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localhostrulez · Thu Apr 30, 2015 4:44 pm

Yeah, for Alaska I can see this being a bit different (ie. prime not being 2 days). But I'm in Oregon in a major university town. Not in Portland or anything, but far from the middle of nowhere. And up until recently, it was pretty quick. Only thing is that my default address is my parents' house in California (I really should change the default), and I always change that - but the checkout page has me select the address before selecting the shipping.

Convert · Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:05 pm

Whenever it says "Want it by.." and it isn't followed by a specific shipping method, the default free prime shipping is always the guaranteed option. For me at least. I've asked them this on more than one occasion too. The only time this changes is if it is followed by "Choose x type of shipping at checkout". This occurs when I miss the shipping cutoff window. Also, if it's towards the end of the week (after cutoff on Thursday, within shipping time on Friday) it will say "Choose Saturday delivery" if I want it by the listed date. These are the only times I've only ever seen the Prime option not be the listed guarantee, which they made clear. Maybe it's correlated to the buyer's location and warehouse location? I get a couple packages a week minimum from Amazon using the prime option and every single time it correlates with the guaranteed date and I get it on time. I guess I've also seen this around holiday times where they know people will want gifts before a certain day so the guaranteed date isn't rolling but instead a day before/on the holiday in question and as you get close to the date the "Choose x type of shipping" keeps sliding towards 1 day.

Sucks they are taking their time to get the packages out the door, glad I haven't had that issue yet. I am also in Oregon and just about south as you can get so it's odd I'm not seeing the problem.

localhostrulez · Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:48 pm

I wonder where the nearest warehouses are anyway. Though you can't be more than a few hours from me (I'm in Corvallis, I'm guessing you're in Grants Pass or Ashland?), so that shouldn't change shipping times much.

At least with what I reported yesterday, it seems like their website is flat out broken/lying...

Note: I still haven't received a 'shipped' email on that hard drive. Yet they say it'll come tomorrow. I'll check the website when I get a chance...

Convert · Thu Apr 30, 2015 6:14 pm

Medford, so yeah you guessed right.

Here's some stats on the last few packages:

Package 1-
Shipped from Middletown DE through UPS, which means it goes to flies to Portland, drives to Roseburg and then drives to Medford. (arrived on time)

Package 2-
Bellevue WA via UPS, same trip pattern as above and arrived on time.

Package 3-
Pheonix AZ via FedEx, hits Oakland, flies to Portland and is driven to Medford direct and arrived on time. (FedEx follows this same kind of pattern where it hits Portland no matter where it's coming from and is driven down).

I have a 4th one this week that I just ordered earlier today so I don't have any tracking information for that yet. Looking back through last week's orders they all follow the same trend.

derFunkenstein · Fri May 01, 2015 8:24 am

localhostrulez wrote:
I wonder where the nearest warehouses are anyway. Though you can't be more than a few hours from me (I'm in Corvallis, I'm guessing you're in Grants Pass or Ashland?), so that shouldn't change shipping times much.

At least with what I reported yesterday, it seems like their website is flat out broken/lying...

Note: I still haven't received a 'shipped' email on that hard drive. Yet they say it'll come tomorrow. I'll check the website when I get a chance...

They likely sent the email shortly after you posted this because it just shipped yesterday and it'll arrive today. They intentionally delay actually shipping stuff so that way you don't get "overnight" service you didn't pay for.

localhostrulez · Fri May 01, 2015 2:37 pm

derFunkenstein wrote:
They likely sent the email shortly after you posted this because it just shipped yesterday and it'll arrive today. They intentionally delay actually shipping stuff so that way you don't get "overnight" service you didn't pay for.

Yeah, they did send the email a little while after I posted that. 18:00 or so.

That said, with BOTH items I've bought recently, they sold me shipping with a guaranteed date at checkout, and then changed it when I got the confirmation email. First one I actually paid for one-day shipping, and second one I did 2-day (prime), but they changed it to 1-day after I complained that they lied about the date. The first time they lied about the date (and I called them out on it), they got really defensive and tried to be unhelpful. Second time I had screenshots (showed the rep the same ones I posted here), and they were much more willing to cooperate. Still though, the fact is that they flat out sold me one thing and then switched it, as if I wouldn't notice (and granted, many people won't). Dishonest. If I paid for one thing (guaranteed arrival date) at checkout, I expect to get that, not something else.

