Ask HN: Amazon Deliveries | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Amazon Deliveries

2 pointsUltramanoid5 comments

I opted out of Prime years ago, since it was not worth it for us.

When making orders now most of the time we avoid third party vendors, and choose "sold by and sent by Amazon" with free shipping.

Now, to the weird part. It's been a few months that when checking out on a free shipping order, ( on top of the constant teasing about how great Prime is and why we should rejoin ) we are usually given three or four options :

#1 Free shipping, delivery in 4-5 days.

#2 Small extra fee, delivery in 2 days or so.

#3 Bigger extra fee, delivery tomorrow.

#4 Biggest fee, delivery today.

Consistently choosing option #1 consistently results in delivery next morning at no extra cost, which is option #3 minus the payment, it's delivered for free.

Not that there's any reason to complain, but what's going on here ?

In my experience, Amazon will underpromise and overdeliver if they can.

I don't think they purposely sit on orders so that delivery takes longer just because you didn't pay extra. If your order can go it will go, but those who did pay for guaranteed faster delivery will still have priority.

You just seem lucky to live in an area where they usually can fit your order in fast.

I'd wager that you are riding on top of other people's prime subscription in close proximity to you. Amazon dispatches your stuff on the same truck as their because it's more economical than having to come back twice. This would only work in an urban setting where orders are scarce. In a densely populated area it's unlikely to happen.

Extremely densely populated though. Amazon orders are coming several times a day, every single day, all around us.

Where do you live? It may be that you're located conveniently near a warehouse, or in a place where shipping is unusually cheap.

Japan, and yes we are close. In fact we could get delivery in one hour if we chose, either at home or in the nearest konbini, of which there are at least a dozen within a 5 minute walk.

Still, getting a service we're not paying for. And it actually makes me distrust Amazon, since we've been enjoying the same service as a paying customer, for free and without an obvious explanation.

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