Walmart does seem to process orders faster than Amazon, but their website is much clunkier and contains a lot less information about the product. Often as not, any items I'm interested in show as undeliverable to the nearest store to me. Pricing is competitive between the 2, I don't see either having an edge there.I did a little looking around and found the same thing at Walmart so I cancelled the Amazon order and ordered from Walmart. That was on a Sunday, the blower arrived the following Tuesday. I just use Amazon just to check reviews anymore. I won't be surprised if Amazon's market share dwindles significantly. It seems they only city dwellers money.
Yeah, no kidding. The big merchants that offer "free" shipping have clearly negotiated rates that fall at or below what it actually costs to ship, so the smaller vendors (as well as individuals) are getting charged more to make up the difference. Cost me almost $60 to ship a 16 lb package 1000 mi. UPS ground recently!My biggest complaint is shipping charges. I inquired about a different snow plow also shipped from Minnesota and was quoted $1000 shipping the one I bought was the same price but with $350 shipping. I have been shopping for some ag related items such as new rippers for my box blade and found 5 of the right type for about $25 each but the shipping was the same as the shanks, doubling the price. I don't mind paying reasonable shipping charges but some companies seem to be trying to make a large profit from shipping.
Friday, 3/3/2023 12:01 AMArrived at FedEx location
WILLINGTON, CT
1:57 PMDeparted FedEx location
WILLINGTON, CT
7:52 PMArrived at FedEx location
NORTHBOROUGH, MA
8:01 PMArrived at FedEx location
FEDEX SMARTPOST NORTHBOROUGH, MA
10:09 PMShipment information sent to U.S. Postal Service
10:50 PMDeparted FedEx location
FEDEX SMARTPOST NORTHBOROUGH, MA
10:55 PMIn transitIn transit to U.S. Postal Service
HAMPDEN, MEWednesday, 3/8/2023 8:03 PMArrived at FedEx location
MIDDLETOWN, CTThursday, 3/9/2023 7:41 AMArrived at FedEx location
FEDEX SMARTPOST MIDDLETOWN, CT
They are not as detailed as they used to be... none of the 3 delivery services are. I believe that it was a TBN poster who said that people were getting hold of the tracking info and stealing packages after they had been delivered. If I was home I would wait until their tracking showed the truck was in town then I would look him up and save him a trip to my house... a mile each way is less to me than it is to him at the end of his day... and I'd coordinate it with going to the post office.I have not had a reason to track a USPS delivery for a long time, the last time I did it there was hardly any tracking points listed. I placed an order on Monday out of Wisconsin by ground and it is out for delivery already here on the West Coast. On the USPS website I see it refers to USPS Tracking Plus, a nice option.
That's getting to be a PITA. Fedex seems to be the worst on all counts, I am ALMOST ready to tell vendors that if they use that service I will cancel the order. I had to do that for several years with UPS. That was about 20 years ago, thankfully they seem to have worked through whatever problems they had.I ordered an item from Amazon while down in Florida for the winter about a week before we were due to leave and they usually take 2 days. I wanted it down there and they delivered 80% of their own stuff with the rest going to USPS. Day before were due to leave my wife says they're forwarding to NH. WTH? It was because they transferred it to USPS and my wife had the mail forwarding back up to NH. Days after we arrived in NH the item came and the carrier said we owed $11.25 for shipping it to NH. I called AMZ and made them credit me the 11.25. I didn't contract with USPS, they did.