accepters.
Of course there's a side industry -- or a hundred -- to try to mitigate the inevitable problems of going to a 'delivery only' society.
What we do to ourselves ... and I am a 'Prime' offender!
I actually prefer USPS deliveries vs. UPS or the dreaded 'Amazon' panel truck. (UPS is the worst though by far, what they do to packages ... it's a wonder anything is in salvageable shape.)
The postal service (tracked services) really does an excellent job to get package to you promptly and securely (as do the mostly friendly Amazon drivers out our way), and the vast majority of items I order tend to be from small businesses and individual sellers, who seem to prefer shipping via USPS. To me that's both a plus when ordering, and a sign of what / who does the best job.
Good luck to all.
4
The only problem we ever had in Astoria was packages being misdelivered. My boxes would be dropped off across the street at a random other building, or be placed at the right building number, but one street over from us. Can't tell you how many times I had to 'porch pirate' my own package off Same Number Building one block west. Lasership is a particularly egregious misdeliverer; I groan when I see their tracking numbers.
Now at our UWS location, no one will leave the boxes at our doorstep, even if we leave a note pleading that they do. Better not be in the basement laundry room or answering the call of nature; if you're not there to answer the call of the postman, you're schlepping 12 blocks up to collect it from the post office. (Well, except for Lasership, which does leave boxes, but has managed to twice deliver my items to other random brownstones halfway down the block).
Really takes the 'convenience' out of shipping.
1
This is simple. The USPS will hold any package that's too large to fit in my mailbox until I pick it up, but no merchant uses the USPS for deliveries anymore. I would gladly pay a fee if they'd just let me pick my method of delivery (I know the USPS is at their location every day, they must get mail!). I cannot, for the life of me, understand why retailers will not offer this option (I've asked!). I get that some will balk at the higher cost (if, in fact, it is higher, I'm not convinced). But let those people chose the existing option! I'm sure the postal service would also appreciate the added revenue. It would be a win-win, for everyone but the retailers, I guess (though no one can explain why). And they have us over a barrel.
3
After the ATM machines, now also packages? NYC is truly a third-world-country city.
3
Simple solution: Go to a brick and mortar store and bring back you merchandise with your own two hands.
Or stay at home to receive your delivery..........
7
@ultimateliberal
What a great idea - for people who don’t work.
5
@Corn Pop Or elderly.
2
'Ain't that America..'
3
It's NYC, nothing has changed culturally with criminal actions. People will always steal other residents property. It's just much easier nowadays with Amazon packages left on the front door. Just waiting for a NYC Dog owner to have their dog pick up their neighbors packages on demand. "Get that 4k TV Fido! Get it! Drag to our door!""
4
I am tired of these two-bit, chiseling, hustlers that steal from their own neighbors.
What has the world come to?
13
@Gus I imagine the stealers do not live in the neighborhoods they rob.
3
They cruise neighborhoods. Search it on YouTube, it is not a mystery.
1
During my 15 years living in NYC my car, when I had access to one, was broken into twice, my friend’s steering wheel was stolen from her Le Car, my pocketbook was picked on a city bus, my knapsack was heisted from my grocery cart and I was almost mugged twice.
Stealing unattended packages is a no brainer to someone who wants something for nothing. Don’t need to make noise breaking windows or setting off car alarms, do it during the day in broad daylight, really quick and multiple takes in one place.
Thieving hasn’t changed. Thieves are simply taking advantage of easy targets. Blaming companies that send or deliver packages properly is ridiculous unless those who assert it’s the companies fault are willing to accept their solution.
Seems that the recipients need to come up with their own solutions.
As a society if wanting to be safe and secure is one of our values then it is important to understand the motivations to steal. Let’s not make the longstanding mistake of ignoring the same behaviors enacted by “white collar” thieves.
Steal a few boxes, steal a few million, same thing, different scale.
13
Ms. Cruz is what makes New York, New York...the greatest city.
8
Fill an empty Amazon box full of used kitty litter, neatly tape it back up, and leave it outside your door.
81
When does getting to a secure package delivery site become more of a hassle than getting to the store in the first place?
11
We have a different problem. Our packages are being stolen by our Postmen. In Springfield Gardens & Laurelton in Queens, we get all our mail - bills, catalogs, junk mail, etc. but not our packages. We only get our packages if they are coming via UPS or FedEx, but if it is through the Postal Service, good luck.
It is such a problem that we have had to contact the Inspector General and local council members. There are numerous complaints about our USPS branch and still, nothing is done.
We have even caught a postal worker in the act of stealing! We saw that they marked our package as delivered, never came to the door, and drove off. We followed them, confronted them, and demanded that they hand over our package. They handed it over and angrily drove away.
Mail theft is supposed to be a federal crime, but it continues to happen. It is not always some random bandit. Sometimes it is the Postman.
107
@Jacklyn
While I commented above singing the praises of the USPS, I must acknowledge this, too, can be an issue. We have ourselves been hit once (that we know of) and in other parts of our county, there have been larger scale incidents. Usually one bad carrier ...
No system is perfect, that's for sure.
2
We had a similar problem at our post office in Brooklyn, the Adelphi. The biggest obstacle to getting packages was a dishonest or incompetent postal service. It got so bad, I would cancel an order if it was to be delivered by USPS.
It’s easy to find which post offices have problems. Just check their yelp reviews. If the postal inspectors were serious about their jobs, they would.
7
@Jacklyn Contact the US Postal Inspectors (USPIS). Postal Inspectors are not auditors. They are sworn law enforcement, i.e., they are armed and have arrest power. "Local council members" have no authority over USPS employees. The Postal Inspectors do. Very few USPS employees want to have any contact with the Postal Inspectors. You can access the USPIS at https://www.uspis.gov
12
In real time and in person, I actually shop. I engage of of my senses, including the sixth.
Most of the populace follows the rest of their lemming brethren; happy to online everything from tinder dates to breast milk pumps.....
Sad.
8
People shop online for three main reasons: selection, price and convenience. That hardly makes them lemmings. In fact, I believe most objective observers would call them “smart.”
9
@Todd In addition the shoppers can read the reviews of the product if needed.
2
I love this.
The free enterprise system at its very best.
Need a jar of pickles or some band-aids?
Just go next door and steal the package your neighbor just got.
Let's just say it tums out to be a bow and arrow and some shirts.
Nothing lost.
Just go up on Ebay and sell it.
6
Wait. 1.8M packages a year go missing in NYC, and the number is 1,800 so far this year in DC?
There's a typo here. Even if Washington's are only those reported to the police, and would be admittedly a much smaller number, these numbers are at extreme odds.
3
@M.Y. 1800 reported to the police. Most are not reported since many merchants will replace the contents or refund your credit card.
3
@M.Y. It seems DC is not fertile ground for package thief but the other kind of thieves who steal from the public purse
5
I am surprised that the public does not find it ironic that the cities with apparently the highest theft rates have the highest inquality rates as well.
While theft is never a reasonable fall back to equalize any real or perceived inequality it is a symptom of the inequality problem, Daniel Hicks at the University of Oklahoma and Joan Hamory Hicks at the University of California in Berkeley demonstrated that over a 20-year period, the American states that had the greatest inequality in visible expenditure—spending on items such as clothing, jewellery, cars, and eating out—also suffered the most from violent crime.
Please see the Economist June 7, 2018
7
Perhaps this should be more widely publicized.
2
I can tell you that Amazon sees porch theft as a revenue source. If sellers buy shipping through them, they’re supposedly protected if a package is stolen. Otherwise, it’s the seller’s loss. Amazon has no interest in solving this problem.
3
@John Hay
Nonsense. Most packages delivered by Amazon are sold by Amazon. When those packages are stolen, Amazon replaces the stolen item. That’s a loss, not a revenue source.
3
Well, it had to happen. First shipping was "free", and now your stuff is too, (to someone)!
4
Buy local and not too much.
9
This is why drug law reform is so important. Instead of having our police pour resources into locking up pot smokers, addicts and small-time drug dealers, wouldn't it be nice if our police and courts made petty theft a higher priority. Ten year jail sentences aren't the answer, but people need to be arrested and prosecuted just to send the message that it's not ok to steal other people's stuff. If we prosecute shoplifters, we should do the same with package thieves.
