# Amazon.com ship dates **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 12, 2007, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720 "2007-12-12T07:25:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720/21 "2007-12-21T19:06:48Z")
If it’s going by regular US mail, delays are very normal. UPS should be mostly predictable, even UPS Ground has certain guidelines on how long a package will take. ---
**Author:** ![Skylark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Skylark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skylark)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720/22 "2007-12-21T19:16:37Z")
I won’t get home for Christmas until late Christmas Eve, so all of my family/friend gifsts need to be ordered online and delivered there ahead of time or I have to buy something in-person and carry it with me. The other day I ordered some $200+ worth of stuff, confident that I would get my goods arrived before Christmastime because, after all, they said a certain date was the last date to guarantee pre-Christmas delivery for free shipping and I was a day ahead. Towards page 5 of 534 of the order form they started telling me none of my stuff will get to me until well after Christmas. I ended up going back and paying another bundle for faster shipping, buying from a couple of affiliates in the ‘new and used’ with less reputable shipping service, and it’s still looking like come Christmas morning all I’ll have to show for the folks is a couple of receipts. Or, looking at some of the posts here maybe I jumped the gun and actually hurting myself. Sucks to my wallet, hope it all gets there. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720/23 "2007-12-21T19:50:24Z")
My experience is the Amazon Prime 2 day and overnight shipping is very good. Of course that costs you $75 a year. Otherwise for Super Saver Shipping or buying from “Amazon Partners” the shipping time varies widely. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720/24 "2007-12-21T19:51:17Z")
> [@](#): > > I do a lot of ordering from Amazon. I have Amazon Prime, and it usually works exactly as advertised, free 2-day shipping. Sometimes I get the item in one day, but I’ll forgive them that. There is a long and reasonably intelligent [thread](http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html/ref=cm_cd_ef_tft_tp?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx20DX5GEB7TUX8&cdThread=Tx2WJ2CDSTMRSZ0) going on at Amazon about many people’s problems with DHL. Many Prime customers report that they are not receiving shipments that use DHL until several days late. A couple of very similar threads have popped up recently as well. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720/25 "2007-12-21T19:52:43Z")
95% of the time Prime ships to me by UPS. That’s good. Last week they shipped to me by Fedex and it arrived a day late. DHL, don’t even get me started. They’re always late. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720/26 "2007-12-21T20:00:53Z")
Another ex-Amazon employee here. From my experience, when Xmas season hit ALL orders were processed ASAP regardless of shipment method. (This is only for [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) fulfilled orders, not the partners/merchants etc). I did a bunch of purchases this year that went out much faster than usual so I assume they’re still doing that. Ok, poll: _When offered free shipping, did you take it?_ ~ always. I ordered well enough in advance for the usual Super Saver Shipping arrival and items went out much faster than estimated. _If so, when was the promise date and when did they really ship? (Relative to when you made the order)_ ~ I made eight orders, and all but one shipped out within a day. _If you took free shipping, and made another order, when did they promise and when did they ship._ ~ as above _If you didn’t take free shipping, and made another order qualified for free shipping, when did they promise shipments?_ ~ n/a ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720/27 "2007-12-21T20:39:05Z")
I’m also thrilled that I’ve never had an order shipped from Amazon by DHL (though ominously, I saw one of their grubby, banged-up trucks in the neighborhood yesterday). I buy more of my books at [Powell’s Books](http://www.powells.com/) than at Amazon. I’ve only had one Powell’s order delayed, and that was due to a specific item that wasn’t shelved where it was inventoried; Powell’s e-mailed me an explanation and my options. I’ve also had several very pleasant exchanges with their webmaster Nathan, and he’s always been very helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Autumn\_Almanac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d26b3c/32.png) [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720/28 "2007-12-21T21:02:15Z")
I always use the free shipping since they started offering it. I’ve made dozens of orders over the past few years. Once in a great while I’ll notice that an order takes 2-3 days to ship out, even though all the items were in stock. But mostly they ship the next day, just like they would have with the standard shipping option. I don’t know why anyone _would_ use the standard option anymore. It’s spoiled me, too; I hate ordering from other places because paying for shipping seems like such an imposition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-com-ship-dates/429720.md?page=1)