online shopping with Free shipping to STX

If you did this over the 'phone I'd suggest you confirm with Amazon in writing (email). The shipping charges on my order a few days ago was, as mentioned earlier, quickly removed with no problem when I asked and explained in writing - just as I've been doing for the last few years.

Chat sessions recorded. First order had shipping charge quickly removed. Second they said would refund after shipping.

Also note that Amazon web site won't allow low cost so-called "add-on items" to ship to US VI, free shipping or not.

Well folks, just placed another order with Amazon and now they are saying they do not have any free shipping to US VI and all previous free shipping for all of us was only done by courtesy exception. Which of course is what their web site says. Had to haggle quite a bit to get another exception. Anyone know the name of the supervisor that said the real policy covers free Supersaver shipping to US VI? And I ordered almost $300 of eligible stuff weighing only a couple pounds.

Apparently it is just a courtesy:

"You receive free shipping if your order includes at least $35 of qualifying merchandise. Any item with “FREE Shipping” messaging on the product detail page qualifies to contribute to your free shipping order minimum.

Canceling items, combining orders, or changing your shipping address, speed, or preference might affect your order's free shipping eligibility.

You can ship to a U.S. delivery address in the 50 states only.
You can ship to APO/FPO addresses only when they have a U.S. zip code.
You may find geographic shipping restrictions apply to particular products.

Note: Some items may not be shipped to Alaska and Hawaii using free shipping. "

Amazon Super Saver Help Page

Terrible that they've been making the exception on a regular basis, but decide not to honor it right at Christmas. Maybe it was just that one rep deciding to stick to the rule book?

Maybe it was just that one rep deciding to stick to the rule book?

Could be. I have limited experience. First order on previous day got shipping waived with no questions asked.

Second order had to haggle before they finally succumbed and said they would refund shipping (but emphasized over and over the actual policy) and jury is still out on that one.

Maybe it was just that one rep deciding to stick to the rule book?

Could be. I have limited experience. First order on previous day got shipping waived with no questions asked.

Second order had to haggle before they finally succumbed and said they would refund shipping (but emphasized over and over the actual policy) and jury is still out on that one.

Amazon hires extra people for Christmas season. So hoping it was a temp wanting to do a perfect job.

Amazon hires extra people for Christmas season. So hoping it was a temp wanting to do a perfect job.

Exactly why I've always dealt with this issue via email, not "chat" or on the 'phone. A newbie put on the spot doesn't know all the ins and outs but I've not had one problem at all dealing with it via email. Been doing this for over 4 years now with Amazon so am quite "the old hand" on the issue!

Exactly why I've always dealt with this issue via email, not "chat" or on the 'phone. A newbie put on the spot doesn't know all the ins and outs but I've not had one problem at all dealing with it via email. Been doing this for over 4 years now with Amazon so am quite "the old hand" on the issue!

If you go through email does that mean they typically ship the order,charge you for shipping and then credit the shipping charge? Or are they quick enough to remove the shipping before they put the charge through and ship?

Do they give you the song and dance about the 50 states only policy and how they are just being nice and making an exception or a different story or just take care of it no questions?

BTW- Agent last night also reiterated no free shipping to PR either.

I email through their website as soon as I place the order and it (the order) is acknowledged. I simply say that mailing to the USVI is via USPS and costs exactly the same as mailing between the contiguous states so the free shipping should apply. As mentioned earlier, I receive a nice response within an hour or two advising that the shipping charges have been removed. I've never once been given a song and dance, have always made my request for deletion of the charges politely and concisely - no problem at all, just a little time-consuming.

When I get the emailed questionnaire to respond to, asking about the service I received in response to my enquiry, I give them top marks for everything except for the last question (which I can't now recall) and then in the comments section I nicely point out that it would really be appreciated if management would look into changing their policy in order to save these extra steps.

Hope that helps.

I'll try that email route on the next order.

I also explained to the agent that the USPS rates are no different to US VI than in the states and also clarified that US VI is part of US and we are not BVI international. Only to have the 50 states only policy reiterated.

Does USPS ship up to the same size limits that UPS ships to VI?

Free shipping, no minimum on Walmart right now.

Forgot to mention LL Bean ships free here too. Husband "goes" clothes shopping there.

I have not had anything physically delivered to VI - but Thrive Market is AMAZING and packs their items better then anyplace I've ever seen (almost to the point of excess, a glass jar in a plastic bag wrapped in many, many layers of this nifty paper cushiony stuff) and I just plugged in the STT zip code and shipping was still free. If you are looking for organic/non gmo (my bf refers to it as "hippy food" - I call it, you know, FOOD) this place is the cheapest I've found even after the $59 annual membership fee. Fingers crossed there really is free shipping - this is my food lifeline and I'll be SUPER sad if I can't use them after we move. If anyone tries them I would love to hear about your experiences!

nautyrn, I just checked out Thrive Market and tried to place an order. Unfortunately, they only ship FedEx Ground. The Virgin Islands isn't in their dropdown list of states and provinces, so it looks like a no-go.

VitaCost and Swansons Vitamins are my two go-to's for shipping organic food here. Neither offers free shipping, but $10 flat rate shipping from VitaCost if you order a certain amount is a fine deal.

A few more comments-

Ordered a whole bunch of stuff from Walmart. There are seemly random things they just won't ship to VI where they will ship other very similar products. Doesn't seem to be related to price, size, etc. But for some reason we had no luck finding any bedding they would ship.

