Shipping Honesty

Or maybe some time next week . I swear , some of these vendors wait until they get an order to actually acquire the product they just sold . I'm awaiting arrival of bearings and seals for the front axle on my "new" tractor . Good thing I have another machine that can do most of what the new one will .

Or maybe some time next week . I swear , some of these vendors wait until they get an order to actually acquire the product they just sold . I'm awaiting arrival of bearings and seals for the front axle on my "new" tractor . Good thing I have another machine that can do most of what the new one will .

One of the things I really noticed with Amazon recently is blatantly misleading or false delivery times with a twist.

I quit buying anything important from Amazon for a few years because I ordered some important items that had an option for a faster delivery time. I selected the faster delivery time (a couple days), and then it was two weeks plus for shipping from out of the country. Amazon tried to claim that was the normal delivery time and I agreed, and showed them their listing showing the option for faster delivery time, and my payment for the faster delivery time, and they refused to acknowledge the screenshots from their own website. I never got a refund for the shipping difference, and they never acknowledge that they screwed me.

Unfortunately the world has gotten to the point where sometimes you have no choice but deal with dishonest soulless if not outright evil corporations like Amazon, Ford, and Alphabet, or do without. You have to choose the one that screws you over in a way you can tolerate best.

I find myself having no choice, but order some things from Amazon. I can find them elsewhere sometimes for a lot more money and a lot more lead time, but in business both of those things matter.

During my recent air dryer upgrade I decided to upgrade everything. Stainless braided outer lines for all my flex lines, assorted fittings, bigger badder pre and post filters, and ... stuff. In order to get several pieces in any reasonable time and price I had to order it from Amazon. My wife gets a lot of household stuff from Amazon, so of course we have a "Prime" account. Whatever that means. I used to have a business account, and it didn't mean anything really. Anyway, in order to find items that would deliver next day I selected "Prime" listings and looked for next day (or two day) items. I did not sort by price. There were cheaper prices on Amazon, but not with next day delivery. Of course local industrial suppliers would say, "We can get it for you," and online industrial suppliers were either much more expensive or much longer lead time or both. Anyway, I would find spec items listed as next day delivery, add them to the cart, and then look in the cart to see they had changed it to 2-5 days delivery. At one point I added every single spec item, checked the cart, and deleted all those that had changed delivery times. It was the only way to find those that actually had next day delivery instead of the BIG FAT LIE. Since no job ever goes to plan around here I wound up doing this three different times, and I experienced it every single time.

In my opinion Amazon has gas lighting you deliberately BAKED IN to their software. "Oh, no. See in your check out it said you wouldn't get it for 2-5 days." You thought you ordered next day delivery items, BECAUSE YOU DID, but before check out they change it.

You might wish to try McMaster-Carr. Their stuff is always satisfactory, and shipping time is correctly estimated. They do not compete on low low price.

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Joe

They ain't all like that ... I ordered a new tie rod assembly for the Yanmar from Southern Farm Eqpt over the phone around 1:00 this afternoon . Just got an email that my package is already on the way via UPS . They might have noticed the amount of stuff I've ordered since I bought this tractor ...

I buy from McMaster all the time. Just opened a box from them yesterday.

I ordered an item from Phoenix Az late last month and got a couple of 'it has been shipped' notifications from DHL but it looks like it's just we have something to collect for you. I was pleasantly surprised by the one on Monday 4/8/2025 that showed it had been collected and left Phoenix Az and got to Cincinnati Oh 5/8/2025 and then got to the UK and through customs and at the Midlands DHL depot by late evening 5/8/2025.  Normally I would get an email from DHL with a date and delivery time window, not this delivery, so I missed the delivery today so have rescheduled it for tomorrow so will have to hang around till it arrives. Normally when they say they need a signature it gets left anyway or next door but this time they want my signature it seems and won't settle for less. It took a bit of time to get shipped but once collected that's about 5.5k miles in 2 days.

I've filled a couple customer orders to the UK. I usually ship by post. For small items total shipping including insurance is usually cheapest, and time is not to bad. I always ship insured signature required. I try to stay away from third party shippers that use post like GlobalPost. They seem to play games to cheat shippers and customers on fees IMO.

Surprisingly I have had EARLY delivery at least as often as late - up here in Canada.

You, Joe Gwinn, are the master of understatement!!!!!!!

I've been seeing deteriorating tracking and delivery competence even from Amazon recently. Perhaps the problem is new AI software. My dog understood me better than the telephone AI I dealt with this morning.

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A recent Amazon order that has been for a week and is still being reported as "shipped" and due tomorrow was actually delivered around noon today. Delivery has been good except for small bagged items that were "lost" for a few days to months, the fumble seems to be with tracking. At their peak Amazon showed where the truck is and how soon to expect it, but that soon vanished. Perhaps porch pirates were ordering small items to see and misuse the info.

I sometimes got a spam delivery problem call after placing an order, suggesting they had a leak.

My original post was not about Amazon, although a later post in the thread did rant about one of the gaslighting lies they have baked into their system.

My original post was about an industrial supplier.

Speaking of Amazon they are building a local distribution warehouse just a couple miles from me. Literally about 2. (3.2Km) I don't know that I think it will improve delivery times on the kinds of things I order, but we shall see. I suppose there will be same day delivery on some things, but it doesn't look like "that big" of a warehouse to me. I know a few local cooling companies with multiple cooling plants on a single site that would each easily engulf the new Amazon warehouse.

I know some other companies use gig drivers and provide same day delivery. I ordered five gallons of hydraulic oil several weeks ago from an auto parts store for my tractor after finally fixing the tilt cylinder leaks on the bucket loader (or forks). I saw they offered delivery for about the same cost as the gas to drive my truck to their store. It was late. I was tired. Next day would be fine. 45 minutes later I got a call from the gig driver letting me know he was in my driveway with my bucket of oil.

FYI: I have talked with a couple guys who do gig delivery work. They seem to be okay with it, but I know what I get charged for delivery. I can't imagine the delivery drivers are making all that much money. Maybe if they get lucky and get several deliveries in the same area. In my head its more than minimum wage, but vehicle costs and increased insurance costs have to cut that pretty close. I tip the pizza guy, but a lot of the gig drivers drop their package, snap a picture, and leave before I even know they are there.

My original post was not about Amazon, although a later post in the thread did rant about one of the gaslighting lies they have baked into their system.

My original post was about an industrial supplier.

Bob La Londe

---------------------------------- The common link might be a commercial software upgrade, or change in how the suppliers and freight companies share data.