Amazon Echo Club

Originally Posted by kansaskyle

I recently read that Amazon updated the Region/Time Zone interface in the Alexa App. You need to go in and reset it for all your various Echos, Dots, and Taps.

I noticed it now offers a more traditional time zone option - for example, Central Daylight Time (Chicago).

I just checked the settings on both my Echo and my Dot and they already showed: Device Time Zone: United States: Central Daylight Time (Chicago). I had not changed it nor do I remember what it said when I originally set up my Alexa devices for the CST/CDT zone. I live in TX. So perhaps it just automatically updates your settings to the new information, assuming this is new information. I assume that if anything changed it was just the wording of the options, so it shouldn't require any user input.

[kansaskyle]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I just checked the settings on both my Echo and my Dot and they already showed: Device Time Zone: United States: Central Daylight Time (Chicago). I had not changed it nor do I remember what it said when I originally set up my Alexa devices for the CST/CDT zone. I live in TX. So perhaps it just automatically updates your settings to the new information, assuming this is new information. I assume that if anything changed it was just the wording of the options, so it shouldn't require any user input.

Despite my username, I'm also in Texas. I set my time zone after day light savings hit a couple weekends back. When I checked today, my choices were blanked out, and I had to reselect them.

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by kansaskyle

I recently read that Amazon updated the Region/Time Zone interface in the Alexa App. You need to go in and reset it for all your various Echos, Dots, and Taps.

I noticed it now offers a more traditional time zone option - for example, Central Daylight Time (Chicago).

Daylight Savings messed up time on lots of Alexa devices for many people. The quick fix in the US was to change from "America" at the top and go to the bottom of the list on the Alexa app to "U.S." I haven't had to reset either of my devices time beyond that.

I don't remember having to switch manually to DST. I never use my Echo or Dot to check time, and I assumed like my WiFi connection it would simply update on its own. I'm pretty sure it did. Maybe those who had issues updated manually, which I didn't do.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Maybe those who had issues updated manually, which I didn't do.

Unlikely, going by reports here, Amazon's comments and my own experience.

I have an Echo and a Dot, didn't do any thing manual to either of them, the Echo changed to DST on it's own, the Dot did not.

[Conan46]

Here is a thread at Reddit from last week. Quite a few people had issues with DST on their devices:
https://www.reddit.com/r/amazonecho/..._savings_time/

Some people had issues. Others like myself did not. Am I surprised? No! Bezos Bozos strike again. The more I hear and experience, the less I like my Alexa devices. Too many issues for devices that were released well over a year ago. I'm still puzzled as to why my Echo has no issues playing Amazon Prime Music but pi$$ed all over itself trying to play their paid service. Or why smart devices work one day then don't the next. Or why Alexa gets stumped over simple commands from time to time.

[tubemonkey]

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[Conan46]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Some people had issues. Others like myself did not. Am I surprised? No! Bezos Bozos strike again. The more I hear and experience, the less I like my Alexa devices. Too many issues for devices that were released well over a year ago. I'm still puzzled as to why my Echo has no issues playing Amazon Prime Music but pi$$ed all over itself trying to play their paid service. Or why smart devices work one day then don't the next. Or why Alexa gets stumped over simple commands from time to time.

My Tap is stubborn on occasion, especially when I ask it to read ebooks. But Music Unlimited has worked well so far. What were your issues with music?

Originally Posted by Conan46

My Tap is stubborn on occasion, especially when I ask it to read ebooks. But Music Unlimited has worked well so far. What were your issues with music?

It would stop and start as in freezing up. Quite often it just would not play at all. I could play the Prime Music and Pandora paid service on it with no issues, but the paid Amazon Music service just wouldn't work consistently. It would take the average song 15 minutes to complete. CS was clueless. I have 65 Megabit internet connection, so no issue there. Besides, other music services played well without issues.

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by jswinden

It would stop and start as in freezing up. Quite often it just would not play at all. I could play the Prime Music and Pandora paid service on it with no issues, but the paid Amazon Music service just wouldn't work consistently. It would take the average song 15 minutes to complete. CS was clueless. I have 65 Megabit internet connection, so no issue there. Besides, other music services played well without issues.

That is strange. Sounds a server issue on Amazon's end if your other music services worked well.

Originally Posted by Conan46

That is strange. Sounds a server issue on Amazon's end if your other music services worked well.

Whatever it was, it caused me to decide against their paid service. At the time I was using the 30 day free trial. But it was so bad I went with Pandora instead. The issue continued for a week, at which time I gave up on it.

Since I was trying out the paid service for only one device, I have no clue whether it would have worked on my Dot. I only tried it on the Echo.

We occasionally discuss Amazon shipping here, so I thought this was interesting, kind of, sort of, or maybe not at all... I ordered a small, inexpensive item late last week that was listed as a free Prime Two-day delivery item. It is supposed to arrive today. Clearly not in two days, but more and more Amazon seems to interpret the Prime 2-day shipping to mean from the time it is shipped rather than from the time it is purchased. Not cool IMO, but that isn't the interesting part. The item shipped out of Shakopee, MN and was initially brought down to Dallas via UPS. I checked on its status this morning and discovered that UPS has now turned it over to the USPS for delivery. The USPS has it listed as out for delivery. I've seen carriers shift a package back and forth on occasion, but I had never seen UPS pass to the USPS.

In another unrelated and off topic thing, a contractor with whom Amazon has contracted to deliver packages here in the Dallas/Fort Worthless area has not been paying his employees and many of them have quit. I wonder how many package delays and lost items are tied to that. I saw this on the local news last night and it sounds like this contractor covered more of the country than just north Texas. So if you have package delivery issues, maybe you got a rogue contractor with upset workers.

[AnemicOak]

That's one of the big shipping methods now (not just Amazon, but others too). UPS or FedEx to the general area and USPS for the "last mile" local delivery.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by jswinden

We occasionally discuss Amazon shipping here, so I thought this was interesting, kind of, sort of, or maybe not at all... I ordered a small, inexpensive item late last week that was listed as a free Prime Two-day delivery item. It is supposed to arrive today. Clearly not in two days, but more and more Amazon seems to interpret the Prime 2-day shipping to mean from the time it is shipped rather than from the time it is purchased. Not cool IMO, but that isn't the interesting part.

I believe it has always been interpreted this way. It's always been 2-day shipping, not 2-day guaranteed delivery, and IIRC they always tell how long before they expect an item to ship, and the guaranteed DELIVERY date, if there is one, always reflects this.
Perhaps what has increased is that more items are not available to ship out the same day we order, perhaps due to an expanded marketplace of sellers, or cost-saving JIT inventory systems. When almost everything they sold was ready to ship same day, we just got kind of spoiled that 2-day shipping also resulted in us getting it delivered in two days from order.