Amazon's delivery estimates

corblimey

Is anyone else noticing that it's taking Amazon longer and longer to fulfil orders these days? I made an order yesterday, expecting to have it if not this week, then certainly early next week. So I go on today and find that despatch estimate is 5-10 July, that's next Monday before they optimistically even ship the order.

I cancelled the order has one of the items was being sold through a third party and re-entered it with a different item sold through Amazon, and bang, same despatch estimate.

Are they erring on the side of caution these days, or does it really take up to 2 weeks to find stuff in their warehouses now?

TouchingVirus

Delivery is fine for me.

Are you sure it's in stock? Perhaps it's an item they need to order from the supplier before shipping to you?

iora_rua

I received a mix of stuff from them recently - Amazon and third party - but everything arrived earlier than stated. I think they're just covering themselves (a bit like some airlines giving longer than actually getting there arrival times, then arriving 'on time'!). Personally, don't have any gripes with Amazon's delivery, especially when it's free!

corblimey

Well they're all in stock, but I notice now that 3 of the DVDs are coming through Indigostarfish. They've sent me stuff before and I've not noticed the lead time, but maybe they've changed their policy, rather than Amazon? The about page states 3-5 business days, but that to get delivery from Indigostarfish to me, not 10 days to send out plus 3-5 business days.

jor el

Amazon normally ship fairly quickly (within a day of ordering) and delivery is normally 2 or 3 days later. When you buy through Amazon marketplace though, shipping times are down to the individual seller.

The estimates are often over-estimates.

Xandra

It did happen to me. I think it depends if they have that item in their warehouse or not. Even the status of the item is "in stock", but some items they don't have in the warehouse and have to retrieve from supplier like my case.

I ordered 5 items with them on 5 April, 3 books about religion and 2 electric kitchen appliances. 2 kitchen appliances arrived around 1 weeks later. However, 3 books had not yet been dispatched until 27 April. This is more than 3 weeks, so I wrote them to ask about this. This is what they answered.

Dear Customer,

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.

We regret to inform you that your order will take longer to fulfill than originally estimated. Our supplier has notified us that there is a delay obtaining stock for the following items you ordered on April 05 2010.

John Piper "What Jesus Demands from the World: "All Authority in Heaven and on Earth Has Been Given to Me" - Jesus"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1844741710

We are awaiting a revised estimate from our supplier, and will email you as soon as we receive this information.

If you would prefer to cancel the item, please visit Your Account on the link below:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/css/order/edit.html?ie=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk, we hope to see you again.

Please note: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that
cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk


In conclusion, they didn't have one book out of three books that I ordered. Therefore, I canceled my order, and ordered with bookdepository instead. I received all the books within 2 weeks.

corblimey

And one day later, I get this:

Dear Customer,

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.

We are pleased to report that the following items will dispatch sooner than expected:

I think I'm now supposed to be more grateful to Amazon for their diligence. It's still gonna be middle of next week before I get my 3 DVDs