The Decline of Amazon Prime (how clever these marketeers)

[Ronnieboy]

I have NEVER had a Prime 2 day shipment take more than 3 days...and that's pretty rare. On occasion, I've done same day delivery, but if it's after 3, I will usually get it the next AM with a $10 merchandise credit.

Sent via mobile device. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

My experience is/was exactly the same, except the opposite. I have never had a prime 2 day shipment make it in under 3 days, it was usually at least 4 if not more.

When my renewal came up I cancelled as I don't order enough from Amazon and never watched anything on their Netflix clone.

 

[growerVon]

Well, this is news to me!

I have Prime and thought it was only about free shipping.

I never noticed how long the delivery time was because even before I was on Prime stuff came in a reasonably short time.

Of course I also watched some free Prime movies and series (Man in the High Castle) etc.

Agreed, particularly about the digital media part of the benefits of Prime membership. Its true it ain't just about the shippin! Though around the holidaze that becomes the best part

 

[Totoro]

No amazon prime, but just a local on-line ecommerce site.

Typically order before 22h, get your order the next day. Laptop I'm typing on got delivered that way, before 9AM on a Saturday.

Some companies here are pushing same day delivery.

 

[dixonge]

Reasons why you might not get the 2-day shipping you were expecting...

Amazon.com Help: Amazon Prime Eligible Items & Addresses

 

[MichaelB]

Are you sure? I think that would be pretty low to disguise longer shipping as a 'processing' prior to shipping, if Amazon sells Prime as 'Two Day shipping'..

Am I sure about what? That Amazon occasionally says "requires an additional few days to process the order"? Of course. That's why I posted it. Not frequent but not uncommon either.

 

[steelyman]

Well, this is news to me!

I have Prime and thought it was only about free shipping.

I never noticed how long the delivery time was because even before I was on Prime stuff came in a reasonably short time.

Of course I also watched some free Prime movies and series (Man in the High Castle) etc.

Whatever shipping deals that Prime offered were when they first appeared, it wasn't enough to entice me to join (and pay extra). I am fortunate, and I realize that everyone is not this lucky either for geographic or physical reasons, to be able to get myself to a brick-and-mortar store if there is something I really, really want right now.

The "arts-type" offerings (as in video and audio benefits) are reason for me to continue my Prime membership.

And I'll take this opportunity, although it's a blatant hijack but I'm not sure it deserves its own thread, to say that I notice that a collection called The Complete Ella and Louis On Verve is available on Prime Music. Everybody knows who Ella and Louis are, but the backing musicians are definitely jazz greats, led by the excellent work of the Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson. It's a compilation of what were originally released as separate albums on the Verve label.

 

[folivier]

While we were full timing in our motorhome we often needed items shipped to different places. Quite often needed in a couple days since we were moving to another location. We found out that some locations didn't deliver in the 2 days promised. But the biggest problem was when UPS/Fedex hands the item to the USPS for delivery. Many locations would not accept USPS deliveries or had a different address. Amazon never could resolve that problem despite many emails and phone calls.

 

[DayDreaming]

I don't have Amazon Prime, but it's rare for my Amazon orders to take more than 3 days to arrive. Sometimes my orders are delivered on Sundays via USPS. And I almost always get free shipping since it's soooo easy to spend $35 at Amazon.

 

[ERD50]

Am I sure about what? That Amazon occasionally says "requires an additional few days to process the order"? Of course. That's why I posted it. Not frequent but not uncommon either.

It sounded to me like you were saying Amazon was 'hiding' the slow shipping as 'processing time'. [edit to add your comment that I bolded - MB said: I've always read that as "2 day delivery is too expensive, this will take 4 or 5, so suck it up"]. Examples (all Prime eligible), to hopefully make this clearer:


Order A is processed, shipped and received in 2-3 days.

Order B says 2-3 days to process, and you get a notice that it shipped on day 2, and you receive it 2 days after that ( 4 days total, but still 2 day shipping).


But I thought you were saying sometimes this happens:

Order C says 2-3 days to process, and you receive it in 5 days. And you suspect that they just used slow shipping to save costs, and used the 'processing time' as an excuse.

What I'm saying is if you watch the details on Order C, and if your 'excuse' theory was true, you would see that it was delivered to the shipping company on day 1 and took 4-5 days to ship. And if that's the case, that is pretty slimy on Amazon's part. They used a slow shipper and called it 'processing time' - dishonest.

However, I suspect (but do not know), that if you looked at the shipping details, you'd find it did spend 2-3 days processing (did not get to the shipper for 2-3 days), and the actual shipping time was the 2 days that they promise. Which would indicate that Amazon didn't use slow shipping to save $.

I suppose Amazon could be using that 'processing time' to use their own trucks to move inventory from a distant warehouse where that product is stocked, to a closer warehouse to get lower shipping costs, as part of their normal stocking deliveries? Maybe that works for them for lower volume products? Kind of a variation of what you suspect?

