Amazon shipping

[Dave Lehnert]

Don’t get me wrong, I love ordering from Amazon. But I have a beef with shipping. Yes! I’m cheap so I use the free shipping. But what gets me is the delay is not in the shipping but how long it takes for them to fill your order. I live close to one of Amazon warehouse. Once the item ships I have it in a day or two with the free shipping. It’s just like they say “look at this cheap woodworker, wont pay for shipping” so they just let my order sit on the dock for a few days to get me to pay for 2nd day or something. I’ll pay for faster shipping but not to get the warehouse worker to walk back sooner to get my item.

Is it only me????

[Mike Heidrick]

It may be your local warehouse maybe? I have had super fast response even from the free shipping. I now have the Prime membership but even before that it was super fast.

Do you pay tax on amazon orders since the warehouse is close?

[Corey Hallagan]

My personal experience is it hasn't seemed to make much difference if I paid or got free shipping, if it is in stock I get it usually in usually within a week. Often, they will send an email saying the item is backordered, and then it shows up 2 days later, the day the item is received... I get an email saying that the item has shipped. I don't have any beefs with Amazon at this point myself.

Corey

[Mike Henderson]

I almost never pay for shipping with Amazon so I don't have a good frame of reference for how quickly they ship paid (shipping) orders. But it does seem to me that they take a long time to ship the item.

I figure they have to do something to encourage people to pay for shipping so I accept the delay. If I really need something fast, I'll pay for two day shipping.

Mike

[Dave Lehnert]

It may be your local warehouse maybe? I have had super fast response even from the free shipping. I now have the Prime membership but even before that it was super fast.

Do you pay tax on amazon orders since the warehouse is close?

No on sales tax. I am across the river in Ohio. They are in KY.

I once ordered an Incra miter gauge late in the afternoon. The item was on back order and said it will ship in 3 weeks or something like that. Somehow it showed up FedEx by 10am the next day. (Free shipping) wonder how fast if I would have paid for faster service LOL!!!!

[Craig D Peltier]

I have read somewhere that you can pay a membership type fee for like $80 for 2 day shipping free for a whole year.Something im going to look into.

[Dave Lehnert]

I have read somewhere that you can pay a membership type fee for like $80 for 2 day shipping free for a whole year.Something im going to look into.
Anyone know if it’s two day shipping from the time I place an order or two days from the time they get around to picking my order???? To me Shipping is transporting the product. Handling is picking and packing my order. They say nothing about handling.

[Steven Triggs]

But what gets me is the delay is not in the shipping but how long it takes for them to fill your order.


Anyone know if it’s two day shipping from the time I place an order or two days from the time they get around to picking my order?

When I have used the free shipping, sometimes my orders have shipped right away, and sometimes they have waited several days. Obivously I don't actually know what Amazon's approach is, but I would guess that in order to make certain the paid shipping orders go out on time, the free shipping orders are given very low priority. As a result, sometimes they go out quickly, and sometimes they get delayed.

The membership service is called "Amazon Prime." It applies to items that are sold by amazon, not third parties (the same items that would qualify for the free shipping). In my experience with it, they ship the items VERY quickly. If you'll notice, some items say in green "order by X:XX p.m. and receive your order tomorrow." With Amazon Prime, these items ship the day you order them and arrive two days later. In other words, an item ordered on Monday morning would ship Monday evening and arrive on Wednesday. I have never paid for the Amazon prime membership, but a few times they have offered a one month trial and I've used it. Also, if you are in a big hurry, as an Amazon Prime member you can pay $3.99 per item to upgrade to 1 day shipping, to have the item the day after you order it.

Hope this helps...

[Denny Rice]

I went to purchase a benchtop mortiser about 6 months ago (made my mind up I wanted the Delta) and Amazon had the best price and free shipping to boot. The screen on my computer said they were "in stock". The next couple of days went by and I never received a shipping statement from Amazon, so I called. When I did I was told the order had not been processed yet due to being "out of stock" it would be another 2 weeks before they would ship. Cancelled order while on phone--went to www.woodworker.com (http://www.woodworker.com) placed order for Steel City benchtop mortiser and have never been happier, and oh yea got it w/free shipping too.:)

[Tim Morton]

Go for the "prime"....its a one time hit and for a year you get free 2 day shipping and things ship out generally the same day you order them. I use it all the time.

[Don Bullock]

When I have used the free shipping, sometimes my orders have shipped right away, and sometimes they have waited several days. Obivously I don't actually know what Amazon's approach is, but I would guess that in order to make certain the paid shipping orders go out on time, the free shipping orders are given very low priority. As a result, sometimes they go out quickly, and sometimes they get delayed....

I agree with Steven. Since I don't buy enough items to think that "Prime" is a good idea, I always use "free shipping." It seems to be "hit and miss" as to how fast things ship. I thing that the free shipping items get shoved to an area of the shipping department where they sit and wait for "time" to get them out. Everything else is shipped "same day." Most items arrive long before they would have if I had bought them at another vendor and paid for shipping. That's one of the reasons I use Amazon.

[Dave Avery]

You get what you pay for.......... as Tim said, Prime for $80 per year means that you get EVERYTHING 2-3 days after placing the order.

