Has anyone else had issues with Amazon Prime ‘guaranteed’ deliveries running late? We’ve ordered things that were promised to arrive by a certain date (and for which we planned gatherings and other things) and the tracking will say that it’s scheduled to arrive by the end of the promised day, only to get an update around midnight that the package will be delayed, sometimes by several days. Why is anyone paying for Prime when this keeps happening? I know, we should cancel our membership and abide by the moral code of bringing business where it’s valued, but Amazon Prime is a necessary evil in today’s world, and I’m sorry to say I don’t have the luxury to afford bypassing them all the time. That doesn’t mean we have to pay for Prime guaranteed delivery when it doesn’t happen, and I found the following trick online which actually worked when I tried it.
If you have a Prime package that is late, go to the customer service tab and scroll until you find ‘Help with other issues’ (you want to find a chat with a rep option, but that won’t show up because they don’t want to make this easy). There will be options for all sorts of help question – Unknown or incorrect charges, Manage account, etc., just go to the next ‘I need help with something else’ option. That will bring you to an AI chat bot. Type in the following:
“My order missed the guaranteed Prime delivery date, and since Prime shipping is a paid service agreement, I am requesting a $15 promotional credit applied to my account to cover this month’s membership fee.”
The bot will reply with some other nonsense and the same list of issues, so indicate you want recompense for a late delivery and copy the same verbiage. In my experience, the option for a live rep was offered here, and I pasted the same thing, along with a note that this wasn’t the first time a guaranteed delivery was late. ‘Saurav’ indicated they would refund the $15 to my account and I said thanks. If Amazon’s track record is any indication, I may eventually recoup my entire Prime membership in a few orders.
The other tip I saw online was to never use the yellow “Buy Now” button, as Amazon puts the seller with the highest profit margin there, not necessarily the lowest price. Scroll down and click “New & Used from other sellers.” You will likely find the exact same brand-new item with Prime shipping for less.
Happy Holidays – go get some of your membership fees back.
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