4
90,000 packages a day go missing in NYC alone? Seriously is the math right? That’s over 32 million packages a year. I’m finding this number in NYC alone hard to believe.
6
It’s 28 percent of all packages in NYC shipped daily
1
@Tony that’s crazy!
Some of this is due to the incompetency of the delivers. We regularly get packages for a nearby apartment complex. The packages indicate that the packages should be delivered to a certain apartment and we are clearly a townhouse. But the delivers still leave other people's stuff outside our door.
10
I found a brilliant solution to this problem, a method used by humanity for thousands of years. I buy things in person and schlep them home. Nothing I’ve purchased has ever been stolen or lost.
7
Dabney,
It’s hard to rely on stores because they are not always fully stocked, especially when looking for a less common item. I try to make a point of buying at the brick and motor stores but it’s not always possible.
7
@Dabney L
Do you have any ideas for people who are physically unable to “ buy things in person and schlep them home”?
Maybe they should just do without?
7
If landlords gave a nice rent discount to one dedicated package receiver in every building of large cities this problem would be solved considerably.
7
People like Miriam Cruz make me proud to be an American.
5
I wish I could still go shopping in stores for classical recordings as I once was able to do. I especially loved the wonderful selection at Tower Records and wish it were still here, and I also loved the smaller record stores as well. Classical music is a tiny segment of the recording market (two percent I have read) and even stores which still carry CDs like Barnes & Nobel have a tiny selection of classical recordings.
Likewise I hate seeing the independent bookshops going out of business, and even a large chain like Borders could not survive. Some things are only available now online, and I suspect there are many of us who wish that the shops we used to frequent were still here for is to visit and patronize.
13
Great. Everybody stop buying online. Here in NJ we're inundated with warehouse construction. The rumble of trucks shakes houses to their foundations. The air is so thick with clouds of diesel, birds sit on them instead of branches. Walk or drive or take the subway to do your shopping. The only thing you'll lose is calories. Thanks.
6
Can't see a valid reason why Chase would not allow a certain minimum size and smallish amount of packages delivered to employees who may fear their items may be stolen ?
What gives? Of course to me Chase would have an issue with their huge corporate office buildings , I am thinking more of the corner bank.
Obviously a different scenario in a suburban locale in MN, but the only one who does not ring the bell is UPS. Just got a package via FedEx and they rang the bell. I guess I'm not surprised they don't wait for a signature (although one UPS delivery did get a signature), since they are under such time constraints. We also have neighbors that are on the constant lookout (several of us are home all day due to various situations), so they can also be on the lookout. But 15% (or more) disappearing gets charged back to all of us. Something needs to be done.
2
I just replaced my garage door and the new opener is compatible with an app that lets Amazon access the door and leave packages in the garage.
I’m mulling this over, asking the question: Do I want to let companies access another thing in my life?
5
The other unintended consequence is the recycling of the boxes. More than I want to handle some weeks! I can only wonder what the change has meant to recycling at the municipal and commercial level...?
17
Easy problem to address. Apply for a PO Box at your local Post Office and sign up for 'street addressing.'
You will have to pick up packages at the local Post Office.
Nothing is 100 percent guaranteed but Postal employees are sworn federal employees and the Post Office has a Postal Inspector branch, the Post Office equivalent of an FBI. Theft from any mailbox or by any Postal employee is taken seriously.
I don’t think UPS, Fed Ex, or Amazon can deliver to a PO box. Only USPS (the postal service) can. That’s the problem.
4
@Laume
I routinely order Amazon merchandise to be delivered to my POBox. I believe I have gotten Fed Ex deliveries there as well.
You must include the STREET address of the post office in the delivery address, and your POB#. This has been a service of USPS for some years now.
2
@Laume
Apply for a PO Box at your local Post Office and sign up for 'street addressing.'
3
Two years ago I had 3 UPS and FedEx packages stolen from my porch in one week. The UPS driver informed me that he is often followed by vehicles waiting for him to drop off packages. His company does not allow him to call the police.
This year they are so inundated with packages that they are now ‘dumping’ packages anywhere towards the end of their shifts. When we called the delivery companies they don’t seem to care. They will not pick up incorrect deliveries and route them to the correct address. Last week we actually drove a mile to deliver a package dumped on our sidewalk!
Why on earth would I order on-line anymore?!
13
I find that a box at the closest US post office does the job just fine. Your delivery address needs to include the street address of the post office, to make it possible to receive UPS packages at the US post office. The annual rental for the POBox is worth it, and I don't have to disclose my home address when I make purchases.
Very satisfied with this solution.
3
Make the offense a felony with a $10k. Fine and three to five years in prison.
Done.
If people steal that are doing many other bad crimes and need to be removed from day to day life.
6
In Denmark packages that don’t fit in mailboxes don’t get delivered it no one is home and people used to have to go to the post office to pick up the package if they missed the delivery. Now because the post office has basically shut down offices, they have package receiving shops in kiosks, grocery stores, barber shops and also specific GLS package shops that are just to receive package deliveries. And you can choose location nearest you when ordering. Surprised in the US they are still just leaving packages in open to be stolen.
9
@Jennifer It was the same when I was living in the Netherlands. Difference was that the delivery people would often times leave your package with a neighbor who would hold it for you, and the delivery person would leave a note in or on your postbox where they had left the package.
Oh that could never happen in Denmark with Danes! We were friends with our neighbors so could have asked them but Danes are generally very private and would probably feel it an imposition!
1
Theft is wrong but the uproar sounds naive. Doesn’t every kid learn that if toys, bikes, etc were left outside there was a high likelihood that at some point something would be taken?
What is different about packages left unattended?
Apparently there are 90,000 thieves at work daily or if we assume the same person might steal 3 then here are 30,000 people per day who have a need to steal.
There won’t be one solution. Securing packages might solve some thefts but more importantly the reasons people steal needs more understanding and attention. We can’t just continue to live in an increasingly armored country or can we?
Since I mentioned bicycle theft consider this from biking.com
“Over two million bikes are stolen each year in North America—meaning every 30 seconds, someone’s ride goes missing. And the problem has only been growing: Over the last two decades, bike thefts have doubled.”
4
...and that’s why I citibike!
In my city, the Belk department store ladies’ shoe section is now an Amazon pickup location. So the Amazon shopper now drives to the brick and mortar store it has nearly killed to pick up the item they could have bought from Belk in the first place from a real local person who needs a job. Buy local.
17
@Luann Nelson: Do you actually believe that Belk sells (or ever sold) everything that Amazon offers?
I'm not a big fan of Amazon at all; I avoid buying from Bezos whenever possible - but sometimes you need an oddball item and Amazon is pretty much the only place that has it.
4
It’s likely that most of these packages are valued at less than $1,000.00 making a theft a misdemeanor. How will the various D.A’s prosecute those that are caught stealing these packages? Exactly what position does the mayor take on these thefts? Should sporting and entertainment tickets be offered to deter these larceny? Should these thieves be incarcerated when caught. Do judges or anyone else in the NYC criminal justice system care anymore about misdemeanor larceny?
Amazon allow buyers to pick up packages from near by Walgreens and other retail outlets
I’d suggest using them
4
In all the years I lived in pre-gentrified Crown Heights, I can recall one instance of one neighbor on the block not getting a package. We didn’t live in a crime-free utopia by any means. We just looked out for one another. Maybe because we knew each other, whether or not we would have chosen to be friends had we not been neighbors. This year my landlord got gentrification fever, and I found my displaced self in a bougie part of Bed Stuy for a stretch with, em, not originally from the neighborhood (white) neighbors who wouldn’t make eye contact or return a hello. And it was nearly impossible to get a package if you weren’t home and sitting outside waiting for it. I never understood why my gentrifying neighbors thought their quality of life improved when their every social interaction was curated. Whatever original community was left after the new wave arrived was just a nuisance to them. Such a warped mentality, another little death of anything that was cool about New York...
21
So you're blaming white people for package theft. Okay.
Security cameras that photograph package thieves (not that they're caught) suggest that they are not the gentry.
13
No, they’re saying a culture of deliberately not knowing your neighbors leaves you on your own to deal with a form of theft that’s always existed in Brooklyn.
10
I like one day delivery but...I could easily go pick the package up at a central location, sited close to my house...A "neighborhood pickup center" if you will. Amazon needs to come up some alternatives
2
@Harley Leiber They already have. It's called Amazon Locker and is available at most 7-11s, at least in L.A. I'm sure that they have locker locations at NYC chain drugstores or the like as well.
