
Amazon’s “Two-Day Shipping” Is No Longer Two-Day Shipping - HoyaSaxa
https://medium.com/@cwgriffin23/amazons-two-day-shipping-is-no-longer-two-day-shipping-b8051b25d00a#.kch2ygyqz
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xt00
Agree this is rapidly turning into false advertising in my opinion. Basically
the problem is that when it shows the "Prime" logo, its becoming much less
meaningful. 2-day shipping but ships out in 2 days from now, but the 2 day
delay is not visible anywhere until you are about to check-out, then what does
that "Prime" logo really mean?? Will ship in 2 days after anywhere between 1-7
days of "handling time"?? I mean, honestly that is roughly how I'm
interpreting it now..

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pasbesoin
I'll add that this past year, multiple times the site told me my Prime
shipping delivery date would be X. No further communication to indicate a
delay. Indeed, the system shows the product shipped from whatever source. X
would come and pass with no package. It would arrive on Y or even Z.

I no longer trust Amazon's committed _and communicated_ delivery dates.

I suppose I could be all pro-active and self-advocating and repeatedly
complain until I get some credits or whatever -- or at least an acknowledgment
of the individual situation.

But, that's not really the point of Prime, is it? It's supposed to _reduce_ my
hassle.

Not this year, Amazon.

Maybe before you continue your relentless expansion, you should shore up your
extant services that built you your current position.

As for me, I'm debating whether I allow or kill my 12/1 Prime auto-renewal.

It's also more than a bit insulting to see new members getting Prime sign up
deals for $80, year after year, while you're charging me $100. Who's been the
loyal customer? Are you focused solely on growth? Are you such a "monster",
"too big to fail", that you don't need to and don't worry about retention?

I'm starting to more actively consider and use alternate purchasing vectors,
despite Amazon's erstwhile convenience and payment data security.

P.S. The Bluetooth speaker I order came with a small dent. A lot of items now
ship "rattling" around inside a poorly packed shipping box. And the Amazon
Basics USB C cable whose page says it supports fast charging, doesn't.

My Amazon experience has been increasingly crappy. The one thing that's
improved is that Prime video doesn't pixelate and stutter especially after
first starting, like it used to.

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mikestew
_I 'll add that this past year, multiple times the site told me my Prime
shipping delivery date would be X. No further communication to indicate a
delay._

Well, that's disappointing. Myself, I find myself being notified of the delay
almost immediately. Let me walk you through it: 1\. Page for the item says,
"Order in the next 4 hours and get it by Tuesday". 2\. Sounds sweet, I
_really_ need it by Tuesday. Order now with 1-Click, please 3\. Email shows up
seconds later: "Your item will arrive on Wednesday!"

Fuckers. That's not a one-off, either, I'm finding it to happen pretty
regularly these days.

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hga
Yeah, I don't do 1-Click (e.g. didn't start Prime until 2 years ago), and I've
seen that sort of thing on my consolidated orders when I check out.

 _Sometimes_ I can get it isolated to one of the items in my cart, although it
can't remember if they then came from different warehouses.

Don't know about this being a Dark Pattern, though, vs. Amazon regressing to
the mean, as others have noted in this context in other HN discussions, there
are bound to be consequences to treating your technical staff horribly, with
search's eternal awfulness being front and center.

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mikestew
_Don 't know about this being a Dark Pattern, though_

I don't know, either. Frankly, of late I'm content to write it off as either
apathy, incompetence, or left-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-right-is-doing.

In the end, I don't care other than intellectual curiosity so that I don't
slide into the same cesspool in my work. What matters, in a world of nearly
infinite online vendors, is Amazon's reputation. Without that, they're nothing
in my book. And in my book, Amazon's reputation isn't anything near what it
was ten years ago. Nothing major, I guess, but that reputation is being
chipped away one hammer stroke at a time. Knock-off items, okay, I can
mitigate that. Blatantly lied about when my item will be delivered? Bah, I
grew up in an age of "allow 4-6 weeks for delivery", one more day won't kill
me. But those things start to add up. Which is why I continue to seek out
other vendors, and don't see myself doing much business with them in the next
couple of years.

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hga
Good point, and for that matter, a Dark Pattern they _could_ decide is a bad
idea (especially if it's not authorized at a high enough level) would be a lot
better than a regression to the mean, which is much harder if not impossible
to fix.

I still have a higher trust in them than pretty much any other general on-line
merchant (a finely honed BS detector and general suspicious nature about
anything "too good to be true" makes a difference, plus watching my father get
burned on an iPhone purchase on eBay where the merchant played eBay like a
fiddle) ... but they're getting me to start to look at others, which is not
what I think they want....

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mikestew
Whatever explanations might be bandied about both here and on Amazon's
explanatory pages, no explanation will be sufficient to explain away my
personal experience: used to be that when Amazon said "two day shipping", it
would show up on my doorstep in two days. That no longer happens, not even
regularly. Now it means "it'll get here sometime this week". So when my Prime
renewal comes up again, it won't be getting renewed.

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jrnichols
I wonder how much of this depends on where the user lives. I'm in the
Dallas/Fort Worth area, and Amazon has several large sized warehouses. I
frequently find things showing up the next day, even though I have Prime and
left it at 2 day shipping. A few items have even arrived on Sunday.

