Amazon Prime shipping gone to hell?

[bruceb]

These are some of the many reasons I won't pay extra for Prime ... As said, quite often they use the US Postal for the actual "to the door" part. That said, in my area, USPS usually comes around 3PM or so and I have seen them send another truck with a parcel as late as 8PM ... UPS is usually before 4PM (but when they have perishables, like from Omaha Steaks) they usually show up mid morning. Fedex is usually by 1PM ... As to the Post Office, I just got a letter from my old 401K plan yesterday, telling me if I want to do a distribution for 2016, they must hear from me by Dec 16, 2016 (so that means I got the notice way later than I needed to get it and they did not even advise us by Email)

 

[Chaotic42]

Shippers being unprepared for Christmas is like pumpkin farmers getting caught off guard by Halloween. There's no excuse. Do your job.

 

[r4sh1d]

I have prime, I placed an order a few days ago and was supposed to receive it yesterday (Sunday). It's 5PM today (Monday) and while tracking the package through USPS it says it's "Picked Up by Shipping Partner, USPS Awaiting Item".

I went to chat with their rep, he tells me to call USPS tomorrow if I don't get it today "maybe they have it in their office, ask them to check around". I said I'm not going to call USPS, please fix this. Then he says he'll personally follow up on the order and will have it delivered to me today. hahaha

I said I don't think USPS will deliver it today, since it's past 5PM. He asks me to wait for the package and they "don't consider it lost immediately". He did extend my prime membership by a month; something I didn't ask for, I closed the chat window.

This is NOT the same Amazon of a few years back.

 

[XavierMace]

If it's been picked up by USPS, it's not Amazon's problem. I don't get how people don't understand that. If Amazon got the package to the carrier on time, their work is done unless said carrier is Amazon Logistics. I've placed 14 orders this year, they've all been on time or early.

 

[Chaotic42]

If it's been picked up by USPS, it's not Amazon's problem. I don't get how people don't understand that. If Amazon got the package to the carrier on time, their work is done unless said carrier is Amazon Logistics. I've placed 14 orders this year, they've all been on time or early.

It's their problem if they guarantee that their contractor will deliver the package by a certain time. I wish there was some way to pay more to not use USPS. They don't deliver to the apartments here, they just drop them off at the office which is only open while I'm at work. At least this USPS employee doesn't leave the packages in puddles of water in our leaving mail room like my last place.

 

[r4sh1d]

I've had this problem twice in the past few years with amazon. Chat rep would just take care of it, either refund the $$ if it's been 8 days since it was shipped (bought a pair of shoes for my wife, took 10 days for some odd reason to get to me, was a birthday gift), or would just contact the carrier him/her self and fix it. I've never been asked by an amazon rep to call the carrier and ask them to look around for my package! I'm not dealing with ebay or aliexpress to let this sh** slide.

I called their CS thinking it'd be different than their chat rep, lady put me on hold for 15 minutes, then told me that she'd call me back since she couldn't get a hold of USPS to inquire. I received a call back, but it was USPS rep asking me what I needed help with. I told her the story, she told me it's UPS's fault since they didn't deliver the package to USPS yet. An hour later the same amazon rep called me and asked did USPS fix the problem (WTF), I asked her just to cancel the order. She refunded the $$ and I got the package 5 days later.

It was a mini DP to DVI adapter under $7, heh.

 

[XavierMace]

But what do you expect Amazon to do about it? You guys have bad luck with USPS, you can find plenty of other people saying they have better luck with USPS than UPS/Fedex. Amazon can't make the carriers not suck. All they could do is change their wording to "Arrives approximately whenever" and that doesn't really solve anything.

You guys have a USPS problem, not an Amazon problem.

 

[manly]

AMZN is a perennial Wall Street darling. If that somehow remains the case over the next 3-5 years (which doesn't really seem possible), all signs are that Amazon will build out its own delivery service on a widespread basis. If that happens, Prime delivery should be slightly more predictable. I say slightly because I've never had a problem.

