We’ve never been in charge of hiring drivers for a delivery service, but we’re pretty sure that one of the requirements is that candidates be able to read. If not, maybe it should be. Recently, Drew was supposed to get a package from Amazon, delivered by OnTrac, but he missed the delivery. Here’s the thing, though: if the driver really stopped by, and can read, the door buzzer would have dialed Drew’s cell phone. He got no calls.

He sent an e-mail to OnTrac asking what was up, copying Consumerist like many of the cool kids do. Here’s what he saw in their system:

“I did not request a signature requirement for these packages, and believe the attempted delivery entry in your system was a mistake,” he wrote to Ontrac, “otherwise I should have found the package outside today.”

OnTrac answered Drew’s e-mail, but not to explain why his package went astray or to apologize for not leaving it when they stopped by. No, they wanted to know how his apartment buzzer works.

Drew explains:

It clearly says to “enter apartment number on keypad”, which then calls the resident, in this case a cell phone. If the delivery agent had entered my apartment number correctly, there would be a missed call on the phone. The buzzer tells you if you make a mistake.

This was an interesting Amazon Prime order that was shipped from three different vendors, each using a different courier. USPS and UPS delivered on time and had no trouble using the buzzer the same day OnTrac claims they attempted delivery.

As you can see, they didn’t admit that it was a false “attempted delivery” and it is possible the delivery agent came and simply didn’t ring the doorbell. I received the package a day late without any further contact from OnTrac, the driver didn’t have a problem with the buzzer today.

I just need to give Amazon feedback so maybe someday they’ll stop using OnTrac. I’ve seen them do this before besides what you’ve reported on your site, it’s pretty bad when you’re worse than the Post Office.

That is setting the bar pretty low, yes.

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