Advice for everyone: Never select Expedited Shipping on Amazon

[Jamaal510]

On Saturday I ordered an iPod Touch 5G and put it on Expedited Shipping in the hopes that it would arrive before Christmas, and so far, it has yet to arrive. Meanwhile I also ordered a shaving brush and a camcorder 2 days later, but I put them on Standard Shipping, and guess what? They both arrived in the mail today.
Never again will I choose Expedited Shipping. It is a rip-off.

[intheflow]

1. Totally depends on what warehouse it's being shipped from,

as well as what distribution stations it hits along the way. If you don't know the place of origin, you can't blame the shipping method.

[siligut]

2. I used it successfully

$3.99 to get what I ordered on the 21st on the 24th. Maybe something went awry with your order?

[Grantuspeace]

3. Chances are that you didn't buy your item from Amazon.

It probably was from a vendor on the site. They are the ones who shipped your order. You can give feedback on your experience and reflect your displeasure in your rating of the merchant.

[hlthe2b]

4. LOL.. well at least your order wasn't placed on Dec 18th, shipped 19th & informed would arrive 1/31!

Seems some of these Amazon 3rd party merchants don't feel the need to inform you that their products actually ship (snail mail) from CHINA! If the item wasn't inexpensive and meant only as a stocking stuffer, I'd be really pissed.

But, don't you think Amazon should require these "merchants" to inform you if shipping will be long delayed? Apparently since it did ship the day after the order was placed, they get by with this--even if they take six weeks to get it to you.

[pipi_k]

5. Can't recall

ever choosing expedited shipping.

However, Mr Pipi and I have Amazon Prime, where you can get two day shipping for free on thousands of items. Yes, it's $79 per year, but we order so much from Amazon that the membership cost is more than covered halfway through the year by not having to pay shipping.

They're real good about that two day thing, too. Often my stuff has arrived in ONE day.

And with Prime membership you can get free streaming movies and TV shows on your computer, and if you have a Kindle you can borrow some books for free.

So anyway, as far as expedited shipping goes, like someone else said above, it all depends on where your item is coming from. If it's an off-Amazon site, it could take longer.

Or...like what happened to me one year, I had ordered stuff from someplace not Amazon related, for the grandkids, three weeks before Christmas. FedEx was supposed to be bringing it.

The driver, who does not like coming out this way, kept it on his truck and then dropped it off at my neighbor's house the day after Christmas. Great. I had nothing for the grandkids when we visited them on Christmas Eve, and had to stop at a store on the way there to pick up something quick.

I was furious, and wrote a scathing letter to the Corporate office with a copy to the local office. I don't recall getting a reply, but that driver doesn't play games with our deliveries anymore (he would claim that we were not home when we actually were home, since we are retired).

Often, it's the carrier, not the shipper.

[LP2K12]

6. I pay...

once a year for Amazon Prime. That includes free two-day shipping and streaming of Amazon videos to my PS3, computer and Kindle.

Have only had one item not ship on time because UPS lost it. Amazon sent a new one overnight and let us keep the other when it arrived.

Well worth the cost IMO.