Can I search Amazon for "free shipping" items only?

January 3, 2006 4:47 PM

Searching Amazon.com - I was given a subscription to Amazon Prime for Christmas. But every time that I search for something, most of the search results can't be shipped free (they're not eligible for Amazon's "Super Saver" shipping). Is there a way to search Amazon, or maybe an alternative to Amazon's interface (e.g., Amazon Light) that will let me search only for items that can be purchased directly from Amazon itself?
posted by gd779 to technology (24 comments total)

Do the things you're ordering add up to more than $25?
posted by pealco at 5:14 PM on January 3, 2006

gd779, this is a problem that many (including me) have written about, and there's truly no way to currently search Amazon only for stuff that Amazon itself fulfills. It's maddening, and this holiday season, I actually ended up using Amazon less than in seasons past because of it. Perhaps someday they'll figure that out.

(Also note that your question confuses two issues, those of items that can be shipped for free under Amazon Prime and those that are eligible for Super Saver shipping. They're not the same...)
posted by delfuego at 5:45 PM on January 3, 2006

It's maddening, and this holiday season, I actually ended up using Amazon less than in seasons past because of it.

Same here. But that's so bizarre that I was hoping I'd missed something - some way to do it that I was just not seeing.

(Also note that your question confuses two issues, those of items that can be shipped for free under Amazon Prime and those that are eligible for Super Saver shipping. They're not the same...)

They're not always the same, but it's a good enough proxy that, frankly, I'd take it.

Do the things you're ordering add up to more than $25?

Yes, but that's not necessary for Amazon Prime, which offers free 2-day shipping on eligible items no matter how little you spend. As a general rule, items that are eligable for the "super saver" shipping tend to be eligable for Prime shipping - though not always, as delfuego notes.
posted by gd779 at 6:39 PM on January 3, 2006

I will be watching this thread closely, because I also wanted this feature this past holiday season, mostly to make use of the amazon free shipping and their shipping guarantees (which did not apply to their affiliates).
posted by fishfucker at 8:40 PM on January 3, 2006

Also note that the affiliate sometimes provide terrible service, or terrible products. I tried to order a rather popular camera lens a few months ago. Amazon listed that it would ship within 24 hours but be delivered from a 3rd party vendor, so I went for it and asked for overnight shipping. Three days later, it still hadn't shipped (and the catalog page still suggested it could ship in 24 hours!). I ended up cancelling it and buying the lens elsewhere. Later, I ordered what seemed to be a nice business card organizer. It turned out to be an excellent device for mangling the corners of business cards, and completely terrible for organizing them.

I have had a few good experience with amazon affiliates, but everything I have ordered that is delivered directly from amazon has been great. This makes the low quality of the affiliate program stand out in sharp contrast to Amazon's regular service.
posted by b1tr0t at 2:49 AM on January 4, 2006

Yeah, I too have looked for a solution to this issue and not found one. I spent some time looking at the amazon web services in relation to this question, but that was a dead-end. The amazon web services let you search by merchant id, but they don't seem to make a distinction between amazon itself and its partner companies like Toys 'R Us.
posted by HiddenInput at 7:48 AM on January 4, 2006

I work at Amazon and am also an Amazon Prime member. (I was randomly offered a 3-month free trial membership.) I don't know of any way to do this, and neither does anyone sitting near me at work.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:53 AM on January 4, 2006

I sent Customer Service an email. I don't expect anything beyond "You can't do that", but I'll post here when I get a response.
posted by fishfucker at 11:30 AM on January 4, 2006

Thanks, fishfucker. I'll be interested to hear the official response.

(I admit I'm kind of surprised that there isn't a workaround through amazon web services - I'm starting to wonder if the inability to search this way isn't a deliberate decision on Amazon's party. If it is, I would consider that a fairly severe violation of my trust as a customer.)
posted by gd779 at 12:03 PM on January 4, 2006

I heard back. Basically it's an answer of the "sorry, dogg" variety. I'm not surprised they have this policy, as I imagine that it is not in the interest of the affliates for users to be able to eliminate them from the search -- however, it's definitely in the interest of the users.

I suppose it could also be possible that their current backend makes this type of search so costly that it would noticeably interfere with site operation.

