Due to the coronavirus, it can now take Amazon a month to deliver a purchased PC component to your home.
Over the weekend, consumers began noticing the 4-week shipping times, and posting about it on social media. The delays even apply to users who’ve subscribed to Amazon Prime, which will normally deliver an order for free in one to two days.
If you order today, you can now expect certain items to not arrive until April 21. You’ll encounter the 4-week shipping time on many computer parts, including AMD and Intel chips, motherboards, graphic cards, HDD drives, RAM and power supplies — essentially all the components needed to build a desktop PC.
Other items such as paperback books, coffee makers, and tea kettles, have also been ensnared. Orders for laptops, monitors, and keyboards, on the other hand, show they’ll generally take a week to arrive.
The delays occur as Amazon has focused on fulfilling orders for essential items amid the coronavirus outbreak, which is forcing millions of Americans to stay at a home. As a result, the company is prioritizing goods such as food, household cleaning products, and healthcare supplies when delivering orders to customers. At the same time, Amazon has temporarily suspended retailers from sending non-essential items to be stocked at the company’s warehouses.
“To serve our customers while also helping to ensure the safety of our associates, we’ve changed our logistics, transportation, supply chain, purchasing, and third-party seller processes to prioritize stocking and delivering items that are a higher priority for our customers,” the company said. “This has resulted in some of our delivery promises being longer than usual.”
To resolve the shipment crunch, Amazon is trying to hire an additional 100,000 workers at the company’s fulfillment centers across the US. However, some existing warehouse employees say they're worried about contracting the illness at company fulfillment centers, where hundreds of workers will assemble together to sort through shipments. Last week, one Amazon delivery station in New York briefly shut down after an employee tested positive for the virus.
If you’re looking to buy PC parts, we recommend you check out Newegg, Best Buy, Walmart, or the PC vendors' official websites.
Further Reading
- Best Buy Shifts to Curbside Pickups Only in Response to Coronavirus
- Bezos: Amazon Workers Don't Have Enough Face Masks
- Amazon Re-Opens Queens Delivery Station After Worker Tests Positive for Coronavirus
- Coronavirus Causes Best Buy to Limit In-Store Customers to 10 to 15 At a Time
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