Amazon Free Shipping

sKiZo

Hates received: 92644 43.20°N 85.50°W
Just placed an order and picked the usual free shipping ... email confirmation:

Your estimated delivery date is:
Friday, November 28, 2014 -
Saturday, December 20, 2014

Holy crap! Wasn't long ago you could usually expect it in a week. Yet another attempt to steer us penny pinchers away from the option? Going up to a $35 minimum didn't bother me much, but I'll have to reconsider my options if that's the best they can do.

Maybe just the items are drop ships or special orders? All are listed as sourced thru Amazon LLC though. Wonder if anyone else has run into this?
 
I no longer shop Amazon for anything time-critical, barely anything at all any longer. The Onion ran a satirical story about Amazon which described how orders with free shipping were buried in barrels for a period of time before being shipped.

Early-on he got the works set up to run on 2-day shipping, then found out buyers were smart enough to take advantage of that. So then the delay got longer and it stll went 2-day, which is somehow more aggravating than if it went ground and just took longer in transit.

I complained to Bezos personally about a delayed order, one of his minions wrote me back on a Sunday morning to tell me the delay was justified. Can't be a fun guy to work for.
 
Reminds me of some pre-ordered CDs last May from Amazon. Release date came an went, still not shipped. Several days later I inquired and got this reply:

"Upon checking your order, I've found that you've selected Free Shipping as your Shipping Speed, and this is why your order was not shipped right away.

Please note that for free shipping, we deliver your order within 5-8 business days. We process and ship your order in the most cost-efficient way possible so we can pass the savings on to you in the form of free shipping. This means that we’ll optimize our fulfillment operations; however, I can assure you that we won't hold on to your order for any particular reason, and we also won’t delay shipping if that means we’ll miss the delivery promise we’ve given you."

But they'll stretch that date past the first date to the last. So why even have two ETAs I asked. Never got a reply.

I will say though they aren't consistent with the Free Shipping delay. I had a couple of Led Zeppelin CDs on pre-order, they released yesterday and I got them today in 1 day, along with my Jerry Garcia Band 5 CD also released on the 28th. Just never know. Also they had dropped $2.50 ea sometime after I ordered and before release date so that saved me 5 bucks on their pre-release price guarantee deal too.
 
Free shipping means it gets tossed in the 42.96°N 85.67°W (Elev. 620 ft) trailer and waits for a full load to 42.96°N 85.67°W (Elev. 620 ft) before it moves.
 
I ordered a USB adapter for a webcam, cheap enough, but its apparently coming from somewhere in China. A day after I ordered the seller said it shipped, cannot be cancelled, and gave me a delivery date 6 weeks later. 6 WEEKS! Today is the end of the 6 week window. Its not here, its Amazon marketplace, and I have no real recourse.

I will not pay for Prime - they used to be much better for regular orders and I'm not paying a premium for regular service. I'll buy local when I can.



Just placed an order and picked the usual free shipping ... email confirmation:

Your estimated delivery date is:
Friday, November 28, 2014 -
Saturday, December 20, 2014

Holy crap! Wasn't long ago you could usually expect it in a week. Yet another attempt to steer us penny pinchers away from the option? Going up to a $35 minimum didn't bother me much, but I'll have to reconsider my options if that's the best they can do.

Maybe just the items are drop ships or special orders? All are listed as sourced thru Amazon LLC though. Wonder if anyone else has run into this?
 
I always use the free shipping when I buy from Amazon and I have never had very long delays. However if the shipper is NOT Amazon then you get those est. shipping dates that cover weeks of time. Even in those cases I have had all the items show up in the first week.
 
Yup, I've run into that. My stuff has arrived sometimes before the earliest date of the range, sometimes at the very end of the range, typically around the earlier to middle of it, but so far never past that I recall.

The last things were from a third party, got like a two or three week estimate, think they showed up in three days.
 
Where it gets weird is that with the stuff that's been "delayed", it's all happening inside Amazon. Not seeing where they're saving any money internally as it's pretty much all automated until it hits the dock. Once that happens, the shippers are all falling over each other to pick up the business. Post Office is even committing to Sunday delivery.

And as mentioned, all three items in my order were thru Amazon, so no third party involved. I just checked, and two of three are listed as "shipping now" but still showing delivery towards the end of November, so maybe they just gotta work on their accounting ...

Still stinks of one of those "boy, have we got a deal for you, but read the small print" kinda things that turn people to the dark side. Could it all be about pushing "Prime" membership? I guess they figure if Costco and Sam's can get away with it ... Harumph.

PS ... I guess we're not the only ones who've noticed ... Gooooooogle has 987,000 hits on Amazon free shipping delays.
 
I've had mostly very fast service - Hell - I've ordered two Zep albums this Sunday and they came Monday! I even ordered a snark tuner for like 10 bucks and came within two days. I do have a Prime membership which I use heavily - lots of free two day shipping.
 
And as mentioned, all three items in my order were thru Amazon, so no third party involved. I just checked, and two of three are listed as "shipping now" but still showing delivery towards the end of November, so maybe they just gotta work on their accounting ...

Third party wasn't a very good choice of terms. I ordered and paid for my stuff through Amazon too, but it was direct shipped by the supplier. Got the long shipping quote, stuff showed up pretty quick.
 
I always use the free shipping option and it almost always comes before they said it would.
 
Maybe just the items are drop ships or special orders? All are listed as sourced thru Amazon LLC though. Wonder if anyone else has run into this?


Amazon has went the way of most large shippers that offer free shipping by using UPS Mail Innovations and Fedex Smartpost. These services bill by total weight shipped per day... not by individual package weight or destination. So if Amazon ships 10,000 lbs via these services on a single day... they pay one agreed upon price for 10,000 lbs. Does not matter where they're all going or how many pieces are involved.

It's dirt cheap and adds a few days to regular USPS delivery times... but these bulk services are MUCH better than they were 10 years ago.



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Amazon has went the way of most large shippers that offer free shipping by using UPS Mail Innovations and Fedex Smartpost.
I see most things sent by either method these days. Usually goes OK. The tracking can be a little screwed up though. I received a package Sat that the tracking web site was still showing shipper had only received shipping info and may take 24-48 hrs to show up in tracking.
 
If you choose the free shipping option on Amazon (and are not a Prime member) sometimes you will have to wait until their next order comes into the warehouse near you, so they can get a cheaper rate from UPS.
 
I've used the free shipping thing many times, especially for small items like a cd or movie. Sometimes I get it in 4 days, sometimes 5 or 6, so it works for me. But, a lot of what I order comes from Las Vegas so that speeds things up.

A few weeks ago, I signed up for Prime and ordered a bunch of stuff and it really works. I'm getting stuff in 1 or 2 days now.

Another benefit to Prime is that there are a bunch of free movies available for streaming. Bored? Find a free flick to watch.

Just get a compatible blu-ray player, shipped free via prime, sign up and you're set.

Murray
 
Well, got my order in today ... three weeks early, according to the estimate. Boy are they good or what?? <G>

Prime also gets you free music, but not sure if that's a gotcha deal for getting you to sign up or what. Ordered MP3 download of Zero 7's Simple Things today - $9 for non-members, and free for the Prime types ...

I go in streaks though ... might go months without ordering anything. Not sure if there'd be any payback. As far as streaming video ... ain't happening here with a 5g per month limit at 3G.

PS ... six days from order to front door ain't bad for the price. I can certainly live with that.
 
If you live in a rural area like I do, Prime saves both time and money. I can often have an item quicker than spending hours traveling, burning gas and hoping I can find what I need for a decent price.
 
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