I've noticed over the past month or two that I'll order something from Prime noting the estimated receive date before ordering / as I order. But then the email confirming the order will indicate a later date.

For example, there might be an item I'm intending to purchase. On the product page, it may indicate something like: Receive it tomorrow if you order in the next 4 hours. I'll order it and then the confirmation email will indicate receipt a day or two later after tomorrow.

Why two different receive dates within minutes of each other? The email date is usually the more correct date.

I've never seen that with Prime. What it shows when I click on the buy button is what I get for delivery or even occasionally a little earlier.

For instance, I ordered another Apple AirTag from them a few days ago around 3PM, they said it would be delivered the next day between 7AM and 9AM.

I got it at 6:30AM the next day.

I’ve seen it at least a half dozen times. The delivery date will be a day or two before I need something, so I order it and the confirmation will show a delivery date after the day I need it. I wind up canceling the order then.

I've seen this as well. Sometimes, not always, instead of clicking the Buy Now button if you add it to your cart you can then go to checkout and select from earlier dates than what you're seeing happen.

I've not dug into it but suspect they've modified the Buy Now defaults to deliver on your "Prime Day", which they designate by some mechanism. I think you can actually change that in your profile settings as well. It's an effort to reduce shipping costs by bundling items into fewer shipments.

ETA - Under Your Account there is an option for "Your Amazon Day" where you can change default day, and unselect the option to default to that day on future orders. However even having done that, I still see the behavior noted above occasionally.

{I have mine set to midweek since we travel a fair bit of weekends, sometimes with a Th departure}

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I've noticed over the past month or two that I'll order something from Prime noting the estimated receive date before ordering / as I order. But then the email confirming the order will indicate a later date.

For example, there might be an item I'm intending to purchase. On the product page, it may indicate something like: Receive it tomorrow if you order in the next 4 hours. I'll order it and then the confirmation email will indicate receipt a day or two later after tomorrow.

Why two different receive dates within minutes of each other? The email date is usually the more correct date.

When you see the expected date on the product page, they list a location just below it. See if the location is where you want it sent...mine often will list my son's or daughter's address; depending on who ordered last.

I've found that delivery dates are very accurately listed on the purchase screen where they give you delivery date options. I seldom only order one item and many times items in an order will arrive on different dates. This screen gives you the most accurate dates as it checks availability at the warehouses/hubs closest to you before providing the date. You can't go by the product page as it isn't updated in real time

I'll pay more attention to the date on the Purchase / checkout screen. This hasn't been a problem before but now that it is, I'll pay more attention to the date on the product page, checkout page and email.

Still, not sure why they are not consistent - if they can't be accurate on the product page, why put a date there? Or maybe put a range?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Still, not sure why they are not consistent - if they can't be accurate on the product page, why put a date there? Or maybe put a range?

Likely shortage of product in general, so they likely prioritize the keeping stock in warehouses in areas that have the most orders/traffic.

Both my son and daughter live in SoCal and their delivery dates are almost always a day faster than here in NorCal. When I check on the tracking of packages, most of them start out down South.

OTOH: I've had 1-day orders that showed up before 0830 the next morning...I'm assuming they were in one of the local warehouses (there's 2 in the area)

This is becoming a regular thing for me - and I live close enough to several distribution centers that I can have a lot of stuff delivered same day.

I usually catch it in the cart before checkout, but I'll go back and double-check the product listing, go back and check the cart, make sure the shipping address is correct, etc.

If I'm particularly motivated (or especially if I've already ordered before I realize the discrepancy), I'll start a live chat with a customer service rep and once they confirm the error, I always get apologies, "we'll run this up the chain to the IT folks", and usually some sort of credit in my account for the inconvenience.

Yeah - there's lots of subtle shady stuff with Amazon Prime. More now than in the past.

-Rob

yep, bunch of liars... the last three orders I've placed they came in a day or two earlier than they listed.

