Does not allow checkout after slot selected

[jordanbigel]

I had high hopes. After about 30 minutes the script reported it had found a slot. I clicked on the slot, then clicked Continue and I was brought back to the page showing no slots available. Crap. I closed the browser, re-opened it, re-started the script and after about 10 or so minutes it found another slot - but the same thing happened again. I pick a slot (quickly) then click continue, but no dice, back to the No Slots Available page. Bummer.

[jasoncalabrese]

I'm seeing the same behaviour, and we later we saw it on a different computer. Maybe Amazon is trying to throttle this behaviour? I hope it's temporary.

Wish we didn't have to pick a delivery slot to begin with, I'm not going anywhere, so they could deliver at any time...

[ahertel]

@jordanbigel @jasoncalabrese Thanks for your messages. I agree this issue of disappearing/"phantom" slots is frustrating, but unfortunately it's out of my control. I've been receiving a lot of concern/complaints about this so I added a Disclaimer I added to the ReadMe. See also my reddit comment here for more of my thoughts on Amazon's disappearing slots.

I think Amazon is either having glitches that are affecting all users, or they are specifically throttling/blocking accounts with a lot of refresh activity from use of scripts like this one. But it's just speculation unfortunately.

What I do know is that several users who at first told me they encounter nothing but disappearing slots for 24-48 hours (sometimes 20+ "phantom" slots) have reported that eventually a real slot appeared and they were able to successfully checkout. So it's seems we just need to keep running the script and be ready to pounce on the rare occasion when a real slot appears amongst all the "fake" ones. Another thing people have tried is using a VPN but I've heard mixed results from users as to whether it's actually helping reduce the "fake" slots.

@jasoncalabrese agreed, the slot system is pretty unnecessary for those of us who are able to stay inside all day every day.

Hope my answer helps explain that you are not alone and there is hope in continuing to try seize the slots that appear. Let me know if you have any more concerns/questions.

[jasoncalabrese]

We did eventually get a slot via a manual refresh, so if they were throttling the account it wasn’t for more than a few hours. I’ll try again for the next order with a longer wait between refreshes.

I was wondering about making the wait time back off, and then speed up again when it gets to each new hour. Then it might not look like a script if they are doing some throttling.

[logicbomb421]

@ahertel Just encountered this myself, curious if it would be possible to let the script actually click the 'Continue' button when it finds a slot? Sort of like an "I don't care just grab anything" feature.

Love this util so far though, thanks for making it!

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Just made a change to the script that should auto-click continue, running it now. If it works, I'll PR it if desired.

[plsnotracking]

Plugging from my previous response in another thread

So what I've gathered is - Your internet needs to be fast and your cart needs to be slim (for Whole Foods). The bigger the number of products the more time it takes to check if this products are available or not before checkout.

Hence, I think a lot of us are seeing slots but when we try to click it, they disappear. I've seen cases where I click on pay to order and then I fail. @ahertel it would be actually better to claim a slot in Amazon Fresh (they've now stopped inviting new people to the programme) since it gives you 59 minutes to add items to the cart rather than the whole foods slot. Feel free to feedback.

I was able to order stuff from Amazon Fresh twice but have only been able to use the script only once to order for Whole Foods. Also everyone, be mindful of booking slots, because others are in the same situation as us, don't book too many :)