But the real consequences are that USPS will probably be almost immediately insolvent, and UPS and FedEx will get hammered as well. If I ran UPS, I'm not sure what to do knowing my largest customer would be dropping my business within a few years.

 

[KentState]

AMZN is a perennial Wall Street darling. If that somehow remains the case over the next 3-5 years (which doesn't really seem possible), all signs are that Amazon will build out its own delivery service on a widespread basis. If that happens, Prime delivery should be slightly more predictable. I say slightly because I've never had a problem.

But the real consequences are that USPS will probably be almost immediately insolvent, and UPS and FedEx will get hammered as well. If I ran UPS, I'm not sure what to do knowing my largest customer would be dropping my business within a few years.

Building out a fleet is no small task. That means duplicating UPS or the the postal service just to service their own operation. Makes sense when there aren't any alternatives like when they started AWS, but the current carriers are pretty well established. They may be able to pull it off with drones shipping smaller items, but I doubt you would ever see anything large scale. I would also hate to see the additional traffic caused Amazon delivery trucks running parallel to FedEx, FedEx home, FedEx Freight, UPS, USPS, DHL and the other small regional carriers.

But what do you expect Amazon to do about it? You guys have bad luck with USPS, you can find plenty of other people saying they have better luck with USPS than UPS/Fedex. Amazon can't make the carriers not suck. All they could do is change their wording to "Arrives approximately whenever" and that doesn't really solve anything.

You guys have a USPS problem, not an Amazon problem.

I pay Amazon money for guaranteed delivery, I don't care who they contract with if the carrier can fulfill the commitment. So it's an Amazon issue since they decided to go with the lowest bidder and an organization that in general lacks accountability. Until Amazon amends their shipping contracts with their customers, it's clearly Amazon's issue to deal with as the law states.

 

[r4sh1d]

But what do you expect Amazon to do about it? You guys have bad luck with USPS, you can find plenty of other people saying they have better luck with USPS than UPS/Fedex. Amazon can't make the carriers not suck. All they could do is change their wording to "Arrives approximately whenever" and that doesn't really solve anything.

You guys have a USPS problem, not an Amazon problem.

The pair if shoes I bought for my wife for her birthday, Amazon decided to go with FedEx slowest crappy service, the one where they deliver the package to the city; then a 3rd party contractor delivers to my house; which made delivery take so long. I complained to amazon since I'm paying for prime and was guaranteed fast shipping, I received the box 10 days later, with a full refund and an apology ($67 I think).

This order I placed on last Wednesday, it said it'd be delivered this past Sunday, I think this's why USPS is the carrier since they deliver on Sundays. But UPS screwed up the delivery to USPS somehow. I understand that things like this happen, but till yesterday Amazon's website was still showing expecting delivery date LAST SUNDAY, did not update at all. The reason I contacted them was just to inform them of the problem, since their website didn't update the shipping info. But when they started BSing me (asking me to contact the carreir myself, then assuring me that it'd be delivered that same night, which didn't happen), I asked for a return/refund just to stick it to them. Now, if it was ebay or aliexpress I wouldn't have complained. But with Amazon I'm paying for prime, and I expect a better service.

 

[rh71]

AMZN is a perennial Wall Street darling. If that somehow remains the case over the next 3-5 years (which doesn't really seem possible), all signs are that Amazon will build out its own delivery service on a widespread basis. If that happens, Prime delivery should be slightly more predictable. I say slightly because I've never had a problem.

The amazon delivery guys have been very consistent so that's a plus. On the negative side, they are kinda grumpy.

 

[r4sh1d]

I live in Phily's suburbs, 15 minutes from downtown, having bad luck with amazon.

I placed an order of crest kids toothpaste that they had on sale for $1 + an adapter for my wife's laptop. It was supposed to be delivered today, but just got this e-mail:

Amazon Logistics let us know that the package was either lost in transit or damaged and as a result, it won't be delivered.

We would like to apologize for this error on behalf of Amazon Logistics.

