Amazon Prime -- Anyone use it?

[Kraken]

I guess they didn't have one box that would fit both buckets of treats.

Or they came from two different warehouses?

Doubtful. It was one order for two of the same item.

[Blackhawk]

And I filed a quintuple complaint, not that it's likely to do much good, but if enough people are start telling them that their new (doubtlessly cost-saving) packaging isn't working, maybe they'll change.

Also, this is the second time I've filed a complaint about this and refused credits and/or refunds (they offered me a $10 credit.) Lots of people complain to Amazon just to collect freebies. I'm not those people. And next time I have a problem, it will be listed on my profile that I turned down compensation. I have no idea if that will make any difference, but I want it to be very clear that I'm actually dissatisfied with their service, not just looking for free handouts.

Not that I haven't gotten any number of refunds/replacements in the past when the item was actually unusable for whatever reason.

[Blackhawk]

A month or two ago I ordered a set of resistance bands. They arrived, and they were a joke. I got a refund, returned the item, and left a nasty (but professional) review detailing exactly what the issues were, including false advertising (the 30 pound band was less than 10) and that it was dangerous (the straps were designed in such a way that putting resistance on the caused them to open and release.) It wasn't the first time I've gotten a lemon on Amazon, so I just moved on.

Today I got an email offering me a $30 gift card in order to remove the review.

Offering bribes to manipulate reviews is a big no-no for Amazon sellers. Rather than responding, I reported it directly to Amazon via their text chat. As soon as I mentioned what was going on there was a delay, then the person on the other side was typing faster, more eloquently, and wasn't following a flowchart manual for the responses anymore. In other words, I got quietly transferred up the chain.

I think that company is going to have a bad day.

[Jaymann]

[Jeff V]

I think that company is going to have a bad day.

As an Amazon seller, there is no end to bad days.

There are two things Amazon ought to know better than any company on the planet: books and shipping. Yet they processed a sale of a book that I had to send to Poland -- buying shipping through Amazon cost $80 (the post office would have chargerd $100). But the amount they charged the customer (which I was reimbursed for?) $20. I had to eat $60 in shipping to sell the book because Amazon can't figure out how to charge international customers proper shipping charge. WTF. And this isn't the first time; I thought I canceled international shipping options on all my books, but I guess I didn't finish that project.

[Blackhawk]

I just sent this email to Jeff Bezos' email address (which is public.) It's highly unlikely it'll actually make it to him (his team reads them unless he gets curious) but it'll make it to somebody (who will probably offer me a $10 gift card to 'fix it'.) But it still needed said, and I think it's worth saying to others.

------------------------------

Mr. Bezos

This is not about a single order. It is about a pattern.
I spoke with you earlier this week about problems I've had with Amazon lately. That was about four orders that were overdue and hadn't actually been shipped, and a rep that insisted that I just didn't understand how dates work. Later, Amazon realized that it was actually their mistake. They then packaged that order with one other order (so it hadn't even been packed on the delivery date) and then promptly lost all five. I received a tracking number that UPS had no record of. I contacted Amazon support again and reported the problem. They told me that there was no problem, didn't check the tracking number issue, and told me to wait it out, absolutely promising that it would arrive today.

Two days later - today - I contacted support again about it, and this time the rep checked, and sure enough, the package was lost. It had been lost ever since I'd reported it the first time and they hadn't checked. They offered me a replacement for four of the five orders - the last was no longer available. Some of the items are for preserving perishables (also bought from Amazon), so the only thing I asked for after all the hassle, delay, and runaround was expedited shipping to get those perishables safe. I was promised that would happen with the careful phrasing, "fastest shipping speed."

I was misled. There *is* no expedited shipping, and the replacement items aren't expected for five days, on the exact same date they would have arrived if I'd just ordered them off the page. The representative misled me to mollify me.

During this same week, I received a box of tea I'd ordered. It arrived in a thin paper bag, completely smashed, the bags ruptured. I reported it. I received a refund. I was guaranteed that it would never happen again. The thing is, this is *fifth* order of tea I'd received damaged or destroyed because the fragile box was packed in a paper or plastic sack. Four of those orders were reported. Every single one resulted in a promise to forward it to the packaging department and guarantee that it would never happen again. I have the chat records. I have four guarantees of the same thing. Again, this is a pattern. I've had heavy tools packed with small items arrive with the packages torn and the small items missing. I've had 8x10 soft back books packed in a large box with cases of water.

