Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter • Hacker News Board

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#161

Post by petra » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 8:34 PM UTC

x2f10 wrote: post #66

I might be shunned for beating the dead horse, but while he talks about 'True Customer Obsession', he allows counterfeit goods erode his customer's trust in Amazon. I'd argue Amazon's 'process as proxy' in dealing with counterfeits is the careless return process. 'Oh, it's counterfeit? We're sorry! Here's your money back!' does not solve the issue. Sure, thanks for the $10 back, but now I must think twice (or thrice!…

But Amazon isn't "customer focused" when it comes to strategic threats - for example Android - and Amazon's response - the Fire phone, Their App Store.

So the question is - are low cost goods, coming pretty directly from chinese manufacturers, often counterfeited and sold at a low price a strategic threat to Amazon ?

They might, if you look at alibaba, but also on the tendency of capitalistic markets to stabilize on focusing on crap: just look at the quality of white goods, planned obsolescence, the security of the consumer IOT, etc etc.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#162

Post by jonnathanson » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 8:40 PM UTC

petra wrote: post #161

x2f10 wrote: post #66

I might be shunned for beating the dead horse, but while he talks about 'True Customer Obsession', he allows counterfeit goods erode his customer's trust in Amazon. I'd argue Amazon's 'process as proxy' in dealing with counterfeits is the careless return process. 'Oh, it's counterfeit? We're sorry! Here's your money back!' does not solve the issue. Sure, thanks for the $10 back, but now I must think twice (or thrice!…

But Amazon isn't "customer focused" when it comes to strategic threats - for example Android - and Amazon's response - the Fire phone, Their App Store. So the question is - are low cost goods, coming pretty directly from chinese manufacturers, often counterfeited and sold at a low price a strategic threat to Amazon ? They might, if you look at alibaba, but also on the tendency of capitalistic markets to stabilize on…

As consumers we also have to acknowledge some complicity here. In most categories of products, time and again, American consumers have chosen price and convenience over quality.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#163

Post by RandomOpinion » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 8:41 PM UTC

zeteo wrote: post #129

dkural wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't start out with that kind of size. He built it from nothing, with strong competitors like Walmart who had more volume for physical goods that could negotiate better deals with UPS and FedEx for years. AWS is beating Google, Microsoft, etc. Those companies had as much free cash flow and more engineering resources. He has good investor relations because he produces great returns. So, yes, your facts are correc…

And how do you account for survivor bias? I don't think the CEOs of Blackberry or Nokia would have agreed that they cared less about the customer than Jeff Bezos. "Customer obsession" is not actual, actionable advice because it's not even measurable. It's nice rhetoric, but other companies were judged on hard metrics of profits and dividends.

> "Customer obsession" is not actual, actionable advice because it's not even measurable.

Not quantitatively perhaps, but qualitatively? Oh yes; it can be felt. There are some very large organizations where the employee and managers' main objectives are to get themselves a promotion or bigger bonus and, though it's never explicitly said, the health of the company or welfare of the customer is only a secondary goal.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#164

Post by jchrisa » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 9:08 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #105

zentiggr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like exactly the sort of not-actually-a-real-metric metric that would entrance a number cruncher. Forget those moments of excellence where everything gels and you could get days or weeks ahead... Sigh.

Actually it is a good metric. However the metric is not a linear shape, but within 20% of linear. If you are not within 20% you need to do something about it. In general once you are within that further effort towards perfection is not desirable. Remember the real goal: money. Sometimes it is money from sales, sometimes it is money saved. (even in case of a charity where there are higher goals money is a proxy for th…

Sounds about like my work habits.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#165

Post by throwasehasdwi » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 9:12 PM UTC

rdudek wrote: post #159

throwasehasdwi wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that the counterfeits look extremely close to the real thing, sometimes indistinguishable. It's the quality of the components inside that's far worse. A lot of names brands are having their reputations tarnished from this. Things I bought in the last year on Amazon that were fake: cookware, phone charger, headphones, power supply, phone battery, SD card I once used amazon almost daily so this is only a f…

What kind of headphones did you buy that were fake?

LG wireless headphones but I've heard it happens even with expensive models like Beats

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#166

Post by user5994461 » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 9:13 PM UTC

paulmd wrote: post #156

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm mystified by this personally. I frequently purchase from Amazon, and haven't(to my knowledge) received counterfeit goods. Generally I stick to "fufilled by Amazon" or otherwise first-party sellers, so that may have something to do with it. Maybe I'm not purchasing niche enough products to run into this issue.

