Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Businesses

Most Amazon Prime Subscribers Say They Don't Want To Buy the Amazon Key That Lets Delivery People Into Their Homes (recode.net) 357

A reader shares a report: Next week, Amazon will start delivering packages straight into Americans' homes, using a smart lock and camera device called Amazon Key. But will anyone bother paying for what seems like an invasive service? Most wouldn't. About 58 percent of people who have Amazon Prime definitely would not buy Amazon Key, according to a SurveyMonkey poll done on behalf of Recode. That's only slightly less than the 61 percent of all U.S. adults who wouldn't buy the product, suggesting it's broadly unattractive, regardless of whether people are Amazon customers. Among Prime subscribers, only 5 percent said they would definitely buy Amazon Key. Of all U.S. shoppers, even less -- 4 percent -- said they would. Nearly 60 percent of the respondents have Prime subscriptions.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Most Amazon Prime Subscribers Say They Don't Want To Buy the Amazon Key That Lets Delivery People Into Their Homes

Comments Filter:
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:17PM (#55500339)
    Just wait until this fucking thing is cracked. Amazon stock will drop 150 points in a day.
  • Nope... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:18PM (#55500349) Homepage Journal
    I'm actually kinda surprised Amazon didn't see this one coming?

    I mean, they're not generally stupid.....Do all the people at Amazon working on this "solution" freely admit strangers into their homes when they are away?

    • Re:Nope... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:29PM (#55500475)

      I'm actually kinda surprised Amazon didn't see this one coming?

      I mean, they're not generally stupid.....Do all the people at Amazon working on this "solution" freely admit strangers into their homes when they are away?

      If 5% of Amazon Prime members buy this Amazon Key- that's still 4.25 million users in the US alone (estimated 85million Prime Owners). I think they will make a profit off this. I personally wouldn't sign up for it, but sounds like this will be profitable to Amazon.

      • Re:Nope... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Moof123 ( 1292134 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:54PM (#55500721)

        More to the point, those 4.25 Million people are likely the ones living in apartments or crime prone neighborhoods where rightly paranoid people currently shy away from delivery to the home due to theft fears. If people are already frustrated by difficult delivery issues Amazon will become a disproportionate winner with those customers.
        Not only will the paranoid buy stuff they were not ordering online previously, but they will buy stuff from Amazon that they could actually get cheaper elsewhere because of the reassurance that their stuff will not be stolen or require them to be present to sign (a major hassle for those with jobs...).

        • It might also be useful for some small-office business customers. If you work from home but spend a fair amount of time out in the field, you could give Amazon access to your garage, for example. I reckon there may well be enough of these niche applications to lure that 5% of Prime members. If you get more than a couple of Amazon deliveries a week, you might even build a delivery "shed" for the purpose. But frankly I think most people already have some sort of solution in place for deliveries. It'll be inte

      • If 5% of Amazon Prime members buy this Amazon Key- that's still 4.25 million users in the US alone (estimated 85million Prime Owners). I think they will make a profit off this. I personally wouldn't sign up for it, but sounds like this will be profitable to Amazon.

        Assuming there are no law suits against Amazon later on, they may still profit. Or Amazon has sneaked in a clause where those who bought their Amazon key can't sue Amazon because they <sarcasm>legally</sarcasm> authorize Amazon to enter their home.

    • by hawguy ( 1600213 )

      I'm actually kinda surprised Amazon didn't see this one coming?

      I mean, they're not generally stupid.....Do all the people at Amazon working on this "solution" freely admit strangers into their homes when they are away?

      I think this is probably targeted at the people that have no safe place to leave packages at their house and want a way to receive Amazon packages at home without someone stealing them.

      For those people, this could be an attractive service.

      • Interesting point. Is this the beginning of have it delivered in your home, or we don't wan't to hear about your stolen goods?

        --
        "Smithers" - M. Burns

      • by jedidiah ( 1196 )

        Suuure.

