I guess Prime's 2-day shipping is completely out the window.

I ordered Voltron the complete series this past Sunday (Prime eligible). It shipped on Tuesday and is scheduled to arrive on Saturday. I'm in no rush to get it, but Prime eligible and 6 days to arrive? I see it shipped from Georgia and I live in California.

I don't usually have problems with Amazon, they're generally pretty good to me. I have had a couple of issues in the past but this one really pissed me off. I ordered Doctor Who: Tom Baker: Season 3 on blu-ray on Prime Day because Amazon had it listed for $19.99 (down from almost $40), supposed to be brand new. I already have Seasons 1 & 7 so I wanted to add this while it was at a decent price. Seasons 1 & 7 are pristine, even have slipcovers. While I wasn't actually expecting it would have a slipcover, it would've been nice.

2 days later it arrives, rewrapped in shrinkwrap, wrinkled cover underneath the shrinkwrap, it looks used, abused, and rewrapped. At once I was pissed and went to Amazon to request an exchange. Found out I could only get the amount I paid for it off on my choice of alternatives. WTF!

Laid this aside, still in shrinkwrap, for several days stewing over it. Tried returning it for exchange a couple more times, same outcome. Finally decided to unwrap it, found the case was cracked (didn't see this while it was still in the shrinkwrap), the tabs that allow this to snap shut were broken, 5 of the 8 discs were loose from their holders.

Finally looked up Amazon's phone number, called, explained the problem I was having trying to exchange this, there was apparently nothing they could do over and above what I was being offered at the website, so I just requested a refund. Sent this back, the refund was issued, and I'm out my Doctor Who: Tom Baked: Season 3...

I returned 4 items in June. They were all in the same box. Amazon got it on the 13th of June. For some reason, they claim one of the items did not make it back to them and charged me for that item. I had to get a refund and issue resolved via chat.

Had some more points on my credit card so I used them to get an amazon e-gift card. I ordered ten CDs and eight of them had broken jewel cases. The other two were digipaks. I placed the order for all of them at the same time and even chose the option to have them delivered on the same day. The were shipped in 7 different white mailers.

That is rotten, rotten luck. I have got a number of dinged up jewel cases from Amazon in my day, but nothing that bad. I do believe Amazon uses sorting robots to mechanically pick up CDs out of their own inventory, though coming in separate mailers indicates they may have been fulfilled by one of the third parties Amazon uses for CD orders.

Does your credit card allow you to use the points to pay off the credit card balance?

When did Amazon raise the free shipping threshold? I don't shop with them that often so I'm just now noticing that it is now $35 for free shipping

Yeah, but I had already paid off the balance. I do so each month. I just recently realized I got points so I used them for amazon e-cards. And of course most of the items were late and damaged.

It’s still $25.

So the fine print on Amazon Warehouse looms large..
I bought a board game through Warehouse that was "like new". The fine print said it contained all "necessary" material and box/packaging might not be in like new condition.
(The game was 20 bucks through AW, retail is 35-40, so a decent savings.)
Well...The box top had a sort of 'vertical' cut through it - I don't even know how this is possible, it's like the box skinned its knee or something, the top layer of print was gone, leaving the bottom 'half' of the plain cardboard. Really weird damage.
Also, there was a big-ass 'You've helped save the world, thanks for buying Amazon Warehouse!' sticker on the box top, which appears to be pretty much superglued on.
And third, part of the game is drawing meeple pieces from a bag. The rulebook has a picture of the bag and it has the game's logo on it. There was no bag. It's debatable if the bag is truly a "required" component, but it kinda is. I have probably half a dozen little bags floating around so it wasn't game breaking but it was annoying.
The actual game components were complete and in pretty good shape, so that's good.

Not sure how I will feel about trying Warehouse again.

Not from what I am seeing. I have added various things to my cart and each time I do it's reminding me that I need x.xx for free shipping. Some items less than $25 and some more than that amount.

Awhile back I heard if you say, Alexa - thank my driver, they are supposed to get a $5 tip.
So, I usually do it if they appear to do a decent job and not throw it, and it actually gets delivered. I've asked a few drivers about it. Some had no idea about it. A couple seem to think they get a bonus at the end of the year.

