Hacker News Reader

Comment by lutorm | Hacker News Reader

In Hawaii, Prime isn't two day, it's "free shipping within sorta 5-7 business days, for most of the stuff marked Prime". And even that has gotten unreliable.

When there's a range of delivery dates specified, it often seems designed to show up on the very last day of that range. A significant fraction of the time they haven't even shipped the thing by the first day of the delivery estimate.

There are also an increasing amount of items that say they are Prime but when you try to buy them, it says "it can't be shipped to your address". Sometimes it's understandable, like things that are very heavy or hazardous, like Li-ion batteries. Other times it's completely incomprehensible, like 1/8" pipe fittings. And Amazon customer service can't give any info, they just say "sorry, we're not going to be able to send you that thing."

View on HN

I couldn't get them to send me an xbox controller in Hawaii. It's just infuriating. They could at least have the decency to let you filter items you can't get. The mismatch between their listed terms and what you actually get as a Prime customer in Hawaii is borderline fraudulent.

I'm considering putting together and sharing a script that could check your order history and delivery dates. They tend to give a free month of credit for late deliveries, but if I could show them "Well out of 12 months I've had late deliveries every month this year" I should just get the service for free.

You cannot expect a company to cater to such a small population. You choose to live there, you choose the consequences.

I can absolutely expect them to honor the terms that they themselves defined for a service that costs more than $100/year.

The terms state Free 2-day shipping to the contiguous US. It states 5 day shipping to Hawaii and Alaska

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

I suppose it could be more clear, but I do not see where they guarantee 2-day to Hawaii. You live on an island in the middle of the ocean, expect shipping delays.

Except that the OP was complaining that some items advertised aren't deliverable to Hawaii at all, not that they are deliverable with delays: "I couldn't get them to send me an xbox controller in Hawaii."

I don't really understand the instinct to jump on people complaining about receiving sub-par service compared to the promise given to them when they signed up. Amazon makes an absurd about of money, they could almost certainly do a better job here.

Except your being selective about what he said.

>I'm considering putting together and sharing a script that could check your order history and delivery dates. They tend to give a free month of credit for late deliveries, but if I could show them "Well out of 12 months I've had late deliveries every month this year" I should just get the service for free.

I'm talking about that bit.

Edit: I assumed he expected two day delivery. In his comment below he says he understands it's 3-7 and many come in 8-12, so my mistake.

They advertise 3-7 business days. For the past 3 months it's been more like ~8-11 business days. Nobody here has unrealistic expectations.

USPS would be much faster if they just dropped it in the mail within a couple days. It would also cost less than fedex overnighting items after waiting 2 weeks.

Well I'm with you there. I assumed you were talking about 2-day delivery, my mistake.

Indeed. It's gotten to the point that if I want something fast, I'll actually avoid Amazon and instead find some merchant who will ship the item USPS Priority Mail which is very reasonably priced and reliably arrives in 3 days.

The biggest problem are merchants that for some reason insist that they can only use UPS/Fedex, which is a complete ripoff to Hawaii. I don't understand how they get any business for their "ground" service here, given that it's usually about the same price as 2-day air but takes a week.

Amazon is choosing to offer Prime in Hawaii

Prime doesn't mean 2-day shipping for anyone anywhere. It says as much in the terms

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

Perhaps you missed the point that I and underbluewaters complained that they were not willing to ship things at all, or taking longer than their own stated timelines? None of us said we expected two-day shipping.

It's not like they're living on the moon, Hawaii is a U.S. state and they decided to accept customers from there.

Yeah, it's a state... which is an island in the middle of the ocean. Be at least a little realistic with your expectations. Also, their terms do not guarantee 2-day shipping to Hawaii or Alaska.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

If their terms _guarantee_ 2-day shipping to contiguous US, does that mean there's some recourse to a customer when that is not met? Cause it is routinely not these days for many people I know.

Every time Amazon misses a guaranteed delivery date, I send a quick note to customer care and get a free month of Prime added to my account. Takes under a minute and I've never had to even respond a second time to one of these threads.

There are times when 2 days is not the guarantee, which is slightly annoying, but for most items, 2 days is.

So it's unrealistic to expect a multinational corporation to be competent enough to ship XBox controllers and eight-inch pipe fittings to their customers, if they're on an island? Because that's what the parent comment is talking about.

I also live on an island, and have the same problem getting random items shipped. My workaround is to order from a Marketplace seller listed in the sidebar instead. Normally I avoid them and buy direct from Amazon, but this works surprisingly well.

I've purchased all kinds of 'restricted' things this way, high-power magnets, chemicals, flammable aerosols, commercial-grade fire extinguishers, etc. I think Amazon's rule is mostly based on what can't go by air, since they want all options (ground/sea/air) available. I have no idea what method the third-party sellers actually use but everything shows up in plain brown boxes no problem. Try it some time, and just pay a couple bucks extra for shipping and avoid the hassle.

Prime shipping is 3-7 business days for Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. So 5-7 days is within what they promise.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/help/id=201118070

Is this satire?

You are complaining about free shipping speed to an island 2,400 miles off the coast of California

Except it's not "free" shipping. It is a contract for prepaid shipping where they then renege on that contract for various items for no explainable reason.

I agree that they shouldn't promise what they can't provide, but it is hardly inexplicable.

That it isn't inexplicable isn't in question. It is, however, unacceptable given promises made (voluntarily) by Amazon marketing about the nature of the service.

Damn. In the UK it's free next-day.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com