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Comment by Alupis | Hacker News Reader

For orders over 10 USD, Amazon requires a verifiable tracking number from one of the major carrier services. (It's possible to "ship" an order without a tracking number, but the seller takes a hit to their account metrics, and Amazon will eventually freeze their account for review).

This is so they can verify you actually shipped the package, and verify it was delivered within the fulfillment promise date range, ie. if you paid for 2 day shipping or whatever.

There are some sellers that have been approved for self-delivery of packages, which are not trackable. In these cases, they usually forfeit all rights to dispute non-delivery claims and more. So, it's pretty risky for the seller.

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Speaking of which: Amazon (and ebay, too) had recently started using a UK-based service called Yodel.

Last time Yodel had delivered a parcel of $50 to my door (marking it as delivered), which obviously got stolen. You can’t call Yodel - their line is always busy, and the line is not a free number.

Yodel had done that regularly to me, but I could never contact them or do anything about my delivery, since their customer service is horrendous.

Is there any way to set it up in Amazon (or ebay, too) so that their fulfillment never uses a certain delivery brand?

> Is there any way to set it up in Amazon (or ebay, too) so that their fulfillment never uses a certain delivery brand?

No, unfortunately not. Well, unless you're open to moving outside of Yodel's delivery radius.

eBay has no fulfillment network, so you can reach out to the seller and ask for a different shipping method. You should expect to be asked to cover the cost difference though.

You can also do this on Amazon as well, just make sure that the product you're buying says "ships and sold by XYZ". Send them a message prior to ordering and they'll let you know if they can accommodate.

>Is there any way to set it up in Amazon (or ebay, too) so that their fulfillment never uses a certain delivery brand?

Amazon support was able to do this for me. They also CC:d me on a really strongly worded email to the delivery company, which I found really surprising.

This was one of the euro amazons with european support staff.

Did it actually work? Did they actually stop using that delivery company for your packages (and is the company common enough for this to not be random chance)?

Yes, and yes. I probably get closer to 1000 deliveries annually.

The risk here is that the customer commits fraud by saying they did not receive the TV. Amazon may side with the customer and refund the money; but the merchant should still be able to file a small claims lawsuit or maybe even a police report.

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