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Free shipping sounds like a great deal but once you've gone to the checkout, you might be shocked at the estimated shipping dates. Often they will indicate that your merchandise won't be shipping for 7 to 10 days! Not cheap. So you opt to spend the extra $10 on regular shipping or $15 or more for expedited shipping. Don't be fooled, you are falling to a marketing trick that some online retailers love to use. They want you to believe that they are going to wait that long to ship your products so that you pay more for your order. In reality most of the items ship far faster than they are telling you.
Some of the known offenders? Amazon.com, Vista Print, and Shutterfly...but of course, there are many more. Take a recent Holiday Amazon order placed on a Sunday night. The estimated shipping date was a full 5 days with Free Super Saver Shipping. However, 9 hours after the order was placed, the items shipped! We've had similar experiences with VistaPrint where they indicated up to 14 days to receive business cards. 5 days later, the cards arrived.
So don't be fooled by the ridiculously long estimated times to ship your purchases, it's just another gimmick to get more money out of you.
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Amazon Prime: Is It Worth It?
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