Amazon No Longer Offers 2-Day Prime Shipping (Here’s What To Do About It)
Have you noticed that Amazon doesn’t deliver on their 2-day Prime Shipping anymore? It’s actually not even close for my address and I’ve had to return stuff to Amazon as I don’t need it by the time the package shows up. Anything that I want to buy today (a Monday) won’t be delivered until Sunday at the earliest. I tested this on a bunch of different shopping categories and made sure it was all products sold and shipped directly by Amazon, and none could be delivered before Sunday, 6 days from NOW. But alas, not all hope is lost, here’s what you should do to hold Amazon’s feet to the fire. It’ll only take a few minutes and put an extra $10 or $20 in your pocket.
Call Them Up and Ask For a 1-Month Refund
When I have a problem with Amazon I usually start a live chat session as it’s easier to say exactly what I want to say.
BUT…for the first time ever, I recommend actually calling them at 1-(888) 280-4331 and say, “Why don’t I get 2-day Prime shipping anymore?”
I tried doing this via Live Chat and it just went in circles due to what I’m guessing was a language barrier.
At this point, give them your zip code and ask them to run it through their system to find out for sure whether your address qualifies for 2-day shipping.
Most addresses do indeed qualify for 2-day Prime shipping.
See Also: 5 Reasons Why Amazon Prime Is a Terrible Buy
If your address does qualify, then you probably already know the EXACT reason why you’re not getting your packages within 2 days.
It’s because Amazon can’t hold up their end of the bargain and they should pay for it.
This is when you politely ask for a 1-month refund on your Prime membership (approximately $10) because Amazon can’t hold up their end of the bargain.
I did this recently via a phone call to their customer service department and it took me all of about 5 minutes to score the $10 refund.
There was ZERO hesitation from the rep I talked with and I think they are trained to hand out this refund for those who politely ask for it.
Note: My family orders from Amazon at least 1-2 times per week and I’m not sure if that played a role in getting the 1-month refund, but in either case, it’s definitely worth a shot.
PRO TIP: AIM HIGH & ASK FOR EVEN MORE
From the comments section, several Amazon Prime members were actually given a $20 “inconvenience credit”. Since we we know that a $20 credit is on the table, you might as well ask for it. You stand a decent chance of them giving it to you, and if they don’t just try again later with a different CSR.
Hold Amazon’s Feet to the Fire
I realize Amazon’s been hit by unprecedented demand in recent months, but let’s not forget they are one of the richest companies in the world.
Now that the economy and stores have opened back up in most of the country, the demand for online shopping has been greatly reduced.
Yet Amazon still can’t figure it out and solve their order backlog issues.
What ticks me off the most is Amazon wants to blame it on the pandemic and increased demand in online shopping.
I’d have no problem buying that argument back in March, April or May of 2020…BUT NOT NOW.
It’s my opinion that Amazon was losing money on the 2-day shipping guarantee and is using the current situation as a handy way to get rid of the fast shipping guarantee altogether.
See Also: Not Getting Amazon Delivery on Sunday? Here’s Why
I’d be SHOCKED if 2-Day Prime shipping ever came back at this point.
So the bottom line is get your $10 refund NOW before they aren’t so generous.
The customer service rep also told me that MANY people are calling to cancel Prime, she said she had already cancelled over 50 memberships in the past couple days.
Here’s what a chat rep told me when I asked him if Prime members were complaining about the issue:
PRO TIP: TRY AN AMAZON BUSINESS ACCOUNT
Thanks to reader Joseph, who commented recently letting us know that his Amazon Business account has been delivering in 2-days since last September. The interesting part is that his “regular Prime account” is stuck at 4-7 days for delivery. Since an Amazon business account is FREE to join, and also gives you quantity discounts, setting up an account could be worth a shot. Also, in case you were wondering, he said his business is not COVID related in the slightest.
Prime 2-Day Shipping Has Turned Into 5-Day Delivery
The reason that 2-day Prime shipping has turned into 5, 6, or even 7-day shipping has nothing to do with UPS or the USPS.
It falls 100% on Amazon as they now say that the “2-day shipping guarantee” is from when they actually process your order and get it in the mail.
So if it takes them a couple days to box it up and ship it out, then you’ll get it delivered to your home in about 5 days on average.
See Also: Amazon Package Arriving Late? Here’s How to Score a Refund
If you’re like me, the main reason you joined Prime and paid $139/year was for the 2-day shipping, so this is KIND OF A BIG DEAL.
Ask the Reader: Are you a Prime member? If so, when was the last time Amazon delivered something to you in 2 days?
By Kyle James
I started Rather-Be-Shopping.com in 2000 and have become a consumer expert and advocate writing about out-of-the-box ways to save at stores like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco to name a few. I’ve been featured on FOX News, Good Morning America, and the NY Times talking about my savings tips. (Learn more)
Just called them and they blamed everything on everyone else and refused to acknowledge their part. Highly dissatisfied and disappointed. As a small business owner, I am getting screwed by their slow delivery times.
