on a tangential note about free shipping, aside from this China mystery, there is no such thing as free shipping. free shipping is a marketing ploy which makes you feel like you are getting some value where you actually lose it. when you add the shipping component of an online purchase into the item price, it removes the ability for you to save when you purchase multiple items. each one is priced as if it were being shipped on it's own.
A free shipping mystery
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Re: A free shipping mystery
#32The postal service is a networked delivery service, just like the Internet. The difference is that the data packets are physical envelopes. Now, the cost of running the postal service is the cost of supporting the whole network of delivery vans, sorting offices, collections and so on, including all the staff. The cost of supporting the network is the same whether it carries a very large number of packets or zero pack…
Ships, airplanes, trucks, and postal workers have substantial ongoing costs. The marginal cost of additional traffic is still pretty high, and indications are that these sellers are getting away with paying less than that actual marginal cost.
> Ships, airplanes, trucks, and postal workers have substantial ongoing costs.
Yes, those are the network costs, ie the cost of supporting the collection-and-delivery network. They're assumed to be (more or less) constant, regardless of traffic.
You don't make any money running a network with empty vans.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
For us they seem to delay the shipping the item yet still claim two day shipping. For example ordering around midday (Pacific timezone) on a Thursday often results in the item not shipping until later on Monday, which then arrives Wednesday but more often Thursday morning. Every step on the way can be contrived as "two day", but it really took a week and that is the number we care about. We likely won't be renewing P…
To counter this anecdote with my own, I often get "2 day" shipping items delivered the day before they were supposed to arrive. Likewise, there's been multiple times where I've walked out the front door on the way to work at ~8AM and my package is already sitting there. Maybe it has something to do with location?
Same here, both now (in Chicago) and previously (in Boston). I think there are Amazon warehouses nearby...
Re: A free shipping mystery
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
For us they seem to delay the shipping the item yet still claim two day shipping. For example ordering around midday (Pacific timezone) on a Thursday often results in the item not shipping until later on Monday, which then arrives Wednesday but more often Thursday morning. Every step on the way can be contrived as "two day", but it really took a week and that is the number we care about. We likely won't be renewing P…
To counter this anecdote with my own, I often get "2 day" shipping items delivered the day before they were supposed to arrive. Likewise, there's been multiple times where I've walked out the front door on the way to work at ~8AM and my package is already sitting there. Maybe it has something to do with location?
The items are all fulfilled by Amazon so they know at the time of order what to promise, and also that it is Prime "2 day" shipping. As mentioned sometimes items come really quick, but it seems the ones you want the most are the ones delayed the most. (Of course those are also what you are paying most attention to.)
My memory of prior years is that the vast majority of items arrived within time, and that it has been getting worse over the last year or so.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#35on a tangential note about free shipping, aside from this China mystery, there is no such thing as free shipping. free shipping is a marketing ploy which makes you feel like you are getting some value where you actually lose it. when you add the shipping component of an online purchase into the item price, it removes the ability for you to save when you purchase multiple items. each one is priced as if it were being…
Yes and it works well because it means that I can more easily see what I will be paying for the goods. As far as I am concerned the price of the goods is the cost to me of getting it to me, I'm not interested in who gets what slice of the pie.
As for multiple items, the same applies, I am only interested in the total cost to me, the supplier and the computer should do the arithmetic for me.
This is essentially the same argument as the stupid business of quoting ex-tax prices in shops; I'm glad this no longer happens in European shops and online stores, it annoys me every time I go into a dollar store in the US and hand over a dollar bill only to be asked for another seven cents or whatever it happens to be in that state.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#36I agree with the article, the term "free" is widely misused. Which is strange given the available options in the English language: bundled, included, prepaid, incorporated, et al. If something costs $99 it isn't free. Free is no cost. $99 is not no cost, therefore $99 is not free. Just as text messaging isn't a "free" part of your $30/month cellphone plan, it is an included part however.
And furthermore, what you often find with "Prime" products is that there are alternate sellers shipping "like new" versions of the products that the same price as the Prime offer, but have shipping split out. For example:
$14.99 prime item
$10.99 + $4 like new used item
Re: A free shipping mystery
#37As an aside, I've been screwed several times by Prime's "guaranteed two-day" shipping. I had package which was very late December last year. When I went to the USPS tracking page to check the location, it turns out Amazon had requested the 8 day shipping option. After several angry calls I finally had the item cancelled and a new one on the way with Saturday shipping (the lower-tier rep said that it wasn't possible,…
Why did you have to return it? Surely it is up to Amazon to collect it.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#38Here's an article from 2014 that explains this "loophole" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/...
Good piece. Thanks for the link.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#39It is simply opportunistic shipment. In 1980s and 1990s British Airways had a service which allowed for the packages to be shipped between international airports serviced by direct BA flights when those flights were underutilized.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ships, airplanes, trucks, and postal workers have substantial ongoing costs. The marginal cost of additional traffic is still pretty high, and indications are that these sellers are getting away with paying less than that actual marginal cost.
> Ships, airplanes, trucks, and postal workers have substantial ongoing costs. Yes, those are the network costs, ie the cost of supporting the collection-and-delivery network. They're assumed to be (more or less) constant, regardless of traffic. You don't make any money running a network with empty vans.
By "ongoing costs" (maybe the wrong term) I mean costs related to the amount of traffic.
The number of trucks or airplanes you need to run on any given day depends on how much traffic you carry. The amount of fuel you need to buy then depends on that. So does much of the maintenance you do, and how much you pay the workers. A postal network carrying zero traffic will be a lot cheaper to run than one carrying lots of traffic. The analogy to the internet is not very good. A network link with a 100Gbit capacity costs about the same to run for a day whether it carries a petabyte or nothing. A postal route with a million parcel/day capacity costs way more to run for a day if it actually carries a million parcels than if it carries nothing.