Well, for Amazon, it really depends on whether their last mile is done by someone on their own fulfillment, or UPS/Fedex. With UPS/Fedex (as much as I joke about them being abbreviations for "Unionized Parcel Smashers" and "Fed-them-to-my-Ex"), they are usually pretty reliable - I only see issues in one out of 20 dispatches. When Amazon Fulfillment (especially their service in Midtown/downtown Manhattan, *eeeh* - yeah, their same-day delivery is often defined as "we'll sign it as delivered so we won't get punished and then we'll drop it off for you tomorrow and blame it on dispatch". My guess? Lasership and their subcontracted routes. It's kinda funny that I get better service (with even block-by-block tracking of their trucks) at my Amazon Prime residential/home delivery with 2 days committed shipping before 8p than dealing with the ol' corporate account.I actually completely get it, but they don't see it that way since they do what is best for their bottom line since that's what gets them the business in the first place. Otherwise you can go an get HP or whatever other branded sfps and I'm sure they'll come packaged exactly how you tell them to, but at what cost? It's the classic triple constraint--right, fast, or cheap--pick two.
Now, if there is a box for you to check that specifies how to ship it, that should be followed 100% sans human mistakes that sometimes happen. No disagreement there.
a. Selling via Amazon is a whole headache within itself if their inventory is at Amazon's fulfillment centers. Then they have very little control, and if one of Amazon's overworked underpaid employees wants to F with someone because they're miserable, that happens. Or like the scenarios you explained where they say it is there, but it isn't. That's just Amazon's 'f u' way of doing business. I don't buy from them because of issues like this. I need a reliable source most of the time.
b. Amazon's retardery again. No defense for them, and I don't buy from them because of such issues.
Actually, I see how either a customer deals with the crap that they deal out, or just get what they need from somewhere else. Luckily, there are a lot of people out there that sell basically the same stuff around the same price. Logistics plays a big part sometimes, so next day shipping from CA is the same thing as regular ground 100mi away. This is why I'm always asking where the product is shipping from if I'm shopping around.
When something is this critical and has other much higher costs associated with it if things go wrong, I do the unthinkable--I order two--one each from different vendors with the same delivery promise. If one messes up, I'm still covered. Or in rare cases, I drive it over myself after I get it in my hands first.
Nah, I'm not going to say anything about not planning ahead because we all know how sometimes there is last minute work that has to be done--been there done that.
I hear you on that run to CDW!!! LOL!! Been there, done that! 90 and 94 both suck! Chicago traffic sucks! Man I am so happy to get away from that traffic. But I do miss having CDW only 10m away from home. I would typically leave as soon as I have the order confirmation and hang out in the willcall lounge vs fight traffic to get there before they close. But I had that luxury, which I know most people wouldn't.
Shenzhen...lucky I've never dealt with any of that personally. I have zero tolerance for the customer service games played in that part of the world, and my wife told me all about them since she built a lot of those cs centers and their training programs, lol.
Yeah, Chicago traffic is "fun". Although I usually dealt with a certain data center/former catalog printer out near McCormick Place. If I had to venture out it's Vernon Hills, Oak Brook/Downers Grove or a certain non-descript data center right next to Interstate 88 at Aurora/Naperville.