Amazon Shipping

[jrw]

I order a mp3 player for my daughter they would not ship to my pobox so I put in my home address and they would ship so I thought would come usp or fed ex but they sent it by usps which doesn't deliver at my house so it got send back. I call them and they said they had no control on how it is shipped no one could explain why it couldn't come to pobox they gave me a $ 25 dollar credit and refund my money but it still puzzle me why.

jrw

[Eric1600]

Algorithms drive a lot of things online. There are a number of controversies caused by it. Amazon was selling t-shirts stating, "Keep Calm and Rape A Lot" that was generated by word clouds. Youtube Kids famously incentivized content creators automatically that resulted in completely computer driven AI clips with animated violence, murder, rape, bestiality being shown to millions of kids (See Elsa Gate https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/8/16751...acy-theory). Youtube recently took corrective actions, removing thousands of channles that had billions of viewers.

Here are some shipping tricks:

#1 - PO box and need to use FedEx, UPS? You can fill out a form at the Post Office and they will sign for you. You then use the following address for shipping (My PO box is in Hilo):

YOUR NAME
154 WAIANUENUE AVE UNIT 1 # <YOUR PO BOX # HERE>
HILO, HI 96721

This works for all those non-USPS shippers on ebay as well. it's been my #1 go-to to bypass some shipping restrictions. I first learned about this here: http://www.mymoneyblog.com/po-boxes-real...dress.html


#2 - Contact the seller (if not Amazon sourced) directly and ask why they don't just ship USPS to Hawaii, it's usually the same price or offer to pay shipping

#3 - Change your location to US Minor Islands (hit or miss success)

#4 - Have someone on mainland forward it, or pay a freight forwarder. With a forwarder you get a mainland address and they will just ship it onwards to you. This can be somewhat expensive, but if you need it, you need it. This solution is probably more for businesses doing a lot of shipping. See: hawaiiforwarding.com, alohaforwarding.com, etc....

I've had many many products that refused to ship to Hawaii. Things that are just pieces of plastic, or metal with no shipping restrictions. I kept a running list of all the stupid things that Amazon refuses to ship and emailed jeff@amazon.com with all them I was so frustrated.

A typical response:
I'm sorry to learn of your recent order concerns and appreciate you taking the time to bring this to our attention.

I understand your concern regarding the delivery of prime items to Hawaii. I also understand the trouble you had with the packages shipped via USPS when selecting PO box address returns as undeliverable. I hope I can explain things for you.

Some items as you mentioned may not ship because of size and others because of manufacturer's limitations. There may be other factors contributing to this restriction such as overall weight and dimensions of the item. As you know, Prime shipping to Hawaii is more limited than to the contiguous states. While we don't have a specific link that will show you what can or can't be sent to Hawaii, available shipping options will be provided during checkout when you enter a shipping address. This is the fastest way to know if the item ships to your particular location. I'm sorry for any disappointment this may cause but it is the best way to know if we are able to offer the item to your exact address.

I've already engaged our internal team to see why this item not shipping to your PO box address, but it may take a couple days to get an answer for you. You should expect to hear from me in the next 3-5 business days, but as always, should you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to reply directly to this e-mail.

We definitely don't want this to be the case, and we look forward to working with you further on this.

---

two weeks later after giving specific examples of very light, small, non-liquid, non-flamable, non-hazardous, non-restricted products that wouldn't ship:


Thanks for taking the time to provide your additional feedback.

I know my response didn't provide immediate resolution for you, but as I said, the appropriate team received your entire email for their study. It's been my experience that customer feedback has a significant impact here and I can assure you that your email and comments have been noted at the highest levels.

We've passed on your message to investigate further with our internal departments (Shipping restrictions & Transportation teams) and awaiting a response from that teams. Although it generally takes us 2 to 3 business days to complete our research, there are times that it may take us a little longer. I truly apologize for this additional delay.

I wanted to let you know I'll follow up on this and contact you when I receive an update from our teams. Your concerns are very important to us and we do want them to be resolved in a timely manner; however, in this case it is taking a little longer than expected.

They eventually boiled it all down to: While I'm not able to speak to the policies of different shippers, it's possible USPS would ship these products, just not to PO Boxes.

I've been able to use some of the shipping tricks above to bypass these "issues". But I encourage people to carefully document the problems and links to the products that won't ship and complain to them.

---

jrw, many private carriers use USPS for the final leg over the water because the tax payers make it cheaper for them. I had the same thing happen to me. Use the post office street address trick.

[terracore]

"Flammable items and lithium batteries are not air shippable !"

Lithium batteries can be shipped by air up to a certain size. The following link is easiest to digest if one scrolls to the bottom: https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2...dt_004.htm

They wouldn't ship solid "stick" deodorant. Not flammable by itself and no hazmat markings. Not a big deal because available locally (for $ 30% more)

I noticed another thing they don't like to ship to Hawaii is car parts of any kind, size, weight, or configuration (even something that would fit into a first class envelope). But others have had tires shipped to them. Makes no sense.

