Amazon's New Dispute Policy

[Gary Ragatz]

My experience was around five years ago. Nothing even left the warehouse for three to five days. I don't think it was coincidence that thousands of other people were reporting the same experience with Amazon at the time. I have had Prime through a household account for four or five years now so I haven't tested a non-Prime order recently.

It only makes sense that Amazon would slow down non-Prime orders. Why would anyone pay for Prime if you could get the same level of service without Prime?

Well, it's not exactly the same level of service - my short delivery times are not "guaranteed," and I have to meet some minimum order size ($25, I think) to qualify for free "standard" delivery.

I've always assumed that Prime membership was for people who, for whatever reason, want to be able to place frequent small orders on short notice. This is not me. I rarely order anything from Amazon that is time-sensitive, and if I'm ordering something that comes in under the $25 limit, I rarely have a hard time finding a paperback book or two to get me over the minimum.

I have occasionally placed orders that don't ship until a few days after the order is placed. I think these are usually items that are being shipped by a third party seller, as opposed to stuff shipping from an Amazon warehouse.

And of course, if Amazon really wanted to be mercenary, they'd ship non-Prime items immediately (because that's when they charge my credit card) and let them sit someplace in-transit, before delivery.