If You Use Any of These Addresses, Amazon Won’t Offer You Same-Day Delivery

April 22, 2019 by Douglas A. McIntyre

Amazon.com has several ways for people to get free delivery of packages. Among the most impressive is its ability to deliver many items the same day they are ordered. In the fine print about same-day delivery is a list of five addresses where the service will not work.

Same-day packages have to be delivered to a residence. They also can only be delivered to ZIP codes where Amazon offers the service. The addresses that do not qualify: commercial addresses, P.O. boxes and APO, FPO and DPO addresses. The last three location types are military and diplomatic locations. APO stands for Army Post Office and is on U.S. Army and Air Force installations. FPO stands for Fleet Post Office and includes Navy installations and ships. DPO stats for Diplomatic Post Offices and covers U.S. diplomatic installations.

Amazon actually has a long list of rules for free same-day delivery. The process does not work outside many large American cities. When the system was announced in 2016, it included 27 cities, including all of America’s biggest metro areas. Amazon has increased that number by the dozens since then. The service may be why Amazon has among the companies with the best reputations in America.

Same-day delivery items have to carry a minimum order amount of $35. And Amazon excludes a number of items. Only purchase those marked with a “Same-Day logo.”

Another Amazon same-day rule is that it is only available to Prime members. Amazon has over 100 million of these around the world. In the United States, the price to be a Prime member is $12.99 a month, or $99 a year. Prime members get special discounts on delivery, special promotions on some items sold at Amazon.com and the company’s streaming service, which includes tens of thousands of television shows, movies and content produced exclusively for members. The success of Prime has helped drive Amazon’s extraordinary success, which in turn has helped make CEO and founder Jeff Bezos one of the 30 richest Americans of all time.

Same-day delivery is not available on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. It is also limited on two of Amazon’s heaviest delivery days, Black Friday and Prime Day, the day of Amazon’s biggest promotion for Prime members. Last year, Amazon sold over 100 million items on Prime Day.

Finally, items for which there may be very high demand may not be available, because Amazon could run out of them at some warehouse locations.

No matter what other rules apply for free same-day delivery, five address types don’t work.


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