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)
Keep in mind that moving to a Business account messes with wishlists; you will NOT have access to them.
I fought with Amazon over this for over 3 years, and just cancelled my business account with them late last year.
They took those away now. You can’t use outside items anymore.
So, interesting plot twist. Almost everything I order is 4-5 days out. I just ordered something now (Sunday), and it says it will arrive on Thursday. I contacted Amazon since I kind of reached my breaking point.
They indicated that they do not guarantee that it will reach my house in 2 days from placing the order. They guarantee that it will reach my house 2 days AFTER THEY SHIP IT. I told them that it NEVER took 3 days to put my item in a box, EVER (until recently where it has become the norm). They basically said “it can”, but they aren’t understanding that “CAN” means it should be the exception and not the rule. It ended with them thanking me for my feedback.
I think I am going to start looking hard at Wal-Mart plus now. Amazon once was a great company, but I see those days are gone.
I’ve been using Walmart and Target almost exclusively for months now (I don’t use Walmart + because I live 40 miles from my nearest store, and it’s not a super Walmart so doesn’t have a ton of groceries, that’s about 70 miles). Pretty much everything gets here within 2 days.
I also make sure that when on Walmart’s site I and am searching products I pick retailer Walmart just to make sure it’s directly from them. Every time I order from Amazon, it takes 2 weeks or more to get here, even though I have prime.
I live in the boondocks, but before covid I would get my packages from them in 1 or 2 days. I’ve had it with them. A decade of great shipping and products, and I’m canceling my prime. Now they are laying off more warehouse workers, so I can only imagine this is going to get worse.
I doubt they’d give me a refund every month and I use prime to watch Amazon’s movies and shows so I can’t just get rid of prime and join Walmart+, who lately wants me to pick up most things I order from them. They say their computers decide which is best for me.
I’m also annoyed that since Christmas, order delivery is estimated to be 1 week or more from the date of order. I remember before Covid, I would order Monday thru Wednesday and have my item on Friday. Now, I’ve NEVER had 2 day shipping – ever. I live to remotely and you would think that if I live in an area that doesn’t have, in trunk, in garage, same day, 2 day, shipping offerings, I would get some sort of discount but no, greed is at play. There should be a tier payment system based on what services you can even get. Not like I haven’t given that feedback to Amazon more than a dozen times but nothing ever changes.
However – you need to read the fine print. It’s NOT 2 day shipping from the order date – it’s 2 day shipping (in my case 3) from date of fulfilment. They can take 2 months, if they wanted to, to fill the order as long as the shipping is 2 day and that still fulfils the Prime Membership rules. The issue isn’t slow shipping, the issue is slow fulfilment.
I’ve had several conversations with Amazon indiciating that as a 12+ year prime member I’m not happy. They have made a couple of monetary apologies but no indication they’re planning on doing better. I’m starting to look at other options before I hit buy. So far Walmart (not Walmart +) took my order at 7pm, shipped FREE (met minimum) and was SHIPPED THAT DAY. HERE within 2 days.
Same thing for me with Amazon. Pre covid I was getting things within two days. Now its between 3 to 7 days. The fulfillment on orders are way slow. It almost doesn’t seem worth the subscription anymore.
I have also noticed this in Chewy. Now thankfully, this isn’t a payed subscription. But the fulfillment is also extremely slow and the shipping takes longer than 2 days sometimes.
They are down to initially offering $5 and I was able to talk nicely and get it to $10 along with a promise to “report” this to better their services. If it were not for the Prime Video and Music pieces, I would permanently switch to Walmart+ and order directly from companies that offer free and/or quick shipping. My wife and I have separate accounts and we spend multiple thousands of dollars a year on Amazon along with the ever increasing annual subscription fee. And, wouldn’t you know it, they just came back from me being on hold and told me they were having problems with the $10 promotional rebate and the line about it being 2 days from fulfillment, not 2 days from ordering (which it always was until COVID). I told them they are about to lose another long time, high volume customer to Walmart+, Kroger Boost, and others that will deliver within 2 days of ordering. Sad! Bezos bailed at the right time, I guess.
I’m so tired of Amazon’s false advertising on delivery times. I ordered a product and fell for the lie that I would get it “same day” if I met the $35 threshold. So like a fool, I added more products and just received an email that nope it’s coming tomorrow. I called and talked to 2 diff customer service reps and all that got me was a wasted 20 minutes and them blaming it on “carrier delays” Same old excuses. Then Amazon should stop making claims it can’t keep, just to rope people into buying more products. And they need to hold their carriers responsible.
Same here! I ordered my dogs joint chews Jan 5th and here we are Jan 19th and they are STILL sitting on a shelf WAITING to be pulled!!
Ordered boots Jan 11 said in stock and here we are Jan 19th STILL sitting on a shelf!!! WHAT THE HECK??!!
Oddly when this happened I ordered it a couple of days later and the date was within the two day time frame and so I cancelled the first order.
I placed an order on Monday January 16, 2023. Amazon said the order would arrive on January 23, 2023. I went ahead and placed the order because grocery stores don’t seem to have it in stock anymore. I wanted to see how long the shipping would take if I wasn’t a Prime member so I created another Amazon account with a different email address. The shipping estimate was exactly the same. I gave Amazon a piece of my mind after finding that out and told them I wasn’t going to place anymore orders with Amazon unless I really have to. I would cancel the Prime membership but a family member and I share a membership and he won’t cancel. Amazon told me it was 2 day shipping once shipped, but that doesn’t seem the case because if a non prime member’s delivery estimate is exactly the same as mine as a Prime member. A week long wait for a Prime order is not acceptable especially since Prime is now $139.