Time to check the weather forecast.
Once in 2018 and once this year, packages sent through UPS never arrived. The circumstances were the same. For South Florida, cold (cool) rainy day - rain all day, unrelenting, wind-blown, miserable driving conditions. (Took me two hours to make what is normally a 20-minute trip.)
The package that was supposed to have been delivered to my front porch never made it. The web tracking gave a time. A time that I was at home. Car out front.
The first time, no problem. A mistake. The second time - a year later, after I sent a message that once again, a driver simply found it too demanding to make that delivery late in the day. A supervisor became involved. A manager. The driver that has served our neighborhood for more than 10 years no longer speaks. No one ever blamed him - on bad traffic days, a different driver generally makes deliveries.
When you complain and make your case, the carrier frequently tries to make you the culprit. Just hang in there and don't give up.
4
Our lobby has very tall windows and used to be a nice, sunny space. We had so many thefts - around 150-200 by now - that the managers finally installed shades that completely cover the windows so at least all the booty isn't visible from the street. That helped. Now there are only thefts when people who have been buzzed in to make other deliveries see their opportunity. The volume of packages is incredible; I should have bought stock in cardboard boxes. The only thing I have delivered anymore is cat litter; it's too heavy to steal!
5
Besides theft from lobbies and stoops, surely many of the missing packages are caused by careless delivery agents, who overload their push-carts, as shown in the photo accompanying the article. Packages not only must occasionally fall off of these carts, but other packages must occasionally go missing when the delivery agents leave the carts or the packages unattended on the sidewalk while inside another building.
4
Porch Pirate, it's a flourishing profession in San Francisco
9
Amazon really doesn’t care whether you get your package or not. It cares that the deliverer complete the daily round efficiently. It cares about any factor that slows them down and raises their costs.
8
@Xoxarle
Replacing stolen packages doesn’t raise their costs?
2
Why don't you try buying less stuff.
17
Miriam Cruz is a rock star on some levels, but for those of us closer to her age bracket realize that she is doing what so many of us have done our entire life - looking out for our neighbors and watching out for them and their possessions.
That type of consideration and kindness seems to be going out of style in many areas. Thank goodness Ms. Cruz and the NYT continue to highlight that good people doing good and thoughtful things for others NEVER goes out of fashion.
Great article and great reminder of a happy story.
25
Absolutely. They should ALL Tip her at least five or ten dollars, she’s retired. Absolutely INSIST that she accept it, for later use OR for her Family now. It’s extremely important to have surplus funds, especially after retirement. I’ve done the same for some of my Neighbors, the ones that aren’t terrified of my Dogs. No tips accepted, but Dog treats appreciated.
Seriously.
20
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Yep - spot on PD.
My husband takes his snow blower and clears our neighbor's sidewalks and driveways after a snow storm. He's no spring chicken but he takes his time while working and I meet him every 30 minutes with a fresh of hot coffee and to check on his energy and stamina. The neighbors offer him money but he refuses because he could be in their position tomorrow and frankly thinks it wrong. But he never turns down a homemake coffee cake or apple pie that is offered as a thank you. Thoughtful and kind neighbors helping each other in their own way.
14
I wish we were neighbors.
5
I hope the many NYT readers who regularly post recommendations to boycott Amazon stuck to their principles and were out in the cold rain today for their shopping, skipping Cyber Monday and using mass transit. bikes or walking, not pretending their individual cars, taxis and car services pollute less than individual delivery trucks eliminating the need for hundreds of such car trips.
Of course, the disabled, elderly, immunocompromised and holders of 2 jobs rarely have the luxury of forsaking delivery.
17
Hey, to each her own. I sincerely try to shop Very locally, if I can’t, I have my very own Nerd to order STUFF from Amazon. He was an original prime member, and is also partially owned and operated by Apple. I think it’s great for those that can’t get out for shopping, or don’t have time or transportation.
Cheers.
3
@Phyliss Dalmatian Exactly. Happy holidays
1
@DSM14 I shopped plenty of other websites besides Amazon today. Amazon is not the only place to shop. I refuse to use Prime on Amazon and will support the third party sellers there who ship directly instead of using Amazon warehouses!
3
The people who are paid to deliver the packages are underpaid and overworked and their performance is monitored. They are unable to ring doorbells and wait for people to answer so they leave packages in lobbies. My husband bought a new phone and Apple required a signature for delivery; it was left in the lobby despite the fact that he was waiting less than 20 ft away.
And don't get me started on the carbon footprint of all those trucks that are delivering all those packages. Jeff Bezos can distance the company from the environmental consequences of his business by hiring contractors. He is a pox on society. And our government supports his behavior.
43
@Judith What is more environmentally friendly--one truck delivering hundreds of packages or hundreds of people using their cars to travel some distance to buy something? Think for a minute...
12
Well. This is an interesting article. Living in a rural area in a single family home I order extensively online and have not had one incidence [so far] of theft. I guess being retired and with helpful neighbors helps. I suspect the tracking software used by the shipping companies could assist customers in knowing when their packages arrive.
3
Unfortunately when I lived in Brooklyn and used the Dumbo postal station and Cadman Plaza I had many packages missing, and I believe it was the postal workers themselves. Since shipping from upstate New York my packages go where they need to go without a hitch. If you have ever experienced the Cadman Plaza post office, you know it’s a nightmare at holiday time.
4
Texas has the right idea, they made it a specific crime with a lot of jail time. South Carolina is making it a felony. It is amazing how brazen these people are. They are seen on house cameras casually walking up and stealing peoples' packages. It is not hard to identify the culprits. Their activity is suspicious, by entering a building and walking out soon after with a package. The police should have a special task force to crack down and these low lives. They deserve a long sentence. People should not have to spend money to protect what is rightfully theirs.
19
Living in NYC sure is great.
5
@Benito It is amazing!!!
2
Yep, agree... Love The Times, but cannot imagine living there...
1
@Benito
In defense of the Big Apple, I have to ask: so how come I never see any of those "package thieves" videos on YouTube from NYC? I've seen bunches from Texas, pardner.
I expect that's why the Lone Star State introduced new legislation about it. You sure don't outlaw things that don't happen, do ya, Hoss?
5
Another problem is FedEx using contractors for some deliveries, which is why my 15 lb package with a vacuum cleaner got delivered to someone 2 miles away while I got her o.5oz gift card “package”.
4
In the burbs most of our deliveries go on the front porch - rain or shine Saturday temp USPS carrier drops them in the driveway inviting theft.
wordwordword....
1
Wouldn't it be simpler just to buy some of that stuff at the store? I work at a big box store and I can't believe the stuff that people order online--dishes, Tide detergent, food, batteries, etc.
7
I know a very busy person who regularly has a package of toilet paper, all boxed up, delivered so they never run out. The marvels of the 21st century! Really!
1
Add into the mix some people who don't know their correct address! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just had this experience myself: In the past few months, we've had multiple packages delivered to our building that were actually meant for an address directly across the street.
The problem turned out to be that the intended recipients (who were just moving in) were SURE (actually, beyond sure!) that OUR address was THEIR address. And they were persistently stupid about it!
They were also very lucky that we're honest people who went out of our way to get the packages into their hands.
PS: Do you think they said "thank you"? Take a guess!
12
“About 15 percent of all deliveries in urban areas fail to reach customers”
Tell me again what it is that makes online shopping so attractive?
2
If all else fails, you could consider the extreme measure of buying your stuff in real physical shops, with the added benefit of keeping them from going extinct.
7
This seems to be an ideal problem for IBM's Crypto Anchors to address. A small nonremovable crypto anchor stamp or tape is placed on each package by Amazon or UPS/FedEx. The anchor relays any locational changes (GPS) and/or changes to the package. The package and its contents could be completely trackable as they are feeding information into the delivery blockchain. I believe that IBM should be offering this Crypto Anchor system soon.
2
I’ve found that, in my neighborhood at least, package theft occurs most often when third party “last mile” companies such as Lasership deliver packages outside a building’s secure area. Never once have I had a package stolen that was delivered by a mainstream carrier. Lasership, every time. My favorite was when they handed my package over to my non-existent doorman “Tito”. I had so much stolen Amazon agreed to put a note on my account to never ship via a “last mile” service provider.
