To my understanding, Amazon handles the free shipping process in a unique way. I believe they have containers they must completely fill with all the free shipping orders before your merchandise is put into transit. I assume this could work to your advantage if you place an order, get the free shipping, then with luck it goes into an almost full container. But with many of the complaints I’ve seen this doesn’t seem to be the case.

It feels in the past, Amazon’s free shipping option worked well. I remember having to wait a couple of days for them to ship my order but always got it in a timely fashion. It’s been almost two weeks since my most recent order was placed and it still has not been shipped. I contacted their customer service to see if there was a problem with my order or if something is not in stock so I could just cancel it. I was told the processes for their free shipping orders are different from the paid shipping methods, which is understandable. He also said that even though the shipping is pending, I will still get my order by the estimated arrival time. He told me that as a courtesy he will upgrade my shipping to a two day method which was a front to just shut me up. I knew he was just saying that to make me happy. It’s obvious my merchandise is sitting in a half full truck waiting to be filled. No one is going to sift through hundreds of boxes to find my package. The two days he upgraded the shipping to have passed and it hasn’t been shipped. Some people debate that if you do not want to wait you can always choose the paid shipping option and make your purchase a priority over the people who do not pay for their shipping. I disagree with that however. Many stores usually offer free shipping on orders anywhere from $50-$100. Their process does not take nearly as long as Amazon’s does. Now, you are getting a decent deal when you spend exactly $25 to qualify for their free shipping. But what happens when you spend around $150 like I did? I don’t think it is right to let an order that would easily qualify for free shipping with almost all competitor stores sit around for a week or two without even being processed. Had I known this would happen, I would have bought it elsewhere. There is absolutely no information about how long they will take for free shipping other than the 5-8 business day jargon which is BS anyway.

I have been an Amazon customer for years but I don’t think my relationship with them is going to last based purely on their shipping practices. The only time I will ever buy anything from them again is if I cannot find it anywhere else first. If Amazon offers an item cheaper I will spend the extra money just so I don’t have a charge in limbo lingering on my bank card waiting for them to “charge when shipped” for a month. Horrible customer service.