if you have been following me on Twitter, you may have recently heard me complaining about Fedex leaving multiple deliveries out in the rain. In the space of 6 days (9th, 10th, and 14th of December) Fedex abandoned 4 different shipments on my porch in rainy weather with no protection (and that's not counting the half of a shipment that they lost on the 9th and delivered on the tenth).
Fedex customer service has proven completely indifferent to my complaint, so much so that I have decided to forbid anyone from sending me a package via Fedex.
Now I find I am not the only one experiencing this issue with Fedex. The WSJ reports that Amazon has banned third-party sellers from using Fedex Ground.
Amazon is blocking its third-party sellers from using Fedex’s ground delivery network for Prime shipments, citing a decline in performance heading into the final stretch of the holiday shopping season.
The ban on using FedEx’s Ground and Home services starts this week and will last “until the delivery performance of these ship methods improves,” according to an email Amazon sent Sunday to merchants that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Amazon has stopped using FedEx for its own deliveries in the U.S., but third-party merchants had still been able to use FedEx. Such sellers now account for more than half of the merchandise sold on Amazon’s website, including many items listed as eligible for Prime.
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An Amazon spokesman said the policy change is to ensure customers receive their packages on time and the e-commerce company is managing delivery cutoffs so that orders arrive by Christmas. He said the ban is temporary and will be lifted once FedEx service levels improve.
In its email to merchants, Amazon said sellers can use FedEx’s speedier and more expensive Express service for Prime orders or FedEx Ground for non-Prime shipments.
If you have been having a terrible experience with Fedex, you are clearly not alone. Their service is so bad that Amazon has banned its partners from using Fedex Ground.
While that won't be a significant hit to Fedex's income, it is a huge and very public slap in the face. Let's hope it is enough to get Fedex to clean up its act.
You just finished reading Fedex Service is So Terrible That Amazon Has Restricted Third-Party Sellers From Using It which was published on The Digital Reader.