While there are instances of theft outside these parameters for sure, I would be interested to see how many of these occur as a result of a carrier leaving the items in an unsecured area.
4
Take a pause and read all the comments. So far, not one is addressing the crooks. Writers blame Amazon, FedEx, UPS, Post Office, lazy buyers, etc....but not once about the skyrocketing numbers of thieves.
When did we slide so far down that this is the thinking process?
39
@Matt
"but not once about the skyrocketing numbers of thieves....When did we slide so far down that this is the thinking process?"
This is the generation that almost everyone as kids stole music and video on line. This is a natural progression.
3
Maybe delivery truck should make videos of vehicles that seem to be following them around.
4
Sounds like the credit card industry. The cost of doing business!
2
"Around the country, more than 1.7 million packages are stolen or go missing every day"
In all seriousness, how can people say we incarcerate too many people?
12
I wonder how this ties in to the brazen in-store hijackings at HomeDepot & Loews?
My complex in Chicago has added staffed package receiving rooms. When your package arrives, you get a text or email with a numeric code. To get into the receiving room, you enter that code. Packages are sorted by apartment number on shelves or in bins. Oversized packages are stacked against the walls. Everything is labeled and there are security cameras. If you need help, the staff can help you. They also provide some basic trolleys for you to get heavier packages - like mattresses - up to your apartment. My complex gets hundreds of packages daily, so the management had no choice but to go with this system.
14
I grew up in New York City, without question the theft capital of the country (if not the universe). According the the article, 90,000 packages go missing EVERY DAY? That number is almost impossible to get your head around and absolutely dwarfs the theft statistics from any other city in the U.S.
What a weird way to live (and I’m talking about the victims and potential victims, not the thieves.)
4
It is a huge problem in Albuquerque! We have Ring cameras, we follow the mail person just like the package thieves do, we are networking our camera, so someone or another who is home can monitor theft! But what about the poorer people who can’t afford cameras? And students who order text books that are cheaper on Amazon? It is just not fair!
7
I started having packages sent to a local UPS store years ago, because I don't have a doorman. The one time I sent a package home because it was heavy, it was stolen. My company has also banned the acceptance of packages for employees--which is kind of ironic, since our long hours are one reason we can't be home to pick up packages.
It's worth the money I pay for my UPS box, but my heart goes out to people who don't have a free or low-cost option nearby.
7
I just went looking for a very simple item this weekend: a new case for my new iPod Touch. The old case won't fit because this iPod is larger than the old one I had for nearly 7 years. I may be forced to order a case from Amazon or someone else. Why? Because the stores I checked, Best Buy among them, don't carry iPod cases. iPhone cases won't work. It's another way Amazon has ruined shopping in a bricks and mortar store.
I don't want the case delivered to my door. I want to walk into the store, look at potential cases, hold my new iPod next to them, and then, if there are more than 2 that I like, make a choice and walk out with my new case. I prefer shopping that way to going online and praying that what I pick lives up to what I see online.
10
I have been hit by "porch pirates" and gave the police footage from our security cameras showing the young man on his skateboard and his pickup driving accomplice just following the UPS truck. They didn't or couldn't or wouldn't address it. Now I sign up for text notifications so as soon as the package is at my door, I get it or ask a neighbor if I'm away. I love what Ms. Cruz does for her neighbors but her sweet charitable acts should not be needed!
10
This is the difference between the US Postal Service and UPS and FedEx. The USPS actually has it’s own police force to pursue theft and mail fraud. The penalties are not light. Another thing is that you may have bought and paid for your mailbox but in reality it belongs to the USPS.
7
@Paulie
Postal police are also responsible for failing to catch the millions of tons of fentanyl flowing into the country from Asia.
What makes you think that they will do anything about random junkies stealing packages, from consumers?
The only way the package theft issue will be resolved is when a rich persons package is stolen, then politicians will decry the horrific issue and dedicate billions to ensuring that rich peoples packages are not stolen.
10
Only 90-thousand? Sounds low given the vast area of opportunity.
1
UPS. It is to laugh. They used to leave the packages in our little entryway, behind the stormdoor away from prying eyes. But in the interest of speed, this October they started leaving packages on the step. IN all weather, in front of the world, waiting for anyone to stroll by and take it. People home waiting to sign, and instead they deliver to the CVS.
I refuse to order anymore from any place who uses UPS.
4
I receive an alert whenever my Amazon package has been “delivered.” Unfortunately, some of their delivery people know how to game the system and occasionally make it appear that a package has been delivered on time when it actually arrives the next day.
Fortunately, this is a rare occurrence
8
In an attempt to protect our packages, Our landlord had parcel lockers installed in the lobby of our locked building and signed up all the tenants for notification when a parcel was placed in the locker. Just one problem, it did not work!
The delivery personnel who are supposed to place the packages in the lockers, just don't. Instead the parcels are dumped on the floor.
Its actually very simple why, the delivery personnel don't bother to place the packages in the lockers. The problem is the shippers, amazon, target, etc. demand the cheapest possible delivery cost and the delivery personnel are expected to deliver packages in the absolute minimum time. Therefor, they skip placing the packages in the lockers to save time.
The landlord paid for the lockers and now knows he got hosed by the parcel locker supplier.
In a locked building, the packages should be delivered to the apartment door of the recipient, but the shippers don't care.
247
@Sam
Can you file a complaint that packages were dumped on the floor. instead of the secured locker?
10
@Sam EXACTLY - DELIVER TO THE APARTMENT DOOR. May still get stolen - but much less likely. I return ALL shipment to Amazon [RTS] unless delivered to my door OR report them 'not received'. Amazon 'forced me' to file a police report, which is fine for one'sy-two'sy but I am not doing that all the time. By and large I have largely 'boycott' Amazon -- the carriers who DELIVER to the door in my building are UPS USPS and FedEx. It is the Amazon Logistics deliveries that get left helter-skelter.
15
@Sam
Yes, the shippers (Amazon usually) employ folks who aren't very bright who can't use deductive thinking. It shouldn't be an a new idea for the delivery folks to lock the screen door behind them if the box to fit between the doors though. How dense can they be?
5
In Chicago you can have your Amazon packages delivered to Whole Foods or Amazon delivery center. For Fed-Ex the boxes will go to Walgreens. UPS will deliver to a UPS store, Bodega, or CVS etc.
This was suppose to be easy....
4
This is a major issue at my building too. Someone's food delivery for the week was even stolen. Low. We don't have a doorman. About 50% of my packages were getting stolen so I now have them sent to local UPS store, and put a note on the mailbox asking to not leave USPS packages out. I now spend a lot of time waiting in lines to pick up parcels, and carrying them long distances home. I've cut back online shopping dramatically because of it, and if local shops had everything I needed and I had more time I'd fully go back to shopping in person. Far preferable.
233
@Lleone "I now spend a lot of time waiting in lines to pick up parcels, and carrying them long distances home."
Oh my gosh, you poor thing! How horrible that must be for you. Jeez, will nobody think of the suffering consumer who now has to wait in a line in order to get the tube of toothpaste he had shipped wrapped in a whole roll of bubble wrap, then plastic and then shipped in a box that would fit a microwave?
All this hand wringing around people's inconveniences around shipping is just embarrassing.
7
@Brooklyn Dog Geek some of the elderly tenants in my building actually CAN'T go to a UPS store and carry packages because they're on walkers or can't walk at all. Having their toothpaste and toilet paper stolen is cruel and inconsiderate because they CAN'T go to the corner and pick it up themselves.
81
@Lleone "I now spend a lot of time waiting in lines to pick up parcels, and carrying them long distances home. "
#FirstWorldProblems. Seriously, boo hoo. You have to wait in line for something that you bought, and actually CARRY it home, and you're expecting... what, sympathy for this terrible injustice inflicted upon you?
I am always anxious when I order something.
I live in a row house and try to be home, which I am a lot anyway, when I expect a package.
Signature required means nothing.
The package is left on the stoop, sometimes in plain view of the street when it could be left out of view without any extra effort.
The delivery person NEVER rings the bell or knocks.
The package is just dropped, so I try to stay in the front room and check the door often.
I don’t order all that much, but I haven’t had anything stolen except for a 3 month supply of my prescription drugs, for which the online pharmacy would not only not replace without charge, but counted it as an extra prescription refill requiring me to visit my doctor 3 months sooner than necessary.
