# My Crazy First (and last) Day Doing Amazon Prime Now.



## dkcs (Aug 27, 2014)

My first day driving for Amazon Prime Now on a 2pm - 6pm shift at the UCA2 warehouse. I arrive to the warehouse on time get my cart and take it to my car and scan everything in when I notice I have a few items that won't scan and I'm missing a bag on my manifest.

(BTW, no security at all at this warehouse. I was never asked for an ID or who I was at the warehouse or the Sprouts store. Anyone could just walk in and see a name on the screen and say that's me and they let you in to grab your cart.)

I go back to the warehouse and by the time someone helps me and figures out the problem I'm getting out of the warehouse 30 minutes late. I call support to cover myself to let them know what happened, they say don't worry about it.

My next stop (a 41 minute drive according to my Google places history) takes me to do a pick up at Sprouts where I literally get 3 full shopping carts filled to the brim with bags plus a dozen 1 gallon bottles of water. My entire mini suv is packed to the roof plus the passenger seat with bags all for multiple stops. I had at least 30 bags to pick up at Sprouts. Other drivers there also picking up are laughing at how many bags I received...

By the time I get done loading up at at Sprouts I barely have time to make it to my first stop due at 4pm (a 25 minute drive from Sprouts) which I make by 5 minutes. My second stop isn't home and they left directions that they want the order left at their door anyways.

By now I'm starting to get nasty phone calls from customers that want to know where their 4pm order is. I promise I'll be there as soon as I can and apologize for being late.

At this point I notice my cell phone hasn't been charging even though it was plugged into a charger. I try a new cable and nothing. At this point my phone is about to die so I run to a Vons to buy a charger which they don't have, so I manage to track down one at a 7-11 which I try and also won't charge my phone.

I'm now stuck in an area where I have no clue as to where I am without any phone or map to get back to the station or to the next customer. I'm at a loss as what to do...

I go buy another charger, same result. So I say **** it and drive around lost for two hours until I make it back home. I call Amazon and let them know that I have 21 of their bags still in my car with merchandise that has now gone bad. Amazon says I have to drive all the way back to the warehouse (an hour each way) and attempt to redeliver those packages tonight. I tell them I'm not staying out to 2AM to deliver someones groceries and that they can come pick them up if they want them back. I really doubt anyone wanted ground beef and other perishables that had been sitting out 3+ hours at this point.

I know I'm going to be deactivated and that is fine with me, they would only offer me one four hour block a month anyways.

The kicker was when I got home and got my phone working I had a warning about a restaurant pick up that I missed as well. I don't know how Amazon thought one person could drive to all of these places in Los Angeles traffic and still make on time deliveries.

I did contact support twice when I got home and was told my only option was to get back to the warehouse tonight to redeliver those packages as it was going to be too late to get them resent tomorrow and that customers who were calling about their order "will continue to blow up your phone all night".

This was a real shitty day...


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## miggon123 (Aug 18, 2017)

Damn dude sorry to hear that. Its probably for the best nobody needs that kind of stress and treatment or to work with such unorganized people. Lyft and Uber are already hectic can't imagine adding food to the mix. Props for trying and being a go getter.


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## Prius13 (Mar 29, 2017)

Sorry to hear..


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## tofu97 (Apr 8, 2017)

I had a miserable Friday delivering prime now. Half of my deliveries were late due to road construction and closure. But compare with yours, mine is nothing. I can feel deeply your stress and frustration. Hope they won't deactivate you after hearing your story.


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## crimson.snwbnny (Nov 24, 2016)

yesterday i had issue with app too.. normally it takes me 15min to scan and load. yesterday took me 45min. i scanned 50+ boxes and packages organized them into my car to then find out the app didnt put any through. the lady at warehouse said i only had 20.
i restarted app. itinerary said i only had 2 .. so i had to unload everything and scan again
same thing. then i started scan a few at a time and pressing finish. when i "finished my route" i still had 20 packages in limbo. i couldn't scan to pick up and they weren't on my itinerary. never had anything like this happen before.


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## dkcs (Aug 27, 2014)

It's been 24 hours now and I've contacted Amazon twice to find out who I speak to at the warehouse about returning their packages. I haven't been deactivated yet and my pay is going through with tips included even though I only made two deliveries.


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## OnlyInTheA (Oct 19, 2016)

Hold on... you had 2 pick ups during a 2 hour period?? That doesnt make any sense


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## dkcs (Aug 27, 2014)

I picked up at the FC then I was instructed to head to Sprouts for a second pick up and later I found out after my phone had died that I was to do a restaurant pick up as well. This was a 4 hour block...


