Amazon Shipping Free Shipping Policy?

Yes, that's the normal policy, and a very reasonable one at that. However, when there's a gap of a few weeks between the items you've ordered that are already in stock and those that aren't released yet, they'll often ship the in-stock items early anyway.

Yup, if it's plainly stated that some items aren't available when you place your order (i.e. pre-orders), then they won't ship anything early unless a pre-order is delayed. Or an item in your order's availability becomes otherwise very delayed beyond what they told you. If that happens, they'll ship the stuff that is available. Seems reasonable to me, they're actually pretty good about it.

When free shipping and the price of the item combine for a lower or equal price than elsewhere AND I like the store; I go for it. Amazon.com has always amazed me with their fast eficient service.

I just received a pair of Wharfedale Bi-Poles for my bedroom. First off, they were the only place that I found these speakers in Maple instead of black. Ordered on Sunday, got them Thursday. Plus, every day (several times a day actually; like a little kid waiting for a secret decoder ring) I checked on the shipping progress on the amazon website. All one has to do is click on your account and through the miracles of those little scanners UPS uses can see exactly where your package has been and is now. I'm talkin' 'bout when it leaves one place, arrives at another, gets unloaded from a truck, etc. My package had about 10 entries in 3 days. Maybe I've just been lucky, but have always had excellent results with them.

Johnney,

This free shipping can be great BUT, it makes pre-ordering impractible. If I couldn't find a better deal elsewhere, I might be tempted to just pay for the shipping on a separate pre-order.

Salud, larry mac

That's been my experience. They automatically add one week to processing time if you choose free shipping. That's why I always pay for standard if I'm gonna order from them. For your order that would be something like $4.96. The question then becomes: is it worth $5 for you to wait one week?

You do realize that unless you are either getting a great deal (Share the Love, GCs, coupon, etc) or can't get to a B&M on release, it's cheaper to get these offline, right?

When I placed my order online, the shipping info stated that I would receive the item in 7-8 days with the free shipping. It got here in 4 days!

The free shipping is just the least expensive ground shipping option that they use, which would also be the slowest. That's way it takes a little longer. I usually get my free shipped stuff in a week or less. They don't hold it a week before they ship it out.

Lucky you! On every pre-order I've placed since they've instituted the free shipping offer, the estimated ship date is always one week later with free shipping than with any of the other shipping options. Let's say I ordered The Adventures of Indiana Jones Trilogy, instead of listing the estimated ship date as 10/21, it would say 10/28. Which means if I need to order a catalog title I always use standard shipping.

It really all boils down to: You get what you pay for. (Which, in this case, is nothing! )

As others have said, for a straight transaction (no special offers/coupons/etc.), new major studio releases are cheaper offline...so go to a major B&M if you can. If you can't, amazon is not bad at all. FWIW, I get my discs 1-2 days after they become available with the free shipping, guess it depends where you live. Recently, amazon has started shipping discs a day or two before release (this is new in Canada) so I may get a non-major studio release on or the day after release day. Sometimes amazon drops the price (from pre-order price) on release day...ask nicely and they'll credit/refund the difference. Also, any problems with a disc and they send a replacement before you send the problem one back. So I have to say their customer service and free shipping is pretty good...they always respond quickly to queries, unlike many online places...

With free shipping it takes me 2-3 days to receive my packages from Amazon.

Thread resurrection!

What method(s) of shipping does Amazon use for their Super Saver Free Shipping option for those of you on the Mainland?

I always used to get Priority Mail then for my last two recent orders over $25, they sent it Parcel Post!

They usually use media mail or parcel post, and sometimes UPS. The items always get to me very quickly, regardless of method.

Since I live in Hawai'i, Media Mail or Parcel Post is slow. It can take up to three weeks. So I'm wondering if Amazon realized their "error" (by shipping it to me free via Priority Mail) and by sending it Parcel Post, it is now the correct method. My last order was shipped on Dec. 5 and I still haven't received it yet.

One order shipped on 11/30 and it got here on 12/8. The other order shipped 12/5 and got here 12/18. Both via Parcel Post from NV to HI.

[post deleted]

I heard that they have gotten real strict on it now. As stated above, they used to send things ot as they were available, (even though their policy says otherwise). But now with their belt-tightening, like no more STL, they are holding everything on an order until it's all available.

I actually rely on them holding orders until everything is in stock, as it allows for delaying payment on preorders - if they don't partial ship.

A recent order that uses Super Saver Free Shipping was sent to me via USPS "Smart Mail." What is that??? I didn't ask them to explain that since they claim that they are striving to get packages to their destinations on time so they assured me that it would get to me within two weeks. If not, to contact them and do the usual.

UPDATE: "Smart Mail" was simply 1st Class Mail. Guess it's something they have with USPS. But 1st Class Mail usually takes no more than 5 days but this time it took a week.
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Ever since Amazon announced their "Amazon Prime" service (pay an annual fee; get free 2-day shipping on every order), I've noticed that my orders with free shipping take longer to ship. DVD pre-orders usually shipped no later than the street date. But I have an order that streeted last week and only today entered the shipping channel. My order with today's street date isn't even that far yet.

Amazon's stock just took a big hit on worse-than-expected earnings. The free shipping option is a big component of the loss, and I wonder whether they're trying to wean people away from it.

M.

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.

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...

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.

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.