Amazon tricked customers in two particularly dark zip codes in Washington, DC into paying for its fast delivery service while actually sourcing goods from slower suppliers, according to a new lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general.
The lawsuit accuses Amazon of making a secret internal decision in June 2022 to stop delivering to zip codes 20019 and 20020, both east of the Anacostia River, using its Amazon-branded trucks. Instead, the company began using slower services like UPS and the US Postal Service to deliver packages to those areas, which are 89 percent and 90 percent Black respectively, according to census data.
During that time, the company continued to advertise and promote its fast delivery times to 48,000 Prime members in those zip codes, according to the complaint.
“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for the fast delivery service it promises but doesn’t deliver,” DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement. “While Amazon has every right to make operational changes, it cannot privately decide that a dollar in one ZIP code is worth less than a dollar in another. We are suing to stop this deceptive behavior and ensure that the residents of the District get what they pay for.”
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said allegations that the slower delivery times in 20019 and 20020 are discriminatory or misleading are “absolutely false”. Instead, he wrote in an emailed statement, that the slow times were caused by violence against drivers in those neighborhoods and suggested that Schwalb’s office should work to reduce crime and improve safety in the neighborhoods.
“In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted actions against drivers who deliver Amazon packages,” Nantel wrote. “We have deliberately chosen to modify the way we operate, including the routes and times of transport, for the reason of protecting the safety of drivers.”
Top customers in the 20019 and 20020 zip codes received more than 72 percent of their packages within two days in 2021, according to the lawsuit. Amazon has reportedly decided to exclude zip codes from express shipping by mid-2022. In 2023, only 25 percent of packages were delivered within two days in 20019 and 24 percent were delivered within two days in 20020.
During that time, the percentage of packages Amazon delivered to major customers across Washington, DC increased from less than 60 percent to more than 74 percent, according to the lawsuit.
DC residents have been complaining about the retail giant’s allegedly discriminatory policies for years. The new case includes exchanges between Prime customers and official accounts of the telecommunications company, including one in which a customer asked Amazon to explain why it took them a week to receive a package in 20020 but they received a package delivery the same day on time. an address only three minutes away in a neighboring zip code.
The @AmazonHelp X account responded that the delay was “never intentional or malicious.”
“Really? So it has nothing to do with racial/socio-economic disparities that just happen to match your disparity in service delivery? the customer replied.
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