Yes, I’d like to pay nearly $200 for shipping of a $30 thing. Or free shipping that will arrive on the same day.
Does “Promise” mean that it’s guaranteed to arrive on that day, or is it just a dumb name for a shipping company?
Its not that the merchant is offering these prices to you. They’re using another service to get shipping quotes on demand and display them to you transparently. Why they’re so high, I can not explain, but it may have to do with global fuel supply and an all time high demand for shipping services.
Fucking hate all of this. With payments online getting easier I’m finding it more convenient to order from small websites again and stop using Amazon. But when it comes to shipping, things are really not getting any faster or easier. While Amazon is always a day behind their promises, they are usually much faster than anyone else.
They quit putting packages on planes. They even have Hawaii going by boat now. I see retail rates over $20 to ship ground within the usa. They are claiming shipping will start to take two weeks soon. Yes, be prepared for this. This fucking president and the assholes that voted for them need to be held accountable for this.
Everything about this country is down the shitter and in the pipes. It’s insane how calculated the installation of apathy into Americans was/is though. Built up over decades through the actions of dark money and wackos. It permeates even the oldest generations.
Logistics are incredibly difficult. The reason Amazon is faster is the same reason they’re bigger, vertical integration. Owning the whole shipping process has huge benefits when shipping speed matter s
Yeah. A naive response would be “isn’t UPS big too?” But the shipping is only part of retail logistics. When you also control the warehousing distribution, and can back-feed logistical availability data all the way to the retail interface to affect what people buy in the first place… you have power that no fleet of trucks alone can overcome.
Can agree with this more they also have warehouses near or in major cities to help cut down travel time where small businesses might ship themselves or use a 3PL with one or two fulfilment points.
Rates are so variable too especially when weights exceed a threshold (usually a pound)
It might be time to accept again that an order can take a few days to arrive.
Yeah a few days is nothing. But two weeks is disturbingly common. And lack of any predictability is rampant.
Let’s enjoy the last few days of free delivery.
They’re fuckken sending an ambulance
It was probably vibe coded.
eBay’s shipping options often look like this for US to Canada items. A book will be $60 shipping but a larger heavier item is $25.
Silly yes, but I’ve had to do this at my job before to get the “guaranteed” delivery by X date. Does it work? Sometimes
UPS: “Guaranteed we’ll try our best to respect the delivery date! We’ll give it our most effort! If there’s any package we will make sure is the first in line is yours!”
When it gets delivered later than promised: “We tried and it didn’t work out.”
None of those dates have the year on them.
In the year 2026, October 28th is a Wednesday.
So is in 2037.
Overnight shipping is expensive
And useless where I live. Next Day Air is a mere week away.
exactly what it feels like when airlines list “board first” as a perk for paying twice as much
Priority seating in such a weird way to do it as well.
So you load first class, and then the obvious next move is to go back to front.
I’m sure the first class passengers absolutely love the experience of everybody walking past them. Who wouldn’t want that?
I always enjoy silently crop-dusting the first class passengers as I walk by
Perhaps the flight attendant should announce each person like a royal wedding.
I have always thought this order of things as the weirdest/worst order possible and was thinking about this very thing last week in my flights. I do know other countries so it in a sane order, but the US would like to stubbornly so it in the least ideal way. Some airline should start marketing the option to board last since some people are not happy unless they pay extra to set themselves apart from us lowly plebs.
the obvious next move is to go back to front.
Gotta add in some window-middle-aisle with some staggering between seats to give people room/time to stow bags
It’s a feature.
I’m sure first class passengers quite enjoy watching us ‘poors’ shuffle dismally by to our slum back in cattle.
What’s the point of being rich if you can’t feel smug and superior about it?
Right?
I like boarding last. Less time I spend in that fucking tube the better.
I like being part of the last 10-15%, but not the last couple of people. The number of times I’ve been forced to check my backpack because “there’s no more room in the overhead compartments” only to step in the plane and find plenty of room in the overhead compartments is too damn high.
