Amazon???

[akrvbob]

My experience with Amazon has been 99% excellent, but I'm a Prime member.

When I'm traveling in the summer I move a lot and I find Prime essential:

1) I'm constantly in tiny places with zero shopping, I get what I need from Amazon or I don't get it at all. I need to be able to get small orders
2) Because I move very often I don't want to have to sit for a week to get an order.

I can see why someone who is fairly stationary wouldn't care about Prime but it makes the life of a traveler tremendously better. Well worth the $99 to me.
Bob

 

[SternWake]

I am Also a Prime Member, but have not ordered anything lately to see how quickly or not, the product arrives.

I usually do look for shipping notices and often see that while they will post a guaranteed date at which the item is to be delivered, i will see sometimes that it is not shipped quickly, but oftentimes the same day as the guaranteed delivery, and sure enough by that night, it is there.

I've even seen them say that a product is to arrive on a Sunday, and USPS shows up and drops off a package. Not sure how or why that works.

I've only had one item arrive a day later than the guaranteed deliver date.

The prime membership is worth it to me.

The owner of the property on which I park levelly, legally, has my password so he can watch the thousands of movies available to watch for free on Prime.

I prefer to not Shop on Ebay, but they do have things available there that are not on Amazon, or if so they are much cheaper there..

Right now i am awaiting a 2k Ohm 10 turn potentiometer from Ebay slow boat from china that was 4.88 on Ebay and $14.99 on Amazon with free 2 day shipping.

Had i bought from Amazon i could have planned for its arrival and installation. With the Ebay I have absolutely no idea when it is to arrive. They said late November to late January.

I really like Amazon return policy, but do not abuse it by making them pay return shipping for something improperly ordered or no longer needed. Only defective items go back, or incorrect items.

If I can order it online and have it delivered, this is so much more appealing to me than dealing with driving to a store, dealing with employees, drivers, traffic, parking lots.

I despise shopping in a store, or searching different stores and feeling locked into an different product than desired, simply because it is what they have and I have already expended a certain amount of effort in its acquiring, but online shopping is almost pleasant.

I can handle some time lapse between purchase and getting my greedy paws on the product, but it certainly helps to know when greedy paws will be able to fondle a product

 

[GotSmart]

My next door neighbor in the apartment gets Sunday packages all the time.  

I don't have an extra $100 to bribe a retail seller to get me my goods in a timely fashion. 

My package was shipped from KY at 3AM, and should arrive by tomorrow evening.  :dodgy:

 

[LeeRevell]

I have received deliveries on Sundays too, as weird as it seems.  On rare occasions, an item from offshore actually comes in several days before the 'expected delivery' date.  "Prime" items have always arrived in two days.
The only problems I have had are from pushy vendors.  Had one I rated their item as crap (and it was), they e-mailed me trying to 'make it right'.  Their 'tech experts' simply could not get the concept that their item FAILED, and kept saying they had 'determined the problem' of my unit and 'fixed it' (without even really understanding the problem or seeing the unit), and kept giving me a crap 'fix' that had nothing whatsoever to do with the item in question.  Ah, Chinese vendors, you so silly......
I finally told them I couldn't return the item as I had "expended it in destructive testing"......   made a dandy though expensive range target.    
After three tries on that type item with three different vendors and brands, I gave up.  Lesson learned.
But no fault of Amazon's.  The don't make crap, they just ship it.   :dodgy:

 

[SoulRaven]

I actually don't mind paying a membership fee IF it is required but trying to "manipulate" me into buying one becomes an issue. Amazon makes a choice. I make a choice. We live in a small low income city so nearly everything is ordered online especially if you want healthy food items, grains, nuts, seeds, dry fruit, etc. I also do well with signing up on websites to get "deal flyers". I am "genetically" frugal like Grandpa was. It is an obsession and sometimes annoying to me but the benefits far outweigh the annoyance.

I will be staying longer term when I am on wheels so it comes down to whatever works for the individual with their individual circumstances. I don't do online tv or kindle, etc, those other benefits of Prime but if one does that, I could see the benefit after reviewing the materials on Prime.

 

[TMG51]

My experience with Amazon has been 99% excellent, but I'm a Prime member.

When I'm traveling in the summer I move a lot and I find Prime essential:

1) I'm constantly in tiny places with zero shopping, I get what I need from Amazon or I don't get it at all. I need to be able to get small orders
2) Because I move very often I don't want to have to sit for a week to get an order.

I can see why someone who is fairly stationary wouldn't care about Prime but it  makes the life of a traveler tremendously better. Well worth the $99 to me.
Bob

And do you get these things sent general delivery to a post office? This is one feature I've yet to nail down. I understand the quicker shipping with Prime, wasn't sure if you were implying it conveniences you otherwise.

I'll get a Prime membership sooner or later, if for no reason other than they're going to have the new incarnation of the Top Gear crew!

 

[SoulRaven]

There was a thread not too long ago and I don't think that you can specify how you want Amazon to ship. Someone posting had a UPS package delivered to a post office and was charged a fee of what local delivery would have cost. I am sure others have better input. Also, understand how General Delivery works. Most often now, especially with free shipping, it starts out with Fed Ex or UPS and then gets dumped with the PO for delivery.

 

[TooManyDogs]

I ordered 2 cell phone batteries in late Nov and they were shipped 11/29 with expected delivery between 12/4 and 12/9(via usps ). They've finally made it to the local post office, so I should get them today.

I ordered a frig on Friday and I should get it today (vis ups).

I'm too cheap to pay for Prime but did try it a few months ago (free trial offer). I didn't receive an order within 2 days, so decided to not continue it beyond the free trial.

I do think the free shipping has been delayed ever since Prime was implemented years ago.

 

[Cheli]

I am not a Prime member and order from Amazon all the time, I have not had slow shipping at all. In fact I ordered a couple things on Black Friday and they were at my door on Sunday and I didn't pay for faster shipping, I was completely surprised.

 

[leef]

In May 2014, I contacted Amazon and asked if they would deliver via general delivery. They said no so I ordered from someone else. Otherwise I have had great service from Amazon.

 

[akrvbob]

As a traveler I haven't had any problem finding a place to receive UPS, FedEx packages. Most towns of 10,000 and up have a mom-pop store that does mail, office and packaging. Especially tourist towns. I used the UPS Store a lot but their prices keep going up, most mom and pops are less than $5 for a package and often just a dollar. 

Here is a little bit of my address page on Amazon  it has 6 states on it and address all over the place and it's only about 1/3 of what I have on there. Notice that the UPS store is less than half and will get less as I go along.
Bob