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Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

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Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#3

Post by admiraltbags »

This is interesting. I'd like to hear what HN's take is on this. I noticed that about 30% of the time products take 3 days, not the advertised 2 to get to me. I live in SF so they really have no excuse. Didn't bother me to much but never the less annoying when paying for the feature.

Another slightly off-topic gripe about prime I haven't seen much flak regarding is shipping things like a roll of duck tape in a 12x16" box full of packaging bags. I'm guessing they shipped from a different warehouse from the rest of my order but still wasteful, what can you do though?

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#5

Post by alphakappa »

Anecdotal, but lately, I've noticed that items I purchase do not ship immediately from Amazon, so while the shipping time itself may be 2 days, I get the product several days later which kinda defeats the purpose of Prime.

Not to mention that several of the items that I purchase are 'add-on' items, which means that I need to accumulate $25 worth of items to ship them (which is pretty much what every non-prime member does too)

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#6

Post by rschmitty »

wnevets wrote: post #2

I've actually noticed this myself. Kinda defeats the purpose

I've had it happen as well.

My wife and I were comparison shopping around and she saw something on amazon (she wasnt logged in) but when I loaded that item on my computer (I was logged in) the price