        Your neighborhood is so bad that you can't leave packages outside, yet you're fine with having a delivery person just let themselves in.

        Perfect self-nuke.

        • by hawguy ( 1600213 )

          Suuure.

          Your neighborhood is so bad that you can't leave packages outside, yet you're fine with having a delivery person just let themselves in.

          Perfect self-nuke.

          There are lots of reasonably safe, suburban neighborhoods that are targeted by package thieves where residents might want to use this service.

          • I've had a package stolen from my porch, but I'd be much more likely to install amazon key on a discreet cabinet on my porch than in my house.

            • by Junta ( 36770 )

              This is the solution that seems a lot better, and could even be totally offline and even electronic free.

              A package drop that can take packages but not easily let people get at packages previously dropped without a key is a very well known mechanical design.

    • Put your unsold lock stock on steel boxes in a size slightly larger than your large delivery box, with bolt wings to bolt onto the side of the house. They'll fly off the shelves, with all the worries about doorstep package theft.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I mean, they're not generally stupid.....Do all the people at Amazon working on this "solution" freely admit strangers into their homes when they are away?

      Could be a millennial thing who basically lives on Amazon purchases but is often not around to wait for them and doesn't want to leave boxes of Amazon stuff on the front porch.

      So they would love for Amazon to have the driver drop the stuff off inside the house rather than wait for the delivery themselves.

    • Re:Nope... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by swb ( 14022 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:48PM (#55500681)

      I'm sure the group of people who thought this was a good idea are:

      1) Super rich senior managers at Amazon that have a flood of service people through their houses all the time -- maids, cooks, pool cleaners, whatever. They think it's totally normal.

      2) 24/7/365 corporate climbers who live in hotel rooms. To them this is just maid service, and they don't own their hotel room.

      3) Millennials sharing an apartment with 3 people who think it's totally normal when you're roommates girlfriend's sister is in and out of the place all the time. They have no expectation or experience with privacy.

      I can totally see the groupthink among these people that having Amazon in and out of someone's home is a perfectly fine idea.

      I think it sucks, unless Amazon wants to sign a confidentiality agreement and post a $1,000,000.00 surety bond payable upon demand for any suboptimal outcome associated with this service.

    • It could be intentional. After all, if Amazon wants access to your house, and you talk them down to just a camera-enabled Alexa, now you feel like you got somewhere. (Queue all the people who say that they never fall for those tricks.)

      It's also a way to pump the initial sales of those cameras, since every smart lock comes with one. And even if 98% of Prime subscribers think it's stupid, that's still over a million units of camera-enabled Alexa shipped.

    • I think every single one of Amazon's own product ideas is pretty weird and dubiously desirable on the face of it. They don't even get to the point of me trying it, getting disappointed, and then letting it collect dust. Their products all project a purity of uselessness that I think even outdoes Apple (and by a wide margin; I would totally get an iPhone way before I would ever get one of those buttons you press to order things). But that said...

      I'm actually kinda surprised Amazon didn't see this one coming?

    • Re:Nope... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @05:17PM (#55502331)
      Urbanites who live in apartment buildings and condominiums are used to having landlords and maintenance staff come into their homes while they're out. Guess who works for Amazon.
  • I am surprised it is only 58%. I'd have expected higher. I know that as a Prime customer I'd never consider. Hell, I'm selling my house right now and despite that they are bonded and there are huge fines for misuse I don't like the lock box with my house key in it. Not a direct comparison, I know, since almost all of my stuff is gone and I've already bought a new home. Still, I'm surprised that 42% are okay with a delivery person having even one time access to their home.

  • by SensitiveMale ( 155605 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:19PM (#55500357)

    I'll bet that most people thinking this haven't even looked at how Amazon has set this up.

    Camera records everything.
    Deliveryman doesn't have key & can't get in any time he wants.
    Customer gets a really nice wifi & phone controlled lock.
    If someone really wants to break into your house, they'll just use a fucking brick. Off camera as well.

