Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
That may be what it used to be, but it's not that way any longer. From the Prime Delivery Promo page at Amazon:
They're obviously playing fast and loose with the new "unavailable to ship immediately" catch-all.
If it's "in stock," then why on earth would it not be available to "ship immediately?" We're not talking about ordering steaks and waiting on the steer to be slaughtered, here. 
They've clearly expanded their "unavailable to ship immediately" parameters to allow themselves some extra wiggle room.
Yes. The guaranteed delivery date is still there. They just started failing to make that date. Then after a while, they started upping the guaranteed delivery date by a couple of days--and were still often failing to meet them.
What I'm currently seeing when I click on a Prime-eligible item that's fulfilled by Amazon (and that doesn't indicate any availability issues) is a guaranteed delivery date that's about 4-5 days out. I haven't gotten a 2-day guaranteed delivery date in a month (after getting 2-day guaranteed delivery dates nearly 100% of the time for years).
My last order, for example, was placed on the Wednesday the 9th. The item ordered was Prime-eligible, "fulfilled by Amazon," and in-stock. The guaranteed delivery date was for Monday the 14th. I got notification that it shipped in the wee hours Friday/Sat. It got delivered on Wednesday the 16th (after being unavailable in the tracking system from Monday on). |
I hadn't seen the Prime delivery promo page before, and I wouldn't be happy if it was happening to me. I often can order something late Monday night and still get Wednesday delivery.
There are items that I see are Prime 4 - 5 day. I never purchase those, but sometimes when I look at the item details it shows that it can be delivered to me in 2 days.
There are a lot of free one day delivery items for me, and I can order some of them the morning of the delivery day. I have been getting a lot of one day deliveries lately. If I only need a few more dollars to reach $35, I order some cereal to make up for it. This cereal is currently $3.72 and eligible for one day delivery. It shows "Get it tomorrow, May 19.*Add it to a qualifying order within*4 hrs 23 mins*and choose*One-Day Shipping*at checkout".