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## Poolepit (May 17, 2016)

All gigs are easy but frustrating ways to earn income and they certainly aren't for everyone.


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## Shangsta (Aug 15, 2016)

I hope you fixed your phone's charging port. You can't make money driving without it.


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## grams777 (Jun 13, 2014)

When you get the customer expectations email send them a reply listing the problems with the delivery that were outside your control. If you also talk about the phone problems perhaps mention the app drained the battery pretty heavily which you weren't aware of or something. And you have now (presumably) fixed it.

I always carry at least two working phones. One is usually on some cheap tracfone plan for about $5 a month. This second phone is usually some older phone I stopped using. I also try to make sure they don't run on the same network since sometimes one will go down or have poor coverage. But make sure each has the apps loaded you need and can run data if needed at least on a backup basis.

You may also find other uses for two phones in streamlining things. Phones are pretty cheap now. No need for $200 + stuff and expensive contracts unless you want to.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

You got free food though. That's a win in my book.


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## dkcs (Aug 27, 2014)

Actually no free food. I'm on a strict diet and wouldn't touch any of the stuff ordered and now my garage smells like the city dump.

I was going to donate what is still edible but I'm still trying to get an answer from Amazon on how I can resolve this and get them their usable product back. It's not mine so I don't want it... I've emailed Jeff Bezos as well to see what the response will be. So far all I've been told over the phone is try to deliver the product I have to the customer and return what they won't accept to the station. Tomorrow I'm dumping all the perishable stuff as it is starting to stink way too much!

So far the only response to my emails have been to make the attempt still to deliver the spoiled stinking food to the customers. I refuse to do this and feel it would have made an even bigger problem for Amazon. They should have gotten a reorder out to the customers affected and comped the orders for the mistake on my part.

For the hell of it I wanted to see if I was deactivated yet and they offered me a 4 hour block so I said what the hell and did it today. Then they offered me a 2 hour block later in the evening and then a 1.5 hour block in between.

Everything went well except I had to call support several times for the first and last blocks which were restaurant deliveries. Multiple times I was given less than 10 minutes to get to a restaurant to pick up an order when the GPS was showing me to be 25-40 minutes away. There was no physical way to get there that fast.

Also the middle 1.5 hour block was a mix of Sprouts and FC merchandise again going to two different customers. They had me start at Sprouts and pick up 9 bags which was no problem and then back to the FC to pick up 7 more bags before going off to two different customers each 30 minutes away from each other and the distribution center so my 1 hour break was wasted driving everywhere but everything was delivered on time. I was surprised they had someone at Sprouts tonight helping all the drivers find their bags since it was a madhouse. I can just see this happening soon at Whole Foods!


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## dkcs (Aug 27, 2014)

OnlyInTheA said:


> Hold on... you had 2 pick ups during a 2 hour period?? That doesnt make any sense


Yep, they did it again today to me on a 1.5 hour block. I had to pick up from Sprouts and then the FC then deliver to two different customers. It went smooth with no problems. I guess this is just how UCA2 is run...



grams777 said:


> When you get the customer expectations email send them a reply listing the problems with the delivery that were outside your control. If you also talk about the phone problems perhaps mention the app drained the battery pretty heavily which you weren't aware of or something. And you have now (presumably) fixed it.
> 
> I always carry at least two working phones. One is usually on some cheap tracfone plan for about $5 a month. This second phone is usually some older phone I stopped using. I also try to make sure they don't run on the same network since sometimes one will go down or have poor coverage. But make sure each has the apps loaded you need and can run data if needed at least on a backup basis.
> 
> You may also find other uses for two phones in streamlining things. Phones are pretty cheap now. No need for $200 + stuff and expensive contracts unless you want to.


Yep that is the great idea and what I will do if I'm not deactivated which I believe will occur sooner or later. I actually have two phones on different carriers. The issue was the USB adapter stopped working and I couldn't find one that would get my S7 charging again or I would have stayed out past my shift to get it finished without any complaints. By the time I drove home and then back out the food would have been bad anyways and not safe to eat since I'm not anywhere close to the delivery area or the FC.


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## UberPasco (Oct 18, 2015)

Some people are not wired for some jobs.


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## ShinyAndChrome (Aug 18, 2017)

This seems like a tough gig. At the rates uber/lyft pay, at least we can sit in the car and listen to music. I had a guy drop off groceries for me a few weeks back and it seemed to me he was working too hard for what he was probably getting. I'd say if you want to do a delivery job, go with UPS or fedex or something. The pay is better, they provide you with all assets needed to do the job. 

Rideshare is just "driving around". if you need to start getting out and loading backs and delivering, etc. that feels like a bona fide second job to me.