    The service is setup so Amazon unlocks the doors, the delivery person puts your package down just inside the door, and he closes the door. All on camera. If he goes off camera, he's fired. It's really that simple.

    Amazon has done a pretty good job of thinking this through. I know I shouldn't be surprised when people comment about shit without reading about it first, but I still am.

    • by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:25PM (#55500433)
      None of this prevents the Amazon delivery guy from telling his buddies which houses have good stuff to steal. Thieves can come back months later without any connection to Amazon whatsoever. Sure they could throw a brick through a window on any house but why risk attracting them to yours?
      • by hawguy ( 1600213 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:33PM (#55500509)

        None of this prevents the Amazon delivery guy from telling his buddies which houses have good stuff to steal. Thieves can come back months later without any connection to Amazon whatsoever. Sure they could throw a brick through a window on any house but why risk attracting them to yours?

        The thieves already know by your house and the car you drive.

        If you drive a beat up Hyundai parked on the street in front of your apartment, you probably don't have much worth stealing. If you have a BMW and Tesla parked in the drive way, chances are good that they'll be able to find something of value.

        But there's still value in your buddy tipping you off about which houses use this service, because all of them are guaranteed to have at least one Amazon cloud camera watching the house since that's a requirement of the service.

        • Wow that's quite a sweeping generality you're making there. You don't think people in modest houses and with modest cars ever buy nice electronics? I know in the area I live in, we all have generally same sized houses and same cars but some people have put their money into nice TVs/game consoles/stereos and some haven't. Furthermore, some people have alarm systems and some don't, also something that will become evident to the Amazon delivery guy.
          • by tsqr ( 808554 )

            You don't think people in modest houses and with modest cars ever buy nice electronics?

            Sure they do. Anyone in a modest house and with modest cars is likely to have a pretty nice television or two and a computer or three. But they're unlikely to have jewelry boxes filled with very valuable, very portable jewelry or other small, expensive items scattered about the place.

        • by Junta ( 36770 )

          It is a very real phenomenon to use a fake door to door salesman to case the interior of a house. They'd much rather know for sure rather than guess based on outside appearances.

          The deterrent value of the amazon camera should be low, since it is only *supposed* to turn on when a package delivery scan happens. They also don't look at all subtle, so a visual look to see where the cameras are would let you know pretty quickly where not to stand.

      • by BankRobberMBA ( 4918083 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:56PM (#55500747)

        FWIW, I don't really think this is going to be the problem it looks like from the outside. There are a couple of factors reducing your risk.

        1. Most of the big name delivery drivers are paid a living wage. They have a reduced incentive to go rogue (I didn't say NO incentive). I assume this will continue to apply to whoever winds up with these delivery permissions.

        2. Anybody who gets burgled after having a keyed delivery is likely to immediately blame Amazon, so the police are going to wind up looking hard at the drivers after the first Amazon-burglary. There will be some, but I think it will be a self-correcting problem.

        3. How much of the 'good stuff' is visible from the front door via casual glance, but NOT visible already through the windows?

        4. People will be watching the deliveries over the camera. A driver who LOOKS LIKE he is casing the place is going to get called out even if he never intends to commit a crime.

        5. Amazon has every incentive to make this work**. The very first time someone has a credible case that this service is connected to a crime in someone's house, they will probably massively over-perform their 'service recovery', full financial compensation, lifetime free Prime, additional store discounts, etc.

        Certainly there is risk, but I think the additional risk is small.

        *: Bank robbery, mostly, but I was locked up with some people who did basically what you described.

        **: I live in an apartment complex and my first Amazon shipment (which was also my last) was stolen before pickup. Now I can only get shipments sent to my friends house or my place of employment, both of which can be a hassle to transport home (as a bicycle commuter moving packages can be problematic).

