Amazon Prime - Dont have it then you can wait.

stockhausen said:
A while back I ordered some stuff off Amazon - when I placed the order, the items were all "in stock" and I assumed that I would get them fairly quickly. It soon became clear that they were not going to arrive in the timeframe that I wanted. I cancelled the order and reordered them with an Amazon Prime trial - they arrived next day.

Amazon are deliberately delaying delivery to "encourage" people to signup for Amazon Prime.
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Of course they are that’s the whole point of Prime, you want it quick you pay for the privilege while the normal people wait.
 
Use Amazon Prime a lot. Same day delivery for some stuff means I can order consumables like guitar strings without any hassle.

We watch some Prime Video material as well. Bosch is excellent and I guess Black Sails and Daredevil are promising. However, it's finding the time...
 
simpletom said:
Use Amazon Prime a lot. Same day delivery for some stuff means I can order consumables like guitar strings without any hassle.

We watch some Prime Video material as well. Bosch is excellent and I guess Black Sails and Daredevil are promising. However, it's finding the time...
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Black Sails is great.
 
tom_e said:
Of course they are that’s the whole point of Prime, you want it quick you pay for the privilege while the normal people wait.
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Quite so. And in order to "encourage" you to "pay for the privilege of timely delivery", Amazon delay the normal delivery.

Remember that not so long ago, Amazon used to have free (reasonably fast) delivery, now you have to buy at least £20 worth per supplier to get free, slow delivery.
 
Not really. It's not really different to first class and second class post. All couriers have a 'pay more to get it quicker', why give Amazon a hard time for it?
 
stockhausen said:
Amazon delay the normal delivery.
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they would not leave a delivery van going to a Prime member, half empty without also carrying stuff to his composite neighbour.

I predicate that living next to someone with prime, you get all the delivery benefits, without the annual expense ? - lol: I need to move into a more affluent area.
 
I'm not sure I agree with the idea of deliberately delaying stuff? Surely what they must be doing is literally prioritising packing... They have 5865 prime orders and the system delivers those orders to the packers first, then after they have completed their prime packing, their to do list becomes normal orders, so perhaps they get to that at the end of the day and get less done and thus it takes days?

Also, say they were packing a normal order, then a prime order comes in, their computer system then jumps the prime order to the front of queue, again further delaying a normal order etc and so on.....

This makes more sense to me and explains everyones story, and maybe it's especially busy at times when ordered causing huge delay sometimes for normal orders where other days there might be v few prime orders and so normal orders may leave same day?
 
Combat squirrel said:
I'm not sure I agree with the idea of deliberately delaying stuff? Surely what they must be doing is literally prioritising packing... They have 5865 prime orders and the system delivers those orders to the packers first, then after they have completed their prime packing, their to do list becomes normal orders, so perhaps they get to that at the end of the day and get less done and thus it takes days?

Also, say they were packing a normal order, then a prime order comes in, their computer system then jumps the prime order to the front of queue, again further delaying a normal order etc and so on.....

This makes more sense to me and explains everyones story, and maybe it's especially busy at times when ordered causing huge delay sometimes for normal orders where other days there might be v few prime orders and so normal orders may leave same day?
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As I understand it that is exactly what happens.

The only thing is that as an item approaches the expected delivery date it then jumps from being "can wait" to priority, or if you've placed several orders and they're being dispatched from the same warehouse they might go sooner as it clears multiple items from the list in one go (I've had times when I placed a prime delivery order and 2 or 3 no rush ones in a short time frame and the system shipped them all together in the same package).

I remember reading a few ago about how the system Amazon uses takes into account the location of the warehouses to the customer, the availability of the various delivery methods at each warehouse (so if one warehouse has a lower number of packages going out with a specific courier it might get more of the orders to pack), the delivery method chosen by the customer and how long the item has been in the queue waiting to be picked.

All that has changed over the last few years with prime is that where they often had a lot of excess capacity for the higher speed couriers/priority packing lines they don't now as they're routinely reaching optimal packing/shipping levels for those priority dispatches. Which is also part of the reason they offer a standard "no rush" bonus for customers and at times of peak demand they will increase the "no rush" bonus/incentive from £1 to £3.

It's all about balancing the capacity of the different warehouses and delivery methods to maximise output at minimum cost.
 
Werewolf said:
As I understand it that is exactly what happens.

The only thing is that as an item approaches the expected delivery date it then jumps from being "can wait" to priority, or if you've placed several orders and they're being dispatched from the same warehouse they might go sooner as it clears multiple items from the list in one go (I've had times when I placed a prime delivery order and 2 or 3 no rush ones in a short time frame and the system shipped them all together in the same package).

I remember reading a few ago about how the system Amazon uses takes into account the location of the warehouses to the customer, the availability of the various delivery methods at each warehouse (so if one warehouse has a lower number of packages going out with a specific courier it might get more of the orders to pack), the delivery method chosen by the customer and how long the item has been in the queue waiting to be picked.

All that has changed over the last few years with prime is that where they often had a lot of excess capacity for the higher speed couriers/priority packing lines they don't now as they're routinely reaching optimal packing/shipping levels for those priority dispatches. Which is also part of the reason they offer a standard "no rush" bonus for customers and at times of peak demand they will increase the "no rush" bonus/incentive from £1 to £3.