I hope someone out there is enjoying having their cholesterol and blood pressure lowered.
356
@Richard B
AND
Even if it’s a small package, a small padded envelope for instance, containing a neatly coiled circular knitting needle, for instance, there is no reason to believe that it would be delivered through the oversized mail slot in my front door.
In the rain.
Just saying.
27
@Richard B
Cholesterol medication (statins) is a waste of time. They don’t make a difference, and cholesterol is made and regulated by your body. (See David Diamond on You Tube).
I reduce blood pressure with daily cod liver oil vitamin D and magnesium L arganine helps too, as well as regular exercise.
Amazon's Hub Lockers are great. I use them all the time. To those that say "just use a local merchant", so, you are saying I should shop at my local Walmart instead? Where they pay the employees minimum wage and force them to enroll in Obamacare for their medical insurance? Or at another local monopoly like CVS or Walgreens? Times have changed--for better or for worse, in most cases, the mom and pop stores are gone. I do buy local for groceries and specialty items, but for a lot of things, Amazon seems like the best of my options.
84
@Bryan
So you do not want to go to Walmart but are willing to order from Amazon, the company that treats the warehouse workers like machines with productivity quota and where injury rates are much higher than national average rates in warehouses. And the drivers are contract workers being pushed hard with the same delivery quota. I think you will order less from Amazon if you read some of the investigative reports right in this paper.
138
@Bryan Enrollment in Obamacare is not the problem, they suggest they use Medicaid, which is the problem.
Fwiw, your local Walmart pays local taxes, and helps pay for local roads, library, etc and employs local workers. It is not ALL evil, or ALL good.
27
Bryan, I live in San Francisco, too. You know darn well there is no Walmart in SF, if you do actually live here. And there are local businesses all over the City that cater to just about every need you could have, drug store needs included.
52
The solution is simple. Buy from local businesses and carry the package home. Many small businesses will order what they don’t carry in stock and also assemble an order before you arrive.
In many cases I’d like to see or try on what I buy before I pay for it. And returning merchandise bought online for credit or replacement has its own problems.
I live in a rural area outside a small town, so sometimes online buying is the best way to go, but I try to buy locally first.
Theft is not a concern here.
219
But if I want old 1930s sheet music -- which, admittedly, I have found in the antiques barn in Arundel, Maine, and elsewhere -- I need to find it in, say, eBay.
And it needs to be delivered.
What I'd like is for young men to pay attention in school, go into a trade if they don't want or can't hack more academic schooling, and not feel entitled to steal other people's stuff.
My grandfather opened clams for a living, for heaven's sake. These package thieves think they're smart and special.
42
@Heart
If you say it fast enough you might make a few feel guilty. The reason I order for delivery is because what I want is not locally available. The Miami-South Florida area has been well known for many years for not having almost anything other than general dreck.
A recent example: A replacement battery for a Makita power driver. The Makita site listed a number of local vendors, none of which had even heard of the battery I needed. The only vendor that instantly offered the item for delivery in a few days: Amazon.
Back in the 80s, earlier, I used to read the ads in left and right margins of The New Yorker and wish some place, any place, within a hundred miles had any of what I found appealing. Always took a trip to New York or Chicago to get whatever it was. Today, ordering on line is a lot cheaper than tripping to get what no one locally has or even cares to take the time to help one by ordering.
29
@Heart
Yes, buy from local businesses. I needed 6 flame shaped light bulbs of the same type for a chandelier. Loew's ? nothing. Local Hardware Warehouse - only 2 in stock. Time lost (excluding gas, car, aggravation) - one full afternoon. Back to Amazon, delivered to my door in 2 days. End of story.
67
I'm not surprised to hear this - I have watched from my window as both Fedex AND US postal workers have placed packages at my outside door and walked away without even the courtesy of ringing my doorbell to give me a fighting chance to retrieve my packages before thieves swipe them. I understand they want to save time and not wait for the recipient to come to the door, but really, not even a heads up that there's been a delivery?
621
@mahajoma
Neither FedEx nor the postal service have any reason to care. They're not responsible if a package is swiped, the sender is. This said, while delivery folks no longer ring my doorbell, almost always, my cell phone rings/vibrates as soon as a package arrives. Call it the 21st Century doorbell.
46
@mahajoma They're under time pressure; they're being monitored.
38
@August West , I wish I got a cell phone alert!
15
Not helped by the fact that UPS (among others) regularly dumps packages outside my home without even ringing the bell. I can't even count the number of times I've walked out and found packages just sitting there--including (recently) a new chair worth hundreds of dollars. They seem to just assume that companies will make good on the thefts stemming from their laziness and mistakes.
11
We recently had someone who found their way into our locked building and then made away with packages left in the lobby. So, I told the landlady that since I am in the building more than anyone else other than one homebound neighbor, I would be willing to go down to the lobby once or twice a day, grab all of the packages, and put a sticky on everyone's door that I have their package. No one can ever find the landlady but they can always find me.
Perhaps each neighborhood/building has similarly retired folks such as myself who are more than willing to receive the packages for people? The only drawback is that I will chat your ear off when you come to pickup that package:)
117
90% of packages delivered in NYC don't require a signature and the delivery companies are pleased with this because they no longer go door to door to deliver parcels. They now dumped them with the doorman or in an unattended lobby. They now deliver pkgs. at an increased volume and are gladly willing to pay for lost merchandise because of the increased revenue.
7
Retailers and delivery companies don't care about thefts. They pass the cost onto the customers. It's the cost of doing business. Do you really think these companies are losing money as the rack up billions in dollars of profits? Granted they do not pay taxes.
23
I had a $600 solar panel kit disappear during UPS shipping.
After 3 $400 batteries were broken in shipment, I tracked down the problem and watched a UPS drive drop my 128 pound battery off the back of his truck, instead of lifting it onto a hand truck.
The solar company had no problem with almost $2,000 in losses - they replaced everything and simple said they were insured.
So much for "free shipping".
59
@Bill Wolfe
FedEx "lost" an entire automobile engine. Not parts, not a piece of, a whole engine. Rare model, nearly irreplaceable. I used the tracking function they provided and after it shipped from Ohio, it just disappeared at the Indiana warehouse that was the next stop. After weeks of emails, phone calls and fruitless conversations with their staff, my wife finally managed to find another one online, but you can bet I didn't use FedEx again!
BTW, FedEx never apologized or offered anything beyond the insurance payout for the engine.
Anyone willing to believe it's just floating around their warehouse still, eight years later? My guess is that some employee recognized it and stole it or dropped it off a forklift and damaged it and dumped it somewhere to hide the problem.
Also, I check on line from time to time to see if another one has become available for purchase and not one has in right years. I was lucky my wife found the one she did.
7
American Challenge: The MAGATS (Make America Great Again Trump Supporters) could run with this issue and lead a revival of virtue and civic pride. America should be a bastion of honesty and good-neighborly behavior, a country that prides itself on strong, incorruptible behavior among all citizens. "We should have a goal of never losing a single package, just because of the enlightened vigilance of our neighbors."
7
@Public Takeover - First they'd have to find some of each, virtue and civic pride, for themselves. They seem to have given up any they may have had before with their support for lawlessness and attacks upon our Constitution.
10
Amazon has a truly enormous and well-priced selection of almost everything which, if it is damaged or the wrong size or whatever, can be returned without a hassle or a long drive through traffic to the mall. Lost or stolen items are replaced by Amazon.
Also, most bricks and mortar stores of any size lack knowledgeable sales personnel—or any visible personnel on the store floor at all. If there are sales personnel available they often have to compete for available sales registers.
I buy many dozens of items from Amazon every year, saving me many dozens of trips to various stores, all of which are at least 10-20 miles round-trip from my home. I am “green,” so I count this as one of many benefits of shopping Amazon.
6
@Mon Ray - I once ordered and had to return a package to Amazon. The nearest drop off was quite a distance and the worst part was that I ended up having to walk past the place where I met my ex-wife. That might be why I don't shop Amazon. :)
Meanwhile, I can walk or bike to just about everything I need under the sun at a brick and mortar store.
7
@Mon Ray
Green? How about all those delivery trucks gassing up the air to get your packages delivered? How about all that excess packaging material? Amazon generates more cardboard than anyone. How "green" are the devices you use to place your orders, which are made from toxic heavy metals and combustible lithium batteries, also very toxic, all very difficult to recycle.
