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
The 12 Angry Men Blog 
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 14, 2010 at 11:31 am
I was looking at my current bank statement and noticed a fee to Amazon ref Amazon Prime for £49. I then checked my emails from Amazon – which I have kept over the years – and noticed an email in Sept 2009 which offered me free trial membership to Amazon Prime. The only other emails related to specific orders, order updates and delivery information.
I then visited the amazon website, signed on, went into Accounts, and found out I had been charged this year – october 2010 – for £49 and last year 1 november 2011 – for £47.97. However Amazon had on neither occasion sent me an email confirming these transactions. I was able to cancel the new membership fee of £49 because I had not benefitted from the Amazon Prime service since november 2010, but am not permitted to cancel the previous year’s membership because I had placed 6 orders with Amazon, amounting to a total of £32 i.e. less than the previous year’s membership, but because I had unwittingly “benefitted” from their membership, am not allowed to receive this fee back. I feel this is incredibly underhand.
I then clicked on to charge Talked to andrea on Sunday 14/11/10 to complain about having been charged for amazon prime membership on 31/10/09 without having any email saying that they . She says they will not cancel the membership fee of the previous year, because I had received benefits under their scheme.
I pointed out to Andrea that I never received emails from Amazon confirming that these membership payments would be made! And had overlooked the charge of £47.97 in my bank statement of October 2009.
Although my Amazon orders only amount to £32.73 they are insisting they cannot cancel my membership fee of £47.97!
The postal address for my complaints is
Corporate Office
Amazon.co.uk
Patriot Court
19 The Grove
Slough
Berks
SL1 1QP
UK
August 22, 2013 at 5:08 am
granted this is 4 years since your post – Absolute rubbish – its an opt out service. For the technical illiterate its a mean fudge at the least. I bet youll find loads of folks who hadnt realised they had sign up to it – granted that the clarity may not be available as that found in stores/shops but I strongly suspect this is being utilised.
Jim, stop drinking the Amazon kool-aid
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.
December 17, 2009 at 2:10 pm
The worst thing about the super saver shipping is that Amazon publishes the shipping deadlines to receive goods by Christmas. It was the last day for super saver shipping (the 17th for me) and before submitting my order is said the items wouldn’t even ship until the 22nd (all five items) then 5-7 business days. Well that’s fine but don’t make it sound like super saver will get it there by Christmas when ordered by that day when it will not. It is very deceptive.
When you make your big order enroll for the Prime membership at check out to get the two day shipping. Immediately after you place your order, go to to “Your Account” (top right) then “Manage Prime Membership” and then set it to not upgrade automatically. Better shipping without the cost. I only order about once a year for Christmas so that method is good for me.
I’ll see how it turns out.
January 1, 2010 at 6:08 am
Boo F***ing Hoo.. Waaaaaa
You chose the freebie shipping because you were being a cheapskate. Ofcourse the free shipping has a sucky Service Level Agreement… It’s FREE, what do you think you actually get something for nothing in this world? In the future, if you have something that’s time sensitive, use your angry midwestern brain and pick shipping that will meet YOUR needs. DUH
I use free shipping all the time on things that arent time sensitive and they always arrive when they arrive.
Your perpesctive is way off… This wasnt Amazons fault, they dont owe you anything, you wanted the super cheapie freebie. In fact, that’s the way the world works, you get what you pay for.
January 9, 2010 at 5:13 pm
If ya’ll would read how he explained it, he said it would ship immediately if he upgraded…which sounds like a lot of hooplah, since I know Amazon doesn’t make its money off shipping. I think they should have gone simple-like:Order, get put in line, ship
Or just a priority upgrade..I’ve seen Amazon’s shipping options, there’s like…5?6? There should just be one, at a variable rate-Not variable based on how long it’ll take to ship, but actual labor+shipping costs, instead of profist+labor+shippingcosts+moarprofit.
Also: I always knew Amazon’s shipping was a load of junk, pre-blog. Just buy stuff ahead of time.
February 10, 2010 at 11:20 am
Here’s my beef with Amazon’s shipping. I live in Dallas and there’s an Amazon distribution center about 10 miles away. I recently ordered a DVD on 2/7 and chose free super saver shipping. My order summary shows an estimated ship date of 2/16. That’s almost a week and a half from my order date….
Seriously, the item is in stock, so why punish me by making me wait an extra week, just because I chose free shipping? I can understand an extra day or 2, but a whole week is riduculous. It’s not time sensitive and I would rather wait and get the free shipping, but it just seems a little excessive. If I would have chosen the standard $5 shipping, it would have arrived within 2 days of my order.