[Matt Meiser]

They must use voodoo or something to figure out when to ship. Most of my stuff also ships from Lexington, KY. I don't buy from Amazon that much, but when I do I usually do free shipping unless work is paying the bill and it always seems to ship quick. I'm only 1-2 UPS days from Lexington. I tried a free trial of Amazon Prime and it was nice, but I only used it once and couldn't justify the cost. If you buy a lot from them I can definitely see it being a good deal.

A related question--when did they drop the free shipping on large tools? I probably would have bought a Delta drill press from them if they still had it. However with their ridiculous (compared to Grizzly) shipping it was the same price to buy local. And then if I was going to spend that much I figured I should just spend a little more and get an even better one :rolleyes: :D

[Wes Bischel]

I read somewhere that one logistics method used by large online retailers is to have a number of trailers at the docks designated for specific shipping areas (based on regional distribution centers of the shipping agent) - when the trailer is full, then it gets picked up and taken directly to that distribution center closest to the final address. Just one more way they can cut costs by shipping in "bulk" and avoiding multiple DC's.
So if your order is the first one on the trailer, it sits for a few days. If it is the last one on, it leaves quickly.
How accurate this is, I cannot say, but it makes some sense.
FWIW,
Wes

[Nancy Laird]

Cancelled order while on phone--went to www.woodworker.com (http://www.woodworker.com) placed order for Steel City benchtop mortiser and have never been happier, and oh yea got it w/free shipping too.:)

Good for you, Denny! You got a better mortiser than the Delta!!!

Nancy (134 days)

[Tom DiBiasio]

It really is just hit and miss - I placed an order last night at 8:37 pm after struggling to find an another item to push the total over $25, and received a shipment notice before I came to work today. My expierence has been 3-5 business days in the past, however I did notice this time they are shipping the items USPS so that may explain some of the discrepencies in shipping delays

[Steve Clardy]

I have the amazon prime also.
2-3 days max usually.
If I get something within a week I'm happy ;)

[Jim Becker]

Professor Dr. SWMBO and I order so much from Amazon that the Prime memberhsip was totally a no-brainer...and the "girlie-girls" get their Bollywood DVDs quicker... :D

The deal at Amazon's new Endless.com shoe store is even better...they pay YOU $5 for overnight shipping.... :)

[Randal Stevenson]

Professor Dr. SWMBO and I order so much from Amazon that the Prime memberhsip was totally a no-brainer...and the "girlie-girls" get their Bollywood DVDs quicker... :D

The deal at Amazon's new Endless.com shoe store is even better...they pay YOU $5 for overnight shipping.... :)

Jim you just raised a question from me, I've looked at ordering from Amazon UK before, but don't know all the ins and outs (some music not available here). When your refering to Bollywood, are you refering to it in the typical (India) sense, or was it a typo?
It be nice to know that prime allowed overseas shipping or not.

[Jim Becker]

Randell, Bollywood in the literal sense relative to the material...my girls love the musical/dance movies, especially those by Ashawaya Rai. Everything we order ships from and to the US. AmazonUK's policies may be different...but I suspect that whatever you can order is specific to your region including music and DVD movies. If you are in the UK, your video format is different, but even then, the movies are coded and most players restrict playback to material coded with the correct regional setting. (Region one for the US, for example)

[Randal Stevenson]

Thanks Jim,

No Missouri is my local. While DVD's are region coded, there are ways around that (even cheap players from Wallyworld) and I use an OS that caused the DVD dcma ruckus (Linux, no purchasable, legal dvd player). Music was my interest. Those stores that have the "import" catalogs, aren't actually imports in most cases. Kinda like legalese, it makes you want to slap somebody in the back of the head, for not using the language in a clear and understandable way. (found out when I tried to order an import from Germany, finally found here over three years later).

[Bob Childress]

This is actually a very complex topic, but in general it likely works this way. The orders are typically picked in "waves," of say 500 at a time released to the warehouse floor. They will want to pick the Prime and Paid for Shipping orders first, as a matter of policy, so they will be released first. If there are not 500 Paid orders available for the wave, they will fill in with the oldest Free Shipping orders to reach 500. If there are more than 500, your Free Shipping order sits until the next wave is released. Say they release a wave to the floor every hour (hypothetically), during that hour new Shipping Paid orders are accumulating, so for the next wave it is a crapshoot once again.

But their software will have an "ageing" checker that will push your Free Shipping order into a wave if it is such-and-such old (maybe 2-3 days). So you are not delayed forever, and you may get lucky, depending on when your order hits. An oversimplification, but pretty much how it probably works. Hope this makes some sense. :)

[Bruce Wrenn]

I only use the free shipping, and get most things on the third day following order. What I really hate is when they say shipped, and it means that they have notified carrier to come by and pick up item. With USPS, I usually have item in hand befroe tracking shows it in hub at Greensboro. I love what my bank does with checks, for a princely sum, they include a tracking # (USPS). Don't fall for that one. It only tells you where your checks were before they lost them. Arrive with standard shipping in two days. How much quicker can the shipping be? This past week US Airways lost two, (TWO) children on a flight from west coast to RDU. Supposed to have someone from airline meet them at connecting point, but didn't. Flight manifest showed them on plane, but when they called their dad, they were stranded in the airport.

[Andrew Williams]

I just placed an order on Amazon with super saver shipping, and when I placed it the estimates were a week to 10 days. The system now says the estimate for shipping date is sometime in mid October! Is that normal with this thing?