Amazon has a weak link in its business model that has the potential to cost it customers.

I love Amazon. Where else could I get such a tremendous selection of merchandise at or below market value? Its online administration is excellent. Want another shipment of what I ordered in October 2015? No problem! Its Prime program not only gets me free two-day delivery but also a vast array of entertainment options. And returning merchandise is as easy as possible, given the logistics.

It’s so easy now to shop from home and have purchases delivered to you that it’s easy to forget what a recent phenomenon it is.

But that “delivered to you” is the chink in Amazon’s armor.

You see, I live (and work at home) in a large apartment complex. Amazon uses a number of delivery vendors, some more reliable than others. The lazier ones don’t bother trying to deliver to me. I’m home during the workday; I’d answer if they knocked. They simply drop my packages at my apartment complex’s office, about two blocks away, without leaving me any notice that they’ve done so.

I have experienced this several times. Were it not for (non)delivery confirmation texts from Amazon, I wouldn’t have known to call the office and see if there was a package sitting there.

Is this company policy? If so, is it Amazon’s or the delivery services’? Or is the problem simply lazy delivery personnel? I live in the Phoenix area; nobody wants to step outside more than necessary during a triple-digit summer day. But this is a year-round problem. I was expecting a package last Friday and stayed home to accept it. Instead, it was left at the office late Friday afternoon; I had to go get it on Saturday. The weather was 75˚ and sunny. Fortunately, the box wasn’t too big.

I’ve followed up with the delivery services in the past, to little effect.

This recurring scenario raises some existential questions for Amazon:

1. If a customer must track down his or her package and go somewhere during business hours to pick it up, is it really delivery? If it’s necessary to go out, there are plenty of brick & mortar retailers within a mile of where I live.
2. Is it really two-day delivery if a package is dumped elsewhere late on the second day, requiring the customer to wait until the next morning to liberate it?
3. How should it deal with delivery contractors that fail to respect both its business model and its customers?

Amazon has demonstrated its ability to play hardball in other areas of its business. Surely it could do so with underperforming delivery contractors that undermine its business model. It’s made efforts to control the earlier stages of the delivery process, acquiring cargo planes and building regional fulfillment centers. But that final stage – the one to the customer’s doorstep – may be the most crucial.

Eventually, perhaps Amazon will figure out a way to cut out the middlemen – reportedly it is experimenting with drones – but customers like me are being inconvenienced today. Amazon must get tough with its delivery contractors – make it clear they will lose their contracts if they don’t make honest efforts to deliver orders to customers.

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Stu Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.

Tags: Amazon, Amazon.com, delivery, packages