You will be refunded for the original shipment within 2-3 days business days after we receive it.

Shouldn't they just place another order? Nope, I was told by an agent to place another order, but the toothpaste's price went up to $6.45 & she had to put me on hold for a while to get approval to refund the price difference; at first she refused, but I told her it's not my fault & Amazon should correct the error by sending me another one in the first place. So she agreed & once it's shipped they'll refund the price difference. I placed an order for both items (toothpaste + adapter), BUT, the adapter is not going to be in stock till next week, while checking out it did NOT show that, it showed that it's in stock (it still shows that now) and it'd be delivered in 2 days. Now I have to wait till Next Wed. to get it. I asked for a free upgrade to 1 bus. day shipping, oh well.

They still care way more than other e-tailers though, but sometimes they seem as if they have changed alot.

I placed an order yesterday for 1 day shipping since they the cost was more than $35, and got it today around 9AM.

 

[KentState]

Bad shipping has struck again. Package has stalled at the major USPS hub in Atlanta and wasn't delivered today. Guess another free month of Prime will be added to my account.

 

[KentState]

Well, just a few weeks later, another missed delivery date and a free month of Prime. At this rate, I will be paying 1/2 price for membership. Such a shame when the warehouse is in a neighboring state and the issue is USPS' main hub for Georgia. I would understand if it was a bunch of hops but this seems rather straight forward.

 

[pcgeek11]

I'm in SC and have never had a shipment that was over the two day free shipping over the course of four years...

Strange indeed.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Fuck Amazon.

I placed an order on February 21st, non-prime, free shipping. Two items, both in stock and both sold directly by Amazon, no third party or fulfilled by bullshit to deal with. My box SHIPPED eleven days after the order was placed, went out the door on March 4th.

On Thursday March 2nd I asked why it was taking so long, got the standard reply that it was free shipping and that they can't control what happens after it leaves their hands and sometimes shippers can be slow. When I pointed out that they had not even shipped it yet and couldn't possibly blame anyone else they promised to get back to me. They didn't.

 

[KentState]

I'm in SC and have never had a shipment that was over the two day free shipping over the course of four years...

Strange indeed.

I don't get it. My original Prime renewal month was December and I'm not at October if that gives you an idea of the consistency.

 

[Thebobo]

Once I get my degree, I'm hopefully hitting the road.

Road trip!?

 

[Chaotic42]

Road trip!?

Hah, no. Our program closed down and I had to move, thus preventing me from getting the degree. I'm in another place, with somehow worse service from Amazon, for at least a year.

 

[RossMAN]

<skimmed thread>

Has anyone else received weird tracking numbers that aren't FedEx, UPS, etc.?

 

[pcgeek11]

<skimmed thread>

Has anyone else received weird tracking numbers that aren't FedEx, UPS, etc.?

Sure USPS ( United States Postal Service ).

 

[Ferzerp]

Sure USPS ( United States Postal Service ).

Or Lonestar
Or Amazon's internal tracking number for the items that they're delivering through their own shipping channels.

 

[pcgeek11]

Or Lonestar
Or Amazon's internal tracking number for the items that they're delivering through their own shipping channels.

Good point. We don't have that here in coastal South Carolina. All I ever see is UPS, Fedex or USPS.

 

[Ferzerp]

And... I ordered an Aeron chair (via 3rd party authorized retailer, fulfilled by Amazon) last Thursday for guaranteed delivery tomorrow. It was listed as in stock at the time of the order and was scheduled to ship out Friday. As of today, no one at Amazon can tell me why it is now just "shipping soon", with no movement. Love those wonderful Amazon logistics... They've gone massively down hill.

 

[zCypher]

Trying prime again as I've been ordering more often lately. Placed an order for two items. Both shown as prime eligible. First one says "estimated delivery date" is July 5-11 (it is June 14 today), the other item says "Your guaranteed delivery date is Friday, June 16". I placed the order yesterday, June 13.

It does seem a little inconsistent, but we'll see when it actually arrives.