What To Do if Your Amazon Prime Order Arrived Too Late For Christmas

Amazon Prime promises your packages will arrive two business days after they ship. This makes it a popular option for last-minute holiday shoppers. But if you cut things extra close, you run the risk of your package not arriving by Christmas.

Let’s say your Amazon Prime order doesn’t arrive in time to go under the tree. Here’s what to do.

Why was my Amazon Prime delivery late?

Here are some reasons your prime order may not have arrived when you wanted it to:

For Christmas 2018, Amazon is guaranteeing that orders placed by Dec. 22 with free Prime two-day shipping will have arrived by Christmas. So the company is confident in a quick turnaround, despite increased demand.

What to do if Amazon Prime delivery is late

If you shipped by Amazon’s deadline or even earlier, and your Prime package still didn’t arrive on time, Christmas may have been a little extra awkward. It’s too late to give your gift on Christmas morning, but the good news is, you may be able to rebound from the inconvenience with some compensation.

When you order an item, Amazon provides a guaranteed delivery date on the checkout page. And, if the package does not arrive by that date, Amazon’s official policy is to refund the shipping cost.

But you didn’t pay for shipping, technically. You used Prime to get free two-day shipping. Amazon doesn’t have an official policy on refunds for late Prime orders. But, unofficially, Prime members have shared various stories about contacting customer service and getting a free month of Prime, an Amazon credit, or other perks. See a success story (and reader examples) from personal finance expert Clark Howard.

Here’s how to ask for compensation for a late Prime delivery:

1. Contact Amazon’s customer service: The easiest way to get in touch with Amazon is to visit its Contact Us page.

2. Locate the late order: Your recent orders will all be displayed automatically on the Contact Us page. Find the one that arrived late (or still hasn’t arrived) and select an issue from the dropdown menu.

3. Select the issue and use the chat feature: Narrow down your issue via the drop-down menus. You can then talk to customer service by phone or by chat. Chat is the speediest and most convenient option. Describe the issue to the representative, ask politely if there’s any compensation you can receive, and hope for the best. Remember: Amazon does not guarantee freebies if your Prime order is late, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Have you ever successfully gotten compensation for a late Prime delivery? Tell us what you got and how you pulled it off in the comments.