Hello, stranger.

[mrgoodkat]

FedEx has Saturday home delivery?!! Yes!! FedEx contracts-out the work to your neighbor?? Boo!!

These are the guys who failed to deliver my monitor yesterday, that I bought from Amazon on 26th (yes, going on two weeks ago - they ought to pay me $35 for the privilege of using their Free Shipping), because there was a half-inch of snow on the ground. And I cant even pick it up myself tomorrow from their 'location' (some dudes home?) 10 minutes away because they are closed on a Monday. So I will wait until Tuesday to see if this guys sack finally dropped enough to venture out in -20 windchill or, have the privilege of driving to a FedEx facility on Wednesday to pick it up myself. Again, if this guy has the mental fortitude enough to get the package to that location by Wednesday during an actual polar vortex type thing.

Because I'm done with whoever that guy is. I took off work on Saturday to make sure to be around for delivery of my new shiny monitor to replace the one I bought back in 2010.

I always wondered who those people were who knocked on my door, wearing no uniform. Now I know (I don't think I wanted to know). And I know what to expect from them. The FedEx woman says they also never leave packages. Why would they? It's a Saturday and people don't work 6-7 days a week in rich countries...

 

[Janus67]

/shrug I always use prime for shipping from amazon and 99% of the time it comes from usps which has Saturday (and sometimes Sunday) delivery.

That ducks about FedEx though

 

[mrgoodkat]

Yeah, Prime. I don't really understand Prime, nor do I have the money to drop on that for the few things I buy a year from Amazon. Maybe when/if their streaming service becomes worth it, as I do pay for Netflix already. Although I don't ever feel like giving Amazon any more of my money.

Prime seems like a bit of double-dipping to me considering they already factor the cost of free ground shipping into anything they sell. They even offer lower prices to Prime members so the wiggle room must be significant. I mean they certainly are not losing money on Prime out of the goodness of their heart. It's a money maker.

The difference is then between what the Amazon (contracted) rate is for ground shipping, and air. That might be somewhat significant for us but, probably not significant for Amazon.

And they might not even have to use air. They built their massive fulfillment network for a reason. They could have put my package on a truck in Memphis the same/next day and I would have had it 1-2 days later to fit into Prime shipping times and thus not paying anything more to ship my order. They already factored that cost into the price of the monitor and if I were a Prime member they would bank a bit from that, too.


One thing Amazon should know is that sitting on my package for 3 days is not a winning strategy. It happens all the time. And quite honestly, I have to wonder how legal it is without stating their clear, *** backwards policy. If you sell something in the Classifieds here they expect you to have the thing in hand and ship it. I looked at all my Amazon orders in the last two years and I will see a 2-4 day period from purchase to ship. It correlates perfectly from where the fulfillment center is. California will be two days and anywhere else will be 3-4.

The fulfillment center could be in Indianapolis and it wont ship for 4 days while I could go pick it up myself after work and be home in time for a late dinner.


For me it would appear that the only benefit of Prime would be to actually get them to get my packages in the mail instead of sitting on them. Maybe that is because I'm within a few fulfillment centers within 2-to-8 hours of my home. I don't know why I have to be penalized for that, though. I don't understand how Amazon gets away with doing that just to not undermine Prime. And now Newegg is playing follow the leader.