Amazon wants to use drones to deliver packages. That’s a bad idea because their human delivery staff cannot even deliver a package without creating a hazard for their customers. Amazon now has their own logistics team that delivers Amazon Prime packages. They have repeatedly barricaded me inside my own home when delivering packages.
They keep leaving their packages directly in front of my doorway. I have a disability that makes me physically unable to move the package and I use a wheelchair, so I cannot step over or around it. If there were a fire or earthquake on a day they did this, I would be trapped inside. Even though I haven’t had such an emergency yet, Amazon has prevented me from doing things that I planned to do outside on days they have delivered their packages. One time, they left a package directly in front of my door while I was away from home, thereby blocking me from entering my own home when I returned.
It would not be difficult for them to prevent causing such hazards. For example, had they left the packages in the photo above just six inches to the right of the frame of the photo, it would not have blocked wheelchair ingress or egress. They should make it a matter of practice to leave packages to the side of the doorway instead of directly in front of it for all deliveries, not just for deliveries to my home. I’m not their only customer who uses a wheelchair and they never know which home they deliver to has a resident who uses a wheelchair.
When I discovered that Amazon barricaded me inside today, it was actually only one package blocking my doorway. I called Amazon and spent an hour on the phone trying to get them to help me but to no avail. About an hour later, I happened to look outside to discover that the delivery driver was able to return to my home after all, even though the manager I spoke to on the phone told me they could not. But instead of moving the first package out of the way of the door, they just piled a second package on top of it making the situation even worse (as shown in the photo)!
Every time I call Amazon about this issue, they apologize but then try to tell me there’s nothing they can do to help me out. Their driver was able to barricade me inside my home minutes before I called them, so I don’t believe that there’s no way their driver could return and move the package over a couple of inches to the side of my door. It’s not they are unable to help me—they are simply unwilling to. The fact that Amazon has done this to me repeatedly proves that they are also unwilling to train their logistics drivers to not barricade people inside (or outside) their homes, even though it’s no more difficult for a driver to leave a package to the side of a door than it is to leave it directly in front.
This shows a blatant disregard for the safety of their customers on the part of Amazon. I contacted Amazon first so they would have the opportunity to rectify the situation privately and I’m only going public now because they declined to do anything. Hopefully, other customers who use a wheelchair will start complaining about this practice. If enough people make enough noise on social media (like on the Amazon.com facebook page), it will eventually shame them into taking action.
The Progressive Zone 