Maybe if lots of people request this feature amazon will find a reason to implement it.

Below is the response, verbatim:

Thanks for writing to us at Amazon.com.

First of all, I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused
you.

At this time, you can not search only new items on our web site. I
do apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

We designed our search engine to perform searches in this manner
because we wanted to make sure you wouldn't miss finding items that
you might want.

However, we do appreciate the time you took to send us your feedback
on this subject.

For your reference, you can refine your search results by clicking
the "Search" or "Advanced Search" link in the navigation bar at the
top of most product categories' home pages. Our advanced searches
allow you to specify whether your search terms apply to the item
name, artist, or manufacturer, as well as allowing you to specify
other parameters such as language, age range, binding or format,
etc., depending on the product type.

If you are searching for an exact author name, title, or phrase, you
might try putting the words between quotes when entering them into
the keyword search field. This should also help narrow down your
results.

For more product-specific search tips, please visit our Help
department:

http://www.amazon.com/help/search

Again, I realize that this experience has been frustrating for you,
and I wish to extend my apologies. We hope to see you again soon at
Amazon.com.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

If yes, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=aghtadvr3435204101
If not, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=aghtadvr3435204101

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail.

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section
of our web site.

Best regards,

Anil
Amazon.com Customer Service
http://www.amazon.com

posted by fishfucker at 4:20 PM on January 4, 2006

oh. huh. I just realized he didn't answer my question at all. Guess i was anticipating a "no" answer so much that I just skimmed.
posted by fishfucker at 4:21 PM on January 4, 2006

He said you can't search for "only new items." That is, you can't exclude used items, which are sold by third-parties and are not elegible for Prime or Supersaver shipping. The same reasoning probably applies to other inelegible items.

I'll ask around and see if I can get any other information that I can post here. No guarantees, sorry.
posted by mbrubeck at 5:14 PM on January 4, 2006

We designed our search engine to perform searches in this manner because we wanted to make sure you wouldn't miss finding items that you might want.

This sounds to me as though Amazon is deliberately preventing us from searching for these items. They figure they'll make more money if they hawk their affiliates' stuff, forcing us to wade through the crap we don't want in the hopes that we make an impulse buy (or decide that, fuck it, paying for the shipping is easier than looking through all these entries), than they would if they just let us search for what we want.
posted by gd779 at 6:32 PM on January 4, 2006

I usually include the word 'Amazon' as one of my search terms. I'm still waiting for them to come up with a better solution, but this is helpful in the meantime. I've found that it primarily brings up only items sold by Amazon, the majority of which are eligible for free shipping under Prime. I'm not sure how much stuff that actually would be eligible under Prime is getting filtered out, but I seem to get pretty good results.
posted by diamondsky at 9:10 PM on January 4, 2006

I got another response:

FWIW, here's what I said:

Your associate told me that it wasn't possible to only
search for "new" items on the site. My question was about whether or
not it was possible to search only for those items that ship from
Amazon.com.


I apologize for the previous response sent by one of our colleagues.

When you choose Super Saver Shipping, qualifying items will ship for
free. All items that are eligible for Super Saver Shipping will have
the words "Eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping" displayed on their
product detail pages.

To take advantage of this shipping option, your order must include
eligible merchandise totaling $25.00 or more, and must be shipped to
an address in the 50 United States, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin
Islands.

NOTE: Be sure to select the "FREE Super Saver Shipping" option when
filling out the online order form. If this option does not appear on
the order form, your order may not contain any eligible items.

You will find the full details of this option listed on our web site:

http://www.amazon.com/supersavershipping

Please note that this offer does not apply to:

- toys, baby items, video games, or items in our [e-mail]
store; these items may be included in the same order, but standard
shipping fees will apply to these items.

- Tools & Hardware or Outdoor Living items shipping to Alaska or
Hawaii.

- items purchased from third-party sellers through our Apparel &
Accessories store, Amazon Marketplace, Auctions, or zShops.

Also, digital products (e-books, software downloads, and music
downloads) do not count toward the $25.00 total, as these items do
not have shipping charges associated with them.

The items offered on our web site may be sold by Amazon.com or by
third-party sellers. Many individuals and businesses sell used, new,
and collectible items through Amazon Marketplace, and our site also
hosts a wide variety of merchants, such as Nordstrom and Office
Depot. For Target, Toys"R"Us, and Babies"R"Us items, Amazon.com
fulfills orders and offers customer service.

