I don’t purchase a ton on Amazon personally, but I have noticed that the service level has dropped significantly. Years ago it was anything and everything in 2 or 3 days tops. Now I see instock prime items that show an eta of almost two weeks out sometimes. I honestly think that they try to funnel buyers to purchase from local centers. I have had items show up on searches from work that will not come up on their own through searching on my phone app.
Last summer I purchased a car part for same day delivery (wasn’t available at a local store). I had my truck disassembled in my driveway waiting for this part to arrive that day. It didn’t. I had to put my truck back together so I could go to work the next day. I called to find out where the part was and to complain. Just a $5 credit.

For a buyer, it means a lot. Thats why they have so many buyers!

For a seller, agree that it doesn’t mean near as much. But then, I’d rather they have 144+ MILLION buyers than a hundred thousand sellers. And they have way more than a hundred thousand sellers.

Google “how many amazon 3p sellers” for some scary stats re 3p sellers.

Have you ever read what Prime shipping and how they define it. Most people don’t read what Amazon states in the terms and conditions. They leave a very wide range for a reason. At one time I would see a lot of items that had guaranteed delivery on them. I can’t tell you when I have seen something I have ordered personally with the “Guaranteed Delivery”

“If the item you’re ordering is out of stock or unavailable to ship immediately, the shipping method time starts when the item ships. For example, it will take two business days after an item ships to reach you with Two-Day Shipping.”

“our shipping methods apply to business days only, not weekends or holidays.”

“Remember to check the ordering cut-off time shown on the detail page”

Amazon does a really good job of meeting stated criteria

I agree that Prime shipping delivery has slipped. I don’t count on it being two days. Had an incredibly frustrating experience as a buyer this week - with amazon shipping and amzn delivery.

• 1/16 ordred item needed by 1/24 (today); expected delivery 1/18
• 1/18 tracking says something like “building empty, couldn’t leave package.” Not true. My husband and I were both home all day and we’ve received amazon deliveries here (residential address) since 1998. Customer service says item will be delivered next business day.
• 1/22 get email saying my purchase is refunded; shipper says item is lost
• 1/22 reorder same item; expected delivery is 1/24
• 1/24 tracking says item was delivered - handed to customer at 9:34 am. Not true. We were at home. Checked with neighbors and mailbox at road; not there. Customer service refunded and told me to reorder with same-day delivery and amazon would pay delivery charge. Waiting to see if it will actually be delivered today, but I’m not holding my breath.

If this had been my first order with amazon, it would have been my last.

🤷 Anytime I have contacted Amazon about an FBA item with a guaranteed delivery date that was delayed, they have given me a credit (most recently last week a $10 credit on a $18 item that ended up being delivered 1 day late in the end).

Granted it is maybe once every couple months and 50-60 orders or so that I end up getting something late and I only bother complaining if it was an item I needed ASAP. I also don’t ask for (or demand) a credit, customer service always offers. Not every Prime delivery is guaranteed delivery by a certain date. You need to check the language when you check out.

I’m not a member of Prime as a buyer and don’t carry SFP on the selling side because of too many carrier delays that are completely out of my control (including a rash lately) but that I would have to take a financial hit for. I don’t think the benefits would outweigh the costs in my case and the false-urgency stress over some low-value item not arriving in 2 days is one of those unmeasured, unquantifiable things whose effects are very real. As I’ve posted elsewhere, if I wanted to be yelled at all the time over stuff I had little or no control over, I could just start working for The Man again and at least get a smidgen of benefits on top of the pay.

Maybe I’m showing some age here, but it should be (or at least used to be) COMMON SENSE that sellers don’t get to control the shipping carrier. UPS or the USPS will give a delivery estimate, but if it’s a service like the regular ground service and they miss that, there’s no repercussion to them. They just missed it. There’s also no seller ability to “pull back” an item (when have you ever been able to do that as a sender?)

So unless & until Amazon gets its own shipping service (which it seems to be working on) we’ve got this totally artificial Prime-guarantee construct that some people are gaming. When you’ve got well over half a trillion in market cap you can splurge on stuff like Sunday USPS deliveries or refunding things just because they’re late (and they still arrive) and do that kind of stuff to build market share for years. Normal businesses can’t operate that way.

Most people think Prime is free 2-day shipping, and Amazon has worked with the Post Office to increase that expectation to two calendar days. If something is ordered on Friday, customers expect it on Sunday.

I think Amazon has shot itself in the foot, and it’s trying to pull back expectations for what Prime means with small and light, etc. I think this, combined with the relatively frequent missed windows and increasing fees, is going to lead to increased dissatisfaction with the program eventually.

I’ve never complained about a missed window as a buyer, but I’d say it happens 10-20% of the time for me.

Contrast that with my experience as a shipper. We don’t do FBA or SFP, and it feels like we get fairly regular complaints about people expecting something they ordered Saturday to show up across the country on Monday.

It is you complain you get a refund. Which is unfair.

Quite frankly I think Amazon Prime’s free two day shipping has contributed to a culture of impatience and unrealistic expectations. I recently switched over to Seller Fulfilled Prime and the amount of stress and increased shipping costs makes me wonder sometimes if it is even worth it. I wish it would change to three day free shipping which is much more doable, would reduce stress, and allow more items to ship with USPS Priority flat rate. USPS once had Priority Mail flat rate as a two day delivery and Express Mail as a one day delivery. Now Priority is 2-3 days and Express is 1-2 days making them ineligible for many of our Prime shipments only leaving very expensive options to select from. I am convinced that the USPS changed their delivery windows to get Amazon off its back (regarding late shipments).