You do need to see if Amazon seller prices are your best deal. On a few things lately, not. Or one left/not in stock on A. Headed for Target and there were plenty, (a $12 item for $11. Even some pkg sets at 25% off.) Shopping is hard work, lol.
I think that amazon wants to make it difficult enough that you will want to purchase Prime.
@thumper1 You could look in to the monthly pay option for Prime and just get it in the few months you do tend to order things. Binge watch any Amazon series you’re interested in during those times. We have student prime, so at that price the convenience is worth it for us, but I’m not sure we’ll keep it when we lose that option because we don’t order all that much.
I don’t really know if I think this is about Prime, if you pay for whatever delivery you want. If you ask for standard, it should come in that window. Some sellers will say expected delivery is weeks off, (eg, Dec 28.) I usually don’t deal with them. I get the feeling that they’re somehow less organized. (Unless it’s a big item. I ordered a mattress in a box with a 15 day target. Still, they beat that by a day or two.)
Otoh, I do think a lot is the delivery company. The other day, I saw a UPS guy toss a small box to someone’s porch, from about 15 feet. Ouch. I once had a book ship to a mile from my home. It went to something like NJ, Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Springfield, MA, before being delivered in my own neck of the woods. Last week, UPS delivered something to me with a completely different address. I imagined him clicking his little hand-held that it was completed. Not. (I let the UPS store around the corner deal with that.)
But know what? Ten yers ago, we had none of this luxury.
I dropped Prime when the price increased to $99 from $79 as I didn’t order enough to make that cost-justifed and mos of what I ordered was for baby/bridal registries and so not being shipped to me anyway. I might have to do a trial to watch Mrs. Maisel over the long holiday weekends. I did however order a book from B & N, was cheaper on Amazon but I try to support B & N. The book took about 8 days to arrive but the same day I ordered the book from B & N for my daughter’s birthday, Ninth Street Women about the abstract expressionist women artists of the 50’s and 60’s, d’s boyfriend texted me that they were at the Guggenheim and the bookstore there had a major sale and it was significantly less expensive than either B&N, the Strand or Amazon, so he picked it up for me and even had it gift wrapped for me to give her when we all got together for dinner. No where to cancel the B & No order and so I assumed that I could simply bring to store to return as that is an option on the packing slip, and so I did however B & N told me that I could only get store credit as the website and the retail stores not connected with one another. So now I have a B & N credit which is good forever and I also happen to have a $25 gift card that a friend gave me for Amazon. I looked at my Amazon Order history and other than a handful of books for my Kindle, the last time I ordered anything from Amazon was 2016 and so hopefully this credit will be good for a long time as well.
I’m not getting amazon prime just so I can get decent shipping for the one or two items I order per year. But it seems that is what Amazon is expecting me to do. No I won’t do that.
If I ordered a lot from Amazon, I might consider Prime…but I don’t. And I don’t care about the TV things either.
I think @jonri and I should get decent service and should not feel compelled to get prime.
Just checking on my package that was ordered through Walmart and fulfilled by a vendor. It was supposed to arrive on Dec. 11 via USPS. It sat in Detroit for 2 days and now has left the New Jersey sorting facility and is listed as "in transit"with no expected delivery date noted. UGH. Sent a gift to friends in SFO, ordered through Best Buy and fulfilled by a vendor. Item shipped 2 day via UPS. Package stated delivered and left at side door. They don’t have a side door. Now in a battle with Best Buy who has the absolute worst customer service ever. The agent offered, (without me asking), to upgrade item since the ordered item was now sold out. The price was double what I paid. I thanked her and told her to tell her supervisor that I appreciated the offer. She retook all of the info, put me on hold for 10 minutes, then came back and said, sorry, we can’t do this as the vendor has your package and will reship. I asked for shipping and order number and she gave me the OLD tracking number. She refused to put the supervisor on the phone. It felt like Ground Hog Day. We kept going round and round. I ended up disputing the charge with my credit card company and sent an email to the CEO last wednesday, never heard back!
" USPS tracking is a joke, packages take at least two days longer to arrive and they’ve been damaged multiple
times."
I got a pkg in an envelope from Sam’s from USPS (I think) and it had OBVIOUS tire tracks on BOTH sides of the envelope. It happened to be a very thin necklace which survived the abuse. I’m not sure how.
I’ll look almost anywhere before trying Amazon. Prime customers get priority – I get that, they paid for it. But our (non-Prime) packages used to come near the beginning of the estimated range, and over the last year or so items have been consistently delivered on the last day. Still within what I agreed to when I ordered from them, just that the climate feels different to me.
FedEx had been delivering to us at the door consistently since we built our place fourteen years ago. In September the driver started leaving our deliveries 1/4 mile away at the base of our cluster of mailboxes on the side of the road. I let one go, because hey everyone has a rotten day. The second time, weather was hideous, and I’m all for drivers finishing deliveries as quickly as possible or delaying them for safety reasons. Then a third one, on a nice day . . . no, that was quite enough of that. I called FedEx to see if they changed their policy, which they hadn’t, but the CSR suggested I set up an account and specify my delivery preferences. They have a nice drop-down menu that includes “front door” as an option. Haven’t had a problem since.
