Amazon Prime sporadic behaviour Nov20 '05

Screen shot of Amazon Prime buttons

The Prime convenience

I love Amazon Prime - I use it to buy everything from shaving cream to vitamins. Some have found this behaviour of mine to be strange, but I persist - because I like using my time wisely - and not spending it shopping for toothpaste.

And with free two-day shipping, I can’t go wrong. Why bother going out to the store, for every little item - when I can just click a button, and have it all appear at my doorstep in two days? That’s a "no brainer," if you ask me.

Hidden hassles

Amazon Prime is nice - but there are some issues I’ve been noticing, that provide some hassle, despite all of the convenience.

First off - not all items are "Prime candidates." This means that only the stuff that Amazon has stocked internally gets the "Prime status." Amazon has hundreds of third-party companies, who sell their stuff through Amazon. Anything that’s "third-party" is not a "Prime" item, because Amazon has to account for someone else’s shipping costs.

So, right off the bat - the number of items that I can purchase and receive in two days is limited.

But, Amazon claims that over a million items are Prime:

Screen shot of Amazon Prime message

Sporadic behaviour

The problem is... some days an item is "Prime," and other days it’s not. This "sporadic" behaviour is aggravating, especially when I like a particular product, and I’m used to getting "Prime shipping" on it.

Also, some items go out of stock (suddenly), and then I’m stuck searching for a similar item - also with "Prime status," which is a challenge, for sure.

Better interface needed

Amazon needs a better interface to interact with "Prime items." Instead, I’m always searching for what I need, and then hoping it’s a "Prime candidate." There should be some way to list only Prime items, so I can view those, at a glance.

But, that would be silly for Amazon to do - because they’d be encouraging people to buy only the items with free shipping.

But hey - they came up with the idea, not me.

Categories: Products , Services , Web Sites

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Well over half the Amazon Prime items I order do NOT arrive within the promised time period. I’m beginning to think the program is fatally f ... Read more.

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matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.