Side rant, looking at shipped orders just now. Not Prime/Amazon's fault, more their sub contractor delivery people, but they seem to be allowing it. The lying about the delivery. Scanning the first few pages of past orders, there were probably a dozen that said "package handed directly to resident." Only on one of them was that actually true. But it seems to be their indisputable cover their ass story.

I suspect that the desk jockeys at the shipping companies are scrambling to try and figure out how to slow down the claims from porch pirates. So, they create new protocols for the delivery people to do and hoops to jump through that look good on paper but usually do absolutely nothing. Standard corporate practice; someone up the line comes up with a brilliant idea who has never even set foot on the floor of the factory or been out in the field.

I decided to give it a test and made 3 orders at different times yesterday (Fri). All were listed as 1-day delivery (Sat)

Checking just now, all 3 show as out for delivery and expected sometime between 1645hrs-2045hrs

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmepiphany:
I decided to give it a test and made 3 orders at different times yesterday (Fri). All were listed as 1-day delivery (Sat)

Checking just now, all 3 show as out for delivery and expected sometime between 1645hrs-2045hrs

Same thing is happening to us as I type this. Mrs. Flash ordered some dog bones yesterday from them, then I ordered a 3 pack of USB-C to USB-A adapters, then I thought about the American flag pin on my hat getting pretty faded and went in and ordered another one.

All 3 are out for delivery with a window of 11:30AM to 2:30 PM.

Edited to add: Got all 3 at 1:45PM

Happens all the time now. Also missed delivery dates. I try not to use Amazon anymore because their prices are no longer competitive, there's a soft form of collusion going on, especially with electronics. Everything is priced the same everywhere pretty much.

Recently I have be doing the opposite of what people feared would kill all the box stores. I used Amazon twice in the last month to select some memory and a mesh router. Read reviews online, picked item and searched online for that item. Both times finding it in stock at local Best Buy for the same price as Amazon. I was able to just hop in my car after shopping on Amazon and buy at the local store the very same day.

On the other end, if I look at my old orders, there's many many items that still say they're in route and on their way, despite having been delivered days-years ago.

I wouldn't do it, but there's a part of me that is real curious how they would handle if I said "Hey I'm still waiting on this, what gives?"

Some Amazon prices are competitive, some aren't. It's up to the buyer to do due diligence.

Mrs. Flash checks prices before purchase every time and if Amazon isn't cheaper, she buys elsewhere.

Most of the time they're cheaper.

I have noticed the same thing with orders I have placed lately. I placed a couple orders this past Saturday,that stated had next day shipping or next business day shipping, and then it changed to 2-3 days after I order them. Granted it is free shipping, but I pay for Prime,(which I guess is not free shipping), to get things sooner instead of ordering somewhere else and have the same results.

Well, Amazon did it again.

Placed an order with them at 11:30AM today, they said it would be delivered between 2PM and 6PM.

They lied. It came at 1:00PM.

We’ve seen this too.

We also recently canceled all of our subscription orders because the discounts aren’t real. Products are cheaper elsewhere after the effect of the discounts.

We’re also finding that product pricing isn’t consistently competitive the way it used to be. We’re starting to order more from non-Amazon websites. We’ve been prime members for 10 years- it used to make a lot of sense, and we could trust that Amazon pricing was competitive and fulfillment was better. We started noticing that prices were going up and finding that we could do better elsewhere. Not sure we let the prime membership go yet, but Amazon is no longer the go-to website for me.

Seems like they’re taking care of you guys in the big cities. Their service here in flyoverville has deteriorated. I suppose it could be that the problems of the shipping industry are partially at fault, but where a couple of years ago, I’d order and receive most items within a week, now it seems to be 10 days or more. And a lot of the time it’s been because there’s been a period of some days between my order date and the date I get notified of shipping. And at times this is on items “shipped from Amazon”. It’s compounded by their use of the USPS as shipping method.

I can’t help but wonder if they’ve figured out that there’s no reasonably local source (within 100 miles) in this area for a lot of stuff and very little online competition that can do any better than that. Maybe they’re concentrating their efforts in areas where they have to be the best.