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I do wonder what is going on with Amazon shipping. For my orders over the last year, by far the longest time is spent not shipping. The status will say "shipp

I do wonder what is going on with Amazon shipping. For my orders over the last year, by far the longest time is spent not shipping. The status will say "shipping now" for several days. Once actually in package service it is quick. I use the "free" shipping. I'd guess that they process Prime members shipping before the free shipping. And I'd suspect some of the waiting is time to ship from the manufacturers to Amazon's warehouses. I also wonder if they transfer long tail items between warehouses to consolidate orders. There is speculation that Amazon intentionally delays free shipping orders to push people towards Prime. Maybe they just have capacity problems? By comparison with other vendors like Walmart I usually see shipping in less than 24 hours. Amazon forum complaining about slow shipping, people getting Prime stuff a lot faster, no response from Amazon people: http://www.amazon.com/Super-Slow-Shipping/forum/Fx4HQD057HT5OQ/TxRFEIDS67V903/1/ref=cm_cd_pg_oldest?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B000MG3LDA&authToken=&cdSort=newest http://www.amazon.com/Super-Slow-Shipping/forum/Fx4HQD057HT5... Giving credit to Prime members to accept slower shipping: http://www.geek.com/news/amazon-prime-customers-receiving-credit-for-accepting-slower-shipping-1529819/ http://www.geek.com/news/amazon-prime-customers-receiving-cr... Another random example complaint: http://www.pissedconsumer.com/reviews-by-company/amazon/very-slow-free-shipping-and-delivery-20120718332793.html http://www.pissedconsumer.com/reviews-by-company/amazon/very...

jquery 13y ago
It's probably sitting in a big truck somewhere that only leaves once it's full, to minimize cost. If shipping speed is important to you, perhaps you should pony up.
- rogerbinns 13y ago
  You've missed the point. The experience with other retailers seems to be quick dispatch of items to the shipping service. The article is claiming massive warehouse investments by Amazon, yet that is somewhat at odds with shipping non-Prime items slowly. It would seem somewhat strange to deliberately ship slowly to push Prime upsells since that hands things to competitors, and is only doable if you are close to a monopoly. It is possible that trailers (not trucks) are sitting around until full but that takes up space. They also generate the tracking id before it goes into a trailer, and you usually see less than 24 hours before it arrives somewhere outside the warehouse. I doubt there is any benefit to letting trailers fill up over several days. The shippers also use regional distribution centers so there isn't a need to have a full trailer, although full pallets would make sense. However Amazon should be able to fill those in a few hours. Here is an article from 2008 about a Newegg distribution centre. Note that several trailers a day were filled. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2531/7 http://www.anandtech.com/show/2531/7 And another from last year explaining how the warehouse is almost empty moving stuff as quickly as possible. http://www.stores.org/STORES%20Magazine%20May%202012/newegg-goes-diet http://www.stores.org/STORES%20Magazine%20May%202012/newegg-...
continuations 13y ago
Agreed. Amazon's shipping service is very poor unless you use Prime. I've bought from Amazon when I had a Prime subscription and when I didn't. With Prime, the goods were always shipped within a day. Without Prime, they let it sit on the shelf for 5 or 6 days before even shipping it. Compare that to other companies like Best Buy, newegg, walmart, or even no name ebay sellers where products are always promptly shipped without need for any "subscription" nonsense.
- saosebastiao 13y ago
  Would you rather it ship today and arrive a week from now? Or ship in 3 days and arrive in 4? When you make your purchase, you are given a promised arrival date...the ship date should be irrelevant.
  - continuations 13y ago
    False choice. With Amazon, it sits on the shelf for 5 days before it ships and then takes another 5 days to arrive. With something like walmart, it ships immediately and then takes another 5 days to arrive. Amazon's in-transit time isn't any faster than other merchants. They all use UPS or Fedex, so no difference there. The only difference is that Amazon takes 5 days to ship while other websites take 1.
    - saosebastiao 13y ago
      Except that it is not a false choice at all. Amazon delivers by their promised delivery date. I have ordered items with my prime membership that took two days for it to ship, and yet it still arrived on time (arrived the same day it shipped, via a same day carrier). A super saver shipping promise is 5-7 business days. If it takes 5 business days to ship, then your package is getting a second-day ship method. From the several hundreds of packages I have received from Amazon, both before and after my prime membership, only 1 has ever arrived after it was promised to arrive...and it was the carrier's fault.
      - 13y ago

jquery 13y ago

It's probably sitting in a big truck somewhere that only leaves once it's full, to minimize cost. If shipping speed is important to you, perhaps you should pony up.

rogerbinns 13y ago
You've missed the point. The experience with other retailers seems to be quick dispatch of items to the shipping service. The article is claiming massive warehouse investments by Amazon, yet that is somewhat at odds with shipping non-Prime items slowly. It would seem somewhat strange to deliberately ship slowly to push Prime upsells since that hands things to competitors, and is only doable if you are close to a monopoly. It is possible that trailers (not trucks) are sitting around until full but that takes up space. They also generate the tracking id before it goes into a trailer, and you usually see less than 24 hours before it arrives somewhere outside the warehouse. I doubt there is any benefit to letting trailers fill up over several days. The shippers also use regional distribution centers so there isn't a need to have a full trailer, although full pallets would make sense. However Amazon should be able to fill those in a few hours. Here is an article from 2008 about a Newegg distribution centre. Note that several trailers a day were filled. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2531/7 http://www.anandtech.com/show/2531/7 And another from last year explaining how the warehouse is almost empty moving stuff as quickly as possible. http://www.stores.org/STORES%20Magazine%20May%202012/newegg-goes-diet http://www.stores.org/STORES%20Magazine%20May%202012/newegg-...

continuations 13y ago

Agreed. Amazon's shipping service is very poor unless you use Prime. I've bought from Amazon when I had a Prime subscription and when I didn't. With Prime, the goods were always shipped within a day. Without Prime, they let it sit on the shelf for 5 or 6 days before even shipping it. Compare that to other companies like Best Buy, newegg, walmart, or even no name ebay sellers where products are always promptly shipped without need for any "subscription" nonsense.

saosebastiao 13y ago
Would you rather it ship today and arrive a week from now? Or ship in 3 days and arrive in 4? When you make your purchase, you are given a promised arrival date...the ship date should be irrelevant.
- continuations 13y ago
  False choice. With Amazon, it sits on the shelf for 5 days before it ships and then takes another 5 days to arrive. With something like walmart, it ships immediately and then takes another 5 days to arrive. Amazon's in-transit time isn't any faster than other merchants. They all use UPS or Fedex, so no difference there. The only difference is that Amazon takes 5 days to ship while other websites take 1.
  - saosebastiao 13y ago
    Except that it is not a false choice at all. Amazon delivers by their promised delivery date. I have ordered items with my prime membership that took two days for it to ship, and yet it still arrived on time (arrived the same day it shipped, via a same day carrier). A super saver shipping promise is 5-7 business days. If it takes 5 business days to ship, then your package is getting a second-day ship method. From the several hundreds of packages I have received from Amazon, both before and after my prime membership, only 1 has ever arrived after it was promised to arrive...and it was the carrier's fault.
    - 13y ago