Amazon just changed their returned policy and now requires you to go to designated locations such as Kohl's to receive returns. If you have to go to the department store to return something, why not just shop there?
Not so green after all.
10
@ mon ray Wow, this sounds like a placed comment as well by Amazon. Do you know the too generous return policy on Amazon is driving up cost of goods on Amazon. I’m a seller and people return items that they have used, broken and so on. it’s horrible, so sellers have no choice but to inflate prices to cover returns that are more than dubious.
8
Here's a partial solution: get a small PO Box. The Postal Service will accept UPS & FedEx deliveries if the packages are sent to the street address of a local Post Office, plus the box number as if it's a room, as in: 123 Main Street, #20. USPS shipments can of course go right to the box. Pick up when you're ready & use tracking to tell you when the packages have arrived.
Don't know if this works with the growing small package delivery services Amazon (among others) now sometimes use, but ask at your local PO.
4
@Anonymouse - Amazon already offers a locker pickup option that works unless you are ordering something incredibly large. These are usually nearby. I once ordered some grow lights and didn't want everyone in the building (including the landlady) to know what grandpa was doing so I sent them to the locker and then just walked down and got them. No extra charge plus I got my steps in!
10
I know of a company called iDoorBox which makes a lockbox like contraption in which packages can be left by the delivery folks. It works really well. It’s a smart solution for the people of NYC who are losing packages to thieves. Google it.
3
Big kudos to Miriam Cruz. People like her restore our faith in humanity.
105
I have a house with an enclosed front porch, where everything is left inside, even the US Mail. That's nice. My only problem is getting to the packages before my wife sees them and complains that I get too much stuff.
40
I am not sure if I lose more deliveries to outright theft or to postal workers who deliver to the wrong address.
28
@Igor : God, yes. The postal service doesn't even bother delivering to the correct street anymore, let alone the correct street number. But I guess there's a silver lining: I've gotten to know many of my neighbors as we walk packages and mail back and forth to their correct houses every evening.
9
Is this really a surprise? Where I live, the police don’t bother to find the thieves even when there’s security footage or a photo of the person’s face. NextDoor gets all fired up about it, but that’s about it. Is there a penalty for theft in this city? After dealing with a half-dozen car break-ins, a house break-in, and more stolen packages than I can count, I do start to wonder if law and order exists here.
Texas has the right idea.
13
I blame the shipping companies mostly. Here in Chicago, I've had packages that required signatures left in the building atrium. (and stolen) I've had other packages left in the alleyway behind the building. They don't care--they just want to dump the packages and get on with the next delivery. Good luck complaining--the runarounds they give you get you nowhere.
19
Include into the equation organized crime. They LOVE the fact that we love Amazon. Hijacking retail and then fencing the items is in their blood.
The fact that there's confusion in the process only makes it that much easier for them.
11
We could end this problem tonight. But it will require more police enforcement. Incarceration rates will shoot up. People will go to jail. We do want these career criminals who are stealing arrested...right? We have the technology. We could link the security cameras to the local police departments. Put GPS tracking devices in packages. Couple this with facial recognition technology & these guys are doing 1-5 years in state prison. Crimes like this would be a thing of the past. What's not to like? Oh, wait the "woke" crowd says it's too intrusive, too Orwellian. Not for me. I just want the crime problem in my city addressed. Facial recognition technology would go a long way towards making that much more difficult for these thieves to steal. San Francisco's recent opposition to facial recognition is like a big advertisement for them to keep doing it. Property crimes have become a huge problem in this city. FBI data shows SF has one of the highest per-capita rates of property crimes in the U.S. tallying 6,168 crimes per 100,000 people. That’s about 148 burglaries, car thefts & package grabs per day. Per Day! There’s a small group of people affecting the vast majority of those numbers. The police are working with prosecutors to zero in on the most prolific offenders. We shouldn't make it harder to catch these thieves. I don't know which is worse. The criminals or the fanatics who make it impossible to arrest them. Does this absurd opposition to FR really protect the public?
17
@Bill Brown I think white collar crime and lobbying by corporations for massive tax breaks hurt people more than package thefts and are where we should be placing our resources on deterrents. Let technology and innovation fix the package theft problem.
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@Kathy So let the thieving and stealing of our mail & packages continue???? Is that what you are advocating??? Wow. This is why progressives will NEVER under any circumstances gain political traction in this country. We don't have to wait for technology and innovation to fix the package theft problem. We have something that can stop it tonight. Arrests, Convictions, and Jail. That's a pretty strong deterrent. Surely you have no problem with the people stealing 90,000 packages a day going to jail??? Of course, you don't. FYI it's not the responsibility of the local police to address white-collar crime and lobbying by corporations for massive tax breaks. We have something called the Justice Department that is charged with preventing white-collar crime. Tax breaks are the responsibility of our elected officials. Your comment makes no sense.
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You could consider moving to where people appear to be more honest: where I live.
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@DaveD
I agree DaveD.
Many of us Wisconsinites are a pretty solid crop of good folks with honest and hard working values sprinkled with integrity and compassion for others.
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@Dave D. and @Marge Keller:
We have a pretty good number of those folks here in NYC also, but you don't hear as much about them because people like Ms. Cruz are not seeking attention. It's all about the neighborhood and often the specific building.
And you'd be quite wrong to think that NYC has more "bad" people per 10,000 than Wisconsin does. In fact we have a great many "good folks with honest and hard working values" here who have "integrity and compassion for others." Sorry to inform you that Wisconsin doesn't have a lock on nice people and helpful neighbors!
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@L Yes. I see acts of kindness almost every day in this great city of ours. A few bad apples do not represent us.
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I would like to know where the 90,000 number comes from. I dont doubt that theft is running wild but that seems high.
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@Scott D
it's only 246 per day in a metro area of 8 million.
seems low to me.
@Scott D
it's only 246 per day in a metro area of 8 million.
seems low to me.
sorry misread the headline. i thought it was 90k per year.
I don’t live in an area where package theft is a major problem, but they are regularly misdelivered. Both UPS and USPS leave us packages for our neighbors, and ours show up days late after going to the wrong place and the neighbor finally notices and gets around to delivering it. How much “theft” is just bad delivery?
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@Missing Excellent point. In my area, the worst offender is USPS, be it package delivery or just my regular mail.
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@Bokmal
In my fifty-some years in earth, both in the US and the UK, from a rural village to a brownstone in a "bad neighborhood" in Chicago, I've only had two bad incidences with postal deliveries. A few odd misplaced items, i.e. I get the same catalog as the guy next door and sometimes he gets mine and I get his, but no big whoop.
But FedEX managed to lose an entire car engine at their warehouse, permanently.
1
All our local Whole Foods stores have lockers to store Amazon parcels for pickup.
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Crime pays. This is why the police are needed.
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What kind of low life steals a package from a persons door? What kind of city allows over 90,000 packages to be stolen each and every day and does absolutely nothing about it? What kind of society accepts this?
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@Kurt Pickard
What would you have the city do? Got a solution?
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@Kurt Pickard Obviously you have never lived in New York City. NYC is the kind of society that accepts this. Its a jaded, cynical and indifferent culture. Everyone knows this.
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@PeterW: Speak for yourself! I was born in NYC and have lived here my entire life and in the neiY neighborhoods I've lived in, we did not have a preponderance of jaded, cynical, indifferent people. In fact we usually had very helpful, caring & considerate neighbors.
Maybe you're in the wrong 'hood.
1
I'll bet many stolen packages are turning up on eBay and other resale sites. Shame.
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I have long been against arming our Postal Service workers. But now might be the time.
I figure that USPS employees would be best served by Desert Eagle .45 caliber sidearms, with drone support for the satchel cart walkers, and water cannons on the trucks.
Take back our packages! (TBOP)
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What kind of low life steals a package from a persons door? What kind of city allows over 90,000 packages to be stolen each and every day and does absolutely nothing about it? What kind of society accepts this?
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@Kurt Pickard It’s called criminal justice reform. Unless you murder someone, there’s a good chance you won’t be arrested or prosecuted here in NYC. Especially starting January 1.
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$5 a delivery!? Well done... well done.
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@Zach Buying from Amazon is not so cheap now, is it?
