In strange bit of irony, ever since I suspended my Amazon Prime account about a month ago, I’ve been doing more shopping on the website than ever. Honestly, it would have been nice to receive some of my recent purchases more quickly with the free two-day shipping offered by the Prime membership - such as the portable air-conditioning machine, but alas I had to make do with waiting the few additional days. I’d also forgotten that for non Prime customers, each purchase needs to be over $25 dollars in order to get free (slow) shipping, so sometimes I’ve had to think of more essential items to buy just to get me over that hump.
I am of course quite okay with slow shipping speeds; I wouldn’t have cancelled the Prime account if I didn’t. However, I’ve noticed that the only difference between standard and two-day shipping is a built-in delay for the former. Amazon would hold off shipping items until two days before scheduled, then it gets released to the carriers. Effectively, it’s still two-day shipping, but with a waiting period. My guess is it’s most optimal for Amazon to send all items out via two-day speed, no matter if the customer have paid for it or not. For a customer who doesn’t pay for it, the extra wait is artificial and not caused by anything logistical.
I’m old enough to remember when slow shipping on Amazon actually meant a package a physically took the extra few days to reach my home, and not because it is sat in a warehouse waiting for release. Standard shipping was ground shipping, instead of delayed two-day shipping. I reckon it’s a good tactic to get people to sign up for Prime; like blank buttons in the interior of a base-model car reminding customer of options they didn’t buy, Amazon shows non Prime shoppers like me the power and speed of two-day shipping, and it would be so easy to pay the extra money for a Prime membership to get rid of the artificial delay.
Sorry, Amazon: I’m still not going back to Prime.
Winter is coming.