Now, the odd thing with the hard drive. I'm in Corvallis, OR. The package shipped from an amazon fulfillment center in Hebron, KY. And oddly, the package inside that was a plain brown box shipped from Newnan, GA, with the HDD packed nicely in it, and with a label that said 'AMAZON ONLY' and ship to Amazon (in Sumner, WA). Yeah, what? The item was shipped to Amazon in Washington, they sent it around to Georgia for storage, and then sent it back out to Oregon when I ordered it? I could've sworn they have distribution centers closer to here. (And for the record, whenever I go to Seattle, I don't go through Georgia - that's one hell of a detour. :wink:

)

At any rate, I'm getting Prime shipping through my dad (family sharing). But if it were my own sub, I might be cancelling it right about now and going elsewhere...

Melvar · Fri May 01, 2015 3:05 pm

localhostrulez wrote:
At any rate, I'm getting Prime shipping through my dad (family sharing). But if it were my own sub, I might be cancelling it right about now and going elsewhere...

Does your dad have this same problem with Amazon?

curtisb · Fri May 01, 2015 3:36 pm

localhostrulez wrote:
derFunkenstein wrote:
They likely sent the email shortly after you posted this because it just shipped yesterday and it'll arrive today. They intentionally delay actually shipping stuff so that way you don't get "overnight" service you didn't pay for.

Yeah, they did send the email a little while after I posted that. 18:00 or so.

That said, with BOTH items I've bought recently, they sold me shipping with a guaranteed date at checkout, and then changed it when I got the confirmation email. First one I actually paid for one-day shipping, and second one I did 2-day (prime), but they changed it to 1-day after I complained that they lied about the date. The first time they lied about the date (and I called them out on it), they got really defensive and tried to be unhelpful. Second time I had screenshots (showed the rep the same ones I posted here), and they were much more willing to cooperate. Still though, the fact is that they flat out sold me one thing and then switched it, as if I wouldn't notice (and granted, many people won't). Dishonest. If I paid for one thing (guaranteed arrival date) at checkout, I expect to get that, not something else.

Now, the odd thing with the hard drive. I'm in Corvallis, OR. The package shipped from an amazon fulfillment center in Hebron, KY. And oddly, the package inside that was a plain brown box shipped from Newnan, GA, with the HDD packed nicely in it, and with a label that said 'AMAZON ONLY' and ship to Amazon (in Sumner, WA). Yeah, what? The item was shipped to Amazon in Washington, they sent it around to Georgia for storage, and then sent it back out to Oregon when I ordered it? I could've sworn they have distribution centers closer to here. (And for the record, whenever I go to Seattle, I don't go through Georgia - that's one hell of a detour. )

At any rate, I'm getting Prime shipping through my dad (family sharing). But if it were my own sub, I might be cancelling it right about now and going elsewhere...

The only time they're going to get defensive is if you're being a real jerk to them...and even then it takes a lot. If that wasn't the case then the support representative you dealt with likely didn't have a job for very long. They do give you the opportunity to do a survey after the chat. I'd be interested in seeing those chat transcripts.

I had an issue just yesterday where I ordered two Monster ScreenClean kits through Amazon, but sold by another reseller. I received a generic screen cleaner that smelled like Windex instead. I got on chat and they were very helpful...the issued a FULL refund for both products without requiring me to go through the hassle of a return (no, I do NOT have to return the product) or contacting the original seller. I've even had them adjust the price on a product I ordered that was over their 7-day price guarantee (it was within 30 days though). You can't ask for better customer service than that.

Initial Question: I ordered 2 x Monster TV CLNKIT Alcohol-Free ScreenClean Kit, sold by XXXXXXXX. The product I received was a generic "Screen Cleaning Liquid" that smells like Windex. The order # was 999-9999999-9999999.

