Amazon.com, the world’s most popular on-line retailer has unveiled a new subscription service known as “Amazon Prime”. For just $79 a year Amazon.com is offering free two day shipping on all of your orders (except those which Amazon deems ineligible for the service). Sounds like a pretty good idea right? Especially if you make a lot of Amazon.com purchases. I’m certainly behind businesses trying to find that new competitive edge it takes to stay on top. Ordinarily I would just see something like Amazon Prime as a nice piece of new business strategy. The one problem is now that Prime is out Amazon is blackmailing users into using it.
You see recently my wife and I put in an order to Amazon.com for a guide book we wanted for a trip to Europe. We’re leaving in three weeks, so we wanted to be sure we’d get it on time. The book was in stock and was eligible for Free Shipping, with a listed shipping time of 3-5 days. We purchased it and checked out with no problems, all very routine. Imagine our surprise that evening when we got an e-mail estimating the delivery date at three weeks. We decided to call Amazon to see what the issue was. Maybe the guide was out of stock and their system had been incorrect? No problem there we’d just select another one, so we dialed in prepared to switch our order. The explanation we got blew our minds.
Evidently in the Amazon terms of service they have the right to hold your items for later shipping, and the 3-5 days is just the time it takes from leaving the warehouse. We’d never had this kind of delay before so we were a bit surprised, was there a problem? No. Amazon is just trying to get folks to sign up for Amazon Prime (which we were offered an upgrade to, one month free trial). In fact if we upgraded today our book would ship immediately.
How sneaky and dishonest! All of my respect for Amazon.com has just been flushed down the drain. We bit the bullet and upgraded, not to prime, but two day delivery as we couldn’t chance it with the guide given our travel date, but we will be thinking long and hard before buying from Amazon.com again in their future. Their sneaky little game may have just cost them two customers.
-Angry Midwesterner
June 20, 2009 at 9:02 am
3 weeks, i thought 5 days.
June 20, 2009 at 11:56 am
Whoah that is kinda expensive. I don’t think it’s a worth, you know..
June 22, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Amazon Prime is not a new service. I believe it has been out for well over a year. It must not be having nearly the success that Mr. Bezos and company would like. However, my experiences with ordering from Amazon are such as to not use the Free Super Saver Shipping if I need the product soon, as it tends to always take the maximum number of days listed between order and delivery.
June 29, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I signed up for Amazon Prime. If it worked the way it’s marketed, and if you buy enough stuff to make up for the $79, then it’s a good deal (except for the tons of things that aren’t eligible for Prime).
But, here’s what happened to me today. It’s Monday today. On Saturday I ordered two books eligible for Prime. When I got the order confirmation, it said they would be delivered 7/3 – 5 days later, not the 2 they promised.
I called Amazon and they said that’s because the books aren’t available in a nearby fulfillment center, so they’re claiming to be shipping them on 7/1 from some far away center but since 7/3 meets the two day promise, they’re living up to their promise, so they say.
But here’s the real stinker – I can’t cancel my order because it’s already in process. Huh, they just said they weren’t shipping it til 7/1, two days from now.
What they’re really doing is shipping it now (thus not cancellable) but claiming not to ship it until 7/1 – all this so that they don’t have to pay for the extra cost of making it here in two days from a more distant location.
The rep on the phone says, we don’t call it a “two day fulfillment” guarantee; we call it a “two day from date of shipping” guarantee. She then said that I could order something and not receive it until a month later, just so the shipping part was only two days, and that still fulfills their Prime promise.
I’m complaining to the local BBB. This is fraud, plain and simple.
July 22, 2009 at 8:35 am
Bill, anytime you order anything anywhere, the shipping method is independent of whether the item is in stock. You can’t expect an item to magically become “in stock” just because your shipping is free, or because you chose a fast shipping method.
As far as the original post… Shipping dates are spelled out for you on the order page BEFORE you pay, so it’s not as if Amazon is playing a bait and switch game. I’ve used Amazon’s standard free shipping many times and they are usually shipped within 2 days and arrive well within the estimated arrival time.
For saving around $5 per order, it’s your choice whether an extra few days is a tolerable tradeoff. It is a wonderful option for people who need to save money, not for people who need their items immediately. Why would you expect free shipping items to ship out lightning fast? Why would the warehouse fast-track free shipping items when plenty of other customers have paid to get their items by a certain date?
July 24, 2009 at 9:29 am
Thank you for your post. Let me state upfront that I love the Amazon Prime program. The reason that you were frustrated with your Amazon purchase is because you did not read the shipping information correctly. Your purchased and item using Amazon’s FREE Shipping Saver feature. These items do not ship in 3-5 days, that is the fulfillment time. The transit time is 5-9 days. Yes, I agree that this is a big shipping window, but it is (after all) free. I suspect that Amazon is able to offer this “optional” free shipping service because they group orders to the same region on the same trucks (thus the 3-5 day delay). You do have the option to “pay” for faster shipping.
In short, your frustration with Amazon stems from the fact that you purchase and item with the FREE shipping offer, yet expected to receive it as if you had paid for an express service (such as Amazon prime).
September 23, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I found out about The Amazon Prime Scam Today … apparently I was paying them $79 annually for the last 3 years, they just gave me a refund for this year. Never got anything.. a invoice, nothing… And bought like 2 items from amazon!
November 11, 2009 at 9:33 am
i got a bank statement yesterday and noticed a payment to Amazon Prime for £49.50. I’d never heard of Amazon Prime so didn’t know what i was paying for. Turns out I must have clicked on something about this and it had subscribed me to Prime 2 months ago, although I recieved no information about it and didn’t have to enter my card details. When I called Amazon.co.uk today they said they couldn’t refund the £49.50 because i’d purchased a Psychology textbook for college since subscribing. So basically i was paying £49.50 for the delivery of a £15 textbook! After about 30 minutes discussion with Amazon I managed to get them to cancel my subscription and refund the majority of the money. I don’t understand how I signed up for this and am disgusted that Amazon would scam people in such a way. As a 17yr old student I don’t have this kind of money to throw away!
November 16, 2009 at 10:23 am
Try paying attention to what you’re doing next time. It’s not like it just slips in there. It’s an opt-in service, so you agreed to it somewhere along the line.
November 20, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I like the amazon prime but think it is little expensive for me since i don’t buy very frequently from amazon.
I hate amazon’s policy that “free super saving” will take extra 5-9 days to ship. Usually they ship it in 2-3 days. Yesterday i ordered a $40 book from amazon and it told me that estimated arrival will be 10-15 days. I looked up the same book at Barnes and Noble and they have priced it online at same exact price and with free 3 day expedited shipping. I immediately can celled my order from amazon and ordered from bn.com. Lesson for me is that i won’t buy from amazon with my eyes shut but look elsewhere too.