You need to immediately ask for a Supervisor. I lodged my complaint (Why am I paying $120 for 2-day delivery and getting items delivered in a week???) and the Supervisor offered to refund $60 to my credit card without my asking and told me the problem will be fixed soon.
Adios to Amazon! Seriously! If Chewy ships my dog food and supplies within 2 days, they can ship fast, too. This whole pandemic thing is just a lame excuse for everyone to make excuses, and I am sick of it. I never made excuses or stopped working or even caught The Rona, either.
For most things GameStop has been doing free fast shipping (typically 2-3 days if not sooner) or in some places 2 hour deliveries!
They definitely don’t have a huge inventory like Amazon but they’re adding more and more to their online store.
They also recently hired some ex-Amazon executives.
Glad to see them trying to step up to Amazon.
I just tested it, I placed an order last night on the 19th and it, as it has been for a year, gave me a delivery day on the 26th, an entire week out. Sometimes it does end up coming sooner but still annoying because I just tried doing the same order but with an address about 20 minutes away and with that address its estimated delivery day was the 21st. >_>
may i say. i have amazon ship to four different addresses. interestingly, the three others outside my address in fort bragg ca tag to be relieved in 1-2 days 90% of the time. when i flip to home address ( we are directly on path from large city center) it becomes 7 8 or 9 days. yet in REALITY they just don’t package and ship to us in proper any longer. when my order shows ‘shipped’ finally, it arrives a day later 🧐. def amazon POLICY
I may have some additional information that might help clarify what’s going on here. It looks like Amazon is prioritizing deliveries to relatively densely-populated locations while delaying deliveries to relatively remote locations.
I live in a small town in northern New England, and yet before the pandemic, I used to get my deliveries within two days of ordering, with rare exceptions. Now it’s typically six to eight days.
Meanwhile, a friend who lives in a densely-populated area less than 100 miles away, in the same state, gets hers in two days, sometimes one. She said it feels like she places the order, looks out the window, and there’s the delivery vehicle.
That’s the Amazon-branded delivery vehicle that delivers to my friend. At my location, packages from Amazon are still delivered by the US Post Office.
Some months ago I learned that Amazon has a crafty way of doing business: they’ll partner with another company that provides a service or product they need, and spend some time learning the business. Once they’ve got it down, they’ll form their own company and lock their former partner out, thus maximizing profits.
In the case of shipping, Amazon has partnered with USPS, UPS, and FedEx for end-point deliveries for years. Recently they started their own delivery company, and one by one they’ve replaced FedEx, UPS, and now the USPS with their own delivery service.
Except. For rural deliveries, expenses are high and profits are low. So Amazon has kept the USPS for rural deliveries. Why spend the money to expand their own network into those low-profit zones when they can stick the Post Office with those shipments, right? It’s just good business.
It goes further, though. I monitor my shipments using an app from Deliveries.orr, which shows every stop and transfer along the way. And it also shows when the package leaves Amazon’s warehouses.
Here’s what I’ve learned: Instead of shipping my packages the same day, like they used to, Amazon is now delaying for several days before handing each package over to the “shipping partner” that will get the package to the USPS.
Then, instead of going directly from the shipping partner into the USPS system–which typically gets packages across the country in less than a day–the package now plods from one “shipping partner” location to another, with significant delays at some locations, typically several days total.
By the time the package hits the USPS system, usually at a distribution center near me, about a week has passed. When the USPS finally gets ahold of the package, they get it to me in less than a day.
So who is this mysterious “shipping partner”? Wanna guess? I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing it starts with “A” and ends with “n” with a “z” in the middle.
Now, why would Amazon do this? Add what looks like a deliberate delay, but only to rural customers. Remember, my friend in the city gets her shipments in one to two days after ordering, so we know Amazon can get those packages out the door and across the country and onto her doorstep in a jiffy.
Why would Amazon do something that is likely to alienate long-term customers and make them look for alternatives?
Because us folks in the sticks aren’t profitable. We cost Amazon more than what we pay for Amazon Prime every year. Dumping us–or making us quit the system “voluntarily”–is just good business.
Maximize profits. It’s the name of the game. And when your CEO has his sights set on personally going into orbit, or landing on the moon, or moving the entire human race into outer space and turning the Earth into a “huge national park” to save the planet (Jeff Bezos’s words, not mine) then you damn well better optimize your profits.
If a few lonely customers out in the sticks have to wait a few days for their packages, well, that’s just too bad. Right?
Oh, and if you have to dodge a few billion in income taxes along the way, that’s all for the greater good, too. Right? Right?
No that’s not it, I live in the city Los Angeles a few miles from their national hub, and still can’t get anything delivered in under a week.
Same. I live in Louisville only a few miles from one of their biggest hubs in the world. Still takes a week
I think you may be right, at least about them de-prioritizing rural customers. I also live in a very rural town in northern New England. I used to get 2-day shipping from Amazon up until about 2 years ago (pretty sure I noticed this starting to happen *before* the pandemic, but I could be wrong). Now everything I order has an arrival date of at least 5 business days out. If I change the shipping address to one of my relatives who lives in a slightly more urban area about an hour away, it gets 2-day shipping. So yes, it appears that they’re no longer even offering 2-day shipping for rural customers. And yet they want me to continue to pay the same rate as everyone else. Nope! Walmart and other retailers can typically get my stuff to me in 1-3 days, whether by FedEx or UPS, so it’s clearly not an issue with the shipping companies.
