Often times I will receive an email of a deal alert that was often posted hours ago. What gives? Shouldn't the keyword trigger an automatic email to be sent out? Too many deals have expired for me because the deal alerts emails are not instantaneously sent when the thread is posted and the keywords are recognized.

Am I wrong in wondering this?

It should not take hours to receive an instant alert. The time it takes to find the deal and have it dispatched is usually less then a minute and maybe 10 minutes max for peak periods. Once it is dispatched, the time it takes to your inbox is determined by our connection to your email provider and when they decide to process it to put it in your inbox.

Also, if you have alerts set with a rating, they are dispatched only when the rating is reached so that could take hours before it reaches your criteria.