This isn’t just about Amazon, I am sure that other companies would be guilty also. However, this incident involved Amazon - so here goes. We ordered an item from them. They were having a special on free “slow boat to China” shipping on certain items. Since we were in no hurry to receive the item, we took the free shipping (UPS Ground). Normally, shipping would have cost 18 USD (the item weighed 30 lbs), and I could have paid considerably more if I wanted 2-day shipping or overnight. Imagine my surprise when, I checked the UPS website, and find out that the package will arrive one day after shipping! The package is coming from a neighboring state so basically delivery is one day anyway. My question, why wouldn’t they take that into consideration when computing shipping rates? I can only imagine how steamed I would be if I paid for 2 day or overnight delivery. :eek:
Point 1: For UPS Ground, they may say it’ll only take 1 day, but they have no obligation or guarantee of that. They can sit on it for a few days, then deliver it, and you have no grounds for complaint. OTOH, the other services are guaranteed to be there in the specified time. So if you do need it in a hurry, you really shouldn’t ever, ever, ever trust Ground to get there in any specific amount of time.
Point 2: You really expect Amazon to tell you that you can get the same results with their free shipping that you can get with their expensive ones? What’s their incentive to do that?
Call me naive, but yes I expect that. Their incentive is that I order something from them that I could purchase locally w/o the shipping costs. As it turns out, I got a decent deal on the item at Amazon. With the regular shipping costs, there is no way I would have made the purchase from them.
It does have to do with the guarantee.
Amazon is only quoting the delivery estimated given to them by the companies doing the delivering. They have no way of know that UPS is going to get the package to you in one day because UPS doesn’t guarantee it or even say that they can in advance. They do know that you will get the package in two days if you pay extra for priority mail.
My best guess: Amazon doesn’t know where, specifically, your item will be coming from, and UPS ships at very different speeds from different points of origin.
The way I understand it, Amazon isn’t like one humongous warehouse, they operate a network of suppliers who ship goods not only for Amazon but under their own name, and possibly for other businesses as well. Amazon gives these other locations Amazon-marked boxes, packing materials, software to print invoices, and so forth. Some central, etherial “Amazon” takes your order, and then whichever individual member of their network can get you the goods actually fills the order. So, since there’s very likely no telling where your goods will be coming from at the instant you place your order, if you get your goods quickly, you basically just got lucky.
Case in point: I recently did the free shipping thing myself, from Amazon, for a digital camera and a memory card for it. The memory card shipped separately and shipped first. UPS package tracking shows that the card was shipped from Kansas and basically came straight here; it arrived one day after it left Kansas.
The camera itself shipped one day after the card, but it left from Kentucky. As a result, it bounced around Tennessee and Alabama for a while before finally getting to Texas, and then it had to pass through a major routing hub city before it finally made it here, around 6 days after it first shipped.
Thanks for the information everyone. I guess I should be lucky that the free shipping was on an item that was being sent from a warehouse less than a hundred miles away and was not delayed.
I feel much better now 
Max hit the nail on the head. Amazon uses a drop shipping system.
Example:
Carrots Are Us has a distributor program, which means that the general public can’t buy carrots from them wholesale (if they could, it would be unfair to grocery stores everywhere because the carrots would be so cheap). The general public must go to a licenced distributor, like a grocery store or a delivery service, that sells Carrots Are Us carrots.
I become a licenced distributor of carrots, operating a mail-order business out of my house. I don’t want thousands of carrots to pile up in my garage and refrigerated warehousing is insanely expensive, so I ask Carrots Are Us for a drop shipping arrangement.
Someone places an on-line order to ME for carrots. I call Carrots Are Us, and they send out a box of carrots bearing the sticker “Charmian’s Carrot Emporium.”
It works marvelously. Since I don’t have to worry about paying for warehousing thousands of carrots, my overhead is quite low compared to the grocery stores that have to pay for their large spaces in prime retail location. I also don’t have to worry about being overstocked and losing money from carrots rotting before I can sell them (or if no one wants to eat carrots anymore because the FDA announces that carrots make fur to grow on your tongue).
My overhead expenses would just be my phone, fax, website and basic shipping fees (I’d pay for regular shipping). My low operating costs means that I can pass the savings on to you, my customer. I can offer an excellent discount for carrots that get delivered straight to your door! What fun! If you want your carrots super-quick, then YOU can pay the additional cost yourself.
Carrots Are Us are happy too, because I sell plenty of carrots due to my great prices. Their only inconveninece is that they have to send out smaller packages (rather than truckloads full to big grocery chains) and their shipping guy has to package the carrots in the “Charmian’s Carrot Emporium” box. Not really a big deal if Carrots Are Us uses a lot of little businesses like mine and have one guy on staff dedicated to filling our small orders.
No matter where I may have MY business, the speed at whcih you’ll get your carrots by regular shipping would depend on how close you are to the Carrots Are Us packaging plant.
Now I have to go eat some lunch… Mmmm. Carrots!
wait, I’m confused…what’s the URL for that carrot site again? I really need some cheap carrots…
&#@^!! I pay three times the price for “Charmian’s Carrot Emporium” premium carrots and they ain’t nuthin’ more than “Carrots Are Us” carrots in a fancy box with a sticker!
Dang blast it all, Charmian, you been ripping me off!
I hope Bugs Bunny ties your shotgun into a knot!
I hope you cut your tongue shaving!