I used to be Amazon's biggest cheerleader. A few months ago, if you'd brought up the mighty giant, I would have gushed about their great prices and speedy delivery. Free delivery! To Hawaii! And faster that other companies ship stuff, even though you're paying them an extra $20, even though you're serviced by the same USPS. You order, and poof!, it's here within a few days....
But that's the old Shokufeh. And the old Amazon.
Was there a change in guard and I'm just unaware? On November 20, I ordered some gifts for our nieces. Plenty of time to get here before our flight out on the night of December 2. But, they let me down. I had to go buy the same books on December 1, since my order hadn't yet arrived. I could be mistaken, but I think that even when we got back from Orlando on December 6, the package still wasn't here. We had to wait until the next day. The frustrating thing was checking the tracking and seeing it sit in LA for a week. What's between here and LA? Just a five hour flight! You can't tell me they drove it here instead. Even a ship takes only 4 days.
Okay, so last week, I ordered something for Sam's birthday. Seeing that I was screwed over by free shipping last time, I paid for shipping, hoping that it would get here by yesterday. Nope. It departed a shipping facility in "US" on January 14. Since it started in Nevada on the 12th, it didn't have that far to go. What's going on?!
Two of my favorite systems - Amazon and the USPS - letting me down. If you throw in the airlines, who may be part of the issue, that's three of my favorite systems. Knocked off their pedestals.
Posted by Shokufeh at January 19, 2005 02:12 PMThat sucks. I've always thought of them as dependable, but maybe they aren't anymore. Have you ever tried ordering from Barnes & Noble?
Posted by: Hannah at January 19, 2005 09:21 PMOk so how about this. I ordered christmas presents thru amazon, most thru free shipping (as cheap as I am) and 1 thru 2nd day (mostly because I had no choice...) The free shipping ones got here with plenty of time to spare. The 2nd day did not arrive until _after_ christmas (even though they specifically say "will arrive by christmas!") So I complained afterward and they sent me another one. In a few days the 1st one arrived, with the 2nd one the very next day via Fedex. And of course, the 1st one was USPS. What the hell?
Posted by: Ryan at January 20, 2005 04:12 AMI always have good luck with amazon. Some of it is that they have a shipping warehouse here in town. So, most of my stuff comes overnight. One time I ordered something in the middle of the night and the post office delivered it that afternoon.
Posted by: Bethanie at January 20, 2005 10:50 AMI've had problems with amazon too. I paid for shipping and it took 12 days. no reason when they mailed it from NJ and I live in Maryland.
Posted by: rachel at January 20, 2005 04:20 PMI'm not giving up on them yet, but I've stopped working on the ode I was composing.
Welcome, Rachel!
Posted by: shokufeh at January 21, 2005 08:06 PM