Last-minute shipping: expect the unexpected

Though we couldn’t try this experiment at the very last moment and still have time to report back to you, we wanted to get a real-world idea of how long it takes for an order to arrive using different shipping methods.

So last Saturday evening (December 9), I logged onto Amazon.com and placed three different book orders, each consisting of two identical titles: “Heat,” by New York Daily News sports writer Mike Lupica, and the new, updated 75th anniversary version of the kitchen classic, “The Joy of Cooking.” I submitted the orders minutes apart.

Shipping was free with my first order because I spent more than $25 in eligible purchases. I had the second order sent via standard shipping ($4.98), and requested one-day service ($20.47) for the third.

The results were somewhat surprising in terms of the overall speed of delivery and, particularly, the sequence in which the shipments arrived. Predictably, the first package to land on my doorstep was the rush order, arriving Tuesday morning December 12. Next came my free Super Saver shipment the following afternoon (December 13). Last to arrive was the package sent standard delivery, on Thursday afternoon. Was it worth paying for premium service? Probably not, in hindsight. But with an unforgiving deadline looming, the risk may not be worth taking. If you read the fine print about shipping on most Web sites, you’ll quickly realize that deliveries are estimates based on multiple factors. And you never know when the unpredictable is going to happen.

Because, after all, we were placing our orders relatively late in the game, we requested gift wrapping, at $4 and $5 per book. (The larger “Joy of Cooking” cost an extra $1). The books were draped in pale green wrapping paper with or without stripes (it wasn’t holiday or seasonal wrap), and topped with a 1 ½-inch wide satiny ribbon. A small personalized gift card was attached to each book. I was somewhat disappointed at the condition of the wrapping paper on two of the orders. The paper on the corners of four books – those ordered with free and standard shipping -- was torn slightly because the plastic shrink wrap was too tight and dug into the edges as the books shifted in transit. There was no bubble wrap, peanuts, or other cushioning material in either of those boxes; the two books were simply shrink wrapped together on top of a slab of cardboard. The books in the expedited shipment arrived unscathed. They weren’t shrink wrapped, but instead protected by air-filled bags. Does this mean that express shipping includes white-glove service, and you can always expect your packages to arrive in better shape? Unlikely. Large merchants like Amazon use multiple warehouses and drop shippers, so discrepancies likely have more to do with where the package originated than how much I paid for shipping. However, based on this experience, it may be worthwhile to consider doing your own wrapping -- unless your folding and taping skills are so poor that even the ripped wrapping sent by Amazon would be an improvement.