But a couple of times lately, I've been getting texts from the drivers. It starts with, an amazon driver needs your assistance finding your address. Then, they put a message in there, reminding me to tell Alexa to thank your driver. And it usually ends up getting delivered before I see the text anyway.
So, I don't thank those ones.

I've gotten those texts before when they actually couldn't find the house. The #'s in here are kind of screwy.

I tested it yesterday and today, still $25:



If it had been increased to $35, you can bet there would be click-bait articles everywhere about it, and I don't see anything. The last articles I can find are when they lowered it from $35 to $25 back in 2017.

Not sure why you're seeing what you're seeing. Most likely, it's account-specific, item-specific, or location-specific. Instead of being logged into your account, have you tried with an Incognito session, to see what the shipping says then? Tried different items? Tried a different shipping zip code?

I just tried 10 random items in incognito mode. All required $35 for free shipping.

The Warehouse items can vary so much... from like slightly dented box to like someone opening it up and replacing the contents with a bootleg. I think it's luck of the draw, but definitely anything where I value an intact box I wouldn't risk it. It's not like they thoroughly go over every product and make sure everything is back there when someone returns it and they warehouse it.

The free shipping threshold for Amazon is definitely $25.

Every item I pulled up yesterday without being logged in said $35 for free shipping.

The easy answer to this is that the threshold is based on zip code. I'd imagine the amount increases if you're further away from a hub. $25 for me when I browse not logged in. I'm very close to a DC.

Very strange. They just opened a massive hub 20 minutes from me. There is another massive hub 2 hours away where most of my stuff goes thru. And there is the local delivery hub 25 min away. Can't get much closer than that.

So it, as usual, Amazon doing whatever the hell Amazon wants.

Ordered custom fit rubber floor mats for my car from Amazon... but I ordered the 'very good' condition ones from Amazon Warehouse to save about $50. The condition comment said something to the effect of, "no damage observed, comes in original box"
Well, the mats arrived and although the box was for the brand I bought, the mats inside were clearly one of those cheap-as-fuck knockoff brands that have tearaway sections.
Clearly, whoever bought the good mats just threw these shitty ones in and returned it as if it were the custom-fit ones. That sucks, but Amazon's own "inspection" should have caught it; it was plainly obvious that the mats did not match the box.
So now I have to return them by dropping the box off at the UPS store, and I have to figure out a replacement option.

Yeah, it does appear to be based on Zip Code.

I went to Amazon on the PC I'm using now (it's not linked to my account) and changed the "Deliver To" Zip Code at the top of the change and the free shipping changes from $25 to $35 depending on the Zip Code I enter.

I tried a bunch of local Zip Codes and it looks like they've increased the free shipping threshold to $35 for a lot of smaller towns/rural areas. But not all; a few are still at $25 so they might be on a route and less out of the way for their drivers.

Yeah changing the delivery zip code changes the shipping. I put in the zip code of the local Amazon distribution facility and the shipping drops to... free and not $25. Put in any other zip code next to the facility's zip code and it's $35. Again, Amazon doing whatever Amazon wants.

Yup. And just to expand on it - you bet they know their bottom line, the cost per cubic inch to process, price per mile to deliver, and how much of your Prime membership can be configured in, and an return based on how many days that product has been stocked since their own invoice payment date. They know, down to the penny, how much they will make when they sell a DVD or whatever.

... which is why shopping on Amazon with its daily stock-market pricing has become a fool's errand almost all of the time. You can't time the Amazon market, temporally or spatially. CamelCamelCamel used to help, still provides some baseline of analysis, but is so often out-of-date now as they can't keep track of all of those tons of prices changes for millions of items any longer.

95% of people don't care about the constant fluctuations, so Amazon's lure has them, and that's how Amazon makes tons of cash off impulsive people and their need for convenience. They've got it down to an exact science.

I ordered a couple of pair of Dockers from Amazon this week. One came nicely placed in an appropriate-sized pouch, the other pair came in a small book-sized box, rolled up into a ball and stuffed in there. WTF?