        • 1. Most of the big name delivery drivers are paid a living wage. They have a reduced incentive to go rogue (I didn't say NO incentive). I assume this will continue to apply to whoever winds up with these delivery permissions.

          Interestingly, this is one of the things that turned me off. Amazon are increasingly defaulting to Amazon Logistics to deliver rather than UPS/FedEx/USPS. Now, instead of getting a driver in a uniform with a union job, decent benefits and a pension plan, I get a guy that owns a white va

      • Open door. Place package inside. Close door. I find it hard to believe that process provides so much better an opportunity to scope out your house than the commonly accepted process of ringing the doorbell and then peeking through the window to see if anyone's home.
    • by sqorbit ( 3387991 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:28PM (#55500461)

      The service is setup so Amazon unlocks the doors, the delivery person puts your package down just inside the door, and he closes the door. All on camera. If he goes off camera, he's fired. It's really that simple.

      Yes, because the threat of job lose always keeps people from doing stupid things. If the person comes in your house destroys something and leaves, sure he'll be fired. Amazon will mostly likely pay out for you also. You are still left with the effects though. The threat of jail doesn't keep people from committing crimes. The threat of job lose doesn't keep someone from cracking for a moment and doing something stupid. I prefer that if they do crack that it not be in my home.

      • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

        The threat of jail doesn't keep people from committing crimes.

        True, but the likelihood of getting caught does have a strong deterrence effect. I think Amazon did really well on this one because it looks like a clear 100% likelihood of being caught and punished. https://nij.gov/five-things/pa... [nij.gov]

        1. The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment. ...
        3. Police deter crime by increasing the perception that criminals will be caught and punished.
        4. Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime. ...

      • The threat of jail absolutely keeps millions of people from committing crimes. It doesn't stop everyone, but it stops most people.

        I am a convicted bank robber. I cannot begin to tell you how many people have told me "I have always wanted to rob a bank."
        Why didn't they? Because they were scared of going to jail.

        I think the better analysis is "how much does this service increase my risk" versus "how much benefit do I gain from it".

        I think you make a valid point that it is going to happen. More than once.

    • by sinij ( 911942 )
      Your honor, an IP address associated with SensitiveMale's Amazon Lock was found to engage in a copyright infringement, child pornography, sedition, and wrongthink activities. Please sign this warrant authorizing us to unlock his premises and collect evidence of any criminal activity. This may include, but not limited to, any computer equipment, hard disks, paper files, smartphones.

      Law Enforcement Fishing Expedition Squad
      • by Cyberax ( 705495 )
        They can already do this with regular locks. Duh.
        • by sinij ( 911942 )
          You don't understand additional links. Presently, LEO needs a probable cause or a warrant to enter your home. The lock itself becomes that probable cause and admissible evidence.

          Just think how this would be seen by a jury - "We entered premises associated with IP x.x.x.x by unlocking the front door, inside we found two password-protected servers with encrypted drives. This IP address was flagged by a sting operation targeted at Y. The defendant refused to obey court-issued order to decrypt drives." Most w
          • by Cyberax ( 705495 )
            "Hey, judge, I spotted a perv in that house watching kiddie porn through windows, can I get a warrant?"

            If a fucking FBI wants to put you under surveillance then they totally can do it.
          • tinfoil meet hat.
      • by Junta ( 36770 )

        They will just break out a battering ram. They won't bother going through all the trouble of going through Amazon once they have warrant in hand.

    • Those are good points (and the reality). I suspect the ignorance of those leads most people to immediately dismiss it because losing a package feels like much less risk than letting a stranger into your house.
      Obviously it's not unsupervised or without oversight as you point out, but apparently that messaging isn't getting through. (Or is intentionally being omitted to make more interesting news pieces)
    • I understand how the service will work, but I still wouldn't want it, even if it was free.

