UPS refunds the money to whoever paid for the shipping. (I know this because I ship a lot of stuff overnight and 2nd day at my work.) The other party gets nothing.
Of course it does. However, what if the dry cleaner offered a Premium
Next Day" Service for $80/year. You pay the $80 and, lo and behold, the dry cleaning isn’t done the next day. Then the owner whips out the contract and points to where it says “next day isn’t guaranteed.” Surely you’d be peeved.
I agree. And I also think $15 Amazon certificate was fair compensation to Athena. No arguments here.
My major beef with AP is that it’s simply a money maker for them. If they ship the item UPS ground for both AP and non-AP members, then the AP members have received no added benefit…for $80/year.
In retrospect, I’m fairly happy with how Amazon dealt with the matter, and I do still like my AmazonPrime service. If the problem persists, then I’ll be upset, but I’ve had Prime service for several months now and this is the only problem I’ve had.
I am a bit miffed to find out that the 2-day service is not guaranteed. From the Amazon Prime Web site:
IMO, it’s disingenuous to, on the one hand, advertise “Free Two-Day Shipping” then, in the fine print, say “we do not guaranty delivery of products within the estimated transit time or by the estimated delivery date” along with several other disclaimers. What they’re really saying is “we’ll try to get it to you in 2 days.” Aren’t there laws about this? Can you actually advertise one thing then negate it in the fine print?
Anyway, my overall satisfaction with Amazon Prime has been good. My $15 gift certificate has already been used (I think I was attempting to deny my addiction when I claimed that I may not be able to figure out what to order in the timeframe of the certificate).
You all will, of course, be the first people to know if this happens again.
My interpretation was that shipping is free once you have it, and it’s two-day shipping at that. Thus, even if they ship everything ground you’ll still potentially be saving money if you order a lot of stuff (though of course that’s not what they offered). If it’s just a free upgrade on top of normal shipping, then it’s completely different. How’s it work exactly?
Your impression is correct. I paid my $79, and after that I pay no shipping charges, and get more-or-less 2-day shipping. If I choose to pay an extra $3.99, I get more-or-less 1 day shipping.
Besides the issue in this thread, I’ve only found one other thing that I was a bit miffed about. Not everything on Amazon is covered. As you know, Amazon will show stuff on their pages that you actually order from someplace else (like Target or eGourmet or whatever). You have to pay shipping for those, which I expected and is no big deal.
However, there’s stuff that comes right from Amazon that isn’t covered either, and I’m not sure why. In general, the same stuff that isn’t available via their “super-saver” shipping isn’t eligible for Amazon Prime. There doesn’t appear to be a rhyme or reason to it; a particular coffee table book isn’t covered, but a KitchenAid Mixer (which is much heavier and more expensive) is. I’ve been surprised by what’s covered and what’s not at times.
Hm, I hadn’t thought about that. I always order $25 worth to get the free shipping (which is UPS ground, BTW).
I suppose if you ordered a $7 book today and then another tomorrow, you’d come out ahead with AP. Athena said she usually orders things in bundles, which puzzles me as to why she pays for AP. Using free shipping, I always get my stuff within 2-3 days anyway.
I guess this may depend on where you live, but every time i’ve used Amazon’s free shipping, the package has arrived within five business days, and often within two or three.
Same here. They always give an estimate of like two weeks, but it’s never taken anywhere near that long–hell, last time I ordered stuff, it was from two different vendors, and the part that I actually paid shipping for took LONGER than the Super Saver batch. :smack:
IANAL, but I do write marketing copy (though not for Amazon), and I strongly suspect that their legal department is the reason for that asterisk and fine print. I’m sure there’s some unacceptable-for-business-reasons legal risk and restitution in guaranteeing two-day delivery. Regardless, I’m positive that marketing copy has been vetted by their lawyers.
Personally, I always hate writing any kind of advertising or marketing materials that throw an asterisk into the headline. I think it hurts a business’ credibility. But they like the immediate attention a really juicy claim gets them.
I’ve heard it said that the large type giveth, and the small type taketh away. All too true.
We had a similar thing happen, though it was the post office that screwed up.
We live in a small town and can’t always get items that some would take for granted. My wife was having a party and needed to get some party decorations in specific styles and colours. We couldn’t find what we wanted in town so she got her parents, who live several thousands of kilometres away, to buy it and send it “express post” which is overnight within some parts of the country, and two days in other parts. To us it would be two days.
The parents get to the post office and are about to post it when the dumbass at the counter says that express post is no quicker than standard delivery to the town we are in. So they sent it standard delivery. Result? The stuff didn’t arrived in time! I think the dude failed to realise that although express post may take twice as long as it should, standard post also takes twice as long, so express is still the better option.
I don’t always order things in bundles; when I said I tend to order things in a group, it usually goes like “Oh, I need more books” and I start perusing the message boards and Amazon.com, and over a week will order several books, then not order anything for a month. I used to do what you did, pre-Prime, but nowadays I just order whatever I want and don’t worry about “saving up” until I get a bunch together.
I live in the middle of nowhere. Super-saver free shipping took up to 2 weeks to get here at times, and standard ground is typically 5-7 days. That’s part of the reason why Amazon Prime made sense to me - if I lived closer to a major metropolitan center, where UPS didn’t use dog sleds for deliveries and places like Barnes & Noble and Borders were available, I’d probably be just fine with normal Amazon service.
I ordered the last Harry Potter (“arrives July 16th or it’s free!”) knowing full well that UPS doesn’t deliver to us on Saturdays. I didn’t get it until Tuesday, but it was free! free! free! Take that, you giant book pimp! And while you’re at it, stop being such a convenient, one-stop source for all my needs, appearing with such frequency on my credit card statement that I never need to wait until my next 7 hour trip to a metropolis to go shopping!
Hem. Am I the only one for whom Amazon was the first online shopping experience, ever?
I’ve resisted signing up for Prime b/c I know it’ll never get here in two days, but if the outcome is free books…