04:25 PM PDT Amazon: Hello Curtis, my name is Xxxxxx. Thanks for contacting Amazon, I hope you're doing well! It will be a pleasure to assist you.
I'm really sorry though for any inconvenience this wrong item you received could've caused to you but don't worry that you've just reached the right Amazonian and I'll do whatever I can to help you out with this matter, you have my word!
Bear with me please while I get the best possible outcome.
04:25 PM PDT Curtis: Thanks. Please be aware that I did open one of the items before I realized it was the incorrect product (which is how I know it smells like Windex).
04:27 PM PDT Curtis: I also noticed on the XXXXXXXX comments that I'm not the only person this has happened to this week. Just FYI.
04:28 PM PDT Amazon: In this case Curtis it appears that the product is not sold by Amazon but I don't want you going through the hassle of having to contact the seller or waiting for a response.
If you prefer what we can do is process a full refund for the item without the need of a return, sounds good?
04:29 PM PDT Curtis: Yes, that would be amazing. Thank you!
04:29 PM PDT Amazon: It's a pleasure Curtis, bear with me while I work on this matter.
04:30 PM PDT Curtis: Of course.
04:33 PM PDT Amazon: All set and I've processed a refund for both which we can expect credited back in no more than 72 hours (24 usually) for your peace of mind. I don't know though if there would be any other thing I could gladly help you with today.
04:34 PM PDT Curtis: Thank you, I believe that takes care of the issue. Thank you again for taking care of this so promptly!
04:35 PM PDT Amazon: Hehe it's a pleasure, rest assured that at Amazon we'll always back you up! In this case then I hope you have a wonderful evening and thank you very much for choosing Amazon.com. If anything else happens don't hesitate to reach us again please .
You can now close the chat from where it says "end chat" at the top.
04:35 PM PDT Curtis: You have a good evening as well.

localhostrulez · Fri May 01, 2015 4:39 pm

Want transcripts? Sure.

The first time (amazon basics DVI/HDMI cable):

Initial Question: Hi. I ordered a cable on Sunday and paid extra for 1 day shipping on top of the usual Prime sub I have (it said 'Want this on Tuesday? Get 1 day shipping' or something like that). Then, I found that the item says it'll be arriving by Wednesday. In that case, what did I pay extra for?
10:56 AM PDT Rep(Amazon): Hello, my name is Rep. I'm here to help you today.
10:57 AM PDT Me: Order #xxxxx
10:59 AM PDT Me: Hello?
10:59 AM PDT Rep: 
Can you please allow me a moment while I am checking it for you?
10:59 AM PDT Me: Sure.
11:03 AM PDT Rep: Thanks for the waiting Brian.
11:05 AM PDT Rep: If an item isn't readily available, selecting One-Day or Two-Day Shipping will reduce the transit time to one or two business days after we've shipped your order, but won't impact how long it takes us to obtain the item or prepare it for shipment.
But please do not worry Brian, you will receive your order on time. 
11:05 AM PDT Me: On time meaning what was advertised when I placed the order (and paid extra for), or on time meaning what the email said (which isn't what I paid extra for)?
11:08 AM PDT Me: Hmm, OK, now that page shows that it will take an extra 1-2 days to process, and says no note about using 2 or 1 day shipping to get it sooner. Which basically implies that I paid extra for a service (getting the item faster) that amazon is unable to actually fulfill in this case, and thus I am not receiving.
11:09 AM PDT Rep: You have placed your order on Sunday, April 19, 2015 and we have provided you delivery date of Wednesday, April 22, 2015 
11:10 AM PDT Me: And when I placed the order, it said that if I want it Tuesday, I could get 1 day shipping. Which I did.
Thus, I expect the item to be arriving on Tuesday.
11:11 AM PDT Me: I was not told of any such delays when I placed the order through the website.
11:11 AM PDT Rep: Okay. No worries.
11:12 AM PDT Rep: I am contacting the carrier and insist then to deliver your order on Tuesday.
Is this fine?
11:12 AM PDT Me: Is this a carrier thing, or an amazon thing? The item hasn't been shipped yet.
11:13 AM PDT Me: If the item hasn't been shipped (sent to the carrier) in the first place, there's nothing the carrier can do.
11:16 AM PDT Rep: Please do not worry Brian. I have checked and this order will enter shipping stage within few hours. I have forwarded your concern regarding this.
11:17 AM PDT Rep: Also I have forwarded your details to the carrier regarding this order . They will deliver it by Tuesday as you need it urgently.
Would it work for you?
11:18 AM PDT Me: Again, this is NOT a carrier issue. A carrier cannot ship an item if they haven't received it yet. It's physically impossible for them to send me the item when they don't have it. At any rate, if this item is actually arriving on Tuesday, then yes, that works for me.
11:19 AM PDT Rep: Brian, I am not saying that the item is with the carrier. I am talking about after this item enters the shipping process .
11:20 AM PDT Rep: And it will enter shipping stage today only and then carrier have to deliver it by Tuesday. So I have added notes for them initially.
11:21 AM PDT Me: Yes. And I have no reason to believe the carrier is at fault here, and every reason to believe Amazon is at fault. Amazon sold me 1-day shipping and told me it would arrive on Tuesday when the order was placed through the website, and then gave me a delivery estimate of Wednesday. As far as I'm concerned, the carrier is being paid for one-day shipping, and there is no reason to believe they can't do that. There is no point in further expediting the issue with them.
11:22 AM PDT Me: If the issue will be shipped today, there's no reason to assume that the carrier won't get it delivered tomorrow regardless. Hence, the initial email sent from amazon saying it would be delivered on Wednesday is just a glitch of sorts on amazon's part.
11:24 AM PDT Rep: Please do not worry Brian. I am refunding your shipping charges for this order.
Is this fine now?
11:24 AM PDT Me: OK sure, that works. Thank you.

