Amazon Prime Shipping

[RSteve]

Goofy! Sometimes, I'll order something that Prime shipping says will arrive in two days and it arrives within hours of the order. Lately, Prime shipping says the item will arrive in two days and everyday the shipping arrival date changes.

 

[Carlos]

Day in and day out, I get faster service not using Prime.

 

[RSteve]

Day in and day out, I get faster service not using Prime.

I'm within 20 minute driving distance of two huge Amazon distribution centers. If the item is at one of those centers, it's typically next day delivery.

 

[Blackhorse]

Since they started using private contractors to deliver things the mistakes have gone up, but their overall system is still light tears ahead of any other vendor anywhere. You usually pay a bit more for an item on Amazon Prime but if I check other vendors it’s almost always less than if I bought at another site and then had to add shipping. And at least for me the delivery time is far less via Prime.

I recently ordered a case of six 10-packs of Peet’s k cup coffee from a vendor…Amazon was responsible for “fulfillment”. Turns out I was sent the wrong blend. I clicked on the appropriate complaint boxes at their site to let them know and they sent me the correct order within two days and said I didn’t have to return to first delivery. So that’s $40 worth of free coffee. Another time some company sent me the wrong bottle of hot sauce and I tried for two weeks to break through their “item not eligible for return” brick wall and eventually just gave up. I lost about $6 on that one. Usually everything works like clockwork though.

 

[Ranger107]

When I get a "not eligible for return" I just call Amazon and as for a supervisor. They have always given me the refund.

 

[RSteve]

I recently ordered a case of six 10-packs of Peet’s k cup coffee from a vendor…Amazon was responsible for “fulfillment”. Turns out I was sent the wrong blend. I clicked on the appropriate complaint boxes at their site to let them know and they sent me the correct order within two days and said I didn’t have to return to first delivery.

I had a similar situation with Starkist Tuna. Amazon had an exceptional offer on their best cans of wild caught albacore tuna, in 12 count packs. I ordered four 12-packs. When I opened the first can, the ultra fishy smell almost knocked me out. I went to Amazon's site and read some of the reviews. People were furious. Starkist had subbed a lower grade tuna in oil. I contacted Amazon for resolution. They refunded my money and almost "ordered" me not to send it back to Amazon. Both of my daughters have cats, who go nuts when I open a can when they are within sniffing range. The cats love that stinkin' tuna.

 

[Carlos]

Amazon's quality is all over the place. Have to read reviews and watch them like a hawk. Often, it's better to go manufacturer direct.

And their packaging! Good grief! Big boxes with a couple small items in them and no padding. What the heck are they thinking?

 

[Blackhorse]

Amazon's quality is all over the place. Have to read reviews and watch them like a hawk. Often, it's better to go manufacturer direct.

And their packaging! Good grief! Big boxes with a couple small items in them and no padding. What the heck are they thinking?

It’s easy…they DON’T care if items ship well packed. It’s obviously all about getting it out the door as fast as possible. I have noticed that if multiple items are shipped together, depending on how bulky, things are better packed. You can also opt to have items ordered at different times all delivered on Wednesday. That also helps. Why? No idea.

Agreed: watch the specific vendor of those that are presented. I’ve seen 15 or more vendors listed with prices and/or delivery dates all over the map. Amazon usually features the lowest “bid” by vendors that have a good history (low problem rating by customers). But sometimes the vendors with the lowest price have a bad rating 20% of the time or more…all in the past 3 months. Not good enough for me. If it’s my money I’ll pay a bit more for a vendor with a 99% trouble free rating. I also watch delivery times carefully. I’ve seen notations like “usually ships within three months” noted even for Prime vendors. Ouch!

As far as buyers reviews go…50% of all buyers are total morons. The worst are the ones that mark an item down because they didn’t understand how to use it or their uneducated expectations were violated. Giving an item one star because they didn’t like the color? Etc., etc., etc.

 

[Ranger107]

Amazon's quality is all over the place. Have to read reviews and watch them like a hawk. Often, it's better to go manufacturer direct.

And their packaging! Good grief! Big boxes with a couple small items in them and no padding. What the heck are they thinking?

Yep, don't understand their packaging. They must get really cheap shipping rates. Ex. I ordered some 2032 batteries, a 10 pack. It was about 5" long x 2" wide x 1/4" deep. Came in a box that was 8x6x5 with 95% of the box full of plastic bubble wrap. Total waste.

 

[Zeno Marx]

The people boxing the orders are moving at quite a clip, and the fewer the box options, the faster they can move. Not to mention that when they order boxes, it's A LOT cheaper to buy a million of 5 different sizes of box than 100,000 of 50 kinds of boxes and bubble mailers. Then you have to think about space, as the packagers are in these small areas and can't walk around, looking for best-fit boxes. This isn't to advocate for this approach, because it bugs the heck out of me that they're wasting cardboard just to send a set of nail clippers or a set of tweezers. It's all about maximizing speed, which means keep the workers in this tiny box area, not giving them options so they're trying this box, then that box, then this mailer, and then ordering in huge volume to get discounts on the boxes themselves.

I remember in 1990 or so, a friend of mine went to a job fair at the local community college. This guy was tired of working for other people and wanted to be an entrepreneur. So he asked various employers around the area what they needed. I remember him telling me that several said they needed cardboard boxes. They would love to have a local supplier. They had to order from across the country, and it was a problem. Packaging. It's crazy to think have important it is. It's like fasteners. Taken for granted, but practically everything has some sort of fastener involved in it.