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I've noticed that Amazon has been silently bumping shipping estimates for my prime account. Ordered something on Monday morning that said it would arrive Wednes

I've noticed that Amazon has been silently bumping shipping estimates for my prime account. Ordered something on Monday morning that said it would arrive Wednesday. I get to Wednesday and didn't notice a shipping notification - I look at my amazon account and my formerly "guaranteed" delivery date now just said expected by February 7-8. Wednesday "or" Thursday. On the other hand, I ordered something from bestbuy with their normal free shipping and it showed up on my doorstep literally the day after.

stanmancan 9y ago
I've had the same thing happen to me a couple of times on Amazon. I've actually started taking a screen shot of the original "Guaranteed Delivery Date" and complaining to customer service if it gets changed. The odd error is fine, but when it starts to become a regular thing, something needs changing.
- lostapathy 9y ago
  Amen - once in a while is weather or whatever. Happening enough that we notice it's a trend is Amazon being shitty and hoping they don't get caught.
SkyPuncher 9y ago
5 of my last 6 orders from Amazon have been bumped. We've been Prime customers for years, but we're getting incredibly frustrated that we're paying for an annual subscription and being promised two day shipping - but consistently missing. At this point, I'm starting to look back to smaller sites that offer more traditional 4-7 day shipping. They might still be slower than Amazon (which is about a 3.5 day average for us), but at least they're never missing their delivery window.
- CodeMage 9y ago
  I can't tell you how weird this sounds to me. When I moved to the US, I paid one year of Prime and then stopped, because that was the year they raised the price from $80 a year to $100. Since then, I have been using the free shipping option (5-8 business day) for the vast majority of my orders and I have consistently received my orders before their initial estimate. The only reason why I paid for Prime that one year was because of Amazon Instant Video, but I got disappointed by lack of Spanish subtitles and the lackluster content selection.
  - cdubzzz 9y ago
    I wonder if this experience is different depending on where you live? I have lived in the DC area for the past five years and I never thought about purchasing Prime because everything I (used to) order on Amazon would arrive within 2-3 days with the regular free shipping option.
borkt 9y ago
You can typically get an extension of prime for a month in this situation if you chat with amazon. I end up paying every 18 months for 1 year of service, basically getting 6 months free. As a frequent user of prime, I have no idea how this isn't losing them money.
- dawnerd 9y ago
  Not always true. I’ve tried it every time and they go “it’s weather related” when it’s obviously not.
- suresk 9y ago
  The last time I tried to do that, they wouldn't do it. They just said "sorry, sometimes we don't get stuff out in time". It's getting to the point I'm about to cancel - they are late more often than not, and customer service responses are really poor.
- bocklund 9y ago
  People have told me this, but it seems fruitless for me to get free months for a service I am unhappy with. Instead I recently cancelled my subscription.
  - ryanianian 9y ago
    Your alternative is competitor sites which usually don't even offer 2-day shipping or will charge you expedited shipping costs if they do. And even then they usually defer responsibility for delays to the carriers. IMHO prime is worth it even if I have to spend a few minutes on chat to get it extended by 50%. What is truly frustrating is their "guarantee" that isn't a guarantee. This lack of transparency and continual missing of their promises erodes my trust in them. Most of the time it's fine - whatever - I don't need those AA batteries on a Sunday.... But the fact that they guaranteed that they would be there, didn't tell me they'd be late, and didn't proactively offer anything to back up their guarantee is super shady. Either don't guarantee a date, or proactively offer recourse when you don't meet your own self-imposed guarantees.
notyourwork 9y ago
I've started contacting customer service and requesting compensation when this happens. I tell them politely I pay for prime benefit and you are not granting me that benefit, therefore I receive a reduced prime fee. I have had $10 and $5 credits given to me when this happens and I encourage everyone else to. Amazon needs to support the benefits they grant customers for prime.
- ryanianian 9y ago
  Yes. More of this. Amazon is starting to slip. It takes literally 1 minute on support text-chat to do this and it always saves more $ with less hassle than you would have if you went with another site. I've done this 3-4 times and every time I say it's the Nth time I've had to do it and they keep offering more and more. What's especially annoying is that you have to pro-actively reach out to them. This isn't customer-obsessed.
  - vuln 9y ago
    I think I found a weekend project. Code an Amazon late delivery chat bot. Doesn't seem too hard. Login and grab orders that are shipped. Compare delivery date (x). See if it changes or matches the estimate at time of order(y). If I package is deemed late create a message containing x and y and order number. Open chat support paste message. Might have to throw some additional canned responses but it seems pretty easy.
    - ryanianian 9y ago
      I would happily run that.
    - aantix 9y ago
      Email me when it's ready. jim.jones1@gmail.com I'll help test. :)
    - aviv 9y ago
      Bonus points for using AWS AI services to power this over AWS Lambda.
MrMember 9y ago
I tried to order something today that's in stock and sold by Amazon and the delivery estimate was next Friday through the following Tuesday. I didn't bother and instead ordered it from Target for the same price and I'll have it Sunday or Monday. I'll probably stop paying for Prime if this sort of thing continues to happen.
CamelCaseName 9y ago
Here's how it looks like from my side as a seller. 1. Buyer places order, order goes into pending for anywhere from minutes to days 2. While order is pending, units of inventory are moved to another fulfillment center 3. Once the units arrive, are received and checked-in, the order goes live 4. The customer receives their order two days later I suspect this happens 1. for items less often purchased which have little historical data to rely on, and 2. items which have been freshly received and haven't yet been distributed across the US. I am a very small time Amazon 3p seller, so I might be able to answer some questions you have about Amazon or FBA.
- tcarn 9y ago
  Pretty cool stuff. Do you as a seller only ship to one fulfillment center or is it up to you to manage the inventory at each fulfillment center?
arkades 9y ago
I had this happen constantly. It was pissing me off, but not what made me boycott amazon altogether. They started charging my items to other credit cards associated with my account (added in the past to make one-off purchases for relatives or friends.) To prevent this happening again, I deleted every card from my account except my one current personal card. Despite that, a few weeks later they charged a random subset of my holiday shopping to my mothers credit card. Now, we have an excellent relationship, but you can imagine even the best of relationships has a wtf moment when a thousand dollars of spending randomly appears on their account without so much as a by-your-leave. I called amazon to complain, and their response was just, “well, you got the items you ordered, didn’t you?” They were contemptuously baffled as to why this was at all a problem. I yelled at them until they refunded my prime membership and closed my account.
stordoff 9y ago
One thing I noticed in the UK is that there are items which are "Prime Eligible" and items that are "Delivered at no extra cost for Prime members". The latter will also give a "guaranteed" next-day date, but seem far more prone to slipping and getting a "Now expected" date.

