Friday, April 24, 2015

Amazon Same-Day Delivery is a Modern Day Miracle

Last week, I decided to order a new phone online. I went with Amazon, because I just signed up for Amazon Prime and that gives me free two day shipping. Yeah, that totally works. Anyway, I get to the shipping and I was about to select two day shipping when I see this:

FREE Same Day Shipping

Now this made me pause for three reasons.

First of all, it said "free." When I had resigned myself to two day shipping free, the idea of getting it sooner for the same price seemed too good to be true.

But second, it said "same day." I'd never heard of such a thing. How could I get something the same day I ordered it? Even overnight seemed like a stretch.

But the third reason I was in disbelief is that it was a Sunday.

That's right. Sunday.

Could Amazon really deliver my phone for free on the same day I ordered it? On a Sunday, no less?

I figured there had to be a mistake, that the system probably made an error. What the heck? I selected same day shipping and hit "next," expecting Amazon to say the equivalent of, "Oops, my bad. We meant delivery on Monday." That's why I was shocked when it said, "Congratulations! Your delivery date is Today." There was even a tracking number.

I Googled it and discovered that Amazon had achieved what I thought to be impossible.

The short version is that Amazon has warehouses set up in a handful of major cities and can process and ship orders for delivery to those cities on the same day. They even had arranged with the US postal service to deliver on Sunday, something the post office had convinced me was impossible.

I spent the rest of the day clicking "update order," and waiting for a moment when the website would say the package was going to be delayed. When it said it was shipped, I figured it would be a mistake, something would go wrong, and it wouldn't show up.

At five o'clock, there was a knock on my door. I opened it to find my package.

I got the phone. Six hours after I ordered it online. On a Sunday. I would have gladly paid $10 for that privilege, but I got it for free. This sort of thing feels so amazing, it should be illegal. Ordering online is now officially better than shopping in a store, because I didn't have to get dressed, drive to the store, wait in line, drive back home, etc.

Amazon, you are amazing.

1 comment:

Maurice Mitchell said...

I've used same day and it's a bizarre experience. It's just like living in space