But it isn't just that. In the past two or three years I've received misrepresented products, items that were completely different from what the seller led me to believe. Absolute junk knock-offs that have hijacked ratings from other products to trick people into giving up their money. Weights that were less than a third of the advertised weight. Adult shirts printed on material as thin as a plastic grocery bag sized for a toddler. One item was straight up dangerous and had several reviews of people who had been injured because of it. I reported it - and it is still there, still for sale, and still described as something other than what it is.

Twice I've ordered items from companies that ended up being scams, companies that never actually had products. Want an example? Search for "ice dice" on Amazon. See the blue and white ice molds? That's a product from a Kickstarter that hasn't even been manufactured yet. I know the guys who are making it. That product doesn't actually exist. None of those shops are capable of having that product; every one of them is a scammer looking for victims. And this is just one that I know of personally, and an obscure product at that. There are tens of thousands of these items on Amazon.

I've been with Amazon for almost 19 years. I was a Prime 'early adopter.' I convinced friends and family to join Prime. But now I'm doing my best to avoid shopping at Amazon. I am ending up the victim of scammers and of con artists, I'm ordering what I need and getting it destroyed, I'm getting items so late that the need for them has passed, even if I ordered them early. And now Amazon is refusing to acknowledge reported problems, leaving dangerous items up for sale, and their representatives are straight up lying to me to make me happy. As much as I can, I am going to have to start looking for products elsewhere. I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and there are no stores that sell specialty items. Amazon, with Prime, was the answer. But it isn't anymore. It's not reliable anymore. I'm spending so much time dealing with problems with orders that paying for shipping elsewhere ends up costing less, is faster, and will actually result in me getting the items I need.

The subject of my last email included, "You can do better." You can. I hope you do. And if you do, I'll be back. But until then Amazon will be the last place I check for what I need, and only if it is a low-priority item. It just too risky.

[Signed]

[LawBeefaroni]

I ordered 2 monitors yesterday morning, along with various cables and network dongles. All of it was delivered by 3pm the same day. 3 different deliveries because the monitors were left inside, the cables were left outside on the mailbox, and the dongles were delivered to the neighbors. Was able to gather all.of it when I got home.


Point is, it's largely dependent on where you are in relation to warehouses and distribution and what those centers have in stock. Live in a high density urban area? Most of what you want is between same day and 2 day. Don't? Roll the dice.

Friend of mine lives in rural Ohio and cancelled Prime this week because he wasn't getting anything with available Prime shipping.My guess is that's just fine with Amazon. They've run the numbers.

[malchior]

I've seen a drastic drop in their delivery in the last few months - well last year I wasn't getting stuff for weeks so an improvement over that. It eventually bounced back to near normal levels and then steadily got worse.

They haven't been able to adjust to the demand of the pandemic. Here it is likely about warehouse space (high cost) and high labor costs but I used to be able to get stuff same day. Now I can't get most things within 3-4 days now. I live miles from a warehouse. When I need stuff quicker and they aren't available locally I have a hack which is to ship stuff to lockers nearer the nearest warehouse. That usually gets me next day or 2-day availability but I'm slowly but surely getting stuff from other sources more and more.

[ImLawBoy]

The only issue with Amazon deliveries we have is when they go through USPS. The item will show delivered, but it won't actually arrive for 1-5 days afterward. Can't really blame Amazon for that one - it's a USPS issue. (I live very close to LawBeef, so we're likely to have relatively similar experiences overall.)

[LawBeefaroni]

The only issue with Amazon deliveries we have is when they go through USPS. The item will show delivered, but it won't actually arrive for 1-5 days afterward. Can't really blame Amazon for that one - it's a USPS issue. (I live very close to LawBeef, so we're likely to have relatively similar experiences overall.)

I get very few USPS last mile deliveries from Amazon but they're usually on or a day after the expected date. We're lucky to have a very good mail carrier on our route.

[Blackhawk]

I live an hour and a half from a major transport hub and an Amazon warehouse. I've spent the last 15 years or so (since Prime) getting deliveries in one to three days. Shipping times have been extremely reliable. This includes the whole of 2020 and during the lockdowns.

But this isn't just about how slow Prime shipping has gotten (it seems to average 5-7 days for most people now.) It's about the caveat emptor approach that Amazon has fallen into. The fraud, the scams, the cost cutting packaging that ruins products, the lack of concern for the customer. Over the past couple of years (starting well before COVID) it has gotten worse and worse. Being in the sticks might mean that I use Amazon for more of my shopping than most (it looks like I average 5 orders per week), as I don't have retail alternatives that don't involve 60-200 mile round trips.

