Sometimes I don't get Amazon's shipping methodology

[Rabrrrrrr]

I made an order last week for nine items. I requested the super-saver free shipping, which ships slowly, and sometimes takes many days to even get shipped. That's fine.

So Tuesday, I get an email saying "We're sorry, but one item has a delay on it, so your order is being delayed."

I thought, "Okay - that's fine."

They said in the email they would divide the shipment into three orders, one of which would go out quickly, another which would ship in a day or two, and then the third which would ship in maybe a week.

That was on Tuesday.

Wednesday morning, I get an email saying order 1 has been shipped. YAY! But lo! Looketh at that! - harken, yea, 'tis the one item they said was delayed. WTF?!

Wednesday afternoon, I get an email saying order 2 has been shipped. Okey dokey; that was the one that was going to be slightly delayed.

Wednesday late afternoon, I get an email saying order 3, the one order that was READY TO SHIP the previous day, has been shipped.

This isn't a complaint against amazon - I love 'em - it's just a WTF?! Not the first time this has happened to me.

[jobycom]

1. I ordered two books for one shipping price. One was delayed

so they emailed that it would be shipped separately. An hour later, I got an email that it had been shipped. I got both at the same time, in separate boxes, with separate routing numbers.

But I got em.

[sundog]

2. Maybe

something you ordered ran out of stock or had to be special ordered... if you look next to the product that you want, it will say "ships in 24 hours" or "ships in 2-3 days" or something like that -- sometimes they have to break up the shipments, but won't charge you for shipping -- if they do, just raise hell & they'll give you your money back -- their customer service is pretty good

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Did you read my whole post?

I explained in it that they sent an email about one item that would delay the shipping for a while, and another item that would delay by a day or so, so they were going to ship things separately, but the first thing shipped - the day after they sent me the email - was the one item they said was delaying everything.

That's my issue - which isn't really an issue, since I'm not bothered, just curious and kinda :wtf:.

[Kellanved]

4. Happened to me as well (albeit with the German amazon)

Probably their logistics software doesn't know what to do when an item turns up earlier than expected (for example because someone else cancels his/her order) . :shrug:

Well, I mainly use them for US books : cheap (Euro vs. Dollar), free shipping (yup) and usually it takes less than a day for the books to turn up in my mailbox.

[vi5]

5. And the way they package things makes no sense either....

They once shipped a cd to me which is only 6X6X1/2 inches, in a large box that was 13X13X7. Made no sense whatsoever.

[RoyGBiv]

6. This is complicated...

I know what's going on here merely because I was associated with a small publisher that sells their books exclusively through online book stores, mostly Amazon. But, it's hard to explain succinctly.

Basically what happened originally was that your order was separated into different categories for which different "agents" (for lack of a better word) had responsibility. Your "no delay" order was likely originally intended to be sent out at a certain time and grouped with a lot of other shipments in the same category. Your other orders were dependent upon the speed of the supplier, and when that supplier was able to fill the order more quickly than the standard delay window stated, it turned everything around. The different agents handling your orders managed to get all your orders together and sent them out to the shipping department on the same day, but obviously not at the same time.

From this point, it's a matter of when the individual package gets run through the bar code scanner that logs your shipment. This is mostly just accidental, i.e. First Out, First Out.

That's probably what happened anyway...The same kind of thing was happening to customers who were ordering books put out by the small publisher I mentioned. They'd get these e-mails after receiving the books thanking them for the fast, unexpected service and mentioning that in some cases they were getting the "delayed" orders more quickly than the non-delayed ones.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Interesting, and thanks for the info!

Though what was delaying my order was the DVD of Star Trek VI.

Go figure...

But I can imagine things happening the way you mention with the many suppliers and agents and stuff. Thanks for the inside look!

[meg]

7. I won't shop Amazon because of their shipping

I used Super-saver free for a DVD recorder which they said would ship within a few weeks. MONTHS later I had no DVD recorder. However, the listing on Amazon said it would ship (regular shipping) in something like 2 days. I would write and complain - nothing. Finally, I said if it doesn't ship on my last day of the window, I cancel.

I canceled, ordered from a different place, it was cheaper and I received my DVD recorder with in 5 days including a Sunday!

[lilymidnite]

8. Won't order from Amazon, either

Because of their shipping, their way of hurting authors by selling used copies of *very* current books on the same page, and because of their draconian return policy.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Draconian return policy?

Wow - I've never had any problem returning stuff.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Update - the item that "delayed" the order arrived today

That is, the item - Star Trek VI DVD - that was the initial "delayer" of the order, which was shipped yesterday according to the email, arrived early this afternoon.

Go figure. Haven't received any of the other items.

I've entered bizarro world!