[DTisme]

I order from amazon all the time. Like a LOT. I've learned to try to only buy things that are 'shipped and sold by amazon" or "sold by XXX and fulfilled by amazon." Which means these items only come from amazon warehouses and therefore follow amazon shipping rules. It's the 3rd party items, shipped and sold by XXX company, you will have trouble with. I've been interested in a few of these that have free shipping to mainland but xtra to ship to Hawaii. If I want it bad enough, I send the seller a note and say "if you're shipping USPS, it'll cost you same amt to send this to Hawaii as to California" and they write back and say, "I didn't realize that" or "we'll make an exception for you" and change their rules. If that doesn't work, I find an alternative product.

I don't use Prime. I don't see any reason for it if they hold my shipment same amt of time if I didn't have Prime. I just make sure anything I buy from amazon I don't need right away and make sure I have $25 or more of merch. in the order to avoid shipping costs. I always choose free shipping.

I did have two items shipped and sold by amazon that they wouldn't ship here. One was bath powder, one was eye pencil. I guess makeup can't be shipped air bc powders are flammable. BOTH times I waited a few weeks, put it back in my cart and it shipped. Go figure.

[Eric1600]

I've had car tires shipped via amazon (prime free shipping), however that is getting harder now because I think they loose money on those deals. I still get car parts often, but I've found ebay to be more competitive in many cases.

I use amazon prime for buying a lot of home remodeling items: sinks, faucets, lights, fixtures, etc. Also welders, tools, and other heavy items because if you can get the prime shipping to work, it's the best price around.

[terracore]

"BOTH times I waited a few weeks, put it back in my cart and it shipped. Go figure."

Same thing with heavy/bulky solar panels. For years I couldn't get them shipped here (even tried customer service to no avail) and then one day PRESTO they started shipping free (UPS).

[PaulW]

I've also had good results with jeff@amazon.com. They still wouldn't ship, but at least they could give a good reason (instead of "Hawaii is not in the USA").

[terracore]

I setup a second amazon account to put their shipping speeds to the test.

My regular prime account, and my secondary account (no prime).

For the test, I ordered two identical items shipped to the same address within seconds of each other on Saturday.

The Prime item shipped today* with expected delivery on Thursday Feb 7. The non-prime item hasn't shipped and the expected delivery date is February 15-21.

* Most of my Prime items don't ship that fast so this isn't the best test. I'll repeat the test the next time I need two of the same exact thing and I can order both without it costing me shipping. But for THIS instance, the Prime account got faster shipping service.

ETA: These were "fulfilled by amazon" shipments.

[terracore]

Two things: First to update the thread above, the non-prime item didn't ship until the 15th- the first expected delivery date.

Second, using my prime account I ordered two of the same thing in separate orders (sold, fulfilled, and shipped by Amazon) both shipped to my PO Box, however on one order I used the PO box number and on the other order I used the USPS PO Box "street address". The "street address" order shipped right away via FedEx. The PO Box order shipped several days later via USPS.

I've noticed in general that things addressed to a PO Box take longer to ship than using a street address, even when the street address is the same PO Box!

So, is it quicker to get something if one stops using the PO Box address? Not always... It will ship faster, and generally UPS and FedEx have a shorter transit time, so it definitely gets to Hilo more quickly. But here's the problem. Lets say that a FedEx item gets to Hilo on Tuesday. If it was being shipped to a real street address, you normally get it that same Tuesday. But when its shipped to a USPS PO Box "Street address" FedEx doesn't give it to the USPS until the following day. And on top of that, the USPS doesn't make the item available until the day after that. So an item received on Tuesday is not available for pickup at the USPS until Thursday, at the earliest.

[ericlp]

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater... In other words? Don't rock the boat!

If I lived on the mainland I'd be doing my shopping from "other" places, but 99% of those "other" places do NOT ship, or if they do, CHARGE a huge fee...

I have been there and heard it all, from Batteries, Sprays, food items, liquids, you name it. And you, some days a product will ship, then other days it won't. It depends on the vendor. So, just like I was looking for Uninterruptible Power Supplies(UPS). I've known for a long time that Amazon will never ship those due to the sealed battery, even tho, they will ship out phones, tablets, etc...etc.... But, office max (with coupons) and when it's on sale, sells APC UPS units for comparable prices. Also, one should note that Target and Walmart will price match with Amazon. Good thing about that is, if you don't like it or it's DOA, than you won't have to deal with boxing it back up and taking it back to UPS.

We should count our blessings that we have a major store that pretty much has everything and a LOT of it will ship here for "FREE". But........ yes, I know it's frustrating... Some things just won't ship. Usually you can source those items from other vendors.

I think if amazon stopped shipping to hawaii ... I'd seriously contemplate moving back to the mainland...