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Their help page, unless recently modified, explains why this is. I agree it is a 'dark pattern' however. >If the item you're ordering is out of stock or unavai
by Nadya 10y ago
Their help page, unless recently modified, explains why this is. I agree it is a 'dark pattern' however.
>If the item you're ordering is out of stock or unavailable to ship immediately, the shipping method time starts when the item ships. For example, it will take two business days after an item ships to reach you with Two-Day Shipping.
Simply put - the item does not ship immediately. If you read the 'Guaranteed delivery date' message it gives you an "If you order in the next x hours and y minutes". That is when the shipment is expected to be made.
Why are the boots 4 day shipping? Because the next guaranteed delivery time is in 61 hours (>48 hours, so 2 days to ship then 2 days to deliver = 4 day delivery). If it was "in the next 73 hours" it would be a 5 day delivery.
The exploding kittens is 3 days because the order is within the next 24 hours. I wager if they waited 17 minutes one of two things would happen: it would estimate 2 day shipping or the date would be pushed back an additional 24 hours (never falling under 24 hours).
I imagine this is because the companies selling these items can only guarantee shipment within 24/48/72 hours of receiving an order. If they set this to 72 then "2 day shipping" is really 4-5 days.
My personal experience, nearly all of my 2 day shipping comes within 2 days, even when the guaranteed date is 3-4 days out. Items with 12-15 business day shipping often arrive in just a few days. I'm a bit forgiving when my 2 day shipment comes in 3 days when my 2 week shipments frequently come in 3-5 days...
- FireBeyond 10y agoRight, but this also happens when it says "Only xx left in stock, order now!" And also direct from / Fulfilled by Amazon.
- Nadya 10y agoAmazon is not immune from only being able to guarantee shipment within 24-72 hours of receiving an order. The "Only XX in stock" message may trump the "x hours and y minutes" message but that doesn't change how the math is being done - it just makes it invisible to the end user. It is two day shipping. Starting from the time it ships which they calculate using the guaranteed delivery date. Often the delivery date is "sooner" rather than "later" but they're only going to guarantee the "later" date and not the "sooner" date for obvious business reasons. While it is technically correct it isn't how people talk about shipping. Overnight means overnight to people - not overnight after I decide to ship it 3 weeks late. Which is why I agree it is a dark pattern. I imagine "Quick shipping" (no promise of X-day) doesn't market nearly as well. E: I'd like to make it clear I'm not meaning to defending the practice... only explain it. It seems very logical to me - even if confusing and unfriendly to many users who expect "2 day shipping" to mean "arrives in 2 days".
- FireBeyond 10y agoFurther on the dark patterns, here's an order I'm looking at now: "Guaranteed delivery date: Dec 2, 2016 if you order in the next 9 hours and 27 minutes" With this it has "2 business days FREE Two-Day Shipping" selected. As of now, there are four business days (inclusive of delivery date, but not of today- the window listed above). What makes it worse: "One day shipping, Wed Nov. 30" So "one day shipping will be Wed Nov 30, but two day shipping will be Fri Dec 2"? Note that now they don't even mention "get it by" for anything other than one-day. I get the following: - Wednesday Nov 30 - $11.97 - One-Day Shipping - 2 business days - FREE Two-Day Shipping - 6 business days - FREE Two-Day Shipping - 7 business days - FREE No-Rush Shipping Get a $5 credit for Prime Pantry. No idea why anyone would choose 6 day delivery given the choice between 2 day and 7 day (plus credit).
- Nadya 10y agoWell there goes my assumption on the maths. :) Thanks for the additional example. 9 hours = ships tomorrow. So 1 day shipping from tomorrow = Wednesday. But using my assumption above - the two day shipping would be Thursday, not Friday.
- FireBeyond 10y agoRight, that would certainly match my expectation. Ship tomorrow, and I'd expect Thursday for 2 business day shipping.
- hga 10y agoAnother possibility is that 1 and 2 day shipping gets you put in different queues for available stock; if they don't have enough Exploding Kittens (?!?!?!!!) on hand right now to fulfill all 1 and 2 day orders, they're obviously going to prioritize the people who's revealed preference through hard, cold cash, is for "1 day" delivery.
- HoyaSaxa 10y agoYes agreed, but the real question is why can they guarantee that your item will ship sooner if you select one-day shipping. They can conveniently get your item on the truck much more quickly (1 vs 3 days) if you are willing to pay extra for one-day shipping. For example for the boots: One-Day Shipping -> 1 day of processing + 1 day of shipping = 2 day turnaround Two-Day Shipping -> 3 days of processing + 2 days of shipping = 5 day turnaround
- developer2 10y agoBecause when paying for 1-day shipping, the cost is astronomical. It would be unacceptable to pay that price and not have it next business day. If they couldn't actually do real one-day shipping, then they would not be able to offer it. It exists only because we have to pay a large fee on every individual delivery. You pay the high cost for a guaranteed service. Amazon Prime simply cannot scale at the given price point. People who place >= 100 orders a year are paying <= $1 per shipment. The $100/year Prime subscription is not sustainable if people use it. I'm sure they claw back a significant profit from people who buy Prime and then only order 10-20 times a year, but it's possible it doesn't earn back what excessive users are costing them. Is it a little shady that they offer 2-day shipping with caveats? Yes. They should either make it much more clear that there are no guarantees, or increase the cost of heavy Prime users to be profitable enough to scale it properly.