Superdaddy

Okay, here I am on amazon trying to place an order with my Prime account. Both items are in stock; I am on the final page before placing the order (the one which includes the delivery date estimates).

It says one-day shipping would have the items to me tomorrow (Friday, 7/6), and two-day shipping (Prime) will have them to me Tuesday 7/10.

If one-day shipping gets them to me tomorrow 7/6, shouldn't two-day delivery be Monday 7/9?

Fourth of July is over; is July 9 some obscure holiday I've forgotten about that affects shipping?

Superdaddy

Follow-up: I sent customer service an e-mail (and placed the order).

Their response:

"Greetings from Amazon.com.

"I am sorry for any misunderstanding regarding the shipping methods.

"Please note, upgrading to One-Day Delivery does not necessarily mean
you will get your order the next day."

NOTE: In this case it should though, because it says on the product page: "Want it delivered Friday, July 6? Order it in the next 13 hours and 51 minutes, and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout?" If I were to pay for one-day shipping, and I don't get it by the estimated date (whether it be tomorrow or any other day), I'd have a big problem with that.

"For most items, however, selecting One-Day or Two-Day Delivery does
not change how long it takes us to obtain items and prepare them for
shipment; it only reduces the travel time after the order leaves our
fulfillment center."

Of course, they're not telling me anything I don't already know here; this wasn't my question. I e-mailed again to be more explicit...namely, why they will apparently hold my Prime order for shipment via two-day carrier until tomorrow, but if I upgrade to one-day shipping, the order will apparently go out today.

I wouldn't even be wasting their time (or yours) with this if it weren't unusual. I've placed dozens of orders with my Prime account and have never seen different shipping dates for in-stock items depending on whether you upgrade to one-day shipping or not.

JB7

I would give them a call. Talk to a real person. Its really the only way to actually get the answer to your question with Amazon. Email just doesn't work ever.

Superdaddy

Thanks; I may have to do that. I usually have pretty good luck with their e-mail responses, but not today. I sent them a second e-mail and got essentially the same answer. A third e-mail, thus far, has not been answered at all.

What I'm getting at by posting this is that I hope I haven't stumbled onto some sort of policy change by amazon regarding their prime shipping. With my Prime account, I enjoy placing orders early in the day because I notice that when I do so, in-stock items usually ship out that same evening. I am sure others with Prime have noticed the same thing.

When I placed this most recent order, a shipping date of tomorrow (7/6) is showing for prime shipment but had I upgraded to one-day, the check-out page showed the shipping date as today (7/5) instead.

To my way of thinking, there's no reason to hold back an in-stock item an extra day when someone is already paying the Prime membership fee. They haven't done this on any previous order of mine, and I'll be watching to see if they do it this time.

Edit: Just checked my account and there's some weird crap going on over at amazon. Found three items in my cart that I never put there. Furthermore, it says that I put them in the cart two days ago. My cart was empty when I placed my last order early this morning. I don't see any fraudulent orders on my account, so I guess it hasn't been compromised.

Also, I did another test to see about the shipping date inconsistencies by putting another item in my cart and seeing what shipping dates would be predicted when two-day and one-day shipping were selected. Two-day predicted tomorrow as shipping date; one-day predicted both shipping AND arrival as tomorrow 7/6 (highly unlikely).

I'm hoping that these are just hiccups in the site. Anyway, keep your eyes on your accounts, folks.

Wildo1966

I am also a member of Amazon Prime, I was always under the impression that an item you are interested in will say "get it tomorrow" if you order in the next XX hours. Those items I thought you could get next day after you ordered. Then there are some items that say the time to ship is a bit longer, those I always assumed you may or may not get immediately. I am quite impatient when I order so I usually pay the 3.99 extra and get next day delivery..I hope this helps...

Superdaddy

Exactly. If it's in-stock, one-day delivery usually gets me a shipping estimate of the next business day, and delivery ONE business day after that. Two-day delivery gets me a shipping estimate of the next business day, with delivery projected for TWO business days after that. This is not what I'm seeing on my account now. I'm seeing two different shipping dates for in-stock items, which is bizarre and has not happened before.

Of course, if the item is not in stock, or has a longer shipping window, then your shipping estimate will be further in the future and your delivery will be either one or two business days from whenever it ships out.

Superdaddy

Okay, I just checked my e-mail and situation resolved.

The final response:

"Hello from Amazon.com.

"I am very sorry for the mixed messages you are getting on our web
site and that our previous messages have not appropriately answered
your question.

"I have researched your inquiry and agree that if the items are in
stock, they should ship today regardless of whether you choose Two-
Day or One-Day shipping.

"I feel that this is a technical error on our web site and that if
you placed an order for items that are in-stock and are ordered
within the timeframe specified on our site to have them shipped
today, they should still ship today.

"I will watch over your account throughout the day and if you do
choose to place an order, I will monitor the order to make sure it
does enter the shipping process today if the items are ordered
during the eligible time to ship today.

"Please let us know if situations like this continue to happen.

"Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com."

I would like to close by saying that this is the first "glitch" I have seen in over a year as a Prime member (first on a free trial, then as a paying subscriber). Amazon typically never fails to get my orders out fast, and they always arrive within the predicted time frame. ALWAYS. My wife and I have been very pleased with the service and feel it is one of the luxuries we really enjoy.

I tip my hat to customer service for resolving this in a very satisfactory manner.

Jah-Wren Ryel

FWIW, they didn't resolve it, or at least didn't say they were doing anything about it.

The CSR identified it as a glitch with their website, but didn't say if he had informed anyone who might actually correct the problem in the future versus just giving your account a little personal watching over for one day only.