It's all about balancing the capacity of the different warehouses and delivery methods to maximise output at minimum cost.
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Yeah all very good points. In a way it's hugely interesting how they do it, I'd imagine they are starting to use machine learning as well now to maximise packing orders and all sorts of complex code, it's a world where the machine plans and the humans pick following the orders on their devices.
 
jpaul said:
they would not leave a delivery van going to a Prime member, half empty without also carrying stuff to his composite neighbour.

I predicate that living next to someone with prime, you get all the delivery benefits, without the annual expense ? - lol: I need to move into a more affluent area.
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No the non-prime order will be delayed during the picking process in the warehouse. The delivery speed of the actual packet is near enough the same.

So yes Amazon are purposely manipulating the system to drive people towards prime which is a bit rubbish, it didn't use to be this way years ago, non-prime orders would get to you with 3 days. I ordered some things Sunday only due for delivery today.
 
AndyCr15 said:
How do you know this to be the case? Other people have already offered evidence to the contrary.
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Amazon tell you when the packet has been dispatched from the warehouse. What more evidence do you need? In the case of my order it took them 5 days to pick 5 items? During a non-busy period. Clearly they are sitting on the order for no other reason than to delay it.
 
And you're saying they say it's dispatched as quick as a prime order and then takes longer to come? That certainly isn't my experience of their system.

**EDIT** Tbh, I don't see why either way it would go against the above explained 'delays will happen when Prime is given priority and others are pushed back'. That could happen at any point. It could get picked instantly and even sent out to a delivery hub instantly, but the 'out for delivery' might mean it would have to wait for some other priority orders in that area.
 
The packages won't be deliberately 'delayed', they just won't be prioritised unless they reach a certain time threshold. I'd say Werewolf has it spot on.
 
Combat squirrel said:
Yeah all very good points. In a way it's hugely interesting how they do it, I'd imagine they are starting to use machine learning as well now to maximise packing orders and all sorts of complex code, it's a world where the machine plans and the humans pick following the orders on their devices.
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Aye the whole thing is quite fascinating (in an odd, geeky way), they go as far as to have the warehouses organised so that items might be stored in multiple locations (especially popular/common ones, and things like new releases), and items that are often ordered together are stored near each other so that the time it takes to pick them is reduced as there is level travel for the human picker.

I think they've been using machine learning to optimise it for years, as the computer can work out what are the most common items, which are ordered together (I imagine rechargeable batteries and the chargers for example) and then lay out a plan for the building.
 
Do people really think Amazons system is just going to sit on a massive amount of non prime orders just for giggles? If they’ve got the capacity they’ll be dealt with, if not then prime will of course come first. There’s no way they’re going to have pickers sat twiddling their thumbs because they want to delay normal orders.

It’s exactly the same as every other company that offers "priority" delivery works, yet because back in the day amazon had the spare capacity to still get normal orders out quickly it’s now some sort of unique conspiracy by amazon.
 
Werewolf said:
As I understand it that is exactly what happens.

The only thing is that as an item approaches the expected delivery date it then jumps from being "can wait" to priority, or if you've placed several orders and they're being dispatched from the same warehouse they might go sooner as it clears multiple items from the list in one go (I've had times when I placed a prime delivery order and 2 or 3 no rush ones in a short time frame and the system shipped them all together in the same package).

I remember reading a few ago about how the system Amazon uses takes into account the location of the warehouses to the customer, the availability of the various delivery methods at each warehouse (so if one warehouse has a lower number of packages going out with a specific courier it might get more of the orders to pack), the delivery method chosen by the customer and how long the item has been in the queue waiting to be picked.

All that has changed over the last few years with prime is that where they often had a lot of excess capacity for the higher speed couriers/priority packing lines they don't now as they're routinely reaching optimal packing/shipping levels for those priority dispatches. Which is also part of the reason they offer a standard "no rush" bonus for customers and at times of peak demand they will increase the "no rush" bonus/incentive from £1 to £3.

It's all about balancing the capacity of the different warehouses and delivery methods to maximise output at minimum cost.
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Thats a far too sensible take on things Werewolf I prefer Stockhausen's version!
 
tom_e said:
It’s exactly the same as every other company that offers "priority" delivery works, yet because back in the day amazon had the spare capacity to still get normal orders out quickly it’s now some sort of unique conspiracy by amazon.
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It's not a conspiracy, but a manipulation and misrepresentation by them.

All orders of £20 or more of eligible items, dispatched by Amazon, across any product category also qualify for FREE Delivery. With free delivery, your order will be delivered 3-5 business days after all of your items are available to be dispatched.
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What constitutes an item as available for dispatch, in most online stores an item being in stock at the time of ordering means it's available for dispatch within 1-2 working days (quite often less, most stores do same day dispatch before a certain cut-off). But in Amazon world they make up the dispatch times and adjust the delivery method later to meet the quoted 3-5 business days.

As in the case of my order, ordered Sunday, dispatched Friday, delivered Saturday. Well according to their delivery terms the order shouldn't be with me until Wednesday of next week at the earliest.
 
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