[Daehawk]

Have a giant Amazon warehouse in my own town and have never once gotten anything shipped from it. The fastest I ever got something was one day and it still came from somewhere else. This one here seems totally useless.

[LawBeefaroni]

It probably also depends on what kind of warehouse. Not all warehouses are delivery distribution centers.

But this isn't just about how slow Prime shipping has gotten (it seems to average 5-7 days for most people now.) It's about the caveat emptor approach that Amazon has fallen into. The fraud, the scams, the cost cutting packaging that ruins products, the lack of concern for the customer. Over the past couple of years (starting well before COVID) it has gotten worse and worse. Being in the sticks might mean that I use Amazon for more of my shopping than most (it looks like I average 5 orders per week), as I don't have retail alternatives that don't involve 60-200 mile round trips.

I do my best to avoid knockoff products or third party stuff. If there is any doubt, I get something else. Things like batteries I'll only buy direct from Amazon. I treat reviews as 98% worthless and only peruse them for less-likely to be fabricated facts ("comes with HDMI cable" or "measures 21"x14"", etc).

It is a mess, agreed.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, the reviews are worthless. I browse them for problems and clarity about the product, and I make careful use of review analyzers. But there are too many problems - fake reviews, review bombing, ratings squatters (IE - a cheap saw that takes over the rating of a power sander that isn't sold anymore, but had good ratings), and the fact that a third of the reviews are just moron yap anyway, ie "One star! I bought Twelve Inch Round Peg to use with my three inch square slot, and it didn't fit!"

[Jaymann]

I don't pay for Prime, but my daughter does if there is something urgent. I always just up my order to over $50 so I get free shipping and usually it arrives just as fast as prime. I have only had to cancel for credit on a couple orders over the years.

[LawBeefaroni]

I went to order a Pelican case and the delivery option was "free overnight delivery between 4am and 8am if you order in the next 7 minutes". Ahhh, thanks but no thanks.

Can't imagine them sending people out to knock on doors at 4am.

[malchior]

Amazon prime has gotten to the point that I'd call it completely unreliable for me here in NJ. It has gotten worse since I made the post last month. I actually just sent them a note to look at my order history because I've made 40+ purchases over the last 2 months and a full half have been delayed at least a day but often 3-4 days. Often sitting in their own fulfilment centers. On Thursday last week I ordered rope, caribiners, and zip ties to mount a projection screen in my gazebo. All due Saturday. They arrived in the same fulfillment center on Saturday morning. Some of them came on Sunday and the tiny package of zip ties showed up Monday night around 10 PM! My wife' had a couple of items with the same results. A complete mess.

The upside is that it has been good for brick and mortar as things I need to get I just go out and get again now. The main beneficiary has been Best Buy. For random electronics/home goods, I can put in an order and pick it up in under an hour. Amazon in contrast is now giving me 4-5 day ranges when items are to be delivered. For example, I was just looking at some supplies for an upcoming birthday event. The cart says the items if ordered today will arrive between the 13th and the 18th! Factor in a day or two after that date for realism and mix in that the event is the 19th...looks like brick and mortar wins again.

[pr0ner]

I went to order a Pelican case and the delivery option was "free overnight delivery between 4am and 8am if you order in the next 7 minutes". Ahhh, thanks but no thanks.

Can't imagine them sending people out to knock on doors at 4am.

They don't knock on doors. They just drop the package off, snap a picture to show you that it's delivered, and drive off.

They seriously do drop off packages at that time frame, though.

[ImLawBoy]

I went to order a Pelican case and the delivery option was "free overnight delivery between 4am and 8am if you order in the next 7 minutes". Ahhh, thanks but no thanks.

Can't imagine them sending people out to knock on doors at 4am.

They don't knock on doors. They just drop the package off, snap a picture to show you that it's delivered, and drive off.

They seriously do drop off packages at that time frame, though.

They do sometimes knock on doors.

[Carpet_pissr]

I went to order a Pelican case and the delivery option was "free overnight delivery between 4am and 8am if you order in the next 7 minutes". Ahhh, thanks but no thanks.

Can't imagine them sending people out to knock on doors at 4am.

They don't knock on doors. They just drop the package off, snap a picture to show you that it's delivered, and drive off.

Unless you request a knock/ring on delivery, which a lot of people do, for a lot of different reasons. But yeah, "Don't knock or ring" is the default (although many drivers will still do it).