That is my number one gripe, how the hell do those overhead compartments run out of space when everyone is limited to one carry on bag, aren’t the planes designed to hold the carrry on of every passenger, it’s usually some dickheads putting their personal item bags up there or the cabin crew not bothering to tell people to shift their bags sideways or actually checking if they are completely full or not
Yep, or I have seen staff heckling an old guy because the tip of his case wheels stuck outside of the sizing device, while some moron with a hockey bag sized duffel walks on and nobody days anything.
One flight was packed and so the host was asking everyone to turn their bag sideways in the overhead as we boarded, and while saying this over and over people still were laying them flat. I said “This must get old, it is like dealing with children.” He said, “no it is worse, children listen, these adults don’t.”
I was on a flight earlier this year where the attendant had to explain repeatedly to the same group of passengers that they may not put their winter coats into the overhead bin and will have to keep it with them. This same flight they had to restart the safety demonstration because someone got up and went to the bathroom during the first playthrough of it
It is weird to me that adults can’t follow expectations or even clear instructions
I’ve been on flights where people have placed their bags in flat and sidewise then just closed the bin. Attendants then get upset when you open bins to check for space (even in cases where you saw there was space before someone closed it) because of course they are the only ones that close bins and they always check for space.
I’ve also been on flights where people have stood up to use the bathroom or adjust their bags while taxiing and then everyone has to wait on them wine the attendants just repeat on loop that they need to sit the fuck down.
The rules of planes just seem not to matter at all to some people and the rest of us have to suffer for it.
I do not understand the people that close the bins. There must be a hell for them against the people that stick their carry on in the first slot they see on a half-loaded plane and then waltz to the back.
I don’t understand the people who close the bins after putting their bag up. It’s frustrating as heck for the rest of us, but I don’t see how they think it benefits them in any way. Is it just annoying other passengers for the LoLs, or do they think there’s some logic?
I mean, sometimes the bin is just full after you put your bag in and it’s obvious that it’s full (assuming no one put their bag flat when there’s room to put it on its side). Wouldn’t you want the bins closed after that as a visual cue to how much space is left when you board and get close to your seat?
I’m talking like these types of full. Do you really need a flight attendant’s professional determination about it?
There is also the issue that airlines have been stuffing seats tighter and tighter. So more people without an increase in overhead compartment space.
One carry on, one personal item. A personal item can be a backpack. I don’t remember the last time I checked a bag.
How big is your backpack where they’d make you check it?
Smaller than a roller bag. There just comes a time when boarding that airline staff just seem to say “fuck it, everything else goes on the hold.”
All too often it’s an announcement like “boarding groups 7 and 8 must check their carryons”
What if you have stuff in your backpack that is not allowed in hold luggage (lithium batteries)?
You are supposed to take it out. Carry it with you or put it in the personal bag they assume you have.
The same thing they expect those who travel with roller bags that have to be checked under the same circumstances: take it out and make sure it fits under the seat in front of you.
I was more than once forced to gate check my guitar because the flight attendants didn’t think any of the overhead bins were wide enough for the case. They were plenty wide.
Did your guitar case fit inside the carry-on bag sizer? Why do you think it’s ok to do this lol?
Wouldn’t a guitar take up like 3 or 4 people’s worth of luggage space
Now we know why they keep running out of overhead bin space
It was a flat road case for an electric guitar, on a jumbo jet. There was plenty of space for 3 or 4 carry-ons or backpacks to sit on top of it and the bin in question was not even remotely full at take off.
Yeah, because those are meant to hold more than a single case taking up all the space.
If I’m traveling without a carry on, yes, I wait until the whole line is clear before I board.
If I have a carry-on, I line up to board as soon as my zone is called. Too many times I boarded and found some assholes sitting all the way in the back have put their carry ons above my seats so they don’t have to drag it, and I have to walk past my seat and be an asshole myself by putting my carry on above a seat that’s not mine, wait until there’s a break in boarding so I can make my way back to my seat, and wait for everyone to deboard before I can go back and grab my carry on.