      I don't want anybody entering my home without me being there. Camera or no camera. A camera makes it easier to prosecute someone who robbed me, but it doesn't prevent a robbery from happening.
      I don't want a wifi-controlled lock on my door. Any lock can be picked, but a wifi lock has the potential to be hacked from someone who is merely within wifi range. If I have a nefarious neighbor, he can spend as much time as nece

    • Given the lax attention to data security by corporate America, I wouldn't trust this program at all.
    • I'm guessing you're one of the developers which is why you are so sensitive about it. Once people figure out how to compromise amazon's system locally, will amazon pay for all the items that were stolen? Will they pay the medical bills if someone gets hurt? That is why people are hesitant about electronic control of their doors. Why smash a window when you can press a button and have the door unlocked?
    • Must be nice living in your perfect world, where everyone always plays by the rules, nobody ever has any ill intent towards anyone else for any reason whatsoever, and nothing ever goes wrong for anyone, anywhere, ever.

      Of course if that's what someone actually believes, then they're very naive and are living in a fantasy world that does not and cannot exist. If there is a way for someone to game or otherwise bypass the system, be able to case someone's house, communicate what's good to steal to someone el
    • But it won't be the amazon guy who does it. It'll be the guy who gets a hold of the hack for the amazon service.

    • by Junta ( 36770 )

      Besides the other things, I personally don't like the thought that I'm sitting at home and my door just opens when the delivery person gets there.

      Delivery folks won't wait for a door knock or bell to be answered, they need to get through their route fast.

  • If people don't want it, they won't buy it. If they want to try it (like everything all the Slashdot Luddites gnash teeth about), then they will, regardless of what you say.

    I like to think Amazon isn't entering into this stupidly, and has done some research about the safety. Either way, people leave keys out for dog walkers and home cleaners ALL THE TIME, this is just a tech version of that. But honestly, the market will decide on this one, and no one is making you do anything.

    • You can optionally control who your housekeeper or dog walkers are and they still are known to steal and jack off in your underwear drawer.

  • by Obfuscant ( 592200 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:21PM (#55500389)
    How does this differ from any product or service that most people don't buy? I doubt that most people buy suspenders, but that doesn't mean there isn't a market or the product shouldn't be sold.

    Should the only thing a company sells be something that most people buy? Kiss all those niche market items goodbye, then.

    • by Daetrin ( 576516 )
      I'm with you. I don't want this thing, i think the people who do want this thing may be making a mistake, and i'm worried about the amount of control Amazon is taking over both the retail market and peoples' lives. But using these statistics to argue against the idea is just dumb.

      A quick google search shows an article from Forbes claiming that 64% of US households have Prime. There are about 125 million US households, which would mean a little over 81 million households with Prime. If "only 5 percent said
    • Its not different. Many people don't care about anything unless it affects them directly.

  • Put in a keyed "doggie door" to push the package through. Or use a locked front porch.

  • And if the package is lost, I am not responsible for it. Best of both worlds and no need for the Amazon key.

    • "Just leave it at the door" And if the package is lost, I am not responsible for it.

      You just authorized and instructed the delivery person to leave it in the open where it can be stolen. Guess who becomes responsible now?

      • No, that's my point. I didn't. They still leave the package there. I am not going to complain as there is no way I can be held responsible for that.

      • That's between Amazon and Fed Eck, or whoever delivers the damn thing. If they decide the $400 package is too big a target to leave in a yard in a questionable part of town, they can leave it at the Post Oriface, or whatever pickup place they use. If they allow me to make the choice, and I make the wrong one, THEN I can accept responsibility, but until then, it's not my fault.

    • by Cyberax ( 705495 )
      This works up to a point. If your packages get stolen too often then Amazon will require a signature upon delivery.
  • If 42% of customers are considering it then it'll be a bigger success than I would've guessed. I'm weirded out enough by the idea of the Echo without having Amazon let people into my house, but I guess this appears to have more value than I'd have guessed. Maybe urban folks would find it useful since packages might grow legs more easily?
    • Re:Massive success (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jabuzz ( 182671 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:35PM (#55500545) Homepage

      Lots of houses have a porch which here in the UK means a small area behind the main front door that has another door that leads into the house proper. Think of it like an air lock, helps keep heat in/out depending on the time of year, but most heat in, in the UK.