On the other hand, Macy's will also ship to USVI for free or almost free. They wanted a small shipping surcharge. And were able to order lots of bedding from them. They would not allow selecting the priority shipping (2-3 days) option so we'll see how they actually ship and how long it takes.

scubadoo, that is because those products come from other suppliers.
i got some great sheets at JC Penney for a great price. check them out

for lego fans, lego ships here free with minimum purchase

The products I was referring to at Walmart are shipped and sold by Walmart. First thing I do when shopping is click the Walmart Retailer box to filter out all the non-Walmart products so I don't even consider them. In fact, some of the products are shown as only available at Walmart.

I have tried ordering hanes. Bookcases and a few other odss and ends from walmart. I just assumed it was because it came from an outside supplier

I just ordered from Best Buy, they now have VI listed with free shipping, see how it goes. If I remember correctly this wasn't the case about a month ago.

on certain products best buy has delivered free. just like Walmart. I wanted to order a cotton clothesline from Walmart for 15 bucks, shipping was about 30-40 because it was not shipped from Walmart but a subsidiary. I believe that is the same with bestbuy

I ordered a TV from Best Buy in December with free shipping to STX. They estimated delivery about a month later. They shipped it UPS from their warehouse in the states to USPS for delivery to VI, standard mail, i.e. by boat. It did show up a little less than a month later but the screen was shattered and no apparent mishandling on the outside of the box. They ship the original OEM box only. The boxes have protection inside on top and bottom but nothing for the middle inside where the screen is. Called Best Buy as soon as the damage was discovered and they re-shipped another one right away. Two carriers involved and no external damage so no idea where the actual damage occurred, it could have occurred before then ever shipped it. Another month to deliver so still waiting for it.

They provided a return shipping label for UPS ground to return the damaged unit. For some reason, can't imagine why, UPS on STX said they can't access a UPS ground shipping label. Best Buy mulled this over for a bit and decided not to bother having me return the damaged TV as a courtesy.

I ordered a similar size/model TV from Amazon a short time later. I contacted them to plea for free shipping and they indicated they had some sort of internal snafu with the order anyway and volunteered expedited shipping. This translated to about one week delivery by UPS. Had to pay the import duty on it but no damage on that one.

"To beat a dead horse a little bit more: there is no free Amazon PRIME shipping here. (I did get verification about a week ago from Amazon that this hasn't changed , since another poster said there was). There is only free Super Saver shipping if your Amazon fulfilled items total $35 or more."

I received an email from Amazon letting me know I hd been charged for shipping however as an Amazon Prime member I should not have been so they had refunded my shipping charge back to my credit card for all purchases - so Yes we DO have Prime here 🙂

Pia

I'm finding Amazon to be very difficult right now. Several weeks ago and out of the blue I received a rather snottily worded notification that my account was being reviewed based on something about my repetitively asking for and receiving "discounts". It further said that if I were found to be claiming these "discounts" in contradiction of Amazon policy, my account may be suspended! I was totally gobsmacked.

I responded, nicely advising that my requests have been solely about their policy of not extending free shipping on qualifying Amazon shipments to addresses in the US Virgin Islands. I also advised that this has NOT been a problem and that the shipping charges had always been removed. That it was an irritation to have to follow up on every qualifying order and that once again I would very much like Amazon management to address the issue.

The total number of back and forth emails subsequent to that were about 10 on each end, further complicated by responses from a different Amazon representative every time and a lot of misinformation adding to the muddle.

My repeated request for Amazon management to review the issue has still been ignored. I just went through the same broo ha ha with a recent order which came by USPS and qualified for free shipping. The representative failed to see that one of the items was for two and not one of the item which brought it below the $35. Took two more emails to get that cleared up.

Fortunately I have the time to play around and find suppliers rather more easy to deal with but it really is a shame as I've been buying through Amazon for many years now and was very happy doing so until recently. Thank goodness, though, that here are alternatives!

Well I had placed 6 orders in Dec ship to STX including that TV mentioned previously and had fun pleading for the free shipping (all qualified) on all of them. The first was easy and the last with the TV they volunteered for other reasons. Using on-line chat to plea was definitely harder than email but did have several back and forths as well.

An item on one order was inexplicably held up while other items shipped. I was about to place another order while I was waiting for them to get back to me on the hold-up in case I had to include a re-order of the previous item on the pending order (actually wanted to order a second as well). Long story short the price of one of the items on the pending order shot way up while waiting. I asked them about getting the original price on that item and they honored that with no hassle at all, they asked me what was the original price. I hope I don't get one of those too many discounts snotty-grams. I'm still ordering stuff to stateside addresses as well so maybe that will help. How many others are pleading for free shipping or just me and OT?

I'm having problems with Best Buy honoring Free Shipping to Stt. It's a Home Theater System. I guess I have to speak to a manager. It is from their site and not from one of their subsidiaries.

Is it a matter of free shipping or any shipping? There are some items on BB, Amazon, and Walmart (their items, not marketplace) that for whatever reason they won't ship to VI, free or otherwise.

Is it a matter of free shipping or any shipping? There are some items on BB, Amazon, and Walmart (their items, not marketplace) that for whatever reason they won't ship to VI, free or otherwise.

It seems like a matter of shipping the item to Stt. Sorry, I should've been more clear. If BB will ship a large screen tv to Stx as posted above, I thought I wouldn't have a shipping problem with a home theater system (Blu-ray player and speakers).
Guess I'm going to ship it to a friend/relative in the states and they'll ship it to me.