As for USPS they practically add a rose in a bud vase to my deliveries. They come up to the house, leave the paper mail with the package to save me a trip down the hill, always nice about it. Whereas my next-door neighbors, who are closer to the road and less of a trip for the carrier, just get “sorry we missed you” slips even when they’re home, and then have to go pick their packages up at the post office. We are mystified by that one.
Only other vendor experience that was a little strange was the time Walmart told me an item was out of stock after they let me put it in my cart and try to check out. After some of the other things people on this thread have run into, I think I got off easy there.
Yup, like above- that Walmart safe was in the cart, all info completed. They said credit card would be charged when shipped then several days later said order would be cancelled if not delivered by the date specified, which sure enough happened. When they have a good price they need to realize many will be sold- they surely knew long before I was notified. They should have a mechanism that lets them know when order numbers exceeding availability is reached.
Last summer inadvertently became a Prime member (for free one month- cancelled before paying for more) when I added a travel purse to my cart. There was NO way to eliminate that Prime membership- no way to backtrack, even cancelling the order did not remove it. Wanted the item so reordered it and H and I made our under free shipping price purchases that month.
I have a package that has been out for delivery since this Monday and it is via FedEx.
@oldfort - this likely means they lost or destroyed it. 
that is what happened to two Toto toilets we bought from Lowes and my cats’ favorite litter.
Just called FedEx and it was turned over to USPS for delivery. I don’t think I will be getting it.
How about the boxes used? Shipping an SD card in a box when an envelope in the mail likely would have been better? That large box with air pillows taking up so much volume… Recycling currently costs cities money.
I’ve gotten pkgs in a bubble bag.
In winter deep snows, before the dog, we didn’t use our back door. Imagine my surprise, one mid Feb, when I went out the back and there was a huge box sitting in the last of the snow, a Christmas present. Apparently there 2 months. No door note.
Our house lives on prime, we certainly get our money’s worth out of it. In busy Bay Area, if I can avoid a mall once or twice (and I avoid it all the time) that pretty much pays for the year in my mind. We have never ever had an issue with deliveries and lots of us using one account to home, to college, apartments…we absolutely love it. I go there first because I know what I order will first, get here, and second, get here fast.
I have actually been really evaluating all the big retailers this year (order a lot on line). Nordstrom has been horrific, it can take over a week to get out their door there, and that is whether it is busy Christmas season or slow summer time. I think they have just given up trying to compete with Amazon, and aren’t even trying, at least with online sales, I don’t get it. The one that is impressing me is Bloomingdales - stuff rockets out of there, so they have replaced Nordstrom for my purchases for the kinds of things Amazon doesn’t have. I have placed an order with Bloomingdales at 1:00am and it is shipped when I get up at 7:00am - great effort Bloomindales! Now that is someone that is trying not to get eaten by Amazon. Neimann Marcus comes in a close second on getting things out of the store and on the way, but another dinosaur is Saks. I ordered two belts on the 9th, they finally shipped out a week later, and they will be here the 20th. For those of us that are use to Amazon prime, that is toooo slow, even when we don’t need it till Christmas. Like a phone or computer, ya just get use to the faster speed I suppose, and slow things are well, just too slow.
Probably regional. My Nordstrom orders ship quite quickly and arrive fast. We are their flagship city. There is not a Bloomies here in our state… it takes a long time for the stuff to show up, but I am usually not ordering anything that is needed two days before yesterday from either of these places. 
I get our cats’ supplies from Chewy. Fast shipment and great customer service. And my cats got a holiday card from their president for being their loyal customers. ?
I think Amazon is reading this thread!!
Checking the status of my orders, there is a notation that there is “a carrier delay” and one of my packages “is on its way but may be late.” I’ve never got notes like that before. Of course, a different package said “out for delivery, will be delivered by 8pm today” yesterday and still says the same thing today. It’s only been 6 days, so I’ve no cause for complaint–yet.
BTW, I ordered something from Out of Print for the first time this year. No availability to check the status of the package, but it came quickly and everything I ordered was there. I think some its things are really cute, but I hesitated to order because I didn’t know anyone who had personal experience buying from Out of Print.
I’ve had some issues with Amazon using drivers to deliver their packages. Once a package was left propped against my mailbox and almost falling into the street. I guess walking to my porch was too hard even though it would have taken perhaps 15 seconds. I called and gave customer service a long lecture. That package did not contain much of value but I told them if it had been valuable and taken by someone or run over or blown away with the wind I would have been screaming my complaint. Haven’t had that problem again thankfully.
I like when I am sent a picture of delivery so I can see yeah they put it behind the planter or propped against the door.
I’ve never gotten a picture of the delivery. Do you have to request that somehow? Is it only Amazon that does that?