Well, of course now since there's so many cross sellers on Amazon, it
takes a long time to find stuff that qualifies for free shipping.

I won't buy anything that's not sold by Amazon itself. Luckily, Tool
Crib is only a few hours up the Road in Fargo, and it appears that the
larger stuff ships from there. For years I bought most all of my tools
from Amazon, always free shipping, and nothing ever took more than
about a week to arrive. Since they started Amazon Prime (the $70/year
upgraded shipping deal) I've been offered free trials three times, each
time for 2-3 months at a shot. During those period I get everything
shipping two day for free, as long as it comes from amazon, with no
minimum. This past week the UPS guy stopped four out of five days with
packages from amazon. It's crazy.

So I really have no hate for Amazon at all. I've probably made well
over 100 purchases from them since they opened shop, and bought many
large tools from them (jointer, planer, sander, etc.) with no troubles
at all. The few things I've had to return over the years were never any
trouble at all. In fact, the only order I recall EVER taking more than
two weeks was when I ordered 10 copies of a book published by the
Catholic church that I couldn't find available in print
anywhere...after six months I finally canceled the order and printed of
a pdf copy instead.

Amazon has gone way downhill in terms of prices and selection in tools
over the past few years but it's still my first choice for most items
they stock. Always good (usually best) prices and I have no complaints
about the service at all.

-kiwanda