stanmancan 9y ago

I've had the same thing happen to me a couple of times on Amazon. I've actually started taking a screen shot of the original "Guaranteed Delivery Date" and complaining to customer service if it gets changed. The odd error is fine, but when it starts to become a regular thing, something needs changing.

lostapathy 9y ago
Amen - once in a while is weather or whatever. Happening enough that we notice it's a trend is Amazon being shitty and hoping they don't get caught.

SkyPuncher 9y ago

5 of my last 6 orders from Amazon have been bumped. We've been Prime customers for years, but we're getting incredibly frustrated that we're paying for an annual subscription and being promised two day shipping - but consistently missing. At this point, I'm starting to look back to smaller sites that offer more traditional 4-7 day shipping. They might still be slower than Amazon (which is about a 3.5 day average for us), but at least they're never missing their delivery window.

CodeMage 9y ago
I can't tell you how weird this sounds to me. When I moved to the US, I paid one year of Prime and then stopped, because that was the year they raised the price from $80 a year to $100. Since then, I have been using the free shipping option (5-8 business day) for the vast majority of my orders and I have consistently received my orders before their initial estimate. The only reason why I paid for Prime that one year was because of Amazon Instant Video, but I got disappointed by lack of Spanish subtitles and the lackluster content selection.
- cdubzzz 9y ago
  I wonder if this experience is different depending on where you live? I have lived in the DC area for the past five years and I never thought about purchasing Prime because everything I (used to) order on Amazon would arrive within 2-3 days with the regular free shipping option.

borkt 9y ago

You can typically get an extension of prime for a month in this situation if you chat with amazon. I end up paying every 18 months for 1 year of service, basically getting 6 months free. As a frequent user of prime, I have no idea how this isn't losing them money.