At any rate, it's one of many reasons that I'm not interested in paying a premium for Prime, even though I order a lot of stuff from Amazon. There are very few times that I really need/care about 2 day shipping versus 5-7 days, and there are just too many exceptions to Prime (many non-Prime eligible products, and sometimes the cost is higher too - a double 'tax').

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

I don't have Amazon Prime, but it's rare for my Amazon orders to take more than 3 days to arrive. Sometimes my orders are delivered on Sundays via USPS. And I almost always get free shipping since it's soooo easy to spend $35 at Amazon.

They recently raised that to $49. Makes it a little harder sometimes. I do keep a bunch of stuff that I have no real time frame for so I can fill out an order, I think I need to look around the house and see if there are any regular consumable/disposable items that I should add to my list.

But it also has me looking at other places. I've recently placed two different orders on-line at Walmart for some of the things for my Mom in Assisted Living. Walmart just had better pricing, better products and free shipping >$50, no restrictions that I noticed.

-ERD50

 

[MichaelB]

It sounded to me like you were saying Amazon was 'hiding' the slow shipping as 'processing time'. [edit to add your comment that I bolded - MB said: I've always read that as "2 day delivery is too expensive, this will take 4 or 5, so suck it up"]. Examples (all Prime eligible), to hopefully make this clearer:

Not sure what is so difficult about this. Back to my original post.

I have found some items that are eligible for Amazon Prime, but won't be delivered in 2 days because they need "additional time to process the order". This additional time varies among items. Am I sure? Yes, this is something I have observed many times.

My take is Amazon intentionally does this to deliver in more than 2 days yet still call it Amazon Prime Delivery. Am I sure? Yes, I am sure this is my opinion. Can anyone prove this is actually happening? Not without more data. Kind of like the Netflix throttling issue. Proven, even admitted, but still denied by Netflix.

Is it possible that there is a less conspiratorial explanation? Of course. I am quite critical of this type of explanation when given by others, and accept the same amount of skepticism on my own view. Still, Amazon shipping costs must be significant, Amazon Prime subscribers probably limit their searches to Prime eligible products only, and the intersection of these two represent an important marginal profit opportunity.

 

[DayDreaming]

They recently raised that to $49. Makes it a little harder sometimes.

Bummer! Maybe it's time I took the plunge into Prime then.

 

[W2R]

I love having Amazon Prime. I don't even know if I buy enough stuff from Amazon to make it cheaper; I get such a charge out of fast delivery for free, that it is worth it to me either way. I would never *pay* for faster delivery if I did not have Prime. I do not really use any of the other benefits of Prime and just get it for the free, fast delivery.

Delivery was slower for a while a year or two ago, and I found that to be aggravating. However Amazon is now sending almost everything (to me) via USPS. USPS service used to be slower than UPS and I hated it, but there have been some remarkable improvements in USPS delivery time I have seen in the past year or so. They have really seemed to up their game.

The improvement seems to be mainly in the time it takes to get the item from Texas, or Tennessee, to my local USPS people here in my suburb. Then the USPS takes their time but it still only adds up to two days. Maybe these are UPS/USPS deliveries, where USPS does the last leg only; I don't recall because usually I am just paying attention to what type of truck will be delivering it.

All my recent orders have arrived on time:

My last order was ordered on a Friday and delivered on that Sunday.
The previous order was ordered on a Saturday and delivered on that Monday.
The one before that was ordered on a Tuesday and delivered on Thursday.
The one before that was ordered on a Saturday, and delivered on Tuesday (two working days after it was ordered, so exactly as promised).
The one before that was ordered on a Saturday and delivered on Monday.
The one before that was ordered on a Tuesday and delivered on Thursday.
The one before that was ordered on a Wednesday and delivered on Friday.
The one before that was ordered on a Monday and delivered on Wednesday.

I looked back at several before that and none of them were late either.
No complaints about delivery time, any more.

 

[Hermit]

I ordered a cloth "dust hood" from Shop Smith on the 14th. This is a fairly small and light item. Should get it on the 21st from FedEx Ground. Cost me $19.49 for shipping. Its the only way I can get one of these items. I'm quite happy with Amazon Prime and use it whenever I can.

I will sometimes pay more for a Prime product that is fulfilled by Amazon. The USPS refuses to deliver to my address and Amazon cannot control how other fulfillers deliver my packages. After a very long effort, I got Amazon to put a flag on my deliveries to not use USPS. If I change my address in any way, it will wipe out that flag and I will be back to USPS returning packages and saying I don't exist or I refused delivery or any other box they feel like checking at the time. Whatever box they check, it is not because they refuse to deliver to my address. That would mean they could not charge to send it back.

 

[ERD50]

Not sure what is so difficult about this. Back to my original post.

I have found some items that are eligible for Amazon Prime, but won't be delivered in 2 days because they need "additional time to process the order". This additional time varies among items. Am I sure? Yes, this is something I have observed many times.

My take is Amazon intentionally does this to deliver in more than 2 days yet still call it Amazon Prime Delivery. Am I sure? Yes, I am sure this is my opinion. Can anyone prove this is actually happening? Not without more data. Kind of like the Netflix throttling issue. Proven, even admitted, but still denied by Netflix.