February 10, 2010 at 2:35 pm
How do you know that your order is shipping from the Dallas distribution center? Amazon has a number of distribution centers and your item may or may not be located in Dallas.
I would think that what is important is that Amazon fulfills their obligation to get your order to you on (or before) that stated shipment date (based on what you paid for).
I guess I just don’t understand. If you need an order to arrive in 2 days, then you pay to ensure this delivery date. If you accept their offer for free shipping, then you really don’t have any legitimate right to complain about the speed of the shipping unless it arrives after the agreed upon date.
February 10, 2010 at 5:03 pm
I have yet to hear anyone complain about *actual* shipping times. Every complaint has been about the *estimated* shipping times. How do you expect Amazon to offer the lowest price online, AND always-available free shipping, AND *guarantee* it will be fast?
The operative word here is “guarantee.” I’ve used free shipping many times and the items have ALWAYS shipped sooner than the estimate. I can’t think of a single order (and there have been probably 100 over the years) that hasn’t shipped within 2 or 3 days, if the items were listed as “In Stock” direct from Amazon.
If you don’t want to risk receiving your item at the end of their predicted time frame, don’t use their free shipping. Or better yet, pay more to buy your item elsewhere.
April 20, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Yes yes yes. I’ve had years of wonderful service with Amazon and in the past 6 months it appears as though it’s crap shipping or pay for prime. Ordered on the 13, Shipped on the 19th! ( everything was in stock ), estimated delivery of the 26th.
I’m honestly not upset that it takes 5 days to ship since it is “free”, I’m upset that they are now holding the items hostage in the warehouse before shipping in order to push more people to prime memberships. Had I “upgraded” to prime I would have had them on the 15th. Make no mistake, it’s not that there was a backlog since from the first moment I placed the order it said that it would not even ship until the 19th and prominently placed upsell buttons on the order status page.
This is the last straw, while they might get an occasional order, I will not be placing regular orders in the future.
May 27, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I ordered three books I needed for summer reading from Amazon in hopes that it’d come quickly since I was leaving for a summer program soon and NEEDED those books with me. And now, instead of arriving in 5 days like I planned, they emailed me and told me that it would arrive…. On the day that I LEFT for my program.
And I can’t cancel my order now. And refunding is too much of a hassle for me. I guess I’ll bite my lip and hope that it ships before I leave anytime soon….
June 18, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Glad (sorry?) to see I’m not the only one who has noticed the change in Amazon.
Yes, they make it clear about the Super Saver shipping, however, until recently I could count on getting my order within the week.
I ordered a Father’s Day present last week, AFTER I placed the order it said it won’t get here until after FD. Wednesday morning I considered canceling and buying it locally, when I went back to my account an hour later, it said the order was being processed and could not be canceled. Three days later it’s still being processed, has not been shipped and I still can’t cancel. That is what has me mad at Amazon, and that is what will keep me from being the regular customer that I have been.
September 26, 2010 at 1:01 pm
I have noticed when ordering now Prime delivery dates are slipping, especially around the weekend.
Don’t cancel, do what I did click the button to prevent Amazon Prime renewing, at least that way you get the use out of it for the rest of your subscription.
I am going back to good old first class with royal mail, at least that way I don’t have to be in for the package if it is small enough to go through the letterbox. If it is too big then I pop to the sorting office or the closest post office.
For game I always use Play as they ship first class for free and are usually cheaper.
November 24, 2010 at 9:31 am
from what i can see..its cost to much money and takes to much time …i dont think it will work but good luck to them.
August 18, 2011 at 7:33 pm
I have definitely noticed Amazon playing games with intentional shipping delays when using their free shipping option. My latest purchase is MS Office 2010. In stock. They promise delivery in 2 days if we pay for their 1 day shipping option (24 hour fulfillment). However, my order placed 8/16/11 is not scheduled to even leave their warehouse until sometime between 8/22/11 and 8/25/11.
I can understand shipping time is longer for the free shipping option (3-5 days). However, I can’t excuse intentionally delaying shipment out of the warehouse when we choose their free shipping option. I am convinced the delay is not due to any bottlenecks in fulfillment, but is instead a deliberate and underhanded effort to discourage use of their free shipping option.
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December 5, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Old post but I’ll add my two cents. My mother-in-law has Prime. Apparently there’s some way you can share it with “household” members so there or 4 or 5 of us all getting the Prime shipping benefits on her account. Only the primary account holder MIL can access the streaming movies and TV though.
I’ve been using Prime through her for 2-3 years. It has largely always worked well. I can’t recall a specific time when items were significantly delay. Now and then I’ve was told that an Prime-eligible wouldn’t ship for a week or so only to receive it *before* the estimated delivery date. This has happened twice in recent months. I wouldn’t pay for this service myself because I’m cheap but I love having it.