And the hard drive that I ordered a few days ago (and got earlier today):

Initial Question: Hi. I just ordered a hard drive here. At checkout, I was told "Guaranteed delivery date: May 2, 2015 if you order in the next 17 hours and 39 minutes." FREE two-day shipping, get it Saturday May 2. (I have prime.) I checked out, picking 2-day, and a moment later got my delivery confirmation - which says estimated delivery date Monday May 2nd, as does the account. What's up with this? I have screenshots.
09:00 PM PDT rep(Amazon): Hello, my name is rep. I'm here to help you today.
09:01 PM PDT rep: I understand your concern.
Are you referring to WD Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm Internal Hard Drive ?
09:01 PM PDT me: Yes.
See screenshots: http://i.imgur.com/wW4AHRR.png and http://i.imgur.com/pKeYNqq.png

Note: I shared these links with a friend, so I blurred the sensitive info. Point still stands though.
09:03 PM PDT rep: I understand your concern. In this case, I've updated the shipping to one day at no additional cost.
The order will be now delivered on May 1, 2015.
You can see the changes in the order page now.
09:04 PM PDT me: Yep, I can see it. Guaranteed by the 1st, Friday. Thanks!

Though one question, since I had this happen before with another item. In that case, I paid extra for one-day shipping, checkout said one thing, but the confirmation (and when I actually got it) was later. Is there some glitch in the website, or what?
09:06 PM PDT rep: Usually the date shown at the check out page will be final. In this case, I'll forward this issue to the technical team and the team will make correction.
I'm so sorry for the trouble.
09:07 PM PDT me: Yeah, I thought the checkout date was final - but in that case, the confirmation email that I got immediately afterwards said a day later. It does sound like a bug for the techs to look at. Strange.
Wait... is the amazon smile thing supposed to show when I look at the order? The confirmation (and checkout page) show it, but the order details on the website don't.
09:10 PM PDT rep: Yes, the Amazon smile log will be listed on the order page.
09:11 PM PDT me: Huh, I'm not seeing it now on that page. Unless I'm missing the obvious (wouldn't be the first time that's happened).
09:12 PM PDT rep: In this case, I'll forward this issue to the technical team and the team will get back to you with the details within 24-48 hours.
09:13 PM PDT me: OK, sounds good. I'm not worried about the 25 cents or so the charity would get as I am about the technical issues here.
Thanks!
09:15 PM PDT rep: I can assure you the charity amount will be issued correctly. 
09:15 PM PDT me: OK, good. Thanks!

Admittedly, I may have gotten a little too aggressive with the first rep. Though I like how he said yeah, he's contacting the carrier and insisting that the item be delivered on Tuesday. (For the record, that's what I paid for and what I was told at checkout. Which they then switched to Wednesday upon sending the confirmation. The item arrived on Wednesday - it only shipped late on Tuesday to begin with.)

Never had much of a problem with companies otherwise. (Aside from the usual customer service crap from Comcast - their service has actually been pretty reliable at my parents' house.) And that includes some RMA's I've had to do. Dell was pretty good about the Ultrasharp U3014 (save for mistyping my address). I also have an APC Backups 550 here that I'm currently in the process of RMA'ing, and so far they've been pretty good. First rep suggested that I do a full battery calibration (to be fair, I hadn't tried that) and to call back if that didn't fix it, it didn't, so I called back and they're sending me a replacement (with a repaid label to return the old one). Didn't give me a runaround or anything. Oh, how I love it when my university's surplus sells broken things cheaply (without checking the warranty).

Edit: Actually, I thought of one thing. A few years back, my dad ordered 2 Lenovo ThinkCentres for my grandparents (to replace their aging XP machines). When configuring them on the website, we noticed that a certain i5 was cheaper than the other CPU - Pentiums, i3's, i5's, and i7's. Strange, but OK. We ordered it with that option. I then happened to check the order on the website later, and it said our order was for Celerons. I went back to the online order config, looked at the code, and found that the display name was 'Intel Core i5 something', but in the HTML code, it said CELERON_SOMETHING for the element. Clearly a little copy/paste issue for what it displayed (to the user) on the website. He called them and argued with them, and they insisted that he ordered Celerons - and he said, no, you said i5's on the website when I ordered. They refused to give him what they sold him, so he cancelled the order and then hard to argue about a refund. He then bought them Macs...