      So all I need to do is upgrade the inner door/add a lock and then I would be quite happy to let random delivery person in. If they want to steal the umbrella on camera more fool them. Meanwhile I don't have to worry about missed deliveries.

      Actually I wouldn't bother because I can just get stuff delivered to work, but for lots of people with less accommodating workplaces it would be a winner.

  • by i286NiNJA ( 2558547 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:25PM (#55500429) Journal

    Remember when the police were paying Best Buy employees to inform on Geek Squad customers? I think that history shows there is no way you can grant low-lever worker bees unfettered ability to invade your privacy. Even NSA contractors who are relatively well paid, vetted, and know they're monitored can't resist the urge to abuse their power for personal benefit even when it's as petty as a few cheap laughs.

  • With all the consumer products that have little back doors and 'oopsies' in regards to security, how on Earth did they ever think this would work? I'm not a security researcher, but I'm willing to bet that these will be cracked open in days by various white or black hat hackers. And you know that government agencies will be prying into them in no time.

    So at a price of $250, and a camera for another $120, this is a 370% 'no' item. And I get EVERYTHING on Amazon.

    If it was free, AND I had some kind of room

  • by FeelGood314 ( 2516288 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:29PM (#55500471)
    I've never locked my front door. I didn't even have a proper key for some of the places I've lived. Other than raccoons opening the back door I've never had any unwanted guests. What percentage of slashdot users live in neighbourhoods so unsafe you have to lock your house?
    • by sconeu ( 64226 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:35PM (#55500547) Homepage Journal

      Just out of idle curiosity...

      Are you serious? And if so, where the hell do you live?

      • Ottawa, Canada, 10km south of the parliament buildings. Our former prime minister Jean Cretian locked his door and it took the RCMP 7 minutes to respond because the first officer had forgotten his key. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
      • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

        Just out of idle curiosity... Are you serious? And if so, where the hell do you live?

        The International Space Station. ('Racoon' is spacer slang for micro-meteorites. That's my guess.)

      • by Target Drone ( 546651 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @02:06PM (#55500871)

        It's fairly common for rural people where their house can not be seen from the road to not lock their doors. The logic being that if someone drives up to your house with the intention to rob it having a locked door just means you'll get robbed AND have to fix your door. In the suburbs it makes more sense to lock your door as a neighbour might notice someone carrying a crowbar up to your front door.

        Personally I live in the suburbs and lock my door even when I'm home. There have been a couple of cases over the years where local teens will wonder the neighbourhood quietly opening doors and then stealing wallets and car keys near the door. My neighbour left his back door unlocked when he went on holidays once and kids stole the beer out of his fridge. Locking your doors will eliminate these crimes by the local kids but a locked door won't deter a professional thief.

  • by EnOne ( 786812 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:32PM (#55500499)
    It was marketed backwards. It should have been sold as an Amazon branded security system first and then as a way to deliver packages second. $250 for a smart lock front door and a security camera is a bit high but not too bad. Paying $250 so Amazon can drop off packages inside your home, not so much.
  • Reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaally? Do they really not? I'm shocked, SHOCKED! Btw seriously one dog gets let out or attacks the delivery person's hand and you've got legal issues, Amazon.
  • If I can install a lockbox or chest that could be remotely unlocked, I'd be all for it. Why do they need to enter my home if all they want is to securely drop off package?
  • where you'd leave your wet cloths after walking in from the rain/snow. There were two doors, one to get into the foyer and another to get into the house. I'm assuming that's the sort of folks this would be for.
  • I am cheering this as a failure. I wouldn't trust a complete stranger in my home, especially while I am not there.
  • by cirby ( 2599 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:38PM (#55500575)

    Just ship me a nice sturdy box that I can anchor to the ground or to my driveway, and the Amazon delivery person can use their code to drop the packages off in that.