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@Zach
Capitalism begets capitalism!
The mob or gangs since time began.
It's not personal, just business.
It's not just buildings without doormen where things go missing. A year ago I bought a new computer for work. The computer manufacturer sent it, but after having it built (2 weeks) and then waiting 10 days for delivery, when the tracking information said it was delivered and I still had no computer, I called the company. They said that FedEx had a signature. And they did. But not from my building. It was someone at another building who had an illegible signature and stole my computer. The manufacturer sent me a replacement, but two weeks later asked for the return of the other computer (the one delivered elsewhere). One year later they were STILL asking for the return of the computer. Even after I explained what happened. My only consolation is that it was just the computer that was stolen and it had no software installed.
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Just as we move towards ending mass incarceration, we move towards 10 years in jail for stealing packages. While I agree there should be punishment for this crime, we need to realize that we can’t punish our way out of every problem. A year or two in jail seems reasonable, this is a bit much.
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@Ken
My thoughts exactly. It's frightening that people here think that stealing packages warrants that much incarceration.
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@Ken Especially when you consider white collar criminals almost never do any time; if anything, they just collect a severance package and get another high paying job, with a bonus!
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@Left Coast Career criminals belong in prison.
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Perhaps someone could launch some sort of secure location for purchasing goods in-person? A storage area of a kind, or "store" for short. This store could be managed by a rotating staff of employees.
I'll be rich!
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@Thad that would mean that people would need to put their socks and shoes on to go there.
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@Thad The staff and rent would be a heavy cost.
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@Thad Years ago, Sears & Roebuck catalog store (remember them?) used to have small retail outlets scattered around the country, mostly in rural areas. You couldn't buy any actual merchandise in the "store"; only order from the catalog, or pick up an order.
Maybe the online retailers (especially Amazon) need to beef up their network of hub lockers and hub "stores" so there's one every few blocks. There's definitely a market for it.
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$5 additional for someone to receive one package?
That is a hefty fee.
Seems like a more economical solution is to simply go out and buy it at a brick and mortar store.
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Happily, I work for an employer who doesn't whine about "too many" packages being delivered, hence, I get all my packages.
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@Tim Since when are employers required to use up their space for packages? Most mail rooms are set up for receiving business mail, not your 55" TV or multitude of Amazon packages.
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I do a lot of online shopping (in Canada). Canada Post has come up with some solutions for postal delivery. Flex-delivery, where the parcel can be redirected to a postal office or store with postal services. The other, brilliant, solution is a the Parcel Locker, which is now installed in the lobby of my apartment building. In the residents mailbox a key labeled with a letter is left, indicating the appropriate locker compartment. Remove the parcel and place the used key into the return slot. Visa, from what overheard at the beauty parlor, will make reimbursement for a package stolen on a front porch. The woman said her boyfriend had his parcel stolen from his front porch. and Visa paid for it. In my case I inadvertently damaged a pair of pants when opening a package and Visa reimbursed me. That was good of them and good PR.
4
Canada Post has a great solution (for now): the FLEX Address.
Sign-up is free and one gets a personal address at a local post office. No PO Box required.
When the parcel arrives, you get an email and 10 days to pick up the parcel.
Of course, some of the post office locations are small and it's probably only a matter of time until they're getting overwhelmed, but I've been using my FLEX address for two years now without issue.
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Rent the smallest size UPS box you can and have packages delivered there. In fact use it for receiving ALL mail, unless you're fond of giving complete strangers your physical address.
Me: 20 years, no packages swiped. And the box serves as a useful address for my "second office". And the USPS doesn't have to deal with my dogs.
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@Wine Country Dude: "unless you're fond of giving complete strangers your physical address"? Just how paranoid are you out there?
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More and more Amazon and Walmart are using "marginal" delivery services that, in-fact, report packages to have been delivered without ever making any attempt to do so. These companies seem to be the lowest-cost shipper, and in my own experience, the most famous of them, sometimes referred to online as "the most hated company on the Internet (I doubt it is)," has independent contractors who seem to earn their living by stealing the parcels.
Amazon doesn't care -- in several cases it has all-but-acknowledged it knows the purported delivery company specializes in "stolen-in-transit" services. This company, unlike UPS or FedEx, refuses to send emails to the customer to confirm delivery has occurred. At least, when I get an email from UPS or FedEx, I can go look in the building's lobby (it's a large building's untended lobby) to find my package -- right where UPS or FedEx abandoned it. But with UPS or FedEx, most of the time at least they genuinely have entered the building with the package.
3
@Auntie Mame My experience with Amazon is quite different. However, I am a Prime member. After I order online, I receive emails from Amazon throughout the purchase and delivery process.
5
@Bokmal Prime member? So am I, and it made not a bit of difference. I've never known Amazon itself to use email notifications *throughout* the delivery process. They will notify me when a too-often phantom delivery is made.
But UPS, the Post Office and FedEx, upon request, will send such notices and I always request this; sometimes it works, sometimes not -- except for the generally reliable UPS. But neither I nor anyone I know has been able to secure such service from the marginal, independent-contractors-companies (whose delivery-persons are apparently sometimes paid under one dollar per delivery in NYC).
A bodega or other business near a big apartment complex could bring prospective customers into their stores by accepting residents packages. Depending on the demand they could also charge a nominal fee. A win for both.
Also a sting operation by the NYPD near areas with an ongoing problem or pattern of pirating could go a long way to keep the numbers down.
14
So, the advice for New York City is to pay $5 per delivery and then walk, possibly several blocks, to pick up it up. How convenient.
We need to leave our windows open and let a drone fly in to deliver the package.
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@akamai
There was a time when walking several blocks to pick something up was considered convenient. Now it's such a drag. You have to walk past all those vacant storefronts...
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@akamai Then next the thieves will fly THEIR drone in your open window to steal the delivery.
9
What percentage of these packages contain items that could easily be purchased locally? I would guess it’s very high. And yes, yes, yes Amazon and other online retailers often have select merchandise that is best shopped for online. But I know too many people having toothpaste and socks delivered through the mail.
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@CT
Your comment makes sense unless you are elderly, handicapped, live in a cold/snowy climate or don't own a car. Amazon deliveries work well for the groups I just mentioned.
29
What about the elderly or infirm that can’t make it out ?
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@CT Perhaps they have less time than you do. Maybe they're handicapped. Maybe they are old and frail. Don't begrudge others because you choose to not to shop online.
23
Another problem is that the drivers are too darned busy. We're in a relatively quiet residential area. The deliveries start and finish when it's dark. Sometimes Amazon Prime and UPS trucks are stuffed into the same driveway. We've had packages for our neighbors on both sides left on our doorstep, and once found a box for someone a half mile away left around back by the garage.
And it will only get worse.
18
"In New York, the police do not break out stolen packages into a separate category."
One wonders how the NYPD cannot deal with something that it does not measure.
Can it be that the nation's largest local law enforcement agency is not reacting to a growing threat -- 90,000 incidents per year if this piece if accurate?
The LAPD and other agencies have initiated package sting operations with tracking devices and targeted field operations. I'd bet that the NYPD has similar strategies, but
reporters Hu and Haag left us in the dark on this.
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@Mack I'd rather the police focus real threats, not your latest impulse buy from Amazon. If you can't provide a secure location for your headphones from Amazon, then pit you socks and shoes on and buy them from a store directly.
5
@Mack I can't speak for the entire force, but the NYPD in my former precinct in Washington Heights simply did not care. Even if they caught the thief, they were rarely held for long & then let go to steal some more. Luckily, I had a thoughtful neighbor who always brought packages to the neighbors on our floor if he saw them in the lobby & I did the same when I could. I only had a package stolen once - the thief must have been disappointed to find that it was only handknitting yarn!
3
@Mack -- It's 90,000 PER DAY!
6
One problem seems to be that the shippers wish to hide the extent of the problem of porch theft. For data-driven Amazon it would be very simple to set up a secure police department portal where, say, SFPD could get real-time block-by-block data on stolen packages having to be replaced, and respond accordingly to hot spots.
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Great idea! Maybe Amazon would even start paying their fair shares of taxes for a public service like that.
