Amazon Prime Strange Limitation

[BarkingGhostar]

At the start of this year I signed up for Amazon Prime for the delivery benefits. I should have read the fine print. This was before AP went up in price.

I have a USPS box, which I have had for nearly fifteen years. Almost everything I get on a regular basis that I cannot receive electronically is directed to this box because residential delivery has been a nightmare for the same amount of time.

Before subscribing to AP, we always had Amazon ship to the box. A lot of times this meant the seller (usually Amazon itself) would use FedEx Smartpost, which meant the last mile is handed off to the USPS.

Now with the Two-Day free shipping everything is shipped by USPS, but cannot get two-day benefit to a USPS box. No, not an anomaly, but an Amazon policy.

If product sold by Amazon leaves Amazon by USPS anyway, why can it ship in two-days to my home but not a USPS box? Confused.

 

[rudeguy]

At the start of this year I signed up for Amazon Prime for the delivery benefits. I should have read the fine print. This was before AP went up in price.

I have a USPS box, which I have had for nearly fifteen years. Almost everything I get on a regular basis that I cannot receive electronically is directed to this box because residential delivery has been a nightmare for the same amount of time.

Before subscribing to AP, we always had Amazon ship to the box. A lot of times this meant the seller (usually Amazon itself) would use FedEx Smartpost, which meant the last mile is handed off to the USPS.

Now with the Two-Day free shipping everything is shipped by USPS, but cannot get two-day benefit to a USPS box. No, not an anomaly, but an Amazon policy.

If product sold by Amazon leaves Amazon by USPS anyway, why can it ship in two-days to my home but not a USPS box? Confused.

My guess is it has to do with how USPS routes the packages. Can you check the tracking of a package before Prime and compare it to after Prime? My guess is with Prime it skips a sort facility.

 

[smackababy]

It has to do with PO boxes. Amazon can't guarantee the shipment, because USPS 2 day is more expensive than USP or FedEx, I believe. Rather than eat what would amount to a loss on shipping, they just don't offer it on those items.

Just be happy, because a lot of places won't even ship to PO boxes at all, as they don't offer USPS shipping.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Why should USPS 2-day to the home be more expensive than FedEx Smartpost to the USPS PO? Rhetorically, speaking, I would think 2-d USPS to a USPS should be no different.

BTW, I can track the package and this latest shipment, SSDs bought from Amazon themselves, were getting better timely tracking updates via Amazon than USPS.

I'm not so much worried about the 2-day thing as I am more interested in Amazon executing orders immediately and just knowing the package is arriving at a safer address (POB) than an unsafe address (my home).

If I don't use the Prime 2-day delivery then it can go to the POB, but then Amazon will f-ing sit on the order for several business days before even shipping the item(s).

 

[destrekor]

If it's important that you don't use your house but want the fast and free shipping, you COULD check out a mailbox at UPS stores. They aren't PO boxes through technicality, and aren't addressed as "PO" box. It would be a PMB (Personal Mail Box), and is addressed with your name and the address of the UPS Store, and you either specify PMB XXXX or #XXXX.

No idea how much it costs, but I've heard of plenty of people utilizing PMB's for the same purpose of a PO box when PO boxes are not allowed for whatever reason.


Also: can you ship to your place of work?

 

[WilliamM2]

It's probably because USPS does not guarantee priority mail will arrive in 2 days, or even 3.

https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm

In most cases, the expected delivery date printed on your receipt or provided at checkout will reflect a delivery time of 1, 2 or 3 business days and is based on origin, destination and drop-off time. The expected delivery date does not come with a money-back guarantee.

 

[smackababy]

It's probably because USPS does not guarantee priority mail will arrive in 2 days, or even 3.

https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm

That is just for priority shipping though. You can get certified, guaranteed delivery in any amount of days, it just costs more.

The issue is that Amazon doesn't ship anything besides priority to a PO box for that very reason. UPS and FedEx 2 day delivery is guaranteed, but USPS isn't unless you pay more than Amazon is willing.

The OP is in a peculiar situation where FedEx will reroute to a PO box, but UPS won't. Most places won't ship to PO boxes at all, so just be happy Amazon does.

 

[DCal430]

Amazon doesn't even use FedEx or UPS for me anymore, in fact that do most ofof the shipping process with a nameless and freight company that has no ability to track. They really are cheaping out on shipping.

 

[DCal430]

It's probably because USPS does not guarantee priority mail will arrive in 2 days, or even 3.

https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm

Amazon doesn't care about that, they don't even use service with tracking for my orders. Shipping a bunch of items together by freight now, so it can't be tracked.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

Op, I have the same situation as you however my local post office offers street addressing for no additional cost for PO box holders that want to utilize that option. Quite a few POs started offering this back in 2012 (iirc).

In my case, I list the physical street address + my PO Box number and use that as my shipping address. UPS/FedEx deliveries will be delivered directly to the postmaster at your PO.

Keep in mind there are some drawbacks, when USPS first offered that option in late 2012, many UPS/FedEx (especially FedEx) drivers weren't aware and would return the item. In addition, you're relying on your local post office to accept the package and place it in the correct box as its handled a bit differently than mail that'd shipped directly to USPS.