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I'm a bit frustrated with Amazon as the time to receive packages has increased markedly since the holidays. I assumed the longer ship times were a result of the holiday rush but even now well after the holidays, what used to take 4-5 business days to receive items (with Prime) is now taking twice that or more. I've had items take nearly 3 weeks to arrive.
And to add insult to injury, the $6 or $12 premium options for Prime subscribers (2nd Day or Next Day respectively) are now gone altogether on almost everything I purchase. Most items simply state "5-7 business days" and no other option. Is this the future for Amazon and Hawaii? While the rest of the nation is continuing to see improved and shorter delivery times, we've just shot ourselves back to 1999.
For those that don't pay for Amazon Prime and live in Honolulu, what is your average shipping time nowadays? I can't imagine it being much worse than 2 weeks average. Being that I never use their streaming service, I feel like I'm flushing that annual fee down the toilet.
Are you sure you are ordering items marked "Prime"?
Yes, they have downgraded Prime for Hawaii - seems like it has been at least a few years now.
If you don't have Prime, the standard ship time remains the same - it is just that you have to pay for the standard shipping. I'm not sure if the free shipping option works in Hawaii without Prime.
I've never had items take more than a week though.
Between ordering things Prime and getting them on the Big Island, has been averaging 2-3 weeks for a long time. We've even had a few items take a little longer than 3 weeks. It's one of those things that's not worth complaining about because the other option is, nobody else will ship it here. Once amazon ships an item, we get it in 3-4 days. For some reason they wait several days to a few weeks to ship things here. The only motivation I can think of is, sometimes they consolidate things into one shipment.
If it's a smaller item I've gone back to ordering stuff off of eBay for some things. I get it in 3-4 days instead of 2-3 weeks.
On Saturday I ordered something from Amazon that they wouldn't ship to Hawaii under any circumstance, so I had it shipped to a freight forwarder on the mainland. It was delivered to the freight forwarder the following day (on a SUNDAY). Mainland customers are definitely treated better.
In the last couple of weeks I've actually cancelled a lot of things that languished in the amazon "to be shipped" queue too long when I found them comparable price elsewhere (eBay, or from a merchant web site).
Has amazon been losing some of my business due to waiting forever to ship things? Absolutely. Do they care? Probably not. Most of the items they ship here, I don't understand how they can afford to ship it to begin with.
"I feel like I'm flushing that annual fee down the toilet".
We do stream things, but that's just a part of it. We get a lot of things from amazon we can't afford to get locally. But like all shopping in Hawaii, one needs a strategy. For example, Amazon will give you a 15% discount on "subscribe and save" items when you have 5 or more subscriptions. That is easy to do. Rather than get stuff delivered monthly, get it delivered every other month (easier to get to 5 items that way). Purchase it with their store card and you get 5% cash back. Between subscribe and save and the cash back, that's 20% off something that likely would have cost 30% more to buy locally. That's like buying stuff for 50% off.
Some subscribe and save ideas are things you buy regularly like coffee.
Thanks for these posts. I have Prime and will be doing some work on my condo on Maui later this year. So could I count on a delivery from Amazon Prime? If I ordered some tools and things a week ahead of my arrival would that work? thanks
Dave
Thanks for these posts. I have Prime and will be doing some work on my condo on Maui later this year. So could I count on a delivery from Amazon Prime? If I ordered some tools and things a week ahead of my arrival would that work? thanks
Dave
Probably not - especially on outer islands because everything goes through Oahu first. Pay close attention to the estimated arrival dates and assume that your items will arrive at the latest date.
It all depends. The fastest I ever have is 7 days. The longest is over 3 weeks. And they are not "Prime".
I order much less now from Amazon because other retailers like Google, Best Buy,...etc have shorter delivery time for online order and they also don't charge shipping fee.
I think Amazon from a business decision just thinks Hawaii is to small of a market to deal with shipping. They’ve gotten so big they decided to not deal with it or at least in a minimal manner.
It can be frustrating to do online shopping in Hawaii.
For example, Amazon only ships merchandise up to certain weight to Hawaii (I guess it is 35 lbs after many trials). If you order major appliances, i.e. dishwasher or fridge, you better shop via Home Depot or Best Buy. (Their brick and mortar stores just have a limited number of models on display).
Don't ever shop online at Costco. Though it ships to the 48 states free, their shipping charge to Hawaii is outrageous.
If you redeem your mileage through the United Shopping Network, their merchandise is only shipped to the 48 States but Hawaii and Alaska are excluded.
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