The Frustrating Fallacy of “Next Day Air”

Ordering something online from a US retailer last Friday, for domestic
delivery. I was given the option to pay $20 for “Next Day Air”. When I
selected that option, the expected delivery date was updated to.... Tuesday,
four days hence.

Folks in America know nothing other than this shady date math... an order placed on Friday doesn't get processed or shipped
until Monday, so “next day” isn't until Tuesday, but it drives me crazy. In Japan, when you order something for the next day, it arrives
The Next Day.

For example, in Japan, “Amazon Prime” is “free next-day delivery”. If you order something on Saturday night, you'll get it on Sunday. Sometimes
you get things the same day... I've ordered something Sunday morning and had
it delivered that evening. This is what I'm used to, so the American-style
fake “next day” stuff is difficult to stomach. First World Problems, I guess.

Of course, my product didn't arrive yesterday as promised.

I got an email early on Monday from the shipper (Karma
Mobility) that my package had shipped, but tracking didn't actually show
up on the UPS site until 8pm that night, when it was “Order Processed; Ready for UPS”.
That, I assume, was too late to make that evening's flight from California out east,
which I further assume was why early on Tuesday morning UPS updated the
status with the deliciously-vague “Due to operating conditions, your package may be delayed.”
The next 17 hours went by without an update, until yesterday evening the package did
make the flight out east, a day late, and so now they're suggesting that I'll
get it today.

It seems apparent that it's the shipper's fault for missing the promised
delivery date, so I sent them a note last night asking them to refund my $20.
We'll see. Sigh.