To be frank, I'm OK with forgiving a one time thing like that, but when it's a pattern (as Amazon is starting to do to me now...). Plus, all the other issues I've had with Lenovo sent them to my blacklist. Driver issues (I'd like wifi, something that was becoming common even a decade ago, to actually work properly), Superfish, etc. Funny how Lenovo can't seem to get the drivers right on the Thinkpads I have (or at the least, it takes them quite a while after they release the product), while all the HP biz stuff I have seems to just work.

Oh, and since someone asked if my dad has had issues with amazon lately - he's been out of the country for a few weeks. Might be kinda hard to ship something to someone who's hopping all over Europe. :lol:

localhostrulez · Mon May 04, 2015 12:31 pm

OK, I really have to wonder what's up with them now... I ordered the MX200 on Saturday with 2-day prime, and yesterday, they said it as "shipping today". Still says that today. (And they've pulled that one before recently - saying they'd ship it today, then that date came and went and they didn't do it.) And they're pushing it out as far as they possibly can - 2 day shipping, but taking several days to prepare the order. Ughh... I've had random little sellers on ebay ship a good deal faster than this. Actually, I ordered another little thing on ebay on Saturday, and it's already showing up today according to tracking. Without expedited shipping. Amazon, meanwhile, hasn't even tried to ship the item. What the hell amazon? Makes me wonder if they're understaffed, and they have a backlog of orders that keeps growing and growing. Since everything seems to be slowing down, not just expedited stuff. (I've paid for one-day and still had them sit on it for days.) Looks like I'll be taking my business elsewhere in the future.

I also found some discussion threads on amazon's own website about this. Ex. http://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon%20di ... 3GAMTCMDJ9 and http://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon%20di ... WN61JJHOM2

I should've ordered that SSD from the 'egg with free shipping on Saturday... probably would've arrived the same time anyways (without the prime sub), since they'd be shipping from SoCal to Oregon.

Welch · Tue May 05, 2015 4:48 pm

It cost me 1/2 of the cost of shipping to order from Newegg, which isn't terrible but sort of sucks. Most of the time it means if I'm ok with waiting on something I order from Amazon because it will always be cheaper (no shipping costs). However, every single order from Newegg arrives before the Amazon order, hands down. I'm still a bit sad to see this trend.

SO, the order of stuff I was talking about which was placed on the 23rd of April, arrived yesterday (5/4/2015).... that is more than 3-7 days when talking shipping, as it took them the better part of a week (6 days) to get it to the carrier and then another 4-5 days to get it to me... How pathetic. No adverse weather along the way or here either.

When I got the package (yes one package) I was a bit peeved because I SPECIFICALLY set each package to ship individually. They took it upon themselves to ship it in a single package which I'm sure is why they took so long to get it out the door, they were waiting for stuff.

Here is everything they placed in a single package.

CANAKit Raspberry Pi 2 Starter Kit
A Digital Caliper (Mechanical uses)
Feeler Gauge (Mechanical uses)
Asus UX305 Ultrabook
Logitech MK520 Keyboard
2TB Slim External HDD
Case for the external HDD

The only thing that WAS NOT in this was an Asus 22" monitor that was order at the same time. These instead ship out by themselves in their original box with no additional packaging. The box all of those items came in was just barely enough to fit them all in with only a small amount of brown packing paper inside. As a result the box that the digital caliper came in was broken, shattered the whole side. Granted, the box is made of some of the cheapest plastic that China has to offer.

I spoke to Amazon just to let them know how disappointed I was with the speed, the not shipping out forever, the broken and terrible packaging, ect. The guy luckily enough was from America and not somewhere else so he completely understood where I was coming from instead of me trying to get sympathy from someone in Bangladesh who doesn't care about my first world problems lol. I wasn't looking for anything in return, just hoping they would note my account so that I could avoid any future BS like this. He gave my account a $30 credit and extended my Prime membership out by 1 month, which was really nice. I didn't call to ask for any refunds or anything so it is good to know that they are willing to try and fix things by offering it without asking. Still, I'd like to think that this was a fluke and they are simply understaffed and will be getting their act together sooner than later... Here is to hoping.

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