Amazon Subscribe & Save -- "temporarily out of stock/delivery delayed" - anyone else??

[TheReader]

We have a number of routine items on our Amazon Subscribe & Save; things like the various pet foods, car & house maintenance items, etc. 

Today, we're receiving notice after notice "this item is temporarily out of stock, your delivery will be delayed".  I'm wondering if this is happening to others, and I'm also curious if this is really due to the weather, but a pre-programmed "out of stock" message is easier to send than a message saying "hey, the country is covered in snow, so things are running late". 

Thoughts? Anyone else have this happening?  We've gotten 5 different notices today, each for a different item in our subscribe & save. It seems too coincidental that they'd ALL be out of stock (unless, what that actually means is "these items haven't made it to the specific warehouse they need to ship from, b/c of the weather" which I suppose is what it could mean.....). 

[regentrude]

I have several subscriptions. The cat litter will show up as scheduled, but the cat food has been listed as "temporarily unavailable" for a couple of weeks and won't be delivered. 
Never had issues before.

Edited January 15 by regentrude

[Ethel Mertz]

My most recent S&S was delayed by a week due to “weather issues.”

[Corraleno]

I have a vitamin subscription that has been listed as OOS for over a week, but I just got the "delayed" notice because today was the scheduled delivery day.

[Katy]

Multiple items ordered 2 weeks ago with “no rush shipping” haven’t been delivered due to weather issues in the Midwest. I think I was supposed to get two shipments containing about 10 items total. None have showed up. But to be fair, I don’t care if stuff is late because I don’t think anyone should have to work outside in temperatures like this. We picked up stuff ourselves and when the items show up they’ll go in the cabinets as back stock. Except for the one book, it’s all stuff we buy again & again anyway. 

[OH_Homeschooler]

I've used subscribe and save for a long time and this issue has popped up occasionally. The winter weather could be a factor for sure right now.

[Boymama5]

This has happened periodically to me in the past. Sometimes the item is just really out of stock. Other times it has been cause they no longer carry it but then also won’t say that. I usually get the items available but that comes later- usually just a few days. Others it has been out of stock for months and then randomly comes back into stock

[Kassia]

48 minutes ago, TheReader said:

I'm also curious if this is really due to the weather, but a pre-programmed "out of stock" message is easier to send than a message saying "hey, the country is covered in snow, so things are running late". 

 

I believe it is this.  I've had this happen several times in the past when my delivery was delayed for multiple items and was irritated about the out of stock message when it was obviously just a delay in delivery.

Edited January 15 by Kassia

[SKL]

I had this happen about a week ago, but I think all of the items have since come in, so it wasn't a long wait.

During Covid, they delayed and then canceled multiple months of my toilet paper subscription.  Apparently even if you subscribe years in advance, you don't have priority over people buying the same item today.  I did complain about that, but I don't know if anyone cared.  😛

[prairiewindmomma]

We’ve had this issue frequently over the last four years.

[dsmith]

I would say every other month we have one thing delayed. We have a pretty large order, about $400 a month. About once a year an item we order will be taken off subscribe and save even though they still have it in stock. Usually the price is very high when that happens but from a 3rd party seller. One of the teas I used to get for $13 is now over $25 the last time I checked.😠

[TheReader]

Oh, we do have this pop up from time to time, usually on the dog food. The oddity of having 5 items all pop as "out of stock" today was surprising/curious to me. 

We've since gotten an email that the dog food has shipped and will be here tomorrow, so....??? 

Normally we either wait it out (we often don't find a big enough delay to actually run out of things), or will go and buy a smaller package of whatever missing thing.  Today/this week would have done the same, we've enough dog food, cat food, rabbit food, etc. to get through the freeze. I was just curious about the utter randomness of 5 items all popping OOS at the same time. 

[QueenCat]

We'll have that issue from time to time. Usually for clorox cleaning wipes. 

[Kassia]

34 minutes ago, TheReader said:

 The oddity of having 5 items all pop as "out of stock" today was surprising/curious to me. 

We've since gotten an email that the dog food has shipped and will be here tomorrow, so....??? 

 

That's exactly what happens to us.  We have big S&S orders and I'll get 7 or so emails in a row saying those items are out of stock and delayed and then they suddenly are being shipped and arriving one day late.  Definitely not out of stock and must be some kind of canned email.  It bugs me, but I'm used to it now and know the items are just running late and not actually out of stock.  

[SHP]

Oddly the subscribe and save items are fine. I cannot get other Prime items in less than a week. 2 day shipping? Ha! Overnight? I have like 4 options. Same day? Funny. This has been a problem for a few months.

[gardenmom5]

I've had them even when weather was decent.   Sometimes they come late.  Sometimes the supplier doesn't supply them anymore. Sometimes it just skips a month. 

[Bambam]

We've had this happen semi-often throughout the last 6 months or so. It has mostly been vitamins/supplements. Sometimes they ask about substitutions (different brand same sort of thing). But when I've checked, the same vitamin/supplement/same manufacturer/often the same size is still available, so I end up having that sent to me without the 10-15% discount. I've assumed either Amazon can't figure out the exact same thing is available under a very slightly different description or just doesn't care because that isn't in their financial interest? 

[cjzimmer1]

It would make sense to me but I would guess the weather delay is due to the trucks not getting to the Amazon warehouses to restock Amazon so they really are temporarily out of stock. Amazon wouldn't need/have a different message for all the reasons why they don't currently have the product. If they actually have the product and it's slow shipping, I often see a message saying it's delayed for weather (although admittedly now that I think about it I can't say for sure if the weather delay message is in Amazon itself or on the tracking page from the shipper since I monitor both)

[ScoutTN]

Yes. Weather. 

[stephanier.1765]

Cat food, nearly every single time it's due to arrive the order is either delayed or cancelled. It's frustrating because the stores don't often don't carry the kind my kitties need.

[TheReader]

6 minutes ago, stephanier.1765 said:

Cat food, nearly every single time it's due to arrive the order is either delayed or cancelled. It's frustrating because the stores don't often don't carry the kind my kitties need.

Yes, this and the dog food are the biggest culprits for us, too. And, same. We have to get a similar, but not same, kind.