WATCH OUT FOR THEIR ALMOST HIDDEN DELIVERY CHARGES!!
It’s 1/21/2023 I have a business acct on amazon, sams club and walmart, all of them are taking way too long to deliver. I’d have better luck getting 13 CD’s for a penny, from the old Columbia House promotion SOONER than any of the above mentioned. amazon, has been attempting to slip in $5.99+ shipping AND STILL keeping the same, 7 day delivery due date for almost 9 mos now. WATCH OUT FOR IT! It IS in there, spose to be FREE SHIPPING… Then why are they TRYING to get one passed me and charge me 5.99 for shipping? Oh.. yes.. I make sure to have the minimum qualified free shipping items. Personally? as Kyle said above, and I think they’ve bitten off more than they can chew! its more than just amazon though that is taking a beating on shipping. Yeah, well, QUIT RAISING THE PRICE OF FUEL for truckers, Remember hearing, “Hero’s Are What The Truckers Are” During the “pandemic”, is THAT how you treat a “hero”? raise diesel prices so high that you put out MORE people from work….. (another subject, another day) QUIT thinking everyone is worth 20.00/hr min. wage (think its 15.00 actually for amazon) I saw this whole thing coming a cpl years ago when amazon created ITS minimum wage to 15.00. Thats another story as well. Yes, Kyle, I can get my items “fastest” 3 days sooner than the “free” shipping, but why? If they’re already screwing us over with THEIR mistakes, why should WE have to pay for it?
It’s amazing the amount of people that are dropping prime, they raise their prices and you get nothing in return? I guess, when you say it out loud, it’s not so amazing.
Ok, im off my soap box, next!
I was talking to chat about hardly seeing 2 day option anymore for past few months it’s been 5 days or more on prime orders even… pre pandemic and during pandemic I got 2 day orders all the time and it wasn’t till summer 2022 it got bad… I mean I would order at 11pm on Monday and have it Wednesday… But now
It’s terrible…
They said if from their Centers it should ship in 2 days… I was like be shipped or shipped and arriving in 2 days… he said shipped…
So that’s not 2 day shipping that’s something else..
Example..I asked OK Amazon warehouse is you guys and it says prime eligible.
Why is the item that I ordered on Sunday estimated for a Friday delivery if prime eligible coming from amazon..
You said it should be 2 day?
He had nothing and pasted a link to their shipping guidelines table.
Which I noticed has a ton of new BS and is ridiculous double talk…
Basically someone needs to class action these A holez
I managed to get an entire year of prime refunded by talking with them via chat and asking to speak with a supervisor, but that’s honestly worthless to me in comparison to getting 2 day shipping back. In my case, I already had 4 orders which were supposed to arrive on a Wednesday and still had not arrived by Friday night, with tracking showing that they had been out for delivery since Wednesday.
It’s actually more complicated than just Amazon not processing orders fast enough. Amazon has definitely cut staff at their distribution centers, and that has impacted how long orders can take to get out of the door, but we’re also dealing with a shipping problem. Amazon went ahead and signed additional deals with the USPS, who quite honestly were in no position to take on the increased workload. I had noticed that nearly all of my packages were showing up late, with tracking always showing “out for delivery” yet they don’t show up for days after, I also noticed my regular mail only showing up about 2 days a week, I went and spoke with my postmaster about it. My postmaster told me that the contract that the USPS signed with Amazon resulted in a 300% increase in non-envelope item volume, yet they were given no allotment for additional headcount. They were already struggling with the Amazon and Walmart volume as it was, often falling behind by a day every other week and that delivering 7 days a week. Their current daily volume doesn’t even fit in the trucks, and they’re either forced to add a ton more routes (no employees), or get bigger trucks working 12 hour days (no overtime approval).
I can’t help but feel like the US post office is being intentionally set up to fail. My current post office has their own postmaster running an evening shift every night trying to get caught up, and his current drivers continue quitting as FedEx and UPS both pay better and supposedly don’t drive them as hard.
I’ve had this same experience with our struggling USPS office and they know we empathize with them which is why I’ve been so lenient with Amazon orders and took so many of their digital credits already.
They expire so I have stopped doing this and I am tired of them bunching together items which should never be in the same packages so they arrive damaged or damage other items. Countless times I ‘gave something a second life’ because they claimed it to be ‘like new’ and it wasn’t even close.
They sent a vacuum that was so bad it still had someone else’s dirt inside, and yet they are trying to charge me to have UPS pick up their packages when I no longer drive and have no license anymore. Their customer service is nasty and uncaring over this and I wish the ADA would go after them for those of us who can’t help not being able to drive to Kohls assuming there is one anywhere nearby much less a UPS office in our vicinity. They would further burden postal workers with these returns.
What a terrible business they have become and my hope is that this will all come to roost on them. Walmart and eBay are now getting the lion share of my online business and when my Prime account expires in two months I’ll buy a Walmart membership instead. They lost me.
Amazon lies about delivery indicating 2 day on the item page and on the order, but then changing the delivery estimate after you order. Yet if you go back to the item it will still show 2 day even tho Amazon knows it will take longer. Total bs
After hours on the phone with Amazon we could not get a refund. They are able to do what ever they want. We are paying a higher fee than in the past and are getting less service. The new policy is that your package may be two days after they package it which is whenever they get to it. Not even close to the original deal which cost much less. Also, talking to their Customer Service is abusive. Business needs to be regulated.