My wife and I order using Amazon quite often. When the item(s) are for us, we have to drive a fair amount to get to the location where we can have them delivered. I know we're not alone in this, as many rural people, near-border individuals, and even apartment dwellers often cannot ship directly to their homes and have to have a PO Box, package delivery location, or similar and some just aren't close by. When the items I've requested to be grouped ship separately, this often means separate hour-long drives to the pick up location, costing me time, gas costs, and other frustrations that could be minimized if the items were actually grouped together.
What is further irritating is that Amazon shows me the items in question as "in stock" but doesn't tell me that they are in stock in separate locations. I'm certain that Amazon moves stock around between its warehouses, which are located all over America. If item X is selling strongly in the western states, but the main bulk of the product is held in a warehouse on the east coast, it makes sense for them to move stock to a central or western warehouse to better serve the demand. Assuming this, then they could also move items around for customers.
Frankly, if I ask for all items to be grouped together, I understand (and Amazon can make abundantly clear online while you are ordering) that this may delay the shipping of the bundled package. I accept that. That is part of the choice I'm making. So, if there is a day or two extra while they move the stock from a farther warehouse to a nearer warehouse while they get the order together, I've already agreed to it because I've accepted the consequences of my choice to have the products shipped together. It would seem obvious to me that the time frame is not the important factor based on the selection that I chose.*
* This is granting that the item(s) in question aren't being sold from a private vendor through Amazon. I recognize that sometimes, if, for example, you order two items and one is from Amazon and one is from a private vendor, the items cannot be grouped together as the private vendor does its own shipping typically. I'm talking about only those items that Amazon can control shipping on.As a side note, I ordered enough that I'm getting free shipping. And, since they provide the free shipping regardless of whether they ship it as one package or many, if I request 1, they should provide it. I don't care if it takes longer or costs Amazon more money to ship everything to one location, repackage and ship to me in one package-- I'm not paying for the shipping, so I don't care what hoops the company has to go through.
Luckily, my wife's eagerness to have our Christmas shopping done early this year has kicked me in the butt to start shopping for her earlier. So the fact that I may have to make up to four different trips for the four different items (depending on when they arrive and how long the post office holds things before sending them back, of course- I may cut it to only two or three trips) isn't as imperative. If I had waited until the last minute like I so often do, then having them come at varying times would mean gas, time, and effort wasted while I hurried down to get them so that I had something for her to unwrap Christmas morning.
In the end, I wonder why they even bother having the option if they (at least in my case) seem to never use it.
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