Absolutely. For books, 5-8 days for anything except possibly the very closest (in state, maybe bordering states). Then 2-4 is good. Amazon wants to push the 2-3 day for in state, which will never allow you to buy Media Mail.
I really wish there was something between 2-4 and 5-8. I can easily get a book anywhere in the continental US in 4-6, but alas, that’s not an option; so customer sees 8 days out.
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I really wish there was something between 2-4 and 5-8. I can easily get a book anywhere in the continental US in 4-6, but alas, that’s not an option; so customer sees 8 days out.
I keep hoping a bookseller will share the transit times Buy Shipping shows them for media mail so those of us who don’t ship books can get a better handle on what Buy Shipping is programmed to use. 
Amazon does give you 3-5 days under free economy shipping, but do you know if media mail would be available in Buy Shipping if you decided to use it? 
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I would volunteer, but don’t ever use Amazon buy-shipping.
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Lately, I have had books go from NYC to CA and AZ in 2-3 days. NYC-Indiana Sent on Sat, arrived on Monday this past week.
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I would volunteer, but don’t ever use Amazon buy-shipping
You don’t need to use it, just check to see which options it offers.
The data I’d like to collect is the transit times Buy Shipping uses between your state and a selection of buyer’s states. For instance, I’m in OR and this buyer is in GA -
So, I pull up the order, go to Buy Shipping, and enter a weight less than a pound (which wouldn’t matter for media mail), then check to see what arrival date Buy Shipping estimates, and count the transit days (don’t count Sundays or holidays) between then and now.
For first-class between OR and GA, Buy Shipping is using 5 transit days (ship on Monday, count Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat = 5 days) for its calculations.
Repeat that observation for a bunch of orders and tally up the results you see for media mail. Since I don’t sell books, I never see media mail as an option, so can’t do it myself.
I would expect to find that Buy Shipping uses a similarly narrow range of options as for first-class mail. That is, Buy Shipping always uses either 3, 4, or 5 days as the expected transit time for first class, (never 2, never 6) so all you have to do is identify which regions are treated as 3 days, which are 4, and which are 5.
What would help book sellers is to identify what numbers Buy Shipping uses as the transit times for media mail. If you spot check even 10 - 15 orders going to different states, you should quickly notice a pattern. I’m guessing it will be similar to first-class, in that there will only be 2 or 3 different options (5, 6, and 7 days maybe?)
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Lately, I have had books go from NYC to CA and AZ in 2-3 days.
The actual transit time doesn’t matter though. What matter is what Buy Shipping thinks it will take, so you can match your shipping template settings to that.
In my experience, Buy Shipping “thinks” most deliveries will take longer (sometimes much longer) than they actually do. But if you want to use Buy Shipping for the protection against INR’s, then what will actually happen doesn’t matter - it’s only what Buy Shipping thinks will happen that counts.
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Er, how many months do you want that to drag on ? (I am a low volume seller – very)
I think you have to initially set up that Amazon shipping don’t you? I don’t want to take even the first step.
Er, how many months do you want that to drag on ?
It’s fine, lol. In case someone else wants to volunteer, the process is outlined now. It shouldn’t take more than 10 - 15 total orders to get a rough idea. If you feel like checking any orders, that would be great. If not, that’s fine too. 
I think you have to initially set up that Amazon shipping don’t you?
Not as far as I know. Next time you have an order, click the Buy Shipping button and see what happens.
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Other than for books over a pound, which I changed to 5-8 days when Amazon’s calculations changed, I have all shipping templates with 2-4 days for the continental states, 2-3 days for FL and 5-8 days for AK & HI. Handling time is 2 days. This gives us (in FL) the media mail and bound printed matter shipping options for everywhere other than the west coast, if we ship within a day. We have to use First Class on about 15% of the orders we ship because we use the 2-4 day transit time. I don’t use free economy, but I would guess that would give me an extra day.
As for the calculated transit times for media mail, it looks like Amazon has messed up calculations when it comes to postal holidays, as below is what they show shipping today (Sunday-no mail), tomorrow (Juneteenth-no mail) and Tuesday:
Usually Media Mail in Buy Shipping shows 7 days for most locations we ship to (i.e. Mon-Mon, Tue-Tue, Wed-Wed, etc) except when the shipping/delivery day is Sunday, then it is 8 days (Sun-Mon).
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As for the calculated transit times for media mail, it looks like Amazon has messed up calculations when it comes to postal holidays
Which they seem to do every time there is a holiday. 
I’ve given up on trying to figure it out, but it is interesting that if you ship a day later (on Monday), Buy Shipping thinks media mail will arrive a day sooner. 
Other than for books over a pound, which I changed to 5-8 days when Amazon’s calculations changed
If you’re willing, would you share some of the specific delivery dates Buy Shipping shows you for media mail to different states? Since you have longer transit times on books over a pound, you should always see media mail for those, so if you would be willing to share a few data points, that would be really interesting to me.
Specifically…
- The state you’re shipping to
- The number of transit days Buy Shipping uses to calculate the delivery date of media mail to that state. Is it always 7 days (a full week would be 6 transit days, because Sundays don’t count), regardless of the destination? That would be surprising to me.
A ‘transit day’ is defined as any USPS shipping day, so don’t count Sundays or any holidays.
For instance, shipping on Monday, if Buy Shipping says delivery on Saturday, that would be 5 transit days.
Monday to Monday would be 6 (don’t count Sunday)
Thursday to a week from Saturday would be 8 (count Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat)
What I’m trying to get a handle on is -
- Media Mail from FL to NY is ? transit days
- Media Mail from FL to southern CA is ? transit days
- Media Mail from FL to IL is ? transit days
I know that Buy Shipping uses values of either 3, 4, or 5 transit days (depending on origin and destination) for calculating first-class mail delivery estimates, but I don’t know how many transit days it uses for its media mail calculations.
