I can absolutely expect them to honor the terms that they themselves defined for a service that costs more than $100/year.

The terms state Free 2-day shipping to the contiguous US. It states 5 day shipping to Hawaii and Alaska

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

I suppose it could be more clear, but I do not see where they guarantee 2-day to Hawaii. You live on an island in the middle of the ocean, expect shipping delays.

Except that the OP was complaining that some items advertised aren't deliverable to Hawaii at all, not that they are deliverable with delays: "I couldn't get them to send me an xbox controller in Hawaii."

I don't really understand the instinct to jump on people complaining about receiving sub-par service compared to the promise given to them when they signed up. Amazon makes an absurd about of money, they could almost certainly do a better job here.

Except your being selective about what he said.

>I'm considering putting together and sharing a script that could check your order history and delivery dates. They tend to give a free month of credit for late deliveries, but if I could show them "Well out of 12 months I've had late deliveries every month this year" I should just get the service for free.

I'm talking about that bit.

Edit: I assumed he expected two day delivery. In his comment below he says he understands it's 3-7 and many come in 8-12, so my mistake.

They advertise 3-7 business days. For the past 3 months it's been more like ~8-11 business days. Nobody here has unrealistic expectations.

USPS would be much faster if they just dropped it in the mail within a couple days. It would also cost less than fedex overnighting items after waiting 2 weeks.

Indeed. It's gotten to the point that if I want something fast, I'll actually avoid Amazon and instead find some merchant who will ship the item USPS Priority Mail which is very reasonably priced and reliably arrives in 3 days.

The biggest problem are merchants that for some reason insist that they can only use UPS/Fedex, which is a complete ripoff to Hawaii. I don't understand how they get any business for their "ground" service here, given that it's usually about the same price as 2-day air but takes a week.

Well I'm with you there. I assumed you were talking about 2-day delivery, my mistake.

It's not like they're living on the moon, Hawaii is a U.S. state and they decided to accept customers from there.

Yeah, it's a state... which is an island in the middle of the ocean. Be at least a little realistic with your expectations. Also, their terms do not guarantee 2-day shipping to Hawaii or Alaska.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

If their terms _guarantee_ 2-day shipping to contiguous US, does that mean there's some recourse to a customer when that is not met? Cause it is routinely not these days for many people I know.

Every time Amazon misses a guaranteed delivery date, I send a quick note to customer care and get a free month of Prime added to my account. Takes under a minute and I've never had to even respond a second time to one of these threads.

There are times when 2 days is not the guarantee, which is slightly annoying, but for most items, 2 days is.

So it's unrealistic to expect a multinational corporation to be competent enough to ship XBox controllers and eight-inch pipe fittings to their customers, if they're on an island? Because that's what the parent comment is talking about.

Amazon is choosing to offer Prime in Hawaii

Prime doesn't mean 2-day shipping for anyone anywhere. It says as much in the terms

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

Perhaps you missed the point that I and underbluewaters complained that they were not willing to ship things at all, or taking longer than their own stated timelines? None of us said we expected two-day shipping.