{"id":5813,"date":"2014-07-25T11:02:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T16:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/?p=5813"},"modified":"2014-07-25T23:01:42","modified_gmt":"2014-07-26T04:01:42","slug":"order-early-from-amazon-a-cautionary-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/?p=5813","title":{"rendered":"Order Early from Amazon: A Cautionary Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Amazon's<\/a>

Amazon’s initial “in stock” statement.<\/p><\/div>\n

A two day book delivery promise from Amazon can turn into 2 1\/2 weeks. Or longer.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I try to keep enough copies of my photography book in stock to have at my photography workshops for people who didn’t order the book before the workshop. I also keep books on hand for people who discover my book and want to order an autographed copy for themselves or to give away as a gift. At least that’s the plan. With three of my workshops coming up I decided to order a few more copies this morning.<\/p>\n

I checked Amazon’s site and they have 6 copies in stock, or at least that is what the site says, with the possibility of overnight delivery (screen capture above).\u00c2\u00a0 I ordered 5 books and Amazon gave me several delivery options, including paying for overnight delivery. I opted for the free two day “Prime” delivery.\u00c2\u00a0 I paid with a credit card and checked out.<\/p>\n

\"Amazon<\/a>

Amazon delivery estimate after ordering.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was not until the ordering process was done that they showed me my new delivery date estimate, August 13-20. What on earth happened to the two day delivery that comes with the Prime membership I paid for? How did 2 days delivery become 19-26 days?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I have enough books for my August 15-17 workshop. That is one reason I have started ordering well in advance for my fall workshops. This isn’t the first time this happened. This whole thing with two days delivery time becoming three weeks was a problem when I was ordering extra books for my spring photography workshops. I now order extra copies of my book two months ahead of my workshops. I remember when two days delivery time with Amazon really was two days.<\/p>\n

\"Amazon,<\/a>

Amazon, revised in stock estimate after my order.<\/p><\/div>\n

After getting my delivery date surprise, I went back to my book’s Amazon page. Now they have one book “In stock on July 28”. Hmmm. And I won’t get my books until mid August or later. I don’t get it.<\/p>\n

I could cancel my order at Amazon and go elsewhere, but the last time I did that (for my spring workshops) the delivery date from the other book dealers was much later than the estimated delivery date, not too mention I had to pay a “per book” delivery fee so the total cost per book was higher than at Amazon. Sigh.<\/p>\n

There is a moral to the story. If Amazon offers you two day delivery at check out, that does not always mean you will get the book in two days. Order early.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A two day book delivery promise from Amazon can turn into 2 1\/2 weeks. Or longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5813"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5820,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions\/5820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}