I’m not pitting this, since I am only mildly irritated. I am curious about other people’s experiences with Amazon’s shipping times. I have ordered from amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca and amazon.com and have yet to get something shipped within 24 hours when the availability is listed as “usually ships in 24 hours”.
Mind you, my order has always shipped within 2-3 days, so there’s not a huge delay involved. Perhaps I’m too literal, but when I read “ships in 24 hours”, I sort of expect my stuff to ship in 24 hours. Has anyone else experienced this from amazon, or have I been unlucky?
I never checked the clock, but I get their stuff damn fast. Just did my holiday shopping on Tuesday night, and got the stuff today. Today I was thinking that it’s amazing that I can click away at such a weird, diverse bunch of stuff and have it turn up on my doorstep in a couple of days.
I started a thread about this a year ago or so and several dopers stopped in to explain the difference between “ships” and “arrives.” LOL.
When I order I always choose books that say “usually ships in 24 hours.” If I want a book that takes longer, I put it in a seperate order. And I rarely have an order ship in 24 hours.
Mine usually ship pretty quick. Even the stuff that says 2-3 weeks usually ships in a couple days. I don’t know if it’s exactly 24 hours, since all I’m interested in is whether it shipped, so I know to check my mail.
Yea, there’s a lot of wiggle room in the word “usually”. As far as my own experience, I actually have never looked to see, so I can’t tell you one way or another. It always seemed pretty quick …
Nice to see I’m not the only one who has ordered from other amazons than the one in their country too
Ordering something “ships in 24 hours” from Amazon.CA took close to 10 days to arrive, but since I was saving $40+ over the
US site I didn’t complain too much. I’ve never had something from the US site take more than 4 days to arrive, and most suprisingly, I got a “ships in 2-3 days” order from the UK site within 5 days of ordering. I found that impressive since it arrived only 3 days after it was shipped.
It never ceases to amaze me that people don’t understand that AMAZON DOESN’T OWN THE POST OFFICE. If it left their warehouse in a timely fashion, they did their part. Holdups in customs are to be expected in shipping between nations (and Canada Post is a bit notorious for their slowness). IMHO, 10 days is a hella fast delivery from Canada.
“Ships in 24 hours” means that it should leave their warehouse in 24 hours, NOT that it will arrive at your doorstep in 24 hours.
Those people in this discussion who are (rightfully) commenting on items which took more than 24 hours to leave the warehouse, carry on.
used to work in Customer Service for an internet bookseller
I usually use the super-slow free shipping option as well, and even then I find that sometimes my item ships within 24hrs. I’d say it’s the case about half the time for me. It might depend on when you order it. I suspect there might be times when the warehouse is better staffed than other times, etc. It also depends on where it’s coming from; some warehouses seem to be more “on the ball” than others.
I placed an order on 12/3 in which all items were available and expected to ship within 24 hours. It hasn’t shipped yet, which is fine, but if I check my order status, I get the following information:
So items IN STOCK are going to sit at Amazon for almost 2 weeks, but then, via super-saver shipping, they’re going to get to me in a matter of 2-4 days???
I love Amazon, and I buy a lot of stuff from them. Most often they beat their estimates, and I’m never generally in a huge hurry. But this one kind of irked me. I guess just because I’m so excited about the stuff I ordered. I WANT THEM TO HAVE IT PERSONALLY DELIVERED TO ME RIGHT AFTER I HIT THE SUBMIT BUTTON!!!
I guess I should clarify, as the issue seems to be getting a little muddied. I realize that Amazon has nothing to do with the post office, and I realize that “usually ships in 24 hours” does not mean that it should be on my doorstep in 24 hours, just that the item should have been shipped from Amazon’s warehouse within that time.
I ordered from both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk a couple of days ago (both orders had “24 hour” availibility). Both orders took at least 48 hours for the status to change from “shipping soon” to “shipped/completed”. It’s really not a huge deal, but it does irk me that I have never once (and I order from amazon quite regularly) had an order that says “usually ships in 24 hours” actually ship in 24 hours. It seems a bit misleading on their part.
I wonder if there are any legal implications to making such a claim - ‘usually’ has to mean more often than not, doesn’t it? or can it be interpreted as ‘what we’d really like to do under ‘normal’ circumstances that just never happen to occur’?
Do you check the bottom of your receipt when it arrives? It tells you the exact time it was packaged up and put in the bin for pick up. To me I consider that “shipped” as they’ve done their part of it. I’m guessing that the packages might sit there another full 24 hours (or more on a weekend) before the post office or UPS makes a pickup. When they enter that into their computer it shows as shipped then, and I think that’s when they send out the shipping confirmation email. Technically THEY’VE shipped it within the 24 hours but the SHIPPING COMPANY has not. In other words if you put a letter in the mail on Saturday afternoon it’s considered mailed, but the postman won’t be picking it up until Monday, so that’s the date it’ll be postmarked.
I’ll check that when I receive my latest shipments. I always assumed that when the status of my order changed to “shipped” it meant that that was the time it was packed up to leave the warehouse. I never thought that it could mean that the shipment company picked it up at that time, and that my package could have been packaged up in 24 hours. Even if this is the case, however, I still find the site to be misleading.
I’ve never seen any problems everything goes out as they say. One time a package of mine did sit in a California P.O. sorting facility for 10 days but that’s not Amazons fault. In fact my last order (The Complete Far Side) was with their free super shipping and it went out more then 10 days earlier then they said. And they sent it Fed Ex. I got it in 2 days.
