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Amazon doesn't ship items to Hawaii via parcel post. They use Parcel Pool. Parcel Pool is an independent freight forwarder that uses a combination of different shipping techniques (whatever is cheaper, but usually not the barge) and delivers it to the USPS sorting facility in Honolulu. From there it gets delivered to your USPS address on the big island (usually the next day). Parcel pool usually takes 7-10 days from Amazon to you. Parcel Pool is a freight forwarder, not affiliated with USPS other than whatever negotiated contract they have to get items from the USPS sorting facility to your USPS address via the postal service.
FedEx Ground and SmartPost DOES use the barge. Depending on when your item gets to the dock it could take 2-3 weeks or 4 weeks to get to you. SmartPost travels via FedEx channels to the barge and from there it gets sent to the USPS sorting facility and from there is handled like Parcel Pool.
The USPS abandoned the use of the term Parcel Post over a year ago. The current terminology they use is "Standard Post" though since abandoning the term they have also used the term "parcel select" but I think that was a marketing name.
Amazon also uses first class and Priority mail.
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ParcelPool has their own block of USPS tracking numbers; the first few digits indicate whether the package is ParcelPool, USPS printed at home, or USPS over-the-counter.
I believe Parcel Select is the marketing name for the USPS deal with eBay.
Amazon seems to prefer "town street" addresses that are staffed; "free" shipping to my office is usually 2-day, shipping to "home" is often ParcelPool.
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I almost always choose items that fall into the "free shipping with $35 order" category, and nearly all of them come FedEx. Once they ship it, it takes only about 3 days to get to my door.
They do split and recombine orders. Sometimes I'll get a single item right away, then the rest mixed with items from another order. I think items are stored at different warehouses, so everything from one warehouse ships together, anything from a different warehouse ships separately.
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As a follow up, I had 2 orders placed on the 1st and they still had not shipped out as of yesterday. I am on Amazon prime so they should have been shipped. I got on a chat and the lady offered me a free overnight shipping upgrade since I needed the items by this friday.
She told me that all the items were in stock items but low in stock causing them to ship slowly.
It can be quite frustrating when you need them for a deadline.
I had not had any issues up until the last 3 orders I have placed.
Thankfully they are good about fixing issues if you contact them.
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I get at least four Amazon shipments a month. This week there was a small box that was delivered by our postal carrier and a very large one delivered by FedEx. The small one was ordered April 29th and delivered by USPS on the 4th. The large one I ordered on May 1st and it was delivered May 6th. I just went back through my past order list and that's basically the same delivery that I've been getting for a long time. 5 to 7 days. I've noticed no slowdown. I do have Amazon Prime and ship whatever they're offering as "free shipping."
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I never really started tracking until I read this thread, but my last "fulfilled by amazon" Prime order took 5 days to ship. The order before that took 6 days. Before that, 4 days. I have an order I placed 3 days ago that hasn't shipped. To clarify, these aren't delivery times I'm talking about, just the amount of time it takes for amazon to ship the item. They used to ship items within 24 hours, lately its been averaging 5 days. At least for me. Parcel Pool items have been averaging 7-9 days to get to my PO box after it gets shipped. So when you add 6 days before amazon ships, it's almost a 2 week process from order to delivery.
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So today an order of mine finally shipped, a full week (7 days for those of you on the metric system). This is two days past the original earliest estimated delivery date. They shipped it 'overnight' UPS which is two days to Hawaii. (Probably because I contacted them and complained) The shipping they paid for this must have been at least as much as what I paid for the merchandise.
In those 7 days however, I placed a few other orders that were shipped within 24 hours.
After chatting with an amazon customer service agent I learned that one shipment was delayed due to "shortage of stock on one of the items". In other words, if you have an order and one of the items is out of stock, but they are expecting it soon, the entire delivery is delayed until the item shows up. If you aren't a prime member there is a button you can select to ship in-stock items immediately AT A HIGHER COST but when you are a prime member and all the items are supposed to be under the free prime shipping, the option does not exist.
It seems like amazon is having problems keeping things in stock and rather than making the item unavailable for purchase (like they should) they lie and say its available because they think our just-in-time delivery culture will work out, and when it doesn't, they upgrade shipping to more expensive options to try and compensate. I guess it probably works for them but in my case, not so well.
Incidentally, almost all of my delayed orders have been grocery items I was shipping to my daughter on Oahu. Non-grocery items have also been delayed but not at the 100% level I've been experiencing with grocery items the last few weeks.
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Just got coffee from amazon in 5 days from the time I order went usps.
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[quote]Originally posted by terracore
Amazon doesn't ship items to Hawaii via parcel post. They use Parcel Pool. Parcel Pool is an independent freight forwarder that uses a combination of different shipping techniques (whatever is cheaper, but usually not the barge) and delivers it to the USPS sorting facility in Honolulu.
Thanks for the correction terracore, I meant Parcel Pool and it came out Parcel Post. Parcel Pool most certainly does use barge service - not consistently, but quite a bit.
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