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I’d turn Prime off in my household if it were solely up to me, but in my experience it’s not 5-day shipping. Most things do arrive on-time, and when they’re lat

I’d turn Prime off in my household if it were solely up to me, but in my experience it’s not 5-day shipping. Most things do arrive on-time, and when they’re late Amazon gives me $5-10 back. This probably ends up paying for half of our Prime membership over the course of a year. I don’t plan to pay for ad-free Prime, and am hoping it just ends up being pre-roll so that I can load a show, ignore for a little while, and then watch the show. If the ads are interspersed every 20 mins I’m guessing I’ll just stop watching for the most part.

SomeHacker44 3y ago
In rural upstate New York, prime takes a week for almost anything. Walmart+ is 2 days, and even things like Best Buy are faster. Prime delivery outside of NYC is not very good in my (somewhat limited) experience.
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  If this was like Wyoming I could understand it but I think it's got nothing to do with cost or distance but instead has to do with how much competition there is in your town. I think places that are close to a Cheesecake Factory get good shipping because that's a tracer for having better retail options.
  - cloudhammer 3y ago
    7-10 days for Amazon Prime shipment to arrive here in Montana.
PaulHoule 3y ago
It’s a function of where you live. If you’re in one of the cultural capitals of the US you get 1-day shipping. I mean, if they had 5-day shipping in Hollywood it would be a running joke on sitcoms that Amazon Prime was slow. If Jim Cramer got 5-day shipping you’d never hear the end of it on CNBC. If my Congressman got 5-day shipping in Washington, DC he’d know that I get 5-day shipping. I live in a rural area that is a few hours from NYC by bus and just two hours from a huge AMZN warehouse. It’s notorious though that people in the same zip codes as those warehouses sometimes get 5 day shipping.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  I get this, but do they not give courtesy credits for late items? I ordered something Friday and it showed arrival Saturday. On Saturday, it showed ‘delayed’ and that it would be delivered Tuesday. I called Amazon and they gave me a $5 credit. Surprisingly, it ended up being delivered on Sunday, which was actually within the 2-day guarantee. I get that it would be annoying to keep having to call/chat Amazon for every order. But if they pay up consistently it would amount to 5-25% off your Amazon purchases (based on my experience, it’s usually around 10-15%). That’s not a terrible tradeoff for slower shipping. In most cases, I’d take the trade!
  - PaulHoule 3y ago
    I subscribed to Prime as soon as it became available and it was always fast, but trouble started during the pandemic they would say I would get it in 2 days but it might be 2 weeks. In that case I could ask for a credit but not long after that they started claiming it would take 5 days. I got numerous long winded emails about the "benefits" of Prime after I canceled and they hardly said anything about shipping as a benefit. It makes a big difference when compared with alternatives because of this: if I absolutely have to get something right away I can drop what I am doing and drive to the store and get it sooner than AMZN. That's a hassle though. If it takes 5 days then it is not hard to get to the store because I am probably going somewhere close. 2 days is roughly the crossover where shopping online is more convenient to going to the store. Since AMZN doesn't care if I have a smile on my face I'm going to shop at a store that invests in my community whenever I can. In principle AMZN has the advantage of having a bigger catalog but in practice that bigger catalog is mostly spam product listings that I don't want to waste my time looking at. My biggest behavior change since ditching Prime is that I am much less likely to order used books on AMZN but I am more likely to buy e-Books from platforms other than Amazon like Kobo (e.g. they had a Humble Bundle last week where you could get almost all of the Discworld books for $25) or get books through the fast interlibrary loan service at my uni.
    - gnicholas 3y ago
      > not long after that they started claiming it would take 5 days. So when you are going to order something it shows 5 days, even though it’s designated as Prime? I had that happen a couple times and was still able to get credits when I tried, based on the fact that anything that is Prime should have 2-day shipping. I understand it is a hassle though, and it’s good to frequent brick-and-mortar shops to keep them strong.

SomeHacker44 3y ago

In rural upstate New York, prime takes a week for almost anything. Walmart+ is 2 days, and even things like Best Buy are faster. Prime delivery outside of NYC is not very good in my (somewhat limited) experience.

PaulHoule 3y ago
If this was like Wyoming I could understand it but I think it's got nothing to do with cost or distance but instead has to do with how much competition there is in your town. I think places that are close to a Cheesecake Factory get good shipping because that's a tracer for having better retail options.
- cloudhammer 3y ago
  7-10 days for Amazon Prime shipment to arrive here in Montana.

PaulHoule 3y ago

It’s a function of where you live. If you’re in one of the cultural capitals of the US you get 1-day shipping. I mean, if they had 5-day shipping in Hollywood it would be a running joke on sitcoms that Amazon Prime was slow. If Jim Cramer got 5-day shipping you’d never hear the end of it on CNBC. If my Congressman got 5-day shipping in Washington, DC he’d know that I get 5-day shipping. I live in a rural area that is a few hours from NYC by bus and just two hours from a huge AMZN warehouse. It’s notorious though that people in the same zip codes as those warehouses sometimes get 5 day shipping.

gnicholas 3y ago
I get this, but do they not give courtesy credits for late items? I ordered something Friday and it showed arrival Saturday. On Saturday, it showed ‘delayed’ and that it would be delivered Tuesday. I called Amazon and they gave me a $5 credit. Surprisingly, it ended up being delivered on Sunday, which was actually within the 2-day guarantee. I get that it would be annoying to keep having to call/chat Amazon for every order. But if they pay up consistently it would amount to 5-25% off your Amazon purchases (based on my experience, it’s usually around 10-15%). That’s not a terrible tradeoff for slower shipping. In most cases, I’d take the trade!
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  I subscribed to Prime as soon as it became available and it was always fast, but trouble started during the pandemic they would say I would get it in 2 days but it might be 2 weeks. In that case I could ask for a credit but not long after that they started claiming it would take 5 days. I got numerous long winded emails about the "benefits" of Prime after I canceled and they hardly said anything about shipping as a benefit. It makes a big difference when compared with alternatives because of this: if I absolutely have to get something right away I can drop what I am doing and drive to the store and get it sooner than AMZN. That's a hassle though. If it takes 5 days then it is not hard to get to the store because I am probably going somewhere close. 2 days is roughly the crossover where shopping online is more convenient to going to the store. Since AMZN doesn't care if I have a smile on my face I'm going to shop at a store that invests in my community whenever I can. In principle AMZN has the advantage of having a bigger catalog but in practice that bigger catalog is mostly spam product listings that I don't want to waste my time looking at. My biggest behavior change since ditching Prime is that I am much less likely to order used books on AMZN but I am more likely to buy e-Books from platforms other than Amazon like Kobo (e.g. they had a Humble Bundle last week where you could get almost all of the Discworld books for $25) or get books through the fast interlibrary loan service at my uni.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    > not long after that they started claiming it would take 5 days. So when you are going to order something it shows 5 days, even though it’s designated as Prime? I had that happen a couple times and was still able to get credits when I tried, based on the fact that anything that is Prime should have 2-day shipping. I understand it is a hassle though, and it’s good to frequent brick-and-mortar shops to keep them strong.