How is Amazon with shipping preorders?

[Deftones]

Have 2 copies of Left 4 Dead on preorder with them. Game is released on 11/18. They tell me not to expect delivery until the 20th, even with Prime 2nd Day shipping. That can't be right. That means they aren't shipping the game until release date. This is the first preorder game I've had with Amazon so I'd like more info. I know things change quickly with them, but this seems ridiculous. If it remains the same, I'm canceling and going to buy local.

[toogood]

Have 2 copies of Left 4 Dead on preorder with them. Game is released on 11/18. They tell me not to expect delivery until the 20th, even with Prime 2nd Day shipping. That can't be right. That means they aren't shipping the game until release date. This is the first preorder game I've had with Amazon so I'd like more info. I know things change quickly with them, but this seems ridiculous. If it remains the same, I'm canceling and going to buy local.

Unless the item has "release date delivery", most items will ship on release date.

[SunMonkey]

My pre-order of the WoW expansion shipped after the release day. I thought I saw they were now pushing some "delivered on release day" shipping option for an extra fee.

[Deftones]

Well, that's pretty much bullshit. I know they get the games early, as do most retailers. Why they sit on it for a few days before when it could be delivered on the release date is ridiculous.

[fumanstan]

I wonder if it's just too much of a organizational jam to figure out release date delivery with all the different games and shipping methods out there and them wanting to avoid breaking street dates.

It's easy for a few big games, but I just assume they don't want to deal with the hassle of doing it for everything.

[Mok]

I use to get my games on release day or before. When they started that on release day crap, my games always showed up late.

[RocShemp]

I think they could easily ship it five days early for those that order a game with regular shipping and the day before for those who order a game with next day shipping. I think that'd be simple enough.

[fumanstan]

I think they could easily ship it five days early for those that order a game with regular shipping and the day before for those who order a game with next day shipping. I think that'd be simple enough.

Yeah, but then in some cases people would get games early, and then there's stuff like Amazon Prime with free 2 day so they would have to look at each person's shipping choice and adjust accordingly to do release day arrivals for each person.

It wouldn't surprise me if they got in trouble for early releases, since game publishers have been trying to be more stingy about that lately (even though we always see release dates broken)

[Kicker_of_Elves]

Heres my recent experience with pre-ordering GOW2 from Amazon.com:

Shipped 11/5, Gave me a Delivery Estimate of 11/12, Game arrived 11/8. I didn't have Prime 2nd Day, so i used the Free Shipping option.

I hope that helps.

[TheBigDave]

I have Amazon Prime. Got GOW2 on release date and COD5 the day after release.

[kms_md]

i usually use free shipping - the games (or DVDs for that matter) usually ship the day prior to release and i receive them within 2 days of release.

[Nth Power]

I have Prime and I ended up cancelling my last 2 pre-orders with Amazon (Fallout 3 and WoW: WotLK). Unless they would have shipped them with 1-day shipping, I would not have received them by release day. I ended up going to Best Buy instead.

[Raul3]

I preordered the Amazon exclusive Survival Edition of Fallout 3 since June or something like that. I received the game 2 days after release date.

They are better with movies, I preordered both Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E, and received Kung Fu Panda on Monday, was released on Sunday, and I'm going to receive Wall-E this Monday and its release date is Tuesday.

[kms_md]

fyi, my copy of left 4 dead shipped yesterday, and should be here by tuesday or wednesday.

[Mok]

Well my copy of left 4 dead is still stuck in shipping soon. That usually last for 2 days, so I should have it by thursday.

[ChrisHicks]

my copy of Left 4 Dead is "shipping soon" as well with a delivery estimate of Nov. 20.

[forsho01]

ever since i've used prime, i've received all big game releases (halo, cod, gears) on the day it releases. with other games i usually receive them the day after release.

[nickdawgy]

I received both Fable II and Fallout 3 on release day from Amazon.

[Deftones]

must be nice. still being "estimated" as being delivered on the 20th. 2 days after the game is released. ridiculous.

[redcat]

I've ordered a lot of video games from them, and for some weird reason, they often don't even show games in stock until a couple of days after release. With the truly huge titles they do a better job (both Resistance 2 and GOW 2 showed up on release day for me), but anything else is hit and miss.

[SuckaMC]

I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I got my copy of L4D yesterday. I was surprised to see that it shipped last friday. I guess I was lucky.

[Mok]

Well my copy shipped yesterday and according to tracking it's been stuck in Maryland and hasn't moved. Ugh.

[superfro]

must be nice. still being "estimated" as being delivered on the 20th. 2 days after the game is released. ridiculous.

They're telling me I'm getting mine on the 22nd. WTF?

Guess I'll be buying it today and returning the one I get in the mail this weekend. :(

[ChrisHicks]

I should add that I never get any game on release day via Amazon. I have had orders that will start the shipping process the Friday before release but they will never ship until Mon.

[fujishig]

Well, as far as Left 4 Dead, they set my initial expectations so low (originally said shipping the 24th) that I was overjoyed when I got a "shipped out" notice today.