Sarah D.

We bought a doublewide here in 2009. We were first time home buyers, and we absolutely loved the school district (MSD of Wayne township), the mature trees in the trailer park, the peace and quiet, the management taking an active role in things, the way the police would cruise through once or twice a day to check on things and make sure everything was okay... Unfortunately, Skyway MHP is not what it used to be. The original property managers, Chuck and Jill, retired. For a year or so we had another manager who was pretty decent, but she moved away to be closer to her grandchildren, and after that, things went to hell. The mobile homes started to look more dilapidated, and probably were, although of course I never saw them on the inside, only on the outside. The playground equipment began to fall apart, the streets got more potholes. There was a different person in the leasing office every month. At one point, there were managers who said they set up escrow for those of us who had property taxes because we had actually purchased our trailers... they didn't. The state of Indiana is now taking back taxes out of some of our tax refunds. Other people had to pay large tax bills or else face foreclosure. Eventually the corrupt management team was replaced by some new managers, who were affiliated with Bayshore, and in some ways things improved - now we have pretty new street signs, the potholes have mostly been taken care of, some tree surgeons have trimmed dead wood and made the trailer park foliage a little less unkempt - but in many ways, not. Rent is much higher than it used to be, but aside from pretty new signs and some landscaping near the front of the trailer park, the rent doesn't seem to go anywhere except into the bank account of the management company. We're still waiting for a decent playground; many of the trailers, including some that are actually for sale, have skirting falling off, algae growing on the siding, and similar signs of wear and tear that make me wonder what the insides of the trailers must look like. As for making sure the park is safe, welcoming, quiet, and a good place for families... hah. No. There have been drug dealers living across the street from us since early spring 2022, and complaints about their foul mouths, all-night hours, painfully loud car stereos, blocking the street with the cars of their customers (or fellow dealers or whoever the people are), drunken arguments, and general mayhem they cause are ignored. The management says "We'll have another talk with them," but does nothing. The latest word is that the dealers will be out by the end of August, but we can't trust that. The dealers can always move their friends in and continue to do business as usual. It's not like the management does strict background checks anymore... And those of us who have bought our trailers rather than just signed a lease agreement are stuck, because we're upside down on our mortgages. This is not the same Skyway that we moved into and fell in love with thirteen years ago. Things have changed, and not for the better. That is all.

We don't usually use Amazon Fresh to grocery shop - the selection is limited compared to what we can find at Trader Joe's, ALDI, or even our local Kroger. However, our family minivan decided to have expensive transmission problems just before a massive snow storm and cold snap hit our area, we live in a food desert, and we were not going to try to drag a wheeled picnic cooler through the snow and cold, so we decided to try using Amazon Fresh once a delivery slot became available.

We had to wait three days for a delivery slot, which I won't complain about, because the blizzard of early February 2022 was front page news pretty much everywhere, and nearly everybody was shut down for a couple of days. Even if delivery had been available in the middle of a blizzard, forcing drivers to work under white-out conditions would have been dangerous and cruel. Our driver was also awesome. I feel bad for Amazon employees. Truly. They aren't paid much, and they work under terrible conditions.

The ordering, however, left much to be desired.

Selection was surprisingly limited. You'd think with a site that promises to be everything everywhere for everybody for its regular deliveries, and a merger with a large upscale grocery chain (Whole Foods) plus the Amazon grocery label 365 Fresh, there would be lots to choose from. Nope. I felt like I was shopping in the online equivalent of a convenience store, only one which had some organic options and luxury options added to the regular items, so it was a convenience store with delusions of grandeur.

The items were priced much higher than they would have been if I'd bought them from ALDI or Trader Joe's, or even from Kroger, but then again, that's what one expects from a convenience store, isn't it? Still, Amazon keeps selling itself as a site that has such a low bottom line that it tries to undercut Wal-Mart. I therefore expected better pricing.

Finding things was not always easy - Amazon Fresh takes a little bit of getting used to for site navigation. It's not as simple as "type in this item from your grocery list, choose from results." Again, I would have expected it to be more like the Amazon I'm familiar with for regular orders, having been a Prime member for over a decade. Instead, it seems like Amazon Fresh is more like Whole Foods But Make It 7-11.

Then there were the last-minute changes. This was what had me absolutely fuming and got me at the keyboard to leave a bad review. I had added smoked salmon and trout to the list - I was hoping to put smoked salmon in omelets I'm making tonight, and save the rest for a romantic Valentine's Day brunch in bed with my husband. The smoked fish was deducted from the order at the last minute. Literally the last minute. As in after the delivery last minute. Our offspring helped put the groceries away in the fridge; about half an hour later, I looked in, because I was getting ready to cook. No smoked fish. I thought uh oh, maybe they were put in the wrong bag and delivered to the wrong household by mistake, better contact the delivery driver, so I opened the delivery confirmation. The driver's name was now missing. I opened up the order, clicked on one of the smoked fish packages, requested a live online chat because I hate being called on the phone, got a person or possibly a bot with a person's name, who knows, and was told "those items are not on your order." What? Yes, they were, otherwise I could not have opened the order and requested the chat. "They were not available. Don't worry, you have not been charged." Chat window disappeared. I went back to the order and only just then did the order say "Item not available." I was able to get screen shots of that, at least. If I'd known this was going to be an issue I would have screenshotted the order before the items were removed at the last minute.

Amazon basically lies about items being available to hook people in, then pulls them at the last minute, saying "No. Not available after all. Sorry." You are not given a chance to make a substitution of like kind. I would have appreciated being given a choice between substitution and refund. Actually, I would have appreciated the item not being made available to add to my cart at all if it was not in stock, but failing that, I would have liked the option to substitute a similar item.

I have heard that lately, regular Amazon is likewise getting unreliable about items offered for order - they will be advertised on the site, but after you order them, oops, they're not there anymore. And good luck getting hold of customer service about any of THOSE orders if you need to complain or ask for help.

Ugh. Overrated.