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Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

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Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#21

Post by behringer »

marklabedz wrote: post #16

If Amazon made it possible for a customer to pick (and pay for the presumed incremental cost of) alternative carriers, they'd have a gold mine of data on customer WTP and carrier quality at the local level.

They have a more accurate results by seeing actual performance numbers, not opinionated results. They see customer retention in certain areas, they see damaged, lost, stolen, late packages. They have numbers for every type of issue and every location.

If they let customers decide, they'd be a lot more limited in both their reporting and their testing.

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#22

Post by sokoloff »

marklabedz wrote: post #16

If Amazon made it possible for a customer to pick (and pay for the presumed incremental cost of) alternative carriers, they'd have a gold mine of data on customer WTP and carrier quality at the local level.

I suspect that Amazon does not want to put additional cognitive load on the purchaser right at the most critical point of the conversion funnel.

As a customer, I want a delivery time/date and let Amazon figure out how to do it. They're presumably way better at it than I am. If Amazon fails at that, I want to be able to complain without feeling like "oh, it was my fault because I picked Rickshaw Bob as the carrier".

When Amazon would willy-nilly give away a month of Prime when a guaranteed package was late, I would frequently wish I could get a package over to Mail Innovations or SurePost. Both would pretty reliably be late and for most packages, I'd rather have the $10 credit.

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#23

Post by sartethought »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #13
bransonf wrote: post #6

It’s to the point where I can’t blame Amazon for actions like these. The consumer has come to expect guaranteed overnight or 2 day shipping. When they don’t get that, they get really upset. Amazon doesn’t want its customers to get upset, and it can’t trust its shipping partners because they don’t have the burden of the consumer sentiment. No one blames FedEx for their late package these days, they blame Amazon. Heck,…

Amazon is reaching further and further into the economy, and I don’t see much stopping them. As much as I'm concerned about monopoly and the potential for anti-competitive behavior... I'm impressed by how effectively Amazon operates at the scale that it does. It's not like Comcast or AT&T which operate horribly at scale. I wish they would get disrupted by Starlink or something and go out of business. Amazon is an inc…

AT&T are established utility monopolies. There is simply no comparison here. When Amazon owns the roads, or when they put UPS & FedEx out of business, then we can start making these comparisons.

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#24

Post by paulmd »

bransonf wrote: post #6

It’s to the point where I can’t blame Amazon for actions like these. The consumer has come to expect guaranteed overnight or 2 day shipping. When they don’t get that, they get really upset. Amazon doesn’t want its customers to get upset, and it can’t trust its shipping partners because they don’t have the burden of the consumer sentiment. No one blames FedEx for their late package these days, they blame Amazon. Heck,…

Amazon isn't helping anything by their "just in time" delivery model. If there is a truck going out that will allow 8-hour delivery, they will deprioritize the package for 40 hours and then mail it out on that truck.

In turn, that leaves Fedex and UPS absolutely no margin for error. Package shipping errors happen, especially in the weeks before christmas when volume goes through the roof. But Amazon has wasted all the safety margin so if even one error occurs they blow their delivery window.

It's hard to say whether UPS/Fedex have a problem without looking at their metrics, but Amazon sure isn't helping by pushing everything to the bleeding edge. Anecdotally over the last year or so I have noticed an increase to the point where virtually all (let's say at least 75%) of my "2 day delivery" (or even amazon day/no-rush) packages are being shipped like 11 at night on day before delivery and they just beeline it to me same-day.

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#25

Post by FireBeyond »

bdcravens wrote: post #17
kelnos wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one blames FedEx for their late package these days, they blame Amazon. As they should. FedEx's customer in this instance is Amazon, not the receiver of the package (who is a customer of Amazon, and Amazon alone). If anyone has the clout these days to hurt FedEx economically if they don't improve, it's Amazon. Amazon should be pushing FedEx (and their other shippers) to be more accountable for late, damaged, and…

We (my employer, Refund Retriever) has caught them just outright lying about deliveries before. https://www.refundretriever.com/blog/FedEx-Tracking-Error

In probably a dozen instances in the last two years, I've had premature "Delivered" statuses, with windows of an hour before it showed up, to two days.

2 have been FedEx, 2 USPS. The rest were Delivered by Amazon deliveries.

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#26

Post by prostoalex »

marklabedz wrote: post #16

If Amazon made it possible for a customer to pick (and pay for the presumed incremental cost of) alternative carriers, they'd have a gold mine of data on customer WTP and carrier quality at the local level.

They presumably can just ask the carrier for their internal reliability metrics as a pre-requisite for the contract.

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#27

Post by ceejayoz »

Funny thing, though. If it were possible, I'd have Amazon block their own shipping service, for the same reasons. I've asked, and it isn't permitted. In my area, USPS/UPS have been rock solid, but ever since they largely switched to their internal FBA, I've had late packages at least monthly.

It's clear they're buckling under the Christmas load, too. I've had over a dozen items delayed thus far.

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#28

Post by loeg »

bdcravens wrote: post #17
kelnos wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one blames FedEx for their late package these days, they blame Amazon. As they should. FedEx's customer in this instance is Amazon, not the receiver of the package (who is a customer of Amazon, and Amazon alone). If anyone has the clout these days to hurt FedEx economically if they don't improve, it's Amazon. Amazon should be pushing FedEx (and their other shippers) to be more accountable for late, damaged, and…

We (my employer, Refund Retriever) has caught them just outright lying about deliveries before. https://www.refundretriever.com/blog/FedEx-Tracking-Error

Yeah, I've also had FedEx lie to me multiple times. Both times they claim delivery was attempted while I was home the whole day (and it was not, obviously). I've even noticed it within an hour of it happening, mid-day. I think sometimes if the drivers get behind they just skip houses and mark it as "attempted."

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#29

Post by paulmd »

Spooky23 wrote: post #2

Makes sense. Now I understand why UPS is delivering so late in my area, including having guys hanging out of UHaul trucks. FedEx ground is a dumpster fire, unless they are doing the smartpost thing where USPS delivers. In my area, they are almost as bad as Laser.

SmartPost is actually worse. I actually still have not got November's Bark Box, and they've in fact already charged December's.

I've already complained once, they sent me something extra, that box got here before the first one did.

Smartpost is garbage, the responsibility is too diffuse. Fedex says it's USPS's fault, USPS says it's Fedex's fault, nobody has any idea where it is or what's going on.

Re: Amazon Blocks Sellers from Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments

#30

Post by loeg »

ceejayoz wrote: post #27

Funny thing, though. If it were possible, I'd have Amazon block their own shipping service, for the same reasons. I've asked, and it isn't permitted. In my area, USPS/UPS have been rock solid, but ever since they largely switched to their internal FBA, I've had late packages at least monthly. It's clear they're buckling under the Christmas load, too. I've had over a dozen items delayed thus far.

At my address, UPS usually ring the doorbell; FBA never does. Given proximity to a major street and risk of theft, it's nice to know to bring packages inside when I'm working from home.
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