If you’re an Amazon Prime customer and you’re lucky enough to live in one of the Prime Now cities, get the app and go shopping. It’s an incredibly cool service. I recently used it get an audio cable. Here’s my one word review: awesome. Click on for the rest of the article for a full discussion and images.
Nashville was added to the Prime Now batch of cities in late 2015. As luck would have it I was working on a show in a space with other editors were we had to wear headphones. I was using my Varidesk Soho and was trying a new pair of headphones but the cord was too short to be comfortable when standing. If only I had a mini-jack extension cable and didn’t have to navigate from downtown to a Radio Shack or wait two days for Amazon delivery. Prime Now to the rescue.
If you’re unfamiliar with Prime Now it’s an Amazon service that provides 1 or 2 hour delivery (two hour is free, one hour is $7.99) to Prime customers via a dedicated Prime Now app (iTunes link but it’s also available for Android) . Call it up, find what you want, make sure you have the minimum in your shopping cart, add a tip and watch the driver come your way. You can even get a job delivering.
It was a painless procedure. I got tired of stretching the cable for the headphones and had forgotten to stop by the Radio Shack in my neighborhood (yep, that’s two Radio Shack mentions in this one article!) the day before so Prime Now seemed like the perfect thing. The app makes it easy (it’s only available on mobile for now) so I grabbed some screenshots of the process below.
After a quick search I found the audio extension cable I was looking for. But I didn’t meet the $20 minimum delivery purchase so it was back to shopping.
You can never have enough flash drives so I picked up one of those as well.
After choosing my items you’re presented with the purchase screen. The tip is at the top. I placed this order on November 30 at 12:21 pm.
After placing the order you have access to the map with your location and a pin drop where the order is originating from. I’m not exactly sure where in town the order came from as I thought it would have come from Amazon’s fulfillment center in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Checking in showed me that the order was being prepared.
I checked in at 2:17 pm and the order was on its way. Once it left it’s home I could track my cable and flash drive via a map on the app. And it let me know my delivery driver was Christina.
I asked for a text when the shipment was on its way. This came in at 2:18 pm.
Checking in at 2:23 pm I could see the driver was just across the river. There’s also an option to contact the driver but I didn’t do that. Let’s hope they are taught not to text and drive.
At 2:41 the drive was just down the street. I was waiting on the doorbell of the building to ring.
At 2:55 she was in front of my building.
At 2:56 I had my Prime Now paper sack in my hand. Delivery driver Christina had a big smile and she handed it to me. That was a big bag for a audio cable and a tiny flash drive (which I’ve already lost) but the paper bag is a nice touch.
It was a big thumbs up for Amazon Prime Now. It took a bit over two hours to get the delivery in hand. A fellow editor working the same job has used it a lot and loves it too. In fact he used Prime Now the next day to order some coffee pods. I haven’t tried paying for the one hour delivery as of yet as I rarely think I’ll ever need anything that quickly.