[malchior]

I went to order a Pelican case and the delivery option was "free overnight delivery between 4am and 8am if you order in the next 7 minutes". Ahhh, thanks but no thanks.

Can't imagine them sending people out to knock on doors at 4am.

They don't knock on doors. They just drop the package off, snap a picture to show you that it's delivered, and drive off.

Unless you request a knock/ring on delivery, which a lot of people do, for a lot of different reasons. But yeah, "Don't knock or ring" is the default (although many drivers will still do it).

Yeah I'd say maybe 10% of delivery folks ring the bell.

[ImLawBoy]

I think it's probably more common in densely populated urban areas with a lot of foot traffic. Typically they drop off the package, give a couple of quick knocks, and then they move on to their next delivery. Only on rare occasions do they actually wait to hand us the item. By knocking, they let us know it's there and reduce the chance of a passer by claiming a free Amazon box.

[coopasonic]

Amazon prime has gotten to the point that I'd call it completely unreliable for me here in NJ.

It is basically the opposite for me. I generally get things early. I live in the suburbs about 3 miles from one of the distribution centers and if I order early I sometimes get 2 day stuff same day, often next day and almost without fail within two days.

Amusingly (to me, not her) my wife complains that her orders are always late. She says she is ordering things that are prime so I'd expect a similar experience, but I guess what she is looking for may just be stuff that isn't stocked at the local distribution center. My needs may just be more predictable.

[pr0ner]

I went to order a Pelican case and the delivery option was "free overnight delivery between 4am and 8am if you order in the next 7 minutes". Ahhh, thanks but no thanks.

Can't imagine them sending people out to knock on doors at 4am.

They don't knock on doors. They just drop the package off, snap a picture to show you that it's delivered, and drive off.

They seriously do drop off packages at that time frame, though.

They do sometimes knock on doors.

On an overnight delivery?

[malchior]

Amazon prime has gotten to the point that I'd call it completely unreliable for me here in NJ.

It is basically the opposite for me. I generally get things early. I live in the suburbs about 3 miles from one of the distribution centers and if I order early I sometimes get 2 day stuff same day, often next day and almost without fail within two days.

That's the weird part for me. I live 4-5 miles from 2 centers up the NJ Turnpike. The next one is about 10 miles down the NJ Turnpike so I'm *between* 3-4 and there are 8 in a 20 mile radius. What I see when I dig in is that whatever is delivered to me comes from a warehouse in Langhorne, PA which is almost a 1.5h trip away. I dunno. I don't particularly care how it works as long as it does. And it isn't. For things I don't care about timing it'd be fine but until they figure this out as I said I've shifted a lot back to brick and mortar. It's more inconvenient but I can at least plan activities out.

Amusingly (to me, not her) my wife complains that her orders are always late. She says she is ordering things that are prime so I'd expect a similar experience, but I guess what she is looking for may just be stuff that isn't stocked at the local distribution center. My needs may just be more predictable.

Yeah I imagine staples/predictable helps. I said it in my last post but I can even accelerate things by moving deliveries to lockers nearer to certain centers. My strong guess is that they are buckling under load here. The fact that things are getting left over and over in the distribution center points to a lack of workers/drivers/vehicles. It isn't as bad here as say early pandemic but it has degraded significantly lately which is why I even bothered to try to contact them. I try to give businesses a chance to fix problems, so we shall see if they reply.

[ImLawBoy]

I went to order a Pelican case and the delivery option was "free overnight delivery between 4am and 8am if you order in the next 7 minutes". Ahhh, thanks but no thanks.

Can't imagine them sending people out to knock on doors at 4am.

They don't knock on doors. They just drop the package off, snap a picture to show you that it's delivered, and drive off.

They seriously do drop off packages at that time frame, though.

They do sometimes knock on doors.

On an overnight delivery?

I didn't catch that you were specifically referring to overnight deliveries. If they knock on those around here, I've slept through them.

[pr0ner]

I went to order a Pelican case and the delivery option was "free overnight delivery between 4am and 8am if you order in the next 7 minutes". Ahhh, thanks but no thanks.

Can't imagine them sending people out to knock on doors at 4am.

They don't knock on doors. They just drop the package off, snap a picture to show you that it's delivered, and drive off.

They seriously do drop off packages at that time frame, though.

They do sometimes knock on doors.

On an overnight delivery?

I didn't catch that you were specifically referring to overnight deliveries. If they knock on those around here, I've slept through them.