I ordered water shoes yesterday Tuesday July 20 2021. The item had free shipping delivery the following Monday July 26. I’m leaving for vacation on Friday the 23rd….on the items page it specifically says “want it on Thursday July 22nd order in the next 3 hours and pay $10.53. Obviously I need them by Friday so I order immediately and pay for the 2 day shipping. So today I check the status of the order to be delivered tomorrow and it says guaranteed delivery on Sunday July 25th by 10pm. It does say 2 day shipping on my order confirmation email etc. I understand processing time but Amazon should not give a specific date for delivery that I payed extra for then after I pay for it say….”Oh by the way it’s going to take a day or two after we said it’d be delivered to actually process and ship it.” If amazon says order within the next few hours and get it on a specific day for an additional charge….. sounds like they will be processing it that day as long as it’s ordered within that time frame they themselves put on the purchase page. What they should be saying is disregard what it says on our site about getting it on a certain day because if you order now and pay for two day shipping you still wont get it for 5 or 6 days….because we aren’t actually going to ship it until after you need the item. They did give me a $10 credit on my amazon account which is less than the 2 day shipping I payed…..and irrelevant now because the whole point of the order was to get it before I left for vacation.
Jeff Besos has enough money to focus on going to outer space yet can not hold up a business deal with members and do our 2 day shipping. We are fools for supporting him.
I am a Prime member and haven’t had anything delivered in two days in months (today is July 26, 2021). And to add insult to injury, a lot of my orders are now “running late” and they are “very sorry”. Out of those that are late, I’ve ended up having to cancel at least three of them because despite them being “very sorry” my stuff was lost or broken or permanently “delayed in transit.”
I have a question – I should know this but I don’t and I’m too lazy to go read Amazon’s terms and conditions. Is it 2-day shipping or 2-day delivery? Most of my items (not all but most) are still being shipped within two 2 days, but the delivery portion has gotten ridiculous and are more and more not delivered at all. I’m about to have to cancel yet another order and I am really kind of over it.
Up to the last second of actual delivery, Amazon still says my order will arrive in the next 5 days. They refuse to commit to anything anymore. Cancelling prime.
Cancelled. I couldn’t even get them on the phone. After about a half dozen attempts both calling and on their website, I just gave up, and cancelled.
I called to complain about the absurd lag amazon has exhibited in getting back to pre-COVID delivery times. I asked to speak to s Supervisor immediately, as I hate recounting the story twice. I mentioned that Walmart online delivers to my rural area in two days, and I don’t have to pay $120 a year for the service (I order some staples if I need to get the total to the $35 free delivery threshold.) I did NOT ask for a refund, but the Supervisor, without prompting, refunded $60 to my CC and told me they are working feverishly to fix the issue. We shall see.
I live in Northern New England, I used to get 2-3 day delivery but now my deliveries are taking 5-7 days to arrive. I called and complained and asked for my ENTIRE membership to be refunded (I’m 5 months into my Prime year). I had to talk to a supervisor but it was real easy and quick and I received the $119 refund already. I just placed my first order as a Non-Prime member last Friday (over $25) and it’s supposed to be delivered this Thursday. That’s pretty much what I was getting with Prime.
For many reasons I do not use any of the other Prime Benefits (mostly my internet is too slow), so I’m not missing anything except I have a Prime Credit Card and the 5% back on Amazon purchases was reduced to 3%. I wasn’t aware of this when I canceled. Now I’ve done some calculations and it appears that the 2% I lost on the CC would just cover my Prime Membership cost for the last 12 months (i.e., 2% of my last 12 months purchases at Amazon is about $120).
So I’m not sure what to do right now, I feel like I sent a strong message to Amazon; but at the same time Prime turned out to be a break-even situation for me.
Something to think about.
I just (7 AUG 2021) tried some of the suggestions folks have recommended. Asked to speak to a supervisor immediately; not much haggle to get there. Explained that I hadn’t been receiving 2-Day shipping in awhile and that I used to get most packages in 1 to 2 days. The supervisor explained that folks on the month-to-month subscription are being given a 1-MONTH REFUND, and folks on the annual subscription are receiving a PRO-RATED amount that equates to the rest of their annual cycle until they renew again. I’m on the annual plan and am being refunded the prorated amount. The supervisor didn’t know why packages are slow and didn’t blame or try to blame anyone, just said Amazon is aware and working on it. My plan is about to renew in a little over a month; if they don’t have their act together, I’ll call again and see if I can get the next full year of Prime refunded while they are still being generous.
The least Amazon could do is post accurate delivery windows. Its extremely irritating to order things based on the ‘delivery by’ date only to find out that as soon as the order is placed that date is changed without notice. If the dates were accurate I would know that I should just drive to a store if I need something by a specific date.