Order trick with Amazon: How the 1-day delivery of several scarce items with Prime then works after all (self-test)

The NAS article actually planned for today has to wait until next week, the delivery delays for certain components has unfortunately (once again) put a spoke in my wheel. But at least a nice workaround fell in front of my feet, with which you can also beat Amazon a bargain with your own stock. Sure, the whole thing is no big deal, but with a little thought I even figured it all out myself. Trial and Error. Again…

Synology delivers the over 600 euro NAS (D923+) with a Ryzen 1600 namely without SSD and especially only with a single, only 4 GB memory module. How can you slow down such an AMD CPU with only one module? I’ll probably never understand how such products are forcibly crippled ex-factory. But what the heck, if you want to be beautiful, you have to suffer. Or just buy too. That’s exactly what I had in mind. Upgrading with two SSDs and of course significantly more RAM.

So let’s start with the object of desire, namely two 8 GB modules of DDR4 3200 ECC RAM in SO-DIMM format. Yes, this is not a rare item per se, but nowhere available here in Chemnitz or even ready for immediate pickup. And in the usual webshops you only get cheap consumer stuff for notebooks. But I need server RAM with error correction and not gaming modules with OC gimmicks. In the end, only Amazon remained with the free 1-day deliveries offered via Prime. And the first entry was then already a direct hit.

Who is now wondering about the date in the next two screenshots: Amazon does not stock such exotics in mountains, of course. When I ordered my RAM a week ago, I unfortunately didn’t take any screenshots at the beginning. But since my method is reproducible and really works, I just put the RAM into the shopping cart again today. Symbolically of course, but it comes out the same. Let’s test the possibilities and delivery promises! With a single copy it would work. But what if I need two?

Exactly, I need two modules and not only one. So, since there are two in stock, I click on the desired quantity. But what happens now? Mostly the articles are distributed on several warehouses and so I get this information, which annoyed me already the last time (please look at the date on the right side under the price!)

Stupidly run, because to have to wait a week (or longer), although everything should be in stock, is already very uncool and also mega annoying. And exactly at this point my little trick takes effect: Just order twice each article! This works perfectly and you get the second single order again offered the 1-day delivery! And so that Amazon does not summarize then again, makes really two physically separate orders from it! Because the picture shows that Amazon namely watches like a watchdog and combined my two solo orders of the identical article again to one order and the guaranteed delivery date was completely gone!

Why that with the two single orders nevertheless goes, is actually quite simply explained. One of my good acquaintances works at Amazon and told me, when I told him the story, also the reason plausibly: namely the shipping costs. If the desired number of items is not in at least one of the warehouses, the offer with the 1-day delivery also disappears automatically. Amazon will then reorder the item and thus unfortunately also increases the time window, sometimes significantly, until the required number of pieces is again available from one of the warehouses. If you order twice the possible immediate delivery, then you have virtually outsmarted Amazon with it.

And yet, my separate order was unfortunately also a separate delivery, which is again due to the logistics at Amazon and Deutsche Post and first has nothing to do with the ordering trick. But it was after all only a maximum of two days and not a week. But why did one module arrive one day later? Because both were sent on 25.09.2023, just from different locations.

The second module I can now install with a green-washed conscience, because he was ideologically correct delivered by cargo bike. At least on the last meters and not with the diesel Amazon courier. So the “guaranteed delivery date” didn’t quite work out, but so what? It (the module) still arrived here relatively promptly and not in a week or more. That alone counts!

Surely this little workaround is not a full replacement for the usual long reading on a Friday morning, but I’m still running my backup test with the new NAS (better than the QNAP I’m replacing now) and of course a fan test, which needs a bit more time this time due to the technical innovations. But anyway, you’ve got something to read, don’t let Amazon get on your nerves and order what the cargo bike has to offer. Whereby the “CO2 neutral” is also such a thing. Because here it goes steeply uphill and the driver had to breathe too, because it is not a real pedelec.