Amazon S-L-O-W shipping

[ChunksterK]

Frau Chunkster does most of our Amazon orders, and she has been in Teutonic Fury mode for a couple of weeks now. Almost two thirds of the orders placed in the last six weeks have not yet been shipped, and that doesn't even count items ordered in the past five days. She saw a news item on Deutsche Welle about them laying off 27,000 workers and said, "The idiots finally fired the guy who made everything get here."

[terracore]

I've noticed that for most items I've been looking at, there is a shipping charge with the expected date of receiving the item. Or "free delivery once shipped". The "Free Prime" moniker is getting harder and harder to find. I don't know if that is a "Hawaii thing" or not, but clearly if one wants an estimated delivery window, now we have to pay for it.

It looks like they are trying to basically do away with the free Prime shipping to Hawaii, following in the footsteps of Walmart which recently added a "location surcharge". Currently, Target is still offering free shipping to Hawaii, but also most of the items are also shipped from Hawaii. Most things arrive from either Lihue or Honolulu.

Amazon lost $3.8B last year. Maybe the Amazon Paradise Tax is going to be a thing.

I almost forgot to add- For the hour I spent in chat with them and getting no resolution- I had a $5.00 "courtesy credit" on my account.

Pro-tip: If an item is available as "subscribe and save" not only will you get 5-15% off, you get a delivery date.

[kalakoa]

Sounds like a "price of paradise" problem -- I hear tell Amazon works just fine on the mainland.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I visited my sister in a suburb of Dallas last month.  A fleet of Amazon delivery trucks roamed the streets every afternoon.  In her neighborhood they stopped at about every 5th house.  If a customer didn’t want to wait they had a choice of 10-20 nearby locations where they could request pickup of their box earlier in the day.  

She placed her order, pickup or delivery was generally the next day.

[terracore]

My niece, in PDX, usually gets same-day delivery if she orders in the morning.

[AaronM]

Right on cue KK!

[terracore]

I have my third order approaching the 30 day mark.  So I looked at them, do they share anything in common?

As you probably already know, Amazon doesn't charge for items until they ship, so you would think that they would want to ship them ASAP, so they get paid.

Unless the item is being paid for with a gift card or credit card points, because they have already been paid.

All 3 orders on their "do not ship to Terracore anytime soon" list were paid for with gift card / credit card points.

I did eventually receive orders 1 & 2, it took about 45 days for them to ship.

I also noticed on some other items that were less than 30 days, they charged my credit card for them 7-10 days before they actually shipped.  So their claim of "not charging until the item ships" is a flat-out lie.  Granted, the charges might have been pre-auths, but if somebody had a low credit limit it could put them in a bind.

[Obie]

I must be the luckiest person in Puna.

Thursday, April 27
1:36 PM
Package delivered.
Hilo, HI US
10:23 AM
Package is out for delivery.
Hilo, HI US
9:29 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.
Hilo, HI US
Wednesday, April 26
2:25 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.
Lebanon, TN US
Carrier picked up the package.

Roundup Custom 53.8% Glyphosate for Aquatic & Terrestrial Use 2.5 gallons
Free Prime shipping $161.00

[TomK]

Obie's experience is similar to mine. If I order something from Amazon Prime it generally arrives on time or even earlier. There have been the odd times items arrive a day or too late but from the tracking info that's almost entirely due to the USPS. And Amazon tells me about it. I had one problem in the last few months when they sent the wrong thing, I complained, and they sent the correct item and I didn't even have to send the wrong item back.

The rare occasions things arrive really late or not at all are always with Amazon partners.

I also don't know anything about the "Amazon doesn't charge for items until they ship" agreement. If you could provide a link to that, terracore, I'd be interested. I always get a notification from my credit card company immediately after ordering something on Amazon saying my card was charged without me being present.

[terracore]

Here's my latest drama (start at bottom and work your way up).

This shipment contained items from 11 orders, many of them dating back over a month. It looks like Amazon or the USPS kept shipping the item back and forth between KOA and CA until they finally damaged it so bad it became "undeliverable":

Friday, April 28
12:26 AM
Package was damaged and will be returned.
Thursday, April 27
6:54 PM
Package arrived at an Amazon facility.
Kailua Kona, Hawaii US
2:54 PM
Package left an Amazon facility.
Ontario, CA US
10:24 AM
Package arrived at an Amazon facility.
Ontario, CA US
1:31 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Kailua Kona, HI US
1:13 AM
Package left an Amazon facility.
San Bernardino, California US
Wednesday, April 26
3:39 PM
Package arrived at an Amazon facility.
San Bernardino, California US
12:54 PM
Package left an Amazon facility.
San Bernardino, CALIFORNIA US
10:07 AM
Package arrived at an Amazon facility.
San Bernardino, CALIFORNIA US
1:33 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Kailua Kona, HI US
Carrier picked up the package.