Amazon Prime Delivery Delays Are Now as Long as a Month
By Jason Del Rey, Vox
23 March 20
The e-commerce giant is prioritizing household staples and other high-demand
items during the coronavirus pandemic.
Amazon announced earlier this week that it would start prioritizing the most
in-demand essential items in its warehouses, as the e-commerce giant
struggles to keep up with customer demand during the Covid-19 coronavirus
pandemic.
Now the other shoe has dropped.
On Sunday, customers and Amazon merchants posted on social media platforms
saying certain non-essential items were showing April 21 delivery dates,
even though they were listed as in-stock and shipping with Amazon's Prime
express shipping service. During normal times, Amazon Prime deliveries
typically arrive in one or two days in the US. Now, some Prime deliveries
for in-stock items are showing five-day delivery promises on the lower end,
but those waits are as long as a month on some items.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Recode on Sunday evening that the new
April 21 delivery dates are not the result of a technical bug or error; they
accurately reflect Amazon's current reality.
"To serve our customers in need while also helping to ensure the safety of
our associates, we've changed our logistics, transportation, supply chain,
purchasing, and third-party seller processes to prioritize stocking and
delivering items that are a higher priority for our customers," the
spokesperson said in a statement. "This has resulted in some of our delivery
promises being longer than usual."
The significant delivery delays showcase just how much shoppers are turning
to online shopping during the global health crisis, and how even an online
retailer as technologically-advanced and powerful as Amazon can only do so
much to handle such an unexpected, once-in-a-generation shopping rush. On
Tuesday, Amazon acknowledged the challenges it was facing when it said it
would only accept new stock in its warehouses through early April if it was
in one of six essential products categories, such as health and household
goods or medical supplies. The company also said it was looking to hire
100,000 new workers to help sort, package, and deliver goods for customers.
The trade-off Amazon is making, for now, is that some items like printer ink
and coffee makers - which don't fall into the six different product
categories Amazon is currently prioritizing as essential - are showing
delivery delays unlike anything Amazon customers have experienced in recent
memory. It's unclear if Amazon will refund Prime membership fees - either
partially or fully - if the delays continue. Amazon Prime costs $119 a year
in the US, and comes with other perks beyond express shipping like video and
music streaming.
On Twitter, customers cited April 21 delivery dates for items as varied as
computer monitor cables to espresso machines. One person complained that he
tried to order cables that he'd "normally go to Guitar Center and grab," but
Amazon could only deliver them by April 21. That's the same date Recode
found when we looked up similar cables on Sunday night.
For Amazon merchants who sell in categories outside of the ones Amazon
currently deems essential, the delivery delays could be problematic.
"This has to be the biggest disruption to Amazon's operations since they
started," said Joe Kaziukenas, CEO of the e-commerce research firm
Marketplace Pulse. "And, unfortunately, it will have a big impact on sellers
and ultimately customers, too."
Sunday, Amazon sellers compared notes on Reddit message boards to try to
figure out which items were showing delays and which weren't. Some said
their items were showing April 21 delivery dates even though they were goods
in one of the six categories Amazon is currently prioritizing. Others said
the same item was showing normal delivery times for some zip codes, but
April 21 delivery for other zip codes.
Either way, this is the current reality for Amazon customers and Amazon
sellers alike: five-day Prime delivery waits are the norm, and month-long
waits are not uncommon. And it's unclear how long it will last.
