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Tag: delivery delays

November 17, 2024

How my Lost Amazon Package Led to this Walmart+ Discount at the Gas Pump

My missing Amazon order unexpectedly steered me toward Walmart+ with its promise to save me 10¢ per gallon when filling up my hybrid SUV. Here’s what happened.

Yes, my Amazon order never showed up. I’ve been patiently tracking the delivery of a new black belt. (My old belt wore out where my work badge clips on.) The package is way overdue, and the tracking number stopped posting updates a week ago. (It left Windsor Locks, CT at 4:56am.)

I think my belt is likely lost in transit.

Uncertainty Leads to Opportunity
No worries. My life will continue without disruption. I have other belts, and of course, I’ll buy another one. But I’m first interested to see what happens next. Amazon is now kindly offering me the opportunity to cancel my order. But that’s too easy. Will Amazon blink first? Will someone or something refund me or alternatively mail out another belt? We’ll find out…

The good news is Amazon has a delivery success rate of about 99.9998% to my house. Sometimes packages just get lost.

But these infrequent moments do remind me how much my online shopping has consolidated around Amazon. And that’s not always good. More choice is better. It would be nice if Amazon had a little more competition. Of course, they’ve run most everyone else out of business.

But there is… Walmart.

Time to Try Out Walmart+
Yes, I’ve shopped at walmart.com a few times across the pandemic. But its marketplace is often flooded with any number of third-party sellers with more expensive pricing. So, you’ve got to really know the correct price points. (To be fair, Amazon sometimes has that problem too.)

So, my relationship with Walmart has remained an in-store experience. Then, my new belt got lost and I happened to simultaneously find a discount opportunity to join Walmart+.

Walmart’s paid membership is like Amazon Prime in that you get free shipping and delivery, plus other member benefits.

Yes, I pay for Amazon Prime, and yes, I believe I’m getting value in the annual cost, mostly due to the Prime Video platform, in addition to the free shipping.

So, with an easy onramp to join Walmart+, I decided to give it a spin. Plus, I was especially attracted to one big perk.

Save 10¢ on a Gallon of Gas
I’ve always been interested in signing up for a fuel-discount program, and Walmart+ has one. I’ve previously hedged on other opportunities that are more complex than I really wanted to deal with. But the strong Walmart brand and the simple set up on the Walmart app gave me confidence to explore this discount gas deal.

The Walmart+ program saves you 10¢ per gallon at Exxon, Mobil, Walmart and Murphy stations. Again, you need the Walmart app on your phone to access the special pricing. Here’s how it worked when I drove into a Mobil station.

  • As soon as I opened the Walmart+ app, it asked if I wanted to gas up. It had already sensed the Mobil station wirelessly. I said, “Yes, please!”
  • As soon as I tapped in the pump number, it confirmed the credit card I wanted to use.
  • And that was really it. The pump activated, I selected 87 octane, and I was ready to go.
  • When I was done, I received a receipt on my app, which confirmed my discount, and I drove away.

Really easy. Never had to swipe a credit card at the pump.

So now, I’ve got a new hybrid SUV which needs less gas, and a new way to save money on the gas that I do buy.

Hallucination Vs. Reality
I have this silly vision that the Amazon delivery van with my belt ran out of gas, and the van is abandoned on the side of the road somewhere.

If only the Amazon driver had a Walmart+ account. That extra 10¢/gallon savings might have provided a little more fuel to get that van to my house.

Maybe my belt will find its way home in time for the holidays. Perhaps someone else is already wearing it.

Yes, it’s just a belt, but the butterfly effect from its disappearance has strangely led me to save some money at the gas pump.

Now, I’m even more intrigued with how my belt story will end.

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December 24, 2022

What to do When your Holiday Gift doesn’t Show up

Packages don’t always arrive on time. Here’s how I try to handle that inevitability.

“Your package is on the way, but running late. We’re sorry for the delay. Now expected December 27 to December 29.”

That’s the email I recently received from Amazon. Yes, the package in question was a holiday gift for our son, and now it wasn’t.

You might think I was upset to receive that disappointing update. I was not.

Expect the Unexpected
I’ve always been something of a last-minute shopper. Try as I may, wrapping up gift purchases comes down to the wire every year. But I’ve always gotten it done. That said, this year was particularly difficult. (More on this in another post.)

As you might expect, online shopping has made the gifting equation easier for me, until it didn’t, when the pandemic and supply-chain issues delayed almost every delivery.

I was retrained to expect disruption.

And when online shopping returned mostly to normal, I wasn’t so quick to assume that ‘promised’ delivery times would always hold up.

So, did I expect some shipping delays and ultimately buy more gifts for our son than needed during my 2022 last-minute shopping sprint? Yes, I did.

And yes, there was a back-up gift ready to go to the front of the line.

Do You have a Back-up Plan?
So no, it was not disappointment I experienced when Amazon shared the bad news with me. I actually felt relief and a bit of joy. I think I even smiled. I was happy that I had successfully hedged against this possibility.

And I knew that I could easily return the package. Or perhaps I’ll keep it as a back-up gift for next year. (How’s that for early planning?)

It’s Not about the Gift
I know that the holidays shouldn’t always be about gift giving. Instead, it’s an opportunity to be with family and friends. It’s a time to connect and sometimes reconnect.

And it’s a time to celebrate who and what you have in your life.

You just don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

And if a gift shows up late, so what? As long as everyone you care about shows up, that’s all that really matters.

Happy holidays, and here’s to smiling at every late package arrival.

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