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## dkcs (Aug 27, 2014)

UPS is tough to get into but the pay and benefits are amazing thanks to their union. I knew guys who got lucky after slinging packages in the warehouse for a year or two at low pay until they got a driver position. Ontrac pays shit and abuses their drivers. FedEx is decent but nowhere as good as UPS drivers have it.

The Amazon loads aren't too heavy and the restaurant deliveries are easy. The problem with Amazon is the unrealistic time limits they give you to complete the routes and your performance is constantly measured on every delivery under the threat of deactivation if you can't maintain a 98% perfect delivery rate. Amazon makes it difficult by giving you say 7 minutes to get to the restaurant when their GPS app clearly says it's going to be a 25 minute drive. So you have to call in to cover your ass and let them know there isn't any way to make it that fast physically. Then you get another unrealistic deadline to make it to the customer with the delivery so if the traffic is bad or the restaurant has screwed up and doesn't have the order ready you have to call the customer to see if they still want it and then call support again so you don't get penalized for the delivery failure.


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## UberPasco (Oct 18, 2015)

dkcs said:


> constantly measured on every delivery under the threat of deactivation if you can't maintain a 98% perfect delivery rate.


Uhmmm, 98% isn't perfect. I've had FIVE late in over 1000 deliveries, including 2 restaurant that were assigned to me already past delivery time. So statistically I AM perfect. So is nearly every other driver worth his salt.


dkcs said:


> Amazon makes it difficult by giving you say 7 minutes to get to the restaurant when their GPS app clearly says it's going to be a 25 minute drive.


Who cares what the pickup time is? "Deliver By" is your target.


dkcs said:


> Then you get another unrealistic deadline to make it to the customer with the delivery so if the traffic is bad or the restaurant has screwed up and doesn't have the order ready you have to call the customer to see if they still want it and then call support again so you don't get penalized for the delivery failure.


Shit. Happens. I call support just to cover my ass when my GPS says I will be late to deliver. I never am.

BTW, I remember each late delivery.
1) A 1 hr in rush hr traffic that was delayed at WH. Would have made it if it wasn't for a db gate guard. 5 mins late 
2) 2 hr route, but the stop was at the tippy bottom of a retirement development that had a gate house with 15 cars in front of me and an 80 yo security guard. 15 min late.
3) 2 hr route, a 12 drop including water at a 3rd fl apartment complex. Walked up the wrong half of the building. This was where I found out that "Deliver By 10PM" means 09:59:59.


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## Shangsta (Aug 15, 2016)

ShinyAndChrome said:


> This seems like a tough gig. At the rates uber/lyft pay, at least we can sit in the car and listen to music. I had a guy drop off groceries for me a few weeks back and it seemed to me he was working too hard for what he was probably getting. I'd say if you want to do a delivery job, go with UPS or fedex or something. The pay is better, they provide you with all assets needed to do the job.
> 
> Rideshare is just "driving around". if you need to start getting out and loading backs and delivering, etc. that feels like a bona fide second job to me.


Packages don't tell you how to drive, throw up in your car, demand an aux cord, try to pack six people in your car.

Both have their pros and cons.


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## Brandon Wilson (Aug 13, 2017)

dkcs said:


> UPS is tough to get into but the pay and benefits are amazing thanks to their union. I knew guys who got lucky after slinging packages in the warehouse for a year or two at low pay until they got a driver position. Ontrac pays shit and abuses their drivers. FedEx is decent but nowhere as good as UPS drivers have it.
> 
> The Amazon loads aren't too heavy and the restaurant deliveries are easy. The problem with Amazon is the unrealistic time limits they give you to complete the routes and your performance is constantly measured on every delivery under the threat of deactivation if you can't maintain a 98% perfect delivery rate. Amazon makes it difficult by giving you say 7 minutes to get to the restaurant when their GPS app clearly says it's going to be a 25 minute drive. So you have to call in to cover your ass and let them know there isn't any way to make it that fast physically. Then you get another unrealistic deadline to make it to the customer with the delivery so if the traffic is bad or the restaurant has screwed up and doesn't have the order ready you have to call the customer to see if they still want it and then call support again so you don't get penalized for the delivery failure.


Don't fall for the UPS trap. The bullshit layer with that company is thick. They motivate you by presenting you with guaranteed pay based on the packages in your truck that doesn't change when you become efficient and finish early (kinda like amazon) BUT when you do start cashing in on it they will send you a message to help someone else. So if somehow you finished 45 minutes early and you have to help someone you are effectively working 45 minutes for free AND you are still susceptible to being over-allowed which you can be written up for (or so they want you to believe until you bring the shop steward on over). FedEx is far less stressful but of course pays less.


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