Call Kurtis Investigates: Student Says Amazon Isn't Honest About Shipping Options

TURLOCK (CBS13) — College student Reno Bianchi says when he shops on Amazon, he is baited into putting stuff in his cart after seeing a shipping offer like, "Want it by tomorrow? Order it within 14 minutes."

The Amazon Prime member then adds it to his cart, but when he goes to check out, he sometimes notices that overnight shipping option vanishes.

"It would tell me, oh no; it's not going to be here tomorrow. It's going to be here in 3 days," he said.

In other cases, he shows us how sometimes that one day option is there, but he would be charged more for it.

"It's kind of a little bit of a semi bait-and-switch," he said.

Part of his $99 a year Amazon Prime Membership is free two-day shipping on 50 million items and free same-day and 1-day shipping on a million items to 5,000 different cities.

Public relations expert Doug Elmets understands the frustration.

"If you're going to say that you're going to get something in one day, you better get it in one day," he said. "There are thousands of people all over the country on a daily basis that are experiencing the same challenges."

We brought examples to Amazon. Weeks after reaching out to the company and after several missed deadlines, Amazon offered no explanation. It did recommend Prime users select same-day, one-day or two-day shipping before searching for items to see what will really show up within those time frames.

As a loyal customer, Bianchi feels deceived.

"I think if they can fix that, I think they can gain a lot of customers."

Amazon's Full Statement

Prime was built on the foundation of unlimited fast, free shipping and today, members receive Prime Free Two-Day Shipping on more than 50 million items, Prime FREE Same-Day Delivery on more than one million items available in 30 major cities, and free two-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items with Prime Now available in more than 30 major cities.

Prime FREE Same-Day Delivery is available in 30 major cities, accounting for more than 1,000 cities and towns. Members can choose from over one million items, order in the morning, seven days a week - even Sunday, and all same-day orders over $35 will be delivered by 9pm. After the order cutoff, members can continue to shop and receive free one-day delivery on the same selection of items. While shopping, customers can find the Prime FREE Same-Day search filter just below the Prime filter - in the left-hand menu on desktop, and in the right-hand filter menu on mobile. Customers can find eligible zip codes at www.amazon.com/sameday.