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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

#141
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any anti trust experts here that can comment on whether this constitutes illegal tying?

Only monopolies aren't allowed to utilize a tying strategy. Every other company is free to. Amazon hasn't been found to be a monopoly in any market AFAIK.

Yeah so I just was searching on that and saw this too... like they would need to be nearly 70% of a market for coercive strategies to be antitrust (although I take it % isn’t the only test). Hard to see how one would define a market where that would be true.

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

#142
post #3

This is so strange. - FedEx is slated to report its latest quarterly results on Tuesday (17 December 2019). http://investors.fedex.com/news-and-events/upcoming-events/d... - FedEx ended two big contracts with Amazon earlier this year. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/06/amazon-blames-holiday-delive... Edit: I see many unhappy comments regarding FedEx here. In the UK we have Parcelfarce, which has achieved meme status.

FedEx is also a parody of a service in the US. They are acknowledged to be strong in logistics in a cross-country way, but as far as "last mile" goes they leave plenty to be desired. Beat-up packages, wildly unsafe drivers, unreliable tracking, and totally inaccurate delivery estimates.

The only reason I'm ever glad to see one of their trucks on the road is as evidence UPS has at least some sort of competition. But if I see one pull up to my home I cringe, because invariably there will be some problem.

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

#143
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Doing logistics" for one's own shipping, is a bit different than "trying to subsume the role of FedEx/UPS in the economy." Certainly it's "only" a matter of scale, but logistics-as-a-service (the business FedEx and UPS are in) is as large a market as the one Amazon's already in, and you'd think clear signs of them being ready to suddenly add another few hundred billion dollars to their market cap would be reflected…

I'm not seeing how these dots are hard to connect, since "for ones own shipping" in Amazon's case seems equivalent to "for most consumer shipping".

Amazon's shipping fleet is on par with FedEx or UPS, and yet smaller than USPS. Most consumer shipping is not done by Amazon

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

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FedEx ground does not have a guaranteed delivery time.

which is why it's insane that it was ever an option for people selling under the prime label. If it's ground, FedEx manages to take the longest possible time they can, even if it's only going a few miles.

I had faster delivery of a pallet on FedEx Freight than I've ever seen from FedEx Ground. Ground is my least favorite (but Amazon doesn't do their own deliveries here).

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

#145
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,…

What blows me away is that frequently my expected delivery date for Prime orders is next day. More often than not that leaves my packages handled by Amazon or one of their third party contractors. Greater than 75% of the time the package does not come on time. Often times it even turns into 3 days.

If using the established players means the buy button says arrives in 2 days and it arrives in 2 days then I would be SIGNIFICANTLY more satisfied with Prime. I haven’t read enough of the other comments yet to know if my experience is the norm but I really think Amazon would be better off abandoning this whole scheme and letting the pros handle it. It wouldn’t kill American consumers to wait another day.

Side rant: I’m absolutely sick of the armada of rented panel vans from Enterprise blasting random circles through my residential neighborhood. Make them take the earbuds out and for the love of god give them some kind of routing that makes sense.

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

#146
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It AMAZES ME how unreported it goes that they are doing this right now. It don't think it's a secret. Why do you think it'd be a major story? > nobody bothered to ask.. 'Why?' Because they're doing logistics... everyone knows that. Have you never had an Amazon logistics person deliver you parcel?

"Doing logistics" for one's own shipping, is a bit different than "trying to subsume the role of FedEx/UPS in the economy." Certainly it's "only" a matter of scale, but logistics-as-a-service (the business FedEx and UPS are in) is as large a market as the one Amazon's already in, and you'd think clear signs of them being ready to suddenly add another few hundred billion dollars to their market cap would be reflected…

"Investemnt people" are reading research reports from banks (and their own analysts), not relying on mass market papers for the news. You can see it on Bloomberg.com sometimes, there will be a link to a story with more economic detail, but it will be gated by a terminal subscription.

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

#147
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,…

What blows me away is that frequently my expected delivery date for Prime orders is next day. More often than not that leaves my packages handled by Amazon or one of their third party contractors. Greater than 75% of the time the package does not come on time. Often times it even turns into 3 days. If using the established players means the buy button says arrives in 2 days and it arrives in 2 days then I would be SI…

Maybe it’s my city but that’s not the experience I have here.. but Vancouver also does seem to have a lot of loading areas in front of and alleys for them to use

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

#148
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 going to vertically integrate shipping, no question. The market demands it, and Amazon will probably eventually ship more packages than any of its competitors. And, Bezos isn’t dumb, so he’ll build and sell this capacity to others. It AMAZES ME how unreported it goes that they are doing this right now. They are doing it hilariously upfront and clearly. They bought massive amounts of Sprinters for Amazon Del…

At least in the UK, this is already the case. Most of my orders are delivered by a delivery company that only handles Amazon packages.
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