Is it possible that there is a less conspiratorial explanation? Of course. I am quite critical of this type of explanation when given by others, and accept the same amount of skepticism on my own view. Still, Amazon shipping costs must be significant, Amazon Prime subscribers probably limit their searches to Prime eligible products only, and the intersection of these two represent an important marginal profit opportunity.

I think the difficulty is that you are using the term "two day delivery" when Prime only advertises "two day shipping". Can you show me on Amazon's site where they call it call it "Amazon Prime Two Day Delivery"?

And as I described, you do have the data to confirm/deny this - look at when it shipped. I suspect you will find they generally meet their two day shipping promise. The extra days were in processing.

-ERD50

 

[Chuckanut]

The main reason I like Prime is that I can ship things to family members quickly and the yearly charges are less than if I boxed and shipped each item myself. However, I have noticed that Amazon prices while competitive seem to be inching up compared to some of the brick and mortar stores in my area.

So... I may not renew it come next year. Like many I will keep a list of inexpensive items I use so I can get past the minimum order amount to get free shipping. But, sometimes I can get these items cheaper at the brick-and-mortar store.

 

[Amethyst]

A number of things we've ordered came in 2 days, even without Prime. I ordered cooking spices from a company in Wisconsin. They arrived in 2 days via USPS.

Then there was the UBS cable for my smartphone, ordered through Amazon, which came from Shenzhen, China and took 6 weeks. (And didn't work as expected, either). To be fair, there was a terrible earthquake in Shenzhen during that time period.

We haven't bothered with Prime other than a one-month trial. I guess we subscribe to Senator's point of view: 3-5 days is way better than weeks and weeks with old-fashioned mail order.

Amethyst

 

[Alan]

We've been Prime members for 2 or 3 years now and signed up mainly for the free delivery, and we also use the streaming service quite a bit. I've never noticed or really cared whether the goods arrive in 2 days or 10 days.

The prime account is in my wife's name. In November I ordered a gift for my wife using my regular Amazon account so she wouldn't get the emails and see what I'd bought. To avoid shipping fees I added a picture calendar (National Parks) for $5 to get me over the limit. Last week she commented that our return trip cruise from England, November 5th, is going to be on a Thursday so we should have plenty of options for trains to get down to Southampton with it being a work day. (In 2013 we had to get from Scotland to Southampton on a Sunday which was impossible to do before the boarding deadline of 4pm).

I was sat at my PC and double-checked and noticed that November 5th is a Saturday. Another check of the calendar on the wall showed it was a 2015 calendar. No wonder it was only $5!! (I logged onto Amazon and confirmed that I had bought a 2015 calendar in November, 2015 - my mistake, not Amazon's)

 

[harley]

I was looking through a box of old books last year, and found a Buffy the Vampire Slayer calendar from 1998 and noticed it matched the days for 2015 perfectly. I just hung it up and used it. How's that for frugal?

 

[bizlady]

You have to watch carefully when you order. Amazon ships for vendors also, and an item can be listed as Prime for free shipping, but no 2 day.


Watch carefully when you order. BUT if an item does no arrive when promised, I contact them (using the link on the order detail page) and tell them politely that I am disappointed that as a prime member, I did not receive the item as promised. They have always extended a credit, ranging from the item is now free to a few dollars toward next purchase, or a month extension on the subscription. I have no qualms doing this, as I am paying annually for that service.

 

[dvalley]

Just saw this Want to get banned from shopping at Amazon? Do this - MarketWatch

I see a second online retailer to Amazon might benefit from all this negative publicity, I know I'm ready for a change...but there's no one else to my knowledge, is there?

 

[bizlady]

Just saw this Want to get banned from shopping at Amazon? Do this - MarketWatch

I see a second online retailer to Amazon might benefit from all this negative publicity, I know I'm ready for a change...but there's no one else to my knowledge, is there?

http://Jet.com Started by a former Amazon exec. Often cheaper, though Amazon seems to be matching more often. Free shipping at $35
Not nearly the same selection, but that is growing

 

[Accidental Retiree]

http://Jet.com Started by a former Amazon exec. Often cheaper, though Amazon seems to be matching more often. Free shipping at $35
Not nearly the same selection, but that is growing

I just noticed that Amazon's free shipping now requires a $49 minimum.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[panacea]

I love Amazon Prime. Rarely have a surprise... if it's going to be longer than 2 days, it'll say it's not Prime eligible before you check out. Maybe once or twice in several years has it been 3 days. I'm fine with that.

 

[Major Tom]

I'd quite like to be a Prime member, but don't think I buy enough things to make it worthwhile. I get nearly all of my groceries and supplies from local stores (all except one which are within a mile or two), and enjoy the regular bike rides there and back. If I were to order from Amazon, I don't think I'd save any money, and might even spend a bit more.

As for the non-consumable purchases (consumer electronics, shoes, etc etc), I either don't make them often enough, or Amazon doesn't represent sufficient savings over purchasing from local brick and mortar outlets, to justify a Prime membership.

OTOH, if they ever start offering drone delivery, I might have to sign up just for the novelty factor