So i order a new pair of speakers as i’m tired of using headphones on the computer (something i’ve done, upon reflection, for years and years), on the 5th. I select standard, free UPS shipping from Amazon, because i’m cheap and can afford to wait a couple weeks.
Come home on the 6th, and they’re sitting next to the front door. Less than 24 hours. 40$ in rebates, 50$ off on sale. Total cost AR = 30$. No tax. They were priced at around 120$ at the local Best Buy.
UPS ftw!
VM.
;)
The Amazon shipping center is near you. Big deal.
No, I’ve seen this many times myself. Choose the cheapest shipping option and it will often arrive in 1 or 2 days anyway, unless you are ordering at xmas or something. If you’re willing to “risk” the possibility of it actually taking a week, you’ll often score much better.
5 driving hours away (from the address listed as the shipping center on the box) is close? Two or three years ago ording anything from Amazon was an excruciating exercise, with the average turn around time being about 3 weeks. I also recently ordered some books, and while they came fairly promptly it was nothing like this.
How lucky. I ordered an item a week ago with free shipping and they haven’t even shipped it out yet.
UPS loses forever up here just because of the ridiculous customs brokerage fees they charge on any piddling little thing you import.
You live in Canada. You will find yourself losing in all sorts of ways…every day!
I ordered a polarizer for my camera from Toronto (to Victoria) that shipped via Canada Post eXpressPost and arrived in one day. That’s a hell of a lot further than five driving hours. Shipping in general has gotten a lot faster, probably thanks to FedEx. It used to always take an extra day for things to get from Vancouver to the island.
Just to add some balance to this thread, I’ll say that I ordered some books from Amazon (all in stock) last Monday, and decided to give the regular shipping a try , just to see how fast it would be. The books still haven’t arrived, so I checked their status this morning. Where are they? Still at Amazon. The latest (and only) event in the tracking summary is “Carrier notified to pick up package,” dated July 11.
USPS: not so victorious.
Eh, it varies. If you take the cheapest option, you’re taking a gamble. It might be fast or it might be slow. If you want to make sure it gets to you quickly, pony up the extra bucks.
i tried to drop off a package at a dropoff box. my box was slightly too big. infact, if the box didn’t have some jagged sliders on the bottom of the door, i think i could have shoved it in. screw you ups! ;)
Well, at least the currency is winning! Get ready to see more Canadian tourists abroad. :)
I never had a problem with USPS on Amazon. Delivering to FPO addresses was virtually flawless, within 2 weeks from wherever/US to armpit of Iraq. OTOH, UPS has been all over the place in the continental US. Having briefly had a summer job at Fedex back in the day, I’m not unsympathetic to the travails of delivery services. I’m just pretty far from the day when I will be able to wait on their good graces for new game releases, significant albums, etc. Come to think of it, that goes for the USPS as well, it just would never occur to me to rely on it for 0 day releases.
Hah you’re probably one of those American tourists with a big Canadian flag on your backpack so you dont get fragged overseas.
Thought I’d bump this with something I’m pretty upset about:
Shipment Date: July 20, 2007
Destination: Columbus, OH, United States
Estimated Arrival: July 27, 2007
Date Time Location Event Details
July 21, 2007 07:03:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US Arrival Scan
July 21, 2007 03:39:00 AM MEMPHIS TN US Departure Scan
July 21, 2007 01:09:00 AM MEMPHIS TN US Arrival Scan
July 20, 2007 06:34:00 PM — Carrier notified to pick up package
July 20, 2007 06:15:00 PM LOS ANGELES CA US Departure Scan
July 20, 2007 04:30:00 PM LOS ANGELES CA US Shipment picked up from seller’s facility
That’s pretty weird, Ben. I think they are just taunting you. I will say, once the USPS actually picked up the package at Amazon (which I have now received), they got it to me in two days. It was just the week that it spent sitting in Amazon’s shipping facility that annoyed me. I’m kind of impatient, and usually spring for the priority shipping.
Nothing beats the deal I got on my Westinghouse 42" back in late November. It was a little under $1200 and had free 2 day Fedex. I ordered it Tuesday night and it was there on Thursday morning (a trip from LA to Florida!). When the guy delivered it, he said it actually wasn’t scheduled to go out till the next day, but he said “When I saw it, I was thinking, I bet that guy would really like that TV today. So I moved it onto the truck myself.”
Awesome.
I bet he wanted you to tip him.
Nah. He wanted to know where I got it. So yeah not an entirely selfless act but hey.