Heh. I've definitely had them knock on daytime deliveries, but if they do on overnights, like you, I've slept through it, so I assumed they just didn't knock. Because a knock on my door at 4 AM would freak me the fuck out.

[Blackhawk]

Since I wrote my nasty letter, I've cut way back on my Amazon spending. I've found that a surprising number of companies now offer free shipping with a minimum order and so far every one I've dealt with has gotten the stuff to me in three days or so - faster than Amazon now. They also have better stock than Amazon, and often have better prices. I've discovered flavors of some of the supplements I've used for a long time (protein powders/bars) that I never knew existed, and the perishables I receive are fresher. Not only that, I'm not terribly worried about counterfeiters and scammers at well-established shops. I need some quality colored pencils for a class I'm going to be taking. After reading a bunch of reviews on Amazon about people getting counterfeits, I made my order from Blick Art Materials. It was cheaper than the same thing at Amazon, got here in two days with free shipping, and I don't have to worry about counterfeits.

The only drawback is that I'm not getting that 5% back on Amazon card. But at least I'm getting the stuff I order, and at least it is arriving well-packed and intact.

[Kasey Chang]

Amazon is NOT always cheaper. There are a LOT of people making a living by doing arbitrage from other merchants to Amazon. Basically, they look for closeouts and heavily discounted products, buy them, and ship them to Amazon warehouses in bulk, or do "merchant fulfilled" (i.e. NOT shipped/stocked by Amazon). And almost any popular brick-and-mortar chain (Walmart, Target, Marshalls, etc.) can be arbitraged if they discount on a schedule, and while electronics is probably the most popular, stuff being arbitraged, toys and other items often can be arbitraged as well.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, that's a holdover. Amazon used to be a super cheap option before Amazon was (as of this year) 55% third party sellers. Most of Amazon these days is just eBay with 'Buy it Now' as the only option. A few years ago Amazon was fast, it was reliable, and the prices were retail or below. For people like me for whom a retail purchase meant a 60+ mile round trip, Amazon was a bargain. Back then when every other business charged big rates for shipping, Amazon was a bargain.

At some point, though, all that changed. Amazon-sold products became the minority, volume turned their customer service and support into a mess, and the third party explosion turned the whole site into a prime example of caveat emptor. And with this, pricing jumped all over the place. You can still find some retail-or-below prices, but the majority are not, and without a retailer at hand to check, it's hard to say what's a bargain. A lot of retailers realized that people wouldn't buy products that didn't have free shipping, but they couldn't afford to ship for free. So they added the cost of shipping to their items, or lowered the quality of their items to compensate (this is the other Walmart Effect, where companies are forced to change their products for a specific store's cheap business model in order to compete in the market at all.)

One example I know is a miniature paint maker. If you buy their stuff retail or at their own site, it's ~$3.50 per bottle. If you buy it from that same company on Amazon, it's got free shipping - and it's $7.00. And if you want to buy 15 bottles of paint, you're paying to ship it 15 times for ~$50, whereas if you buy from their shop, you pay maybe $7 to ship 15 bottles.

But people had it in their head that Amazon was both reliable and cheap. It was almost a conditioned reaction from the days when it was (mostly) true. When it changed, most people didn't realize it. I didn't realize it right away myself.

The good news is that as I've moved away from Amazon, I've discovered that the non-Amazon market has adapted to what shoppers have come to expect. Most of the places I've shopped online have free shipping with a fairly small minimum order, often between $35 and $50. And since they're not the bogged down juggernaut that Amazon is, they're actually faster, both to ship, and to receive. Win-win. The only things I really need Amazon for now is for the small, 'variety' purchases that would incur full shipping charges from half a dozen different sites if I ordered them directly. I've been collecting a few reliable retailers that sell the kinds of variety items I use to get around this, too.

And even then I always do three things before I check out now:

1.) Check the price including shipping and compare it to retail prices
2.) Ask myself whether I need this in my hand before I'll be able to stop at a retailer that sells the same product without making an extra trip. And given that there is now 5-7 days between ordering and receiving, there are a lot more 'no' answers than 'yeses' lately.
3.) Determine whether price + shipping is actually lower than retail + driving costs/time. Often, now, I can make the 60-mile round trip to pick something up from the hardware store at less total cost than buying it from Amazon, and still get it faster.

I don't live in a big city, so I don't benefit from their delivery kiosks, grocery stores, car delivery, or same day shipping. I'm not part of the Alexa ecosystem. I have a Kindle, but not Unlimited (my interests are too specific), and I use Audible, but there aren't any meaningful benefits there, either. All I get from Prime right now is a mediocre streaming service and photo backups.