dawnerd 9y ago
Not always true. I’ve tried it every time and they go “it’s weather related” when it’s obviously not.
suresk 9y ago
The last time I tried to do that, they wouldn't do it. They just said "sorry, sometimes we don't get stuff out in time". It's getting to the point I'm about to cancel - they are late more often than not, and customer service responses are really poor.
bocklund 9y ago
People have told me this, but it seems fruitless for me to get free months for a service I am unhappy with. Instead I recently cancelled my subscription.
- ryanianian 9y ago
  Your alternative is competitor sites which usually don't even offer 2-day shipping or will charge you expedited shipping costs if they do. And even then they usually defer responsibility for delays to the carriers. IMHO prime is worth it even if I have to spend a few minutes on chat to get it extended by 50%. What is truly frustrating is their "guarantee" that isn't a guarantee. This lack of transparency and continual missing of their promises erodes my trust in them. Most of the time it's fine - whatever - I don't need those AA batteries on a Sunday.... But the fact that they guaranteed that they would be there, didn't tell me they'd be late, and didn't proactively offer anything to back up their guarantee is super shady. Either don't guarantee a date, or proactively offer recourse when you don't meet your own self-imposed guarantees.

notyourwork 9y ago

I've started contacting customer service and requesting compensation when this happens. I tell them politely I pay for prime benefit and you are not granting me that benefit, therefore I receive a reduced prime fee. I have had $10 and $5 credits given to me when this happens and I encourage everyone else to. Amazon needs to support the benefits they grant customers for prime.

ryanianian 9y ago
Yes. More of this. Amazon is starting to slip. It takes literally 1 minute on support text-chat to do this and it always saves more $ with less hassle than you would have if you went with another site. I've done this 3-4 times and every time I say it's the Nth time I've had to do it and they keep offering more and more. What's especially annoying is that you have to pro-actively reach out to them. This isn't customer-obsessed.
- vuln 9y ago
  I think I found a weekend project. Code an Amazon late delivery chat bot. Doesn't seem too hard. Login and grab orders that are shipped. Compare delivery date (x). See if it changes or matches the estimate at time of order(y). If I package is deemed late create a message containing x and y and order number. Open chat support paste message. Might have to throw some additional canned responses but it seems pretty easy.
  - ryanianian 9y ago
    I would happily run that.
  - aantix 9y ago
    Email me when it's ready. jim.jones1@gmail.com I'll help test. :)
  - aviv 9y ago
    Bonus points for using AWS AI services to power this over AWS Lambda.

MrMember 9y ago

I tried to order something today that's in stock and sold by Amazon and the delivery estimate was next Friday through the following Tuesday. I didn't bother and instead ordered it from Target for the same price and I'll have it Sunday or Monday. I'll probably stop paying for Prime if this sort of thing continues to happen.

CamelCaseName 9y ago

Here's how it looks like from my side as a seller. 1. Buyer places order, order goes into pending for anywhere from minutes to days 2. While order is pending, units of inventory are moved to another fulfillment center 3. Once the units arrive, are received and checked-in, the order goes live 4. The customer receives their order two days later I suspect this happens 1. for items less often purchased which have little historical data to rely on, and 2. items which have been freshly received and haven't yet been distributed across the US. I am a very small time Amazon 3p seller, so I might be able to answer some questions you have about Amazon or FBA.

tcarn 9y ago
Pretty cool stuff. Do you as a seller only ship to one fulfillment center or is it up to you to manage the inventory at each fulfillment center?

arkades 9y ago

I had this happen constantly. It was pissing me off, but not what made me boycott amazon altogether. They started charging my items to other credit cards associated with my account (added in the past to make one-off purchases for relatives or friends.) To prevent this happening again, I deleted every card from my account except my one current personal card. Despite that, a few weeks later they charged a random subset of my holiday shopping to my mothers credit card. Now, we have an excellent relationship, but you can imagine even the best of relationships has a wtf moment when a thousand dollars of spending randomly appears on their account without so much as a by-your-leave. I called amazon to complain, and their response was just, “well, you got the items you ordered, didn’t you?” They were contemptuously baffled as to why this was at all a problem. I yelled at them until they refunded my prime membership and closed my account.

stordoff 9y ago

One thing I noticed in the UK is that there are items which are "Prime Eligible" and items that are "Delivered at no extra cost for Prime members". The latter will also give a "guaranteed" next-day date, but seem far more prone to slipping and getting a "Now expected" date.