<p>I am concerned because my daughter has not ordered her textbooks from Amazon yet, and I expect (she promises to order them tomorrow night) they will send them the cheap way book rate. In my experience, book rate is slow. Her school is unusual--classes don't start until 9/9. If we order them tomorrow night, do you think we should select ordinary book rate? Or is that too risky...should be spend more to have the books sent more quickly? We're expecting to buy used books (correct editions) from individual sellers.</p>
<p>Last September as a Freshman she bought her books at the bookstore at college and they cost a fortune.</p>
<p>If classes don’t start until 9/9, that’s plenty of time. That’s four and a half weeks from now. In my experience, sellers in the Amazon Marketplace are usually pretty quick. I’ve had a couple bad experiences, but books that I’ve ordered from there rarely take more than two weeks to arrive. </p>
<p>Thanks for the quick reply!</p>
<p>I’ve been buying from amazon.com for a couple years now (ever since I started college) and I’ve noticed recently (I wanna say as recent as Fall 2013), amazon (the seller) has been purposely delaying my shipments. Sellers on the marketplace on the other hand, have always been consistent in shipping ( at least the ones I’ve come across). I can vaguely remember a couple years back when I first bought from Amazon, they sent out my shipment within 24 hours, no matter what shipping option I use (mind you, I always pick the free/cheapest one). On to my point, I’ve bought 7 books this past Tuesday (7/21), 3 being from amazon, and 4 from their marketplace. All 4 that I’ve bought from the marketplace has been already sent out, while the 3 that I’ve bought from amazon are “preparing for shipment” and the delivery estimate to be sent out is 8/18 to 8/22. A whole week after the transaction took place. Can you imagine that? </p>
<p>Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but long story short, buy from their marketplace if you can. You’re more likely to receive your books on time. The only reason I bought the 3 books from Amazon was because they were actually 3 access codes. If I run into a problem, I imagine it’ll be easier to deal with amazon than vendors. </p>
<p>They’re probably trying to encourage people to buy Prime with this delayed shipping stuff. You’re not the first person I’ve heard this from. </p>
<p>I’ve had a Prime account for a little over a year now, and I love it. I had to renew it last month, and out of curiosity I looked back to see how much money they had saved me in shipping. The total shipping for the items I’d bought over the first year I had Prime would been around $250. With Prime, it was free. I paid $50 for that year of Prime, since I’m a student. It’s a very worthwhile deal. Free 2 day shipping is amazing.</p>
<p>I can see that being true, but I never expected something this dirty from Amazon. They were really customer-friendly and even accepted a return of my open and used external hard drive. But that was a couple years ago. They never implemented tax either (at least I never noticed), but now they also do that. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, now that their hold on the market place is firmly established, they can afford to be a bit greedier with things. Sad, but true. </p>