A free shipping mystery • Hacker News Board

Re: A free shipping mystery

#41

Post by glenntzke » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #20

vdnkh wrote: post #16

As 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,…

The problem might be Amazon here in this specific case, but I'd hazard a guess that this is just a subset of the massive drop-off in service that Amazon is experiencing due to a major transition to using USPS instead of UPS. Here in NYC Amazon delivery has gone from being amazing and magical to nearly worthless seemingly overnight with this change. UPS (and Fedex) didn't seem to have any trouble delivering even to ch…

NYC's USPS is notoriously unreliable, especially for those of us without the luxury of doormen. Despite living in a nice neighborhood with a vestibule that would certainly house a package just fine - and then include that the postman has keys to get to just outside my apt door - USPS packages are routinely lost, yet "delivered".

Amazon at least mitigates this loss risk by unquestionably resending the package without additional charge. This exercise has grown tiresome.

Re: A free shipping mystery

#42

Post by gshubert17 » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

scholia wrote: post #26

The 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…

Charles Babbage (and Thomas Colby) also argued for uniform rates in the British postal system.

Re: A free shipping mystery

#43

Post by gohrt » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:43 PM UTC

dsugarman wrote: post #31

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…

That's a very narrow view. Each item is priced as part of the overall cost of shipping, and supply+demand factors. Amazon knows the average bundle size.

Re: A free shipping mystery

#44

Post by gohrt » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:44 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #27

boxidea wrote: post #3

I'd bet the short obvious answer is that it doesn't cost them anything to ship small, lightweight products like this. The plane was already flying from China to wherever, filled with AliExpress merchandise. They may have paid for the whole plane instead of just by weight. So adding this product didn't add any tangible extra weight or cost. Then the mail carrier or whoever is already going on that route. I doubt he ge…

That works, until the plane really is full and you need a new one, or your letter carrier really is fully occupied and you need a second person. It makes little sense to give nearly everyone free shipping, but charge every 100,000th person $50,000 because their item was the one that needed a new plane. So instead, they divide the cost across all the stuff that gets shipped so everyone pays a share. That per-item cost…

There is no single optimal way to divide the cost among all the passengers. See also: airlines, and capitalist vs socialist economies.

Re: A free shipping mystery

#45

Post by Retric » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:49 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #40

scholia wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Once you need to send a truck to someone's house, have someone get out and drop off one letter then adding a second letter has a tiny extra marginal cost. Further, there are some fuel savings from sending an air craft 1/4 full vs. 3/4 full but again there minimal in comparison to keeping the aircraft flying in the first place.

Thus, from the post offices perspective they are much better off with a steady stream of traffic than random spikes. Which is a large part of why the post office is willing to deliver spam aka junk mail so cheaply.

Re: A free shipping mystery

#46

Post by chippy » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:50 PM UTC

I thought the mystery was that China Post created something called "ePacket" to subsidize post to international destinations for online only shipments.

Amazon does not like this at all and are currently lobbying the US Govt to stop it.

Re: A free shipping mystery

#47

Post by jonknee » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #20

vdnkh wrote: post #16

As 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,…

The problem might be Amazon here in this specific case, but I'd hazard a guess that this is just a subset of the massive drop-off in service that Amazon is experiencing due to a major transition to using USPS instead of UPS. Here in NYC Amazon delivery has gone from being amazing and magical to nearly worthless seemingly overnight with this change. UPS (and Fedex) didn't seem to have any trouble delivering even to ch…

For items you can't afford to lose it might be worth checking if there's an Amazon Locker near your home or office. They're very easy and you don't have to deal with USPS.

Re: A free shipping mystery

#48

Post by jonknee » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:54 PM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #37

vdnkh wrote: post #16

As 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.

Jeff Bezos isn't going to come to your house and find the duplicate item, you have to send it back to Amazon (they'll give you a label and you already have the packaging it came in).

Re: A free shipping mystery

#49

Post by torgoguys » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC

vdnkh wrote: post #16

As 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,…

Amazon still pretty much never uses USPS to me in Wisconsin, unless you count SmartPost and the like if I select no hassle shipping.

I celebrate when Amazon misses its Prime 2-day shipping guarantees. That means I can complain and they promptly give me extra free months of Prime as compensation. Not sure why you don't get the same. They always offer it in my experience.

I always order stuff with at least a couple of extra days before I need the item so if you can't do that I could see why missing the 2 day target is bad.

Re: A free shipping mystery

#50

Post by CPLX » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #47

CPLX wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem might be Amazon here in this specific case, but I'd hazard a guess that this is just a subset of the massive drop-off in service that Amazon is experiencing due to a major transition to using USPS instead of UPS. Here in NYC Amazon delivery has gone from being amazing and magical to nearly worthless seemingly overnight with this change. UPS (and Fedex) didn't seem to have any trouble delivering even to ch…

For items you can't afford to lose it might be worth checking if there's an Amazon Locker near your home or office. They're very easy and you don't have to deal with USPS.

I live in a dense part of NYC with no shortage of retail. If I am going to go to a separate building and deal with getting and carrying back the package I am just going to go to the store that sells the thing I want and buy it. The whole allure of Amazon is that I don't have to.