Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon • Hacker News Board

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#161

Post by erik_seaberg » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:29 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #113

admax88q wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this odd. I read these sorts of comments every time Amazon in mentioned on HN, how its literally only clones, fakes, and scams, and impossible to find legitimate products anymore. I have literally never received a fake/clone/scam off amazon, and I can't explain that discrepancy. I personally only buy things that are sold or fulfilled by amazon, never shipped by third party sellers, but surely everyone else as…

I’ve made you’re exact same comment in the past. And more recently I’ve responded to comments like yours with this exact same comment that I’m leaving now. It never happened to me so I assumed it was people blowing it out of proportion or bad shopping habits. Then I got a fake item. Sold by a legit manufacturer and fulfilled by amazon from the manufacturers official page. But the item was a fake. Then it happen again…

I'd add anything plugged in unattended that could burn down your apartment. There are reports of fake UL certs.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#162

Post by nostromo » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:39 PM UTC

jhallenworld wrote: post #101

I have been ordering random things on eBay and Amazon- it turns out that right at this moment, eBay shipping is faster than Amazon Prime.

Ebay is decentralized which is much more scalable than Amazon's centralized approach.

Similar to you, I've noticed things on Ebay ship and arrive very quickly.

AliExpress is somehow still cheaper than Amazon for cheap things that don't need to be high quality or perfect. You just have to wait two weeks for it to arrive -- which isn't much different than the wait for Amazon currently.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#163

Post by erik_seaberg » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:40 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #60

scoopdewoop wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ebay has seller reviews, and I know who the seller actually is. More importantly, ebay doesn't mix the inventory of every seller. I buy everything I can on AliExpress now, because if I'm gonna get chinese knock-offs, they should at least be cheap.

> Ebay has seller reviews, and I know who the seller actually is. So does Amazon, when fulfilled by the seller, which many are. They're exactly the same in this regard.

Amazon commingles inventory with the same SKU. You can choose a legit manufacturer, and they get credit for the sale, but you could still receive a counterfeit item that was actually stocked by some scammer. (Later someone may choose to buy from the scammer and get a genuine item by mistake.)

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#164

Post by cwhiz » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:41 PM UTC

I don’t know what is going on but their “essential items” excuse is totally bogus. There are no essential items in stock! Go try to buy toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, etc. I can’t buy ANY of that and haven’t been able to for at least 4-6 weeks.

And the “normal” products have shipping delays of 4+ weeks sometimes. And then other times, none. It seems totally random and nonsensical.

I think they have serious labor issues that they are covering up. I’m just guessing here with absolutely no information. Just can’t make sense at what is going on.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#165

Post by luckylion » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:47 PM UTC

ethagknight wrote: post #133

ethagknight wrote: post #109

My theory: Prime, and its 2-day shipping service, is a flat rate deal, priced according to 10.5 normal months and 1.5 batshit crazy delivery months. Since they can't charge on a demand basis for shipping like FedEx can, they've run into an internal train wreck where they can't afford to deliver all the orders the've received. So their bottleneck is actually a bottleneck of budgeted "delivery slots" for these Spring m…

One more little note: I can't think of any other stores that have had to make a similar claim of 'focusing on the essentials.' At the other end of the spectrum, my local Costco has been fantastically stocked at all times except for the few super-demand items like toilet paper and soap.

And Amazon hasn't just said "yeah, your stuff might get delayed", they've actively asked large affiliates to cut referral traffic by 50-70%.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#166

Post by philwelch » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #30

coder1001 wrote: post #25

Is this a good or bad sign? What problems exist that only the founder can solve and require his involvement? or is that just what he wants to do?

It's a good sign. In cases of normal business operation, normal corporate management, delegation, and accountability techniques generally work quite well. Decisions are extensively researched and weighed before being taken. Doing things right, not quickly, is the goal here. In times of urgent emergency, normal management techniques fail because they can't respond quickly enough. Not because they're inferior, but beca…

I agree with you but for different reasons.

> In cases of normal business operation, normal corporate management, delegation, and accountability techniques generally work quite well. Decisions are extensively researched and weighed before being taken. Doing things right, not quickly, is the goal here.

In Amazon’s case, the opposite is heavily encouraged. Here is one of their “leadership principles”:

> Bias for Action: Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.

Of course, there are other principles like “Dive Deep” and “Be Right A Lot” that balance this out, but Amazon is definitely tuned for speed of decision-making.

If anything, I would take the opposite side of this change as the real indicator. In normal circumstances, Amazon does what it does well enough for Jeff to deep-dive into specifically interesting projects while the S-Team (the executives reporting to Jeff) are trusted to run the company day-to-day. We are in far from normal circumstances now.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#167

Post by zitterbewegung » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

ignoramous wrote: post #131

ethagknight wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would fall under the "they can't afford to deliver the orders they have" bucket if they can't find anyone that wants to do the proposed work. If true, Amazon is selling a service that isn't robust or flexible enough for such a season. Will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

> Will be interesting to see how it shakes out. Long term is probably a combination of autonomous robots, self-driving vehicles, and delivery drones. The current crisis might even accelerate its development and deployment.

Yea well those strategies keep on always able to be done "next year".

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#168

Post by 2almalki » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:49 PM UTC

jefft255 wrote: post #154

philjohn wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed the opposite in the UK - saying they'll take up to a week to deliver, and then the item turning up the next day, or the day after.

I can second that for Canada; I've ordered at least 4-5 non-essential items in the last month and only one took more than 3-4 days to arrive.

tldr.. get a PRIME account

I'm in Canada.. you're right BUT you need a prime account. I ordered some stuff and it was due to come in a month (non prime account).. and after 1.5 weeks it didn't ship. I canceled it and used a family members Prime account (still the delivery date was ~1 month away).. I got the stuff within 3 days.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#169

Post by zitterbewegung » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:49 PM UTC

ethagknight wrote: post #109

My theory: Prime, and its 2-day shipping service, is a flat rate deal, priced according to 10.5 normal months and 1.5 batshit crazy delivery months. Since they can't charge on a demand basis for shipping like FedEx can, they've run into an internal train wreck where they can't afford to deliver all the orders the've received. So their bottleneck is actually a bottleneck of budgeted "delivery slots" for these Spring m…

If you see no value in your Prime Membership why not cancel? I canceled mine over the fact that I have to screen what I buy because it could be counterfeit.

Re: Jeff Bezos has returned to day-to-day management of Amazon

#170

Post by Tempest1981 » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

MattGaiser wrote: post #155

stevenmays wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unemployment compensation is high, so the incentive to show up to work has decreased. They can solve this problem by paying more, although wage increases are hard to turn back time on. Maybe they should consider "hazard pay" during the pandemic.

People who quit/get fired/don’t show don’t get unemployment.

Although isn't it easy to get fired? Just work a bit too slowly?