Add to that the fraud, counterfeiting, their treatment of workers, and all the other ethical concerns, and I'm not exactly an Amazon fan anymore.

I've got a Prime Visa through Chase, which gives me 5% back on Amazon purchases. That is a draw to Amazon, and has helped me with a few 'fun' purchases in the past. But now that I'm actively moving away from Amazon, I'm considering checking into transferring the balance to a card that gives me more tangible benefits. That's way out of my range of experience, though (it's the first credit card I've had since the low-balance 'student' card I got suckered into in college almost 30 years ago.)

[coopasonic]

I am not being paid to say this, but the capital one shopping browser plugin will let you use amazon as a central place to find the thing and then point you to where you can buy it cheaper (often ebay). It's ok give us them your data! I am not affiliated with that specific product and have no idea what data they collect. It also does the Honey thing where it will try coupon codes for you (and does it faster).

[Carpet_pissr]

Rakuten and Retailmenot offer similar services (also via a plug-in)

[Jeff V]

We still use Prime a lot, but only when it makes sense to do so. I don't automatically assume they are giving the best deals on things. But sometimes it doesn't really matter. A few days ago I order wife and I new phones, they appear backordered until mid-July (Sprint/T-mobile nevertheless thought it helpful to overnight the SIM cards ), I ordered cases off Amazon since that's something where the selection and pricing would be highly competitive, less than $10 each while the company store would charge around $40. And since we're not in a hurry, I was able to select Prime Day shipping and get a $1 worth of digital content as a bonus, so there's that.

[Kraken]

But people had it in their head that Amazon was both reliable and cheap. It was almost a conditioned reaction from the days when it was (mostly) true. When it changed, most people didn't realize it. I didn't realize it right away myself.

I still don't. I only buy anything at all once every few months. Wife is the family consumer; the Amazon van brings her something about every other day. I haven't heard her complain, so I reckon they're satisfactory enough.

[Kasey Chang]

If you watch a couple of those Amazon arbitrage Youtube channels, you'll realize that the FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) fees are pretty outrageous, about $8-10 per product. So to arbitrage products and still make money, you have to

a) bundle products together to make sets to make things worthwhile,

b) live near one of the Amazon fulfillment centers and you can send them a large box or pallet at a time...

c) find items that are selling at 2-10x more on Amazon than what you can find locally on clearance. A toy may be on clearance at Walmart for $5, but still sells on Amazon for $40. So even after FBA fees the arbitrage can still make about $20-25 per product... IF the product actually sells. So you have to look at transaction history, product ranking, how many already selling the product, and so on, as you make those decisions.

[JCC]

My main beef with Amazon is that Prime hasn't meant "2 day shipping" since the pandemic kicked in. (To be fair Amazon did announce that they wouldn't be able to keep up with demand.) Now, I am wondering when (or if) Amazon will ever announced that Prime is back to meaning 2 day shipping....

As for the prices, I still think in general their prices are good. But, as with anything, you should always check prices and competitors before buying virtually anything that costs more than (insert your minimum price here).

[Blackhawk]

My main beef with Amazon is that Prime hasn't meant "2 day shipping" since the pandemic kicked in. (To be fair Amazon did announce that they wouldn't be able to keep up with demand.) Now, I am wondering when (or if) Amazon will ever announced that Prime is back to meaning 2 day shipping....

They've already addressed that. The official answer is twofold, and includes infinite wiggle-room.

1. Two day shipping is now a heavily-disclaimered estimate, and compensation for late shipping is a thing of the past.
2. Two day shipping originally meant business days from when you order. It now officially means business days from when they ship it. It's a subtle change, and one that was only quietly mentioned, never announced, but it has a big impact. It means that they can have the order in the 'preparing to ship' stage in their warehouse for four or five days - and they often do. That's where most of the delay is coming from. If I order something today (Saturday) with two day shipping, I'd expect it to leave their warehouse sometime in the middle to end of next week. Only then would 'two day shipping' start counting down.

[Jeff V]

I've found the "expected delivery date" to be pretty accurate. Many times it is next day or 2 days, sometimes it's not.

[LawBeefaroni]

Pretty much everything I order is 2 days or faster. Lots of same day.

If that changes, Prime loses a lot of value for me.

[Blackhawk]

So, apparently the secret to Amazon is to live in a large city.