Unnessary Charge

The book being late by 6 days cost you two assignments? Shouldn't you
have ordered the book sooner?

James, do you have a tracking number? If so, instead of counting on
Amazon's projected date of delivery, I'd try sticking the tracking
number into the website of the shipper. Sometimes Amazon's estimates
don't reflect the kind of shipping you paid for.

What was the book's availability on the website? If it was listed as
in stock and usually shipping within 24 hours, then you should have
gotten it 2 business days after you ordered it (I think the cutoff is
around 5pm). That would have been yesterday (the day you wrote the
letter) or today, depending on whether you made the cutoff. Weekends
don't count when it comes to 2-day shipping. It sounds as if you
ought to have paid for next-day shipping so you could have gotten it
on Friday.

So yes, if they actually agreed to provide you with it on Monday and
it doesn't come until Tuesday or Wednesday, I think you've got a point
and they should refund you the difference between standard shipping
and 2-day shipping. (If the book had any availability other than
"within 24 hours", if you ordered it after the cutoff on Thursday, or
if you bought it from another seller doing business through Amazon (I
believe they have 2 business days to ship in-stock items), on the
other hand, you probably are owed nothing.)

But the missing 2 assignments because you ordered the book last minute
is still on you. If you knew about this book before Thursday you
should have ordered it before Thursday: hings go wrong in shipping
all the time. If you only found out about this book on Thursday and
you had assignments due on Friday and Monday, you really ought to have
bought or borrowed it locally. Your professor might even have been
willing to work with you if you went and said, "Despite starting the
assignment as soon as I had the details, I only found out about this
book at the last minute, and it's not available in this city. I've
tried every library and every bookstore. Can you give me an extension
for one day so that I can get it from Amazon?" That is absolutely not
the same level of reason as "I was arrested for underage drinking and
assaulting a cop, and I didn't have the book in my cell." (And yes,
during my stint in academia I did get exactly that reason that someone
wasn't prepared once.)

I hope you'll check back and let us know when the book does arrive.
But if you are really going to pursue a refund from Amazon it will
probably be better to use their own complaint/question form.

I'm not sure of the details of your order, but 2 days rush may be
accurate for shipping. Amazon often takes a few days to ship
(especially if they are used items and not actually coming from
Amazon). Processing/packing times would not be included in transit
times.

A lot of people don't understand that 2 day shipping does not mean the
order is going out the very next day. There's still processing time on
the order. It simply means that when the order is finally ready to go
it will be sent via 2 day shipping instead of regular mail.

I work for an Auto Financing company and we get this complaint a lot.
I have to tell people that you did send your payment to me overnight
but it goes to our mailroom who then delivers it to our department.
Our 4 payment processors then have to post over 300 checks per day so
just because you sent it overnight does not mean it's going to be
applied to your account the very next day. It just means that instead
of taking 7-10 days to get to us it took 1, which still cuts gets it
posted to your account quicker, just not in 1 day.