You can recognize whether or not the seller is Amazon.com in many
ways:

* If the availability on an item's detail page reads "Usually
ships within 1-2 business days," this is a Marketplace or
Merchant item.

* Under the availability, a merchant item will say "Offered
By (merchant name)."

* For any third-party items in your Shopping Cart, the
seller's name will appear under the item title. This
information also appears on the order check-out page.

* If several different sellers are offering the same item,
the "More Buying" Choices on the right side of the product
detail page will list each seller and their price separately.

Amazon Marketplace sellers may offer used, collectible, or
refurbished items in a variety of conditions. The condition of a
particular seller's item can be viewed by clicking the "used & new"
link on the item's detail page. For a description of what these
conditions mean, please visit our Help pages:

http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/browse/-/1161242/

If you have further questions and to write back to us, please contact
us by visiting this page:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html

I hope this information is helpful. Thank you for shopping at
Amazon.com.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

If yes, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=wbhtdxvr3437498077&q=sn
If not, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=wbhtdxvr3437498077&q=sn

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail.

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section
of our web site.

Best regards,

Vijaya kumar E.
Amazon.com Customer Service
http://www.amazon.com

I'll give it another shot.
posted by fishfucker at 10:33 PM on January 4, 2006

Again, that doesn't really answer your question, but it's admittedly a little closer to an answer.

It's really frustrating for Amazon to make its service less useful, whether it's by design or because they didn't think through the entire Marketplace idea. But it's likely that when my Prime membership comes up for renewal, I won't, and I'll likely continue my trend away from using Amazon as my first-choice online merchant.
posted by delfuego at 8:59 AM on January 5, 2006

I'll likely continue my trend away from using Amazon as my first-choice online merchant.

Who would you recommend instead?
posted by gd779 at 9:12 AM on January 5, 2006

Alright! Finally, the "no" i was looking for:


We appreciate the time you've taken to send your inquiry.

At this time, we do not have a tool on our website to search for
items restricted to items fulfilled directly from Amazon.

I have passed along your comments to our developers; customer
feedback like yours is essential in helping us determine what
additional features our visitors and customers want most.

Our online Help pages include tips for navigating our web site and
placing an order. I would recommend reading the following page
before placing your order:

http://www.amazon.com/help/order

Thanks for your interest in Amazon.com.

Best regards,

Alan Z.
Amazon.com Customer Service
http://www.amazon.com

Interestingly enough, this one had an American name AND did not include the "Did this answer your question? Click Here" links. Guess they got sick of me.

So there's your answer. nope. I like diamondsky's tip above. I'll probably try it next time I'm searching Amazon.
posted by fishfucker at 10:05 AM on January 5, 2006

Fwiw, I'm revamping my Amazon Light site (mostly clean-up), and will see what I can do to incorporate the wishes in this thread - I agree that the 3rd-party seller experience is sub-optimal for a number of reasons.
posted by kokogiak at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2006

Good to know, kokogiak.
posted by gd779 at 3:37 PM on January 5, 2006

Actually, I've got an answer for y'all, courtesy of Promethean.

Add &emi=ATVPDKIKX0DER to your search URL.

That should do it.
posted by WCityMike at 12:29 PM on January 11, 2006

there's a message there claiming that it doesn't work for general searches.

I tested that method myself with the search "serger", and it still shows results that are fufilled by Joann's Fabrics instead of Amazon.com.
posted by fishfucker at 12:38 PM on January 11, 2006

For those still following this thread, I've finally updated Amazon Light, and one of the main features is "95% Amazon-Only", which means items qualify for Super-Saver Shipping and Amazon Prime.

Why "95%"? Because Amazon's own webservice is imperfect, and will occasionally serve up items that it shouldn't. Enjoy (feedback welcome)
posted by kokogiak at 8:06 AM on February 13, 2006

Including "amazon" in the search box is 90% effective. Thanks for the suggestion, diamondsky. I just go free shipping for my $26.77 order (including floss for $1.79). Shipping would have been $7 otherwise.
posted by exhilaration at 7:34 PM on June 24, 2006