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Add …
- Media Mail from FL to OR or WA is ? transit days
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- Media Mail from FL to OR or WA is ? transit days
I’ll take any and all data @SA_FL is willing to share.
One interesting thing of note is that their third example (shipping on Tuesday) shows first-class as 3-days transit and media mail as 6. I would have guessed media would be assigned a longer transit time. Interesting.
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Will do… we don’t sell many items that qualify for media mail, but will let you know if CA, IL, NY, OR or WA pop up. So far, we only have FL to KY (5 transit days*) and FL to MO (6 transit days)…
*Now to really confuse everything… the transit days seem to change for no apparent reason. Below is the Buy Shipping for the exact same order. When I checked 5 hours ago, Media Mail showed delivering on June 24th, and now it shows delivering on June 26th… why would this change for the same item mailing tomorrow??
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Will do… we don’t sell many items that qualify for media mail, but will let you know if CA, IL, NY, OR or WA pop up.
It isn’t those specific states that I’m necessarily interested in, but to gather data for all states to figure out what transit times Buy Shipping is using for various regions.
For instance, when I wanted to find out what transit times Buy Shipping was using for first-class mail from my Oregon shipping location, I went through the same process, noting down the transit times and the states as I got orders.
Then, looking over the data, I could see that certain states always fell in the 3-day group, others in the 4-day, and the rest in the 5-day.
From that, I was able to figure out that CA, AZ, NM, NV, UT, and CO were in my 3-day first-class regions, IA, TX, MN, WI, and IL were in my 4-day, and most of the rest were in 5.
The more data we can collect on any media shipments in Buy Shipping, the better we’ll be able to pinpoint the transit times the system is using. All we need are the from and to states, and the corresponding number of transit days Buy Shipping calculates for media mail.
*Now to really confuse everything… the transit days seem to change for no apparent reason. Below is the Buy Shipping for the exact same order .
There’s always a reason. In this case, I think the issue might be tied to the holiday this week, which Amazon seems to have programmed completely messed up. I won’t even try to guess at the numerous things they’ve done wrong, but just cross my fingers and hope you don’t seem the same problem again after tomorrow. Let us know if you do.
why would this change for the same item mailing tomorrow??
It wouldn’t, if Amazon knew what they were doing. It looks like the issue is that they are treating your ‘ship date’ as one day later in the second example. In other words, the second quote is based on the assumption that you are shipping on Wednesday, not Tuesday, thereby giving you a one day later delivery date.
If you haven’t shipped the order yet, change the ship date to Wed, and see if you see the same delivery dates as in your 6:15 screen shot.
Now, why Amazon would think you’re shipping the 6:15 order on Wednesday is anyone’s guess. It could be tied to the holiday programming malfunction. It could be an old malfunction come back to life, where the system automatically added a day to your ship date when it shouldn’t. This was an issue many years ago, but we haven’t seen it in a loooong time.
Whatever the reason, the issue is only with the media and bound printed matter programming. The first-class estimate doesn’t change. I’m seeing a similar issue with Priority Mail Cubic, showing a day later delivery, as if you are shipping a day later than the ship date you choose.
If this is tied to programming snafus with the holiday, it should clear up (hopefully) by tomorrow. If it persists, it may be the old problem come back again. Boy, I sure hope not, that was a big headache for everyone. But… if this is the issue, it might explain why so many people were suddenly unable to access media mail services again. Hmmm…
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Maybe the BOTS are drunk? 
This is what Buy Shipping just showed me, for the same order, viewed within the same 5 minutes.
What’s going on? Your guess is as good as mine. I think I’ll stick with “drunk”. 
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Yikes… and I just assumed it was only the media options that were messed up. 
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Late last night, I had four packages to prepare for shipping. I prepared the first two and bought shipping through Amazon before midnight. The third package was finished shortly after midnight. When I attempted to buy shipping, here is what I received:
.
,
Buy Shipping for Tuesday was completely missing. I stopped the transaction, worked on prepping the last package, and took care of some other things around the house. By then, nearly an hour had passed. I went back and checked Buy Shipping again before shutting down for the night. Lo and behold, Buy Shipping for Tuesday was now available. I was finally able to complete the transaction.
Why is there a time gap between when you can and cannot purchase shipping for a particular day? When I first tried to buy shipping for the third package, it was already past midnight in my time zone but the option to ship on Monday was still there when it should not have been. The option to ship on Tuesday had been present when I processed the two previous packages but now it was missing for the third.
Strange programming and/or glitches going on here.
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That has been happening from for ever. Amazon time midnight is Pacific Time. If we remember correctly, it stops being delivered when you are in Eastern, Central and Mountain once your time zone hits midnight (as you are on the next day while Amazon is still on the current day). This causes shipping to “disappear” during the crossover time.
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It should be automatic for each time zone but then, this is Amazon.
I wasn’t able to finish the packages earlier in the day. I wanted to get them done last night because my Amazon payout day falls on Tuesday and I wanted these sales included in the payment. These last four sales were included in this morning’s payout.
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I wasn’t able to finish the packages earlier in the day. I wanted to get them done last night because my Amazon payout day falls on Tuesday and I wanted these sales included in the payment.
You can still do them, just choose Monday (or yesterday) as the ship date, and the system will treat it as if it’s Tuesday (ie today). Yes, stupid, but it’s been this way for a while. If you ship late at night as I often do and the weird dates make you nervous, be sure you buy your last label by 11:59 pm or you’ll have to wait an hour (it’s either an hour, or 30 minutes, I can’t remember) until the dates correct themselves. By 1 am, all will be corrected.
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