Amazon Prime 2-day shipping scam

[DCal430]

80% of my prime items come on time or earlier. Of the other 20%, 90% of those are due to Amazon shipping it late, probably because I often order less than an hour of the deadline. The other 10% is due to issue with UPS, FedEx, or Ontrac. I really never have issues with USPS.

 

[zerocool84]

I always get my stuff on time or earlier, that's probably because I live in a major metropolitan area. I love Amazon Prime.

 

[Craig234]

I always get my stuff on time or earlier, that's probably because I live in a major metropolitan area. I love Amazon Prime.

Enjoyed it, but thinking of not renewing at the $99 price.

I don't use much except shipping and a little music on my Echo, that's fun.

 

[rsutoratosu]

All my stuff comes on time or even 1 day ahead of the 2 day prime = next day for no additional cost.

i have 0 compains..

 

[Zorba]

Which just ended.

Now you can share with one, in the same household, sharing credit cards.

I hadn't seen that, thanks for the heads up. Right now my sharing is still working. I am guessing it will until I renew.

But, you can still share, you just have to let everyone use the same account, since you can load multiple addresses and credit card numbers into one account. This is actually how I originally setup my account, until I realized you could "legally" share it. As long as you know and trust the other people, have multiple CCs in there isn't a big deal and I always have my family's addresses in it as well since I ship stuff to them from time to time.

 

[Micrornd]

I ordered an expensive, fancy range hood Friday @ 5am for the wife.
Amazon said if I ordered in the next 9 hrs and some odd minutes, it would be there Saturday.
Obviously wrong.
Not in a real hurry, so it didn't matter.
At checkout, it then said Wednesday and I was given an additional 5% off the price.

I smiled and clicked.

 

[JujuFish]

I don't currently have prime. I made an order after 8PM Thursday night (effectively making it a Friday order) and it just showed up today, a Sunday. No problems here.

 

[Griffinhart]

OK, I've been an Amazon Prime user for about a year and sometimes the free 2-day shipping actually works out to 2 days but a lot of time it's more like 3 days or more. I placed a large order yesterday (1/21) just about noon time and all but one of the ten items was listed as Prime and in stock, but late that night only a couple of the items shows up as having been shipped with Monday (2 days) as the expected arrival date. Now, more than a day later, half of the items still do not show as having shipped and continue to say "Preparing Shipment".

A couple of the items indicate Tuesday delivery making them 3-days not 2, and another item indicates Wednesday delivery making that 4-days not 2.

Now the thing is, Amazon has many independent merchants that sell through Amazon and I have to wonder how the annual Prime membership fees cover the free 2-day shipping. That is, Amazon receives about $100/year from each member that subscribes to Prime but how does that cover the shipping charges? Do the independent merchants eat the cost for the 2-day shipping and Amazon pockets the whole deal or does Amazon reimburse the merchant some portion of the cost delta?

Whatever the breakdown is for dolling out the Prime fees for 2-day shipping it's pretty clear the merchants are gaming the system. I suspect that they are using 3-day shipping and then covering that up by being deliberately late at reporting an item has shipped. I think that most of the items I ordered yesterday have already shipped but by pretending that some are still "preparing to ship" they can get away with 3-day shipping. Having ordered early enough on the 21st to expect 2-day shipments to arrive on Monday, 1/25 and by reporting the item as actually shipping on 1/22 they can pretend they used 2-day even though I don't see the items until Tuesday, 1/26.

I've been noticing this a lot but this particular order with 10 items has made this pattern all to obvious. I think I'm going to give Amazon a call on this.


Brian

My initial thoughts is, shouldn't you at least wait until the 2 business days have passed before you complain about not receiving it in two business days?

In this specific case, I would guess that it really all depends where you live and where the items you ordered are being shipped from. With 13 states getting 12 to 40 inches of snow yesterday delays happen. The main UPS hub is in Kentucky, which was also slammed with snow on Friday. FedEx's hub is in Tennessee, which was also affected by the storm. I know that many of my packages are routed through both hubs. It is not unreasonable to believe that this may be the reason for any delay you are seeing.