    • With an afternoon of DIY I bet you could rig up the Amazon doorknob to serve exactly that purpose.
  • Look, at one point I lived in an old apartment building in Seattle which had these little cupboards next to each door, about 3 foot by 2 foot, with another door only the apartment dweller could open.

    Found out they were icebox doors so the ice wagon could deliver ice to each house but not open them. Before that, I used to deliver papers as a boy and some houses had these boxes next to the front door you could put papers in, and then close (but not open again). These were for newspapers.

    Why doesn't Amazon do

  • let's see, you let Amazon do the following: Record what is in your home Record when you are home Unlock your door And remember folks, if amazon can access it, so can any hacker from ANYWHERE in the world. The "unbreakable" system is simple an invitation for some smart dude to break it. And if enough people's eggs are in the one basket, then it because a target for HUNDREDS of smart people looking to break it. No one who values the safety of their home (especially homes with children) would allow this. I
  • I don't want the Amazon delivery person doing anything more than dropping the package off and running.

    "I'm late, I'm late" - White Rabbit

  • by williamyf ( 227051 ) on Monday November 06, 2017 @01:45PM (#55500651)

    In many homes and apartments in many countries (Venezuela and the USoA included), the main door does not lead right into the house. Instead, the main door leads to a small space (zaguan, salita de estar, pasillo, sort of a small hallway). If I can put an interior door separating this space from the rest of the house, and if I used amazon a lot, then I would gladly go for this Amazon service.

    the guy opens the main door, enters, drops the packet, leaves. All on camera

    He can not see inside the house (because of the extra door), if he tries to enter the house, he has to force the extra door, and gets recorded on camera...

    If, on the other hand, the main door leads right into the house, with no way to separate a small area from the rest, no fucking way I would go for this. Not only for the risk of being robed and what not, but also, for the invasion of privacy (i do not want the delivery guy seing the mess of my house, or what paintings I have on the walls), or getting frinedly with my rottwiler ;-)

  • I've had a package go missing once at my current address. It was replaced at no cost to me. I have absolutely no motivation to have packages delivered inside my house since I know that if a package fails to show up, I can have it replaced without losing any money.

    If packages were frequently disappearing from my house, giving someone (or some company) access to my house would definitely not be a step in the right direction to solving the problem.

  • As most people have commented, this appears rather stupid. Why would I ever want this?

    But particularly in urban areas where people have had consistent problems with packages being stolen between delivery and when they get home, this addresses a real problem. In those cases, this would potentially be a great product.

  • This will probably only be for shipments delivered by Amazon. I suppose they could eventually partner with other shipping companies and let them use it, too, but that would let you use it for non-Amazon shipments, and I'm not sure they want this.

    So this may be another signal that Amazon is ramping up their delivery network to eliminate UPS and other vendors. Not a good time to invest in UPS.

  • I have an 140 lb Neapolitan mastiff who doesn't like strangers. I'm thinking that allowing Amazon to have a key to my front door could save me a ton of money on kibble and chew toys.

  • I can imagine that the people at Amazon took some time and thought through the scenarios of this. Having said that, it's not a service I desire in any way, and I'm a serious user of Amazon Prime. So far, I don't see anything about the service that makes me want to invest the time and energy in having it installed.
  • You don't have to install in in the bedroom.
    I plan to put one on my garden shed or a special big amazon packages box.

  • I don't understand why they are going in this direction. Why not a locked box outside your door? Make it big enough for any normal package, or allow different sizes. Make it sturdy and weather proof. Put the same kind of lock system and camera on it. More people would be willing to have a box on their porch, as compared to the very few people who want their door lock under someone else's remote control.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell

Working...