Amazon’s “White Glove Delivery” seems primarily aimed to combat the sordid state of big-box retail; hand-delivering products, mostly televisions, into your home. However, if you follow their logic, I am not sure it exactly pans out.

The White-Gloved Delivery page describes the following as part of their service;

After your purchase, an agent will call you within five days to arrange delivery. At your home, delivery experts make the process simple. They will:

* Carry your product to any accessible room in your home—including upstairs—provided the package will fit
* Unpack your product and place it on assembled furniture
* Provide a setup checklist
* Remove all packing materials from your home if you wish

That sounds very nice, but to me, it essentially boils down to ‘We will place it in your home, unbox it, and then leave quietly.” Understandably, it is a “free” service, but that is more than likely worked into the overall price of the product you are purchasing.

This is also distinct from the service this it is supposedly made to counter, which actually looks to install the television/projector/whatever. I suppose someone ordering an HDTV from Amazon would appreciate a timed delivery, but even that is more or less assured by frantic UPS/Fedex tracking. Essentially, it gives you all the joy of waiting for a cable television install with none of the actual productivity. Someone places the HDTV box on your stand, unwraps it carefully, and then goes away, leaving you to hire an actual installer, waiting more time, spending more money, etc. Does this seem unnecessary to anyone else?

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