That said, I have very rarely had cases where something prime eligible didn't arrive within two days. Once a DSLR lens I ordered never got here, but Amazon overnighted me a replacement. Another time a cable came in 3 days. To be fair, I also occasionally order something and it arrives in one day instead. A Camera I ordered on Jan 2 this year was delivered on the 3rd with standard shipping. The warehouse it shipped from just happened to be in state (Mass).

Honestly, the only complaint about my Amazon prime deliveries have been on the weekends. I order with the expectation of deliveries on Mondays to Fridays, but over the past year a lot of packages have been arriving on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm not complaining that I get them on the weekend, more that it's just not really predictable on what will come on the weekends.

I also love the low cost next day shipping. $6 for overnight is awesome. I have even taken advantage of the occasion Same day delivery for under $10.

Overall, I know I get my value out of my Prime Membership. I made 89 orders in 2015. I'm well past the break even point for savings on shipping.

 

[NoTine42]

My initial thoughts is, shouldn't you at least wait until the 2 business days have passed before you complain about not receiving it in two business days?

In this specific case, I would guess that it really all depends where you live and where the items you ordered are being shipped from. With 13 states getting 12 to 40 inches of snow yesterday delays happen. The main UPS hub is in Kentucky, which was also slammed with snow on Friday. FedEx's hub is in Tennessee, which was also affected by the storm. I know that many of my packages are routed through both hubs. It is not unreasonable to believe that this may be the reason for any delay you are seeing.

FWIW, I'm sure there are still impacts, but a cousin that works for FedEx in Indy said they were diverting all their Memphis flights into their Indy center, at least during days..

 

[Brian Stirling]

I received my first shipment on Saturday -- from Newegg!

Looking through the order I do not see a single item coming from the east coast so snow isn't a factor. All my orders are coming out of San Bernadino, Phoenix, and Reno and most will come via truck delivery so nothing is coming from or going through the east coast or for that matter, east of the Rockies.

Also, of the 10 items ordered through Amazon there appears to be 5 shipments. Of those 5 shipments 4 are going through USPS. USPS is very often the cheapest but also the slowest and least dependable for on time delivery.

It looks like a number of the items are already in my area and have been since Friday so I expect most of the items will be delivered on time.

Perhaps an even bigger issue is the uncertainty of delivery and the fact that that might demand I be home for more than one day. Ordering with the expectation that all items arrive on the same day means you waste less time waiting for stuff to arrive. Living in an apartment as I do it's unwise to have them leave stuff at your door as there's always someone walking past that might want to see what you got.

For whatever reason most of the shipments coming to me are going through USPS and in this order 4 of 5 are.


Brian

 

[Humpy]

Sending prayers Brian!

We're all thinking of you during this difficult time.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Sending prayers Brian!

We're all thinking of you during this difficult time.

I really, really, really appreciate that Humpy!


Brian

 

[tsupersonic]

They have been slipping a lot and have missed 3 out of 4 guaranteed shipping dates on Prime eligible items. It wasn't a 2 day delivery, it wasn't even a 3 day delivery...4 days for a Prime delivery? Some of the items were time sensitive. When you file a complaint with their CS, they are extremely rude! I used to love Amazon Prime, but not so much anymore. I'm going to keep the service, and just plan my orders in advance. I know, first world problem.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Who places orders on Amazon anyway?

 

[Mike64]

I didnt think there were business vs weekend days for Amazon anymore.

You thought wrong. Their actual policy was quoted upthread, but once again, the 2 most relevant provisions state:

• If available, Saturday or Sunday delivery will be specified on the product page and/or during checkout. Otherwise, our shipping methods apply to business days only, not weekends or holidays.
• Remember to check the ordering cut-off time shown on the detail page.

www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201118070

 

[Brian Stirling]

It's kind of funny how so many people feel the need to rag about "first world problems" and all but they somehow felt the need to say that. Sixty five posts and counting. Move along, nothing to see here...