I thought most airlines won’t allow a carry-on that won’t fit under your seat?
No that’s the personal item a small bag that fits under the seat. A carry on is a slightly larger bag that goes in the overhead bin
Oh! I carry a giant Camelbak, so it does double duty I guess.
If you’re certain it belongs to someone sitting half an airplane away, take it down and leave it in the aisle. When the attendants come by, just shrug and say it’s not yours.
As much as I’d like to imagine myself doing that, you’re suggesting I take a bag out and put it on the floor (not knowing which one belongs to the asshole in question) and put mine in its place, and leave it in the isle where everyone behind me witnessing me doing it will be unable to finish boarding?
I imagine I’d be kicked off the plane…
Depends on if I’m trying to use the overhead bin. If I am, I want to be in quickly so I can use the one above me. Then I want to sit down, get my Steam Deck out, and disappear until the plane lands.
I’m shocked everytime I fly that people want to board. Only advantage is not getting stuck in the middle of a 3-seater.
Most airlines assign seats. There are a few exceptions
I like boarding none! I haven’t been on a plane since 1977.
Plus the chairs and leg room at the gate give a much more comfortable sitting experience than in the plane.
Mildly amusing. I ship UPS all the time at work, and always check all the options for the best balance of speed and cost. The number of times the cheapest option is estimated to arrive before a more expensive choice cracks me up. Not always, but way more than I’d expect.
The OPs screenshot could also be a mucked up shipping config. Saw that at work recently, two employees sitting next to each other making labels, one gets $200+ per shipping label the other sub-$30 shipping labels. They did a test of trying to make the exact same label and got different rates so they finally said “okay time to talk to Fedex about fixing this…” Only after shipping a few hundred items at the exhorbanant rates was this fully figured out…
The difference is Air has a guarantee, Ground does not.
Can only assume the cheaper option is the higher volume option that will have better leverage from economies of scale. Lower price is usually where that surfaces but I can easily see it surfacing as more flights and faster delivery if the route is just right.
I think that this is just a shipping cost function that Shopify provides to shops. I don’t think that the seller added these options. Its just showing different options that they have access to in their system. No human has looked at these options and decided that they make sense. The store probably doesn’t even know.
I hate how shopify has taken over internet commerce. I refuse to buy from anywhere that uses it, but it is becoming increasingly difficult.
…… oh fucking kay…….
Do you…do you shop only with the Amish or???
Like don’t tell me you shop at a major corp or own a car or that you have a phone while boycotting small business lol what the hell.
Shopify is shit but like, holy fuck literally angels next to bezos.
I don’t buy from big corps. The majority of my purchases are done in person in local shops. I have a Fairphone which while not perfect, is much better than the average phone, with a degoogked version of android. While I do have an electric car, I bought it used and still use public transport when I can. I am vegan.
Forgive me for trying to avoid a shit company that is less shit than others.
I understand that I am privileged to be able to make the choices I have. Not everybody is able to do so. But fucking hell, why put people down for trying to make better choices where they can.
Unfortunately there’s a lot of small businesses out there that rely on Shopify, it stinks but I have been forced to use them a few times.
Yeah, same. Especially for more niche things. But I alwaysvlook for alternatives still.
You’re gonna flip when you hear about it’s cousin Amazon
That one is much easier to ignore, at least where I live.
The 2 day air is only $15 more, I think you should go for it
Isn’t this rather c/softwaregore?
If you live in a major metropolitan center, anything shipped from relatively close will get to you next day, so changing the service level doesn’t matter.
Higher tier service is only useful when shipping longer distances or to areas that aren’t shipped to frequently enough to have a nearby hub.
In this case the seller probably offers free basic shipping regardless, and charges for other options, regardless of the buyer’s need.
Not necessarily. It very well could just be “we only offer one shipping method, but if you pay us enough we will send a guy down to the post office with only your package today.”