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AstroJetson
Same here, but we are close to the New Castle DE Amazon location.

We get stuff on Sunday, but it's now delivered by a truck/van with an Amazon
logo on it.

Maybe what we are buying, but things ordered via Prime are here in two days.
Most recent was bathroom fans. Builder on Friday said the ones we ordered
wouldn't fit, ordered the smaller version, said come back Monday. UPS dropped
them off at 10AM and they were installed by noon.

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WheelsAtLarge
I had the same question so I looked it up on the amazon site.

According to the site 2 day shipping is 2 days from the time of shipping. It
does not mean it will get to the purchaser in 2 days - Saturday and Sunday
don't count.

Here's the link:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=3043211)

Anyway I look at it, prime works for me. I've even gotten stuff next day even
though they predicted more days. It's amazing since sometimes it takes me few
day to get to my local target to get the stuff I need.

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CaptSpify
Whenever I ask customer-support about it, they always just refund me, and let
me keep the item. It's only been items that are <$100, so YMMV. I've
personally always thought that they were just making it up in volume from
people who don't verify.

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Nadya
Their help page, unless recently modified, explains why this is. I agree it is
a 'dark pattern' however.

 _> If the item you're ordering is out of stock or unavailable to ship
immediately, the shipping method time starts when the item ships. For example,
it will take two business days after an item ships to reach you with Two-Day
Shipping._

Simply put - the item does not ship immediately. If you read the 'Guaranteed
delivery date' message it gives you an "If you order in the next x hours and y
minutes". That is when the shipment is expected to be made.

Why are the boots 4 day shipping? Because the next guaranteed delivery time is
in 61 hours (>48 hours, so 2 days to ship then 2 days to deliver = 4 day
delivery). If it was "in the next 73 hours" it would be a 5 day delivery.

The exploding kittens is 3 days because the order is within the next 24 hours.
I wager if they waited 17 minutes one of two things would happen: it would
estimate 2 day shipping or the date would be pushed back an additional 24
hours (never falling under 24 hours).

I imagine this is because the companies selling these items can only guarantee
shipment within 24/48/72 hours of receiving an order. If they set this to 72
then "2 day shipping" is really 4-5 days.

My personal experience, nearly all of my 2 day shipping comes within 2 days,
even when the guaranteed date is 3-4 days out. Items with 12-15 business day
shipping often arrive in just a few days. I'm a bit forgiving when my 2 day
shipment comes in 3 days when my 2 week shipments frequently come in 3-5
days...

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HoyaSaxa
Yes agreed, but the real question is why can they guarantee that your item
will ship sooner if you select one-day shipping. They can conveniently get
your item on the truck much more quickly (1 vs 3 days) if you are willing to
pay extra for one-day shipping.

For example for the boots:

One-Day Shipping -> 1 day of processing + 1 day of shipping = 2 day turnaround

Two-Day Shipping -> 3 days of processing + 2 days of shipping = 5 day
turnaround

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developer2
Because when paying for 1-day shipping, the cost is astronomical. It would be
_unacceptable_ to pay that price and not have it next business day. If they
couldn't actually do real one-day shipping, then they would not be able to
offer it. It exists only because we have to pay a large fee on every
individual delivery. You pay the high cost for a guaranteed service.

Amazon Prime simply cannot scale at the given price point. People who place >=
100 orders a year are paying <= $1 per shipment. The $100/year Prime
subscription is not sustainable if people use it. I'm sure they claw back a
significant profit from people who buy Prime and then only order 10-20 times a
year, but it's possible it doesn't earn back what excessive users are costing
them.

Is it a little shady that they offer 2-day shipping with caveats? Yes. They
should either make it much more clear that there are no guarantees, or
increase the cost of heavy Prime users to be profitable enough to scale it
properly.

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tcfunk
If you accept the fact that 2 day shipping doesn't necessarily mean 2 days
given the proper circumstances, the same should apply to 1 day shipping. And
probably in an inconsistent manner.

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rogerdpack
I heard a rumor if it took more than 2 days you could contact support and get
a free month of prime or something??

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deedubaya
I've noticed this as well -- that Amazon's 2-day shipping doesn't really mean
what it used to mean.

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Bombthecat
I feel like that Amazon stopped selling stuff on there own anyway.

It is all third party now. Rarely delivered by Amazon...

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pugworthy
2 day, 3 day, even 4 day - I don't really care that much. I don't have to care
about cost of shipping, it shows up "pretty fast" and that's what counts. I'm
not trying to choose one vendor over another based on shipping cost, shipping
time, etc. I just buy it and don't worry.

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misterhtmlcss
Not a comparable nor relevant statement. Almost like saying I paid for a first
class ticket, landed 2 days latter and flew coach with everyone else.

Give your head a shake man.

If we pay for 2-day shipping and the service isn't being provided as promised
that's IS the topic, not whether you care about the arrival speed or not.

Not everything is about you.

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toomuchtodo
Right, but if it matters to you, cancel your prime membership. Vote with your
dollars. My hunch is that people just want to complain though, and the number
of people who would actually quit prime is insignificant.

Like OP, I don't care if it's 2-4 days; I can order from the iOS app with a
few taps, and that's worth not ever having to shop other online retailers or
drive to a store.

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alexandrerond
If I wrote a blog post every time something's wrong with a shipment...