7
This makes me so grateful for the building I lived in for 14 years on 23rd St — packages would amass in the lobby, especially around the holidays, including visibly expensive items such as stereos and stand mixers and kids bikes. Never once did anyone complain that an item was stolen. It seems to some a small thing, to swipe something that a company will surely replace anyway. But it destroys trust and causes inconvenience and expense to all involved.
25
Sometimes its other delivery people stealing the packages- the security camera in my building’s lobby proved this.
3
Ah, this could be the resurgence of the US Postal Service. Get a Post Office Box, have your parcels delivered to that box. USPS now has agreements with at least FedEx and UPS, allowing them to deliver to local Post Offices. Is it a bother to run to the Post Office? Yes. Is it a bigger pain to have your parcels ripped off? Yes.
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@fafield
That might be an option if my local post office was open past 5:00--they close long before I get to leave work! The package lobby is locked after that.
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@fafield In the past year my local post office has lost three packages addressed to me by handing over packages to people who stole the delivery notice from my mailbox. They are supposed to require ID, but don't ask for it. Their attitude is "not my problem". I only order merchandise that will be delivered by fed ex and UPS to my home when I know I will be there.
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@fafield I stopped ordering on Amazon because it was faster to go to the local store and buy/pick-up the items than it was to deal with failed delivery attempts and then to have to go the post office.
6
The reporter here seems not to have done his homework or, at the very least, overlooked a critical point, which is: If a package goes missing, the sender is responsible, period, end of story. Ask any merchant who's gotten stuck. This is why Amazon and others give refunds: The law gives them no choice.
Amazing that this key point isn't mentioned in this story, which encourages folks to pay for services they don't need and go to lengths that aren't necessary. That Amazon continues shipping in the way that it does suggests that package theft may not be as big an issue as we are led to believe. If 20 percent of packages went missing, it's difficult to believe that Amazon would keep leaving packages unattended on porches. I'm guessing that if a customer has a history of packages disappearing, Amazon would either require a signature or start leaving packages at the post office for pick up.
I say this as a long-time seller on eBay. I've sold more than 1,000 things over the years, shipping stuff as far away as Mongolia (really), and not once has a package gone missing. Don't believe the hype, and even if you do, don't panic, because you're covered.
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@August West Unfortunately, this isn't true. Sellers are only liable until the packages reaches the buyer. If tracked shipping shows that a package was delivered, this is great evidence for a shipper, assuming you to try to enforce whatever laws you might be thinking of (see your state's version of the UCC). But also, most sellers have some sort of boilerplate contract language (browse wrap, click wrap) that takes the liability off of them, so that's relevant here, too. Unless you can prove the package never arrived to you, the seller is not liable for anything.
19
@August West Not true. I have had stuff stolen that sellers did not replace because they can show that Fedex/UPS says they "delivered it."
26
One is not necessarily covered. USPS reported delivering two small Ebay packages to my building on the same day except only one was logged in by our receiving room and that was the item that had been sent insured. The USPS carrier had two packages - one insured, one not - she reported delivering both at the same time, but only the insured package was logged into the building’s system just moments after USPS reported both being delivered. The USPS fill-in delivery person stole the second uninsured package and falsely and dishonestly reported having delivered it. Our receiving office is staffed by people who’ve worked here, in one case, nearly 40 years; I know they didn’t steal it. Because the package was uninsured, USPS couldn’t have cared less and repeatedly deflected to their claim that it had been delivered. When I told the disinterested and unhelpful USPS person the package could only have been stolen by her subordinate, she got huffy. Well, what happened then?
In the end, the sender maintained it had been delivered and didn’t feel responsible for my loss. The post office maintained it had been delivered and wasn’t insured so they weren’t responsible.
Be aware that all USPS has to do is scan your package at your address - there is no proof they ever remove it from their truck and actually deliver it.
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Article says: "About 15 percent of all deliveries in urban areas fail to reach customers because of package theft and other less frequent issues."
However, this appears not be correct. The source it links to says: "The rate of failed first delivery attempts is as high as 15% in some cities..." Failed first delivery attempt is not the same thing as stolen or mis-directed packages!
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@Phil Precisely
6
@Phil Thanks for tracking that down. The number seemed impossible to me - it just wasn't consistent with a functioning market. The Times really ought to treat this as requiring a correction.
9
Wouldn't life be simpler if these folks just bought their products at a brick-and-mortar store? Order online, wait for days, have it delivered to your office, hope your boss doesn't notice, drag it home on the subway, dispose of all the packaging...honestly, a quick trip to a store seems so much easier in comparison.
59
@Sam As if the brick-and-mortar stores actually carried what I wanted to buy. NONE of the last $300 I spent was available at any store within driving distance from me. Why waste gas and time searching when I can get it sent to me for a few clicks and some $$
97
@Sam I agree with Robert, inventory levels are often scant.
In addition, you need to consider those who cannot & most likely should not drive. My mother, 90 years old, relies on deliveries for a multitude of essentials.
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@Sam
Selection is much better in the online world than it ever was or ever can be in B&M stores. Your local hardware store may be convenient if you want something they carry, but how many brands/styles of tool belts do they carry? Amazon alone has hundreds of tool belts focused on different tasks (drywall, carpentry, electrical, gardening, etc) at many price points as well as individual components (such as just a utility knife pocket).
22
I don’t use amazon anymore. I spend less if I go to a store. And it’s more fun.
83
Um, wait a minute. "Amazon has launched a real-time tracking service so shoppers can arrange to be home when a delivery arrives."
So now we are supposed to rearrange our lives to conform to Amazon's delivery schedules? Excuse me, but it would be easier for me to go to a store when I am free than to try to conform to Amazon's driver's schedules.
This is the problem with monopolies - they low ball the costs and inconveniences to bankrupt their competitors, then they start putting the screws to the customers.
No thanks.
341
Or just stop buying from Amazon.
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@Matthew Definitely, and especially when you read about the way they treat their employees- disposable product. It's disgraceful. Serfdom rules.
11
@Les You apparently do not know the difference between Amazon requiring you to be there and merely offering you the best opportunity to be there.
9
Security cameras are not helpful. Package thieves, knowing there are cameras about, tend to hide their faces beneath hoodies, and in any event, how would the cops even begin to find them?
One thing's for sure: USPS and UPS need to ring those doorbells harder. I've waited home all day for packages and then -- thankfully --found them on my porch when I've opened the door. (As in, where the heck is the delivery truck?)
225
@B. If you had a security camera you would see them leaving the package(s).
1
@B. Yes, this is very true. We had a case where a man was wearing a baseball hat with large visor covered by a hood. He walked about our lobby with his head down and we could not get an identifiable image of him from two cameras.
23
@B. Four legged doorbell works great for me.
4
I send all my packages to my relatives across town who live in the suburbs. Only once out of the hundred or so orders I have made have one of them been stolen. I honestly can't imagine living in a massive housing complex and expecting my order to make it inside my home but adding an additional $5+ per package using these companies mentioned certainly doesn't sound appealing either.
There should be an option to flag your address for UPS, USPS, etc and have them drop off deliveries at their nearest stores instead.
2
@JM
I have seen the option to pick up the order at the local store. Third party seller ordered online through Walmart allowed me to collect the package at the local Walmart. Very convenient.
1
First world problem if ever there was one.
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@Marcus G
Stealing is more common in third world countries. If this is becoming an issue in the US, it just means we are moving towards a third world type economy, inequality growing.
19
@Marcus G
Actually -- a first world would not have theft
4
@Marcus G You obviously have no idea how big the delivery business is; relied on by people and businesses of all types and sizes. Saying "First world problem" might make you feel better but it sadly just shows how out of touch you are.
16
Liberals (of whom I once thought I was until NYTs readers "set me straight") won't like this, but the solution is obvious: More severe penalties.
Behavior is lawful. Behavior that is rewarded is repeated. Behavior that is punished, severely, will not.
60
Murder is punishable by death in Texas, which also has one of the highest murder rates in the nation despite using the death penalty heavily.
Deterrence alone isn’t enough, active measures to prevent crime like Amazon lockers are probably more effective.
24
@Travelers Nice in theory but not much evidence in practice that severe punishment for petty theft works, and usually there are significant societal distortions - think chopping off hands, deportation to Australia, the poor house, stop & frisk, 3 strikes, death row, etc.
Show me a color-blind class-blind society and then maybe just maybe your fine theory might work in practice.
13
@Travelers You have to catch them to punish them. How do you propose doing that?
13