August 19, 2013 at 12:56 pm
This is EXACTLY the issue Im having. I don’t order time sensitive items from amazon and I could care less if it takes a week for delivery! Its the fact that it does take them over a week to even ship the items. I’ve ordered items from other sellers on Amazon that offer free shipping and have had it shipped and delivered before Amazon feels the need to get the shipment out. It is like their holding it “hostage” to make you buy Prime. I had Prime for a year but it just isnt worth the money for what I use Amazon for.
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March 29, 2014 at 3:49 am
It is interesting to see that a number of people still have issues with this! Amazon were not prepared to rebate me a year’s annual prime membership fee of £50, even though I had not intentionally signed up for it!!!!
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August 20, 2014 at 7:36 am
Long time Amazon cutomer here. I am not a Prime member. I have always found Amazon to be very quick in shipping orders. Typically 1-3 day max. The actual time in shipment once it leaves Amazon depends on the mode & carrier but this is unrelated to the time Amazon uses to fulfill orders. Over the last 6 months (coinciding with Amazon’s blitz to promote Prime) there has been a dramatic delay in the time Amazon takes to actually ship orders. It is now 3-8 day. I beleive this is soley to motivate users into paying for Prime. (Blackmail if you will)
I have simply reduced the frequency and size of my Amazon orders as the total time to delivery now doesn’t always meet my needs. I’d rather support the brick & mortar shops and have it immediately without any processing or shipment delays. Sorry Jeff Bozo.
January 27, 2015 at 1:46 pm
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November 6, 2015 at 1:51 pm
Let me just say, I feel your pain and totally agree. We’ve been long time Amazon customers with Prime and without. Before we signed up for Prime, orders would always ship immediately and arrive in 3 days where we live. Always (as sure as the sun would rise it would be sitting on our porch). For years we did this without problems. We signed up for Prime and enjoyed the one day faster shipping – so much so that we did that for several years. Then the price got raised on us – we didn’t renew out of principle. We can afford the measly $20 more a year, but why should we? We we’re already spending thousands a year on their site – THEY should be thanking us for our business. But nope, that’s not enough anymore, because their marketing dept determined that they could get even MORE of our hard-earned money if they applied this strategy. We cancelled.
Subsequently, I recently bit the bullet and ordered one thing on their site which qualified for free shipping. 3 days later and they haven’t even shipped it yet let alone receiving it like old times. I searched online and of course everyone everywhere is saying the same thing. Amazon has clearly changed their shipping in order to artificially add value to their once free service. I agree 100% that this is dishonest, and trust me when I say I will NEVER buy from Amazon.com again.
Even though they’ve lost our money on this, I’m sure they stand to make billions off of everyone else who just doesn’t care enough to pay for something that was once free. I agree – this is immoral business and people wonder why corporations are so corrupt. Wallets don’t talk anymore, and whining about it does nothing. Only actions have weight behind them. It is borderline racketeering. Fortunately we do have a choice, and I’ve made mine.
November 8, 2015 at 3:05 pm
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October 13, 2016 at 5:31 pm
The real problem and what is a bate and switch is they show the time its going to take to ship the item, they know this time will be miss leading to everyone and in most cases people will buy the item based from what they see so when they see 2 day shipping they expect it to take to days from when they buy the item to when they get the item, it does not matter if there is a 1 or 2 day holding and sorting time it does not matter about any other time added onto the shipping time that props it up to a week longer then expected, this is a bate and switch you see 2 days you expect 2 days if Amazon was honest they would put 2-7 day shipping or 1-5 day shipping, then free shipping could be 10-30 day shipping this is a small change they could make but because they are not honest they put 1 or 2 day shipping what total BS and thats the bate and switch
May 25, 2017 at 1:56 pm
Hey folks sorry to comment on a very old post but i just wanted to say, YES amazon is holding packages hostage in a despicable attempt to force customers to pay for prime (its despicable because nobody should have to pay extra for good customer service) but i want to say that if you find youself having to use amazon, BUY FROM THIRD PARTY SELLERS WITH A HIGH RATING!!!! They will NOT dick around with your order and they will always ship the very next business day (even with free shipping) . and for the few people saying we should deal with it or pay extra for shipping well thats where youre wrong kiddo! Ive ordered from a plethora of online retailers including big stores like target and walmart AND I ALWAYS GET FREE SHIPPING and i never have to worry about not being a priority to them or them holding my in stock orders for half a month as a way to penalize me for the free shipping. Amazon is literally the only place that blackmails free shipping customers. ALWAYS CHOOSE THIRD PARTY SELLERS WITH A HIGH RATING!