Amazon now offers in-garage delivery across 4,000 US cities

[Polycount]

In brief: Amazon caused a bit of an uproar when it announced that it would be giving customers the option to let delivery drivers drop off packages in their garages, but it seems the outcry wasn't enough to stop Amazon from expanding its "Key" service. As of writing, in-garage delivery is now available to Prime members in over 4,000 cities and towns across the US.

Given that Key was initially only available in 50 cities, this is a major service expansion -- "tens of millions" of Prime customers can now take advantage of it if they so desire.

That last part is important: Key is by no means mandatory. Instead, the optional in-garage delivery system is intended to give customers peace of mind and let them dodge porch pirates. With the holiday sales season quickly approaching, Amazon's timing here couldn't be better.

The last thing you want is to have your fancy new $500 PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X stolen by an opportunistic passerby, and Key can provide an extra layer of protection against such an incident.

For those who aren't familiar with Key, it's a fairly simple service, with only two prerequisites: a myQ smart garage door opener and Amazon Prime membership. If you have both of those things, just link up your myQ app with Key, and you'll then be able to select "Free In-Garage Delivery" at check-out on Amazon.

When your package arrives, the delivery "professional" will receive temporary, one-time access to your garage door. Once they do, they'll open up the door, set the package inside, and then close it again.

All drivers that participate in the In-Garage Delivery program must undergo extensive background checks, and they're instructed not to go any further than five feet into any given garage.

If you want to learn more about Key, or check your address' eligibility, visit the service's official page right here.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/87576-amazon-now-offers-garage-delivery-across-4000-us.html

 

[OortCloud]

Round our way - they just sling em by the front door in the rain.

Better solution - use a different company - preferably one with a few principals not owned by Jeff Sleezos.

 

[p51d007]

How about a "ring" type doorbell on the garage. The person sees who it is, opens the garage, lets the package be delivered, then the door is closed. Then when you get home at night, forgetting you had it delivered, run over it when you put the vehicle in the garage LOL.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Amazon actually stores a small army of Prime delivery vans about a quarter mile from my work. The folks that drive these vans need to drive about 12 miles to the Amazon warehouse in the area. I see the folks getting brought over by shuttle at times as I drive by in the morning and they're all heading to their parked vans....

With covid and mandatory face masks, most of the drivers won't even come into the business I work at when they have a delivery (this happens almost daily). The drivers just dump the package(s) on the ground, in front of dock doors where they could get backed over by semis. This means the boxes end up in slush and water right now with the current weather conditions outside....

One of the employees on their smoke break today watched a Prime driver pull up by the docks, get out of the vehicle, open the side door, locate 1 small box (weighed about 2 pounds, box was maybe 6" x 4" x 4"), toss it on the ground near the docks in some slushy water, get back in his vehicle and drive off. The employee outside smoking had to walk about 15 ft to pick up the box that was now soaked in water and covered in dirt/sand. The Prime driver could have just handed the package to the guy smoking or even tossed it to him....what a lazy fuc ker.

I remember delivering papers in the morning with my older brother back in the early 90s. If it was raining we couldn't just toss the paper in the driveway as we went past the houses, we had to make sure the papers were in plastic bags and we had to put them up in between the storm door and interior door or a spot by the front door that was protected from the rain. It was your a$s if people called and complained about wet papers....too many complaints and you were fired. Today, some of these loser drivers are caught on camera treating packages like soccer ball and they don't even get in trouble. My oh my how standards have changed in the past 30 years.

 

[Uncle Al]

I solved those problems by requiring delivery to the back door. Once I did that I have not lost anything to the porch pirates.

 

[OortCloud]

I remember delivering papers in the morning with my older brother back in the early 90s. If it was raining we couldn't just toss the paper in the driveway as we went past the houses, we had to make sure the papers were in plastic bags and we had to put them up in between the storm door and interior door or a spot by the front door that was protected from the rain. It was your a$s if people called and complained about wet papers....too many complaints and you were fired. Today, some of these loser drivers are caught on camera treating packages like soccer ball and they don't even get in trouble. My oh my how standards have changed in the past 30 years.

Unlike your paper round, Amazon can't afford to spend the ten seconds treating you and your parcel with respect, they are only projected to make 6.3bn this year. Jeff gets a cut of that and you think he is going to reduce his income in any way to offer you a better service?

Less unnecessary packaging on parcels?, Better treatment of workers? Paying tax? etc etc - doing any of these things would reduce how much Jeff is worth and that's not ok.

Nowadays when I buy anything online I look everywhere I can to find a deal at least similar to Amazon before shopping there. If everybody did that they might get the message.

 

[Axiarus]

I solved those problems by requiring delivery to the back door. Once I did that I have not lost anything to the porch pirates.

Yeah, people I deliver to (FedEx driver) try to "require" that too. Sorry, but I am not going in someone's backyard.