Certain types of products are extremely commonly counterfeited. I would never consider ordering luxury goods like cologne/perfume/handbags, flash memory cards or sticks, or small mass-market electronics like chargers. Due to the way Amazon commingles their stock at the SKU level, there is simply no way to guarantee that what you're getting is genuine, even if you order "sold and shipped from Amazon". Even from an aut…

Get the flash card from wall mart, it works just fine. (feel free to replace with whatever shop you go by on your way to work).

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#167

Post by cmdrfred » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 9:16 PM UTC

oneshot908 wrote: post #128

plandis wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're 1.) implying that Amazon isn't actively trying to fix it (otherwise they would be "walking the walk") and 2.) that it's a widespread issue (all I've heard about counterfeit products are from a few HNers)

TRX workout sets are notoriously counterfeit on Amazon. Example: https://www.amazon.com/TRX-PRO-Suspension-Training-Kit/produ... More recently, I got a counterfeit fitbit charger that flat out didn't work. It got replaced, but it's still annoying.

At $199 for what looks like some elastic and metal I imagine they do pretty well on that one.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#168

Post by mintplant » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 9:21 PM UTC

rubicon33 wrote: post #75

x2f10 wrote: post #66

I might be shunned for beating the dead horse, but while he talks about 'True Customer Obsession', he allows counterfeit goods erode his customer's trust in Amazon. I'd argue Amazon's 'process as proxy' in dealing with counterfeits is the careless return process. 'Oh, it's counterfeit? We're sorry! Here's your money back!' does not solve the issue. Sure, thanks for the $10 back, but now I must think twice (or thrice!…

Agreed. As a long time prime user, it's been the rise in counterfeit goods that has really shook my unwavering loyalty to Amazon. I used to order everything on there, without thinking twice. Now, I'm much more careful about what I buy on there, and often just avoid purchasing on Amazon entirely.

For me it's been shipping issues. At some point Amazon became really unreliable with their delivery date "guarantees". I've had four separate packages simply not arrive at all, and plenty more that were a few days to a week late. Confusingly, the Amazon app seems to mark a package as "delivered" when the estimated date is reached, regardless of its actual status. When you dig into the tracking information, sometimes it shows a "shipping in progress, expected delivery:" message with a date in the past, other times a note that "something seems wrong here, we're not sure where your package is". This suggests disorganization in a company that talks itself up as a logistics giant.

Upon calling support, you of course learn that their use of the word "guarantee" is meaningless. Even if you're paying $99/year for it with Prime, the best they'll do is (attempt to) send a replacement shipment.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#169

Post by lostlogin » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

wjamesg wrote: post #24

_gi12 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a surprisingly common trap to fall into. I worked at a startup in which the CTO criticized my dev team for not having a perfectly linear burn down chart. Every week in our retro we had the same discussion about how to improve the shape of our burn down chart; we tried putting higher valued stories at the front of the queue, involving QA earlier in the sprint, and cranking out 1 pointers mid week to tweak the…

Burn down chart?

This seems to have triggered the most cynical and disillusioned thread I've ever read on HN, and there have been a couple. Well done. It would be interesting to fish out a few other HN reviews of business practices, but I don't even know the correct terms to search as they generate instant disinterest.

Re: Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter

#170

Post by elevensies » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

TheGRS wrote: post #25

dpark wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s not that rare to hear a junior leader defend a bad outcome with something like, “Well, we followed the process.” - Bezos > We sought volunteers and then followed our involuntary denial of boarding process - Munoz Ouch

Yea, I'm not going to share which airline or which branch (other than to say it wasn't United or Chicago), but I have a relative who works at a pretty high position in one of them and they were, to my great surprise, in defense of United and the police in that episode earlier this week. Statements like "airlines bump people all the time", "they can't offer anymore than what they did, its a set rule", and "if they jus…

I think they handled it poorly, but there is no way that a passenger's wishes will override the pilot or the airline. They probably thought he would come to his senses when the cops showed up, I think that is where they screwed up, IMO they should have disembarked the rest of the plane and then arrested him in-place.

Whether or not bumping him is fair, there is no question about who owns the aircraft and has responsibility/authority. No one would want to fly on an airline where a stubborn passenger could override the flight crew.