Brian

 

[JoeBleed]

Only time Prime fails for me is when there is a UPS->USPS hand off.

This is my biggest problem. I don't like not being able to pick my carrier. It's just made worse when it looks good starting off with UPS then i see it get handed off to USPS. Well, USPS will not deliver to my street address. If it gets handed off to USPS it needs my PO Box. But they will not ship anything two day to me if i use my address with both street and PO Box. It seems to always default to USPS which drags out the delivery time.

I mostly don't care about the 2 day shipping, it pisses me off more about the USPS involvement without my picking it or even being told about it. I never even tried Prime until the streaming video. If it wasn't for that, music, and other offerings, i wouldn't bother with prime.

 

[Spineshank]

I buy almost everything on Amazon with Prime and don't run into this.

 

[JoeBleed]

interesting, i just ordered a few things on amazon, X-Files blu-ray set is on sale till 11:59 PM today for $129 if anyone is interested, it defaulted to the free 4-5 day shipping. had to select 2 day. Even being 10:40 AM EST, its estimated delivery time is the 28th which is 3 days. We'll see if i get it in two. i don't really care, but figured i try and post here sense this came up again.

I do seem to remember they made an announcement that they wouldn't always be able to honor the free 2 day shipping due to cut backs or something.

 

[slag]

Don't forget that there is a difference between time from when you ordered and received, vs shipped and received.

Just because you ordered on 1/21 doesn't mean you will get an item 2 days later. It's 2 days later from when it was SHIPPED. It could take additional days from when you ordered for it actually ship, which is called "processing".

Now granted, Amazon is a huge company so process time should be very minimal. But my point stands that far too many people think that once you click that order button, that shipping begins at that point. It doesn't.

Now thats just not true. Before you click the pay button, it shows you the date it will show up at your address will be which is 2 days from when you ordered it, not when it ships.

 

[Childs]

You thought wrong. Their actual policy was quoted upthread, but once again, the 2 most relevant provisions state:

It feels like I've had weekend delivery for at least a year or two. Same day for maybe 6 months. Its been so long that I dont even think about anymore. Heck, at the rate they are going I wouldnt be surprised if the next time I put something in my cart a drone will be hovering outside my window with it.

 

[cronos]

I buy almost everything on Amazon with Prime and don't run into this.

Yeah, maybe I'm just lucky, but I'm not complaining.

Now that they have a warehouse an hour away and do Sunday delivery it's even crazier. I ordered something Friday 9pm and it's delivered Sunday morning.

 

[Homerboy]

Yeah, maybe I'm just lucky, but I'm not complaining.

Now that they have a warehouse an hour away and do Sunday delivery it's even crazier. I ordered something Friday 9pm and it's delivered Sunday morning.

What took so long?

 

[Aikouka]

I've noticed that Amazon's shipping has gotten really weird over this past week. It all started when I was debating ordering a Harmony remote on a Wednesday, and since it said I had 8 hours to order to get it by Friday, I decided to wait a bit to mull over it. I went to check later at night, and then it said I had 2 hours to get it by Monday. I was rather confused, and talked to a CSR to see if their site was just being weird, because if I missed the cut-off time, it should say something like "23 hours to get it by Monday". The CSR swore up and down that everything was fine and that Amazon's site was simply providing a more accurate time. I told the CSR that it didn't matter what I tried to order, everything was either "20+ hours to get it by Monday" or "2 hours to get it by Monday". The prior seemed right; the latter seemed wrong.

I ordered it, and it came in on Friday like I expected. I also ordered another item earlier in the day, and while Amazon told me that I'd get it on Monday, I got it on Friday. Even now, I'm looking to order a USB cable, and it states that it won't get here until Thursday with two-day shipping. Amazon... that's 3 business days.

 

[deadlyapp]

I ordered something on saturday night, about 10pm. Since it was over $35 it qualified for free next day. I had it Sunday morning before 11am.

Feeling pretty good.