Amazon Shipping Free Shipping Policy? (1 Viewer)

[Pat Frank]

Michael,

I signed up for Prime on the day it was announced. I've placed several orders since then, and all shipped the same day. Here's a quick summary of my most recent orders:

- Placed earlier today (March 4th), "Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country" and "Star Trek Generations" SEs. UPS shows it on tracking for delivery on the 8th, which is two days if you don't count the weekend.

- Placed March 2nd (Wednesday), a computer game. Received today, March 4th.

- Placed February 21st, a CD carrying case. Received February 23rd.

- Placed February 18th, "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Casablanca" SEs. Received February 22nd (that's two days if you don't count Saturday and Sunday).

However, glancing back a little further, I see that my Superbit "Tommy" DVD was not shipped on the 10th when I ordered it. It shipped on the 11th. But that's still within the promised "ships within 24 hours" notice.

I've been using them for a long time and I do get occassional delays, so I'm not saying that didn't happen to you -- I'm quite sure it did. I just wanted to give some additional input on the subject. In general those delays seem to happen about one order in ten for me.

In fact... yes, I see one. On Jan 28th (Friday) I ordered the Unforgiven SE DVD, and it didn't ship until Wednesday the 2nd. That's roughly two days not counting the weekend (and they will generally "ship" on Saturdays, so really that's a 3 day delay). (That was just before the Prime deal went into place.)

For what it's worth, I think this new Prime deal is clearly an attack on market share, to try and lure business away from other e-tailers. I fear for the little guys out there. But at the same time, it's hard to say no to free 2-day shipping and no sales tax.

 

[Linda Thompson]

But at the same time, it's hard to say no to free 2-day shipping and no sales tax.

But with so many states now enforcing the "use tax" laws which they let slide for so long, not paying tax directly to the retailer (or e-tailer) is merely delaying the inevitable. You might not pay tax to Amazon, but you still owe it to Florida:

http://www.myflorida.com/dor/consumer/

Don't feel bad, though...my county here in SC is 7%. And, yes, I voluntarily comply with this law, every single year, even though it moves me from a "refund due" to "taxes owed" every single time. Not to mention the detailed record-keeping involved. I even keep up with eBay purchases, which almost never involve taxes, but which are still taxable under this law.

Like the old saying goes...the only things we can be certain of are death and taxes. If they can't get you one way, they'll definitely get you another!

(Moderators: Above comments not intended as political commentary, but rather as further commentary related to a subject already brought up in the thread.)

EDITED TO ADD: And, Pat, my comments were NOT intended to imply that you (or anyone else here) don't comply with this law already! I would never presume to make such an assumption! I was commenting on the law itself, but, in re-reading my post, I see where it might sound like I was accusing you of either not knowing or not obeying the law, and, believe me, NEITHER is the case! I was ONLY commenting on the "no win" situation in place, tax-wise...

 

[Michael Reuben]

But at the same time, it's hard to say no to free 2-day shipping

But that's the point about Prime -- it's not "free". Instead, you pay the equivalent of a lot of shipping fees upfront, and if you buy enough during the next 12 months, you'll get to the point where the shipping is free (that is, until you have to renew your Prime account).

For people who buy a lot from Amazon, it might be a good deal. I don't buy enough from them to make it worthwhile.

I'm glad your experience with Prime shipping has been favorable. My experience so far is that, ever since Prime was announced, Amazon takes much longer processing orders that use the old free shipping option (which is really free).

M.

 

[george kaplan]

I'm starting to think I agree with this. I've used free shipping for quite a while with Amazon, cause frankly, the few extra days it took was no big deal to me. I'm not in any super rush to get my orders the next day or two. However, I also don't like having to wait an inordinate amount of time.

Up until recently, I'd order something with free shipping (that said it ships within 24 hours), and in a day or two it would get shipped. Now, it was usually shipped at some slow rate, and might take a few days to get to me after shipping, but usually the dvds were to me, within a week of ordering, give or take a day or two.

But, now, it does seem that they're holding off on shipping the damned thing in the first place. I ordered the Classic Comedies Box Set on March 1. It said, as it still does, "usually ships within 24 hours". But it still hasn't been shipped. And given the free shipping option, that probably means I won't get it for at least 2 weeks after the order.

As I said, I'm not really in a rush, but I don't like to have my orders dangling. And at some level, I can't help but feel that it's not so much that it's slow, but that it's slowing down just as their trying to move people to Prime. Which makes me suspect (as others do), that it's a deliberate attempt to degrade the quality of the free shipping to send people to another option.

And I HATE being manipulated. If this continues, I will indeed go to another option. But it won't be Amazon Prime. It'll be to my excel worksheet where I compare prices to eliminate the Amazon column.

This is the second order I've made with them since their new Prime where things have slowed down on the processing end. I'll try it once more and if they're still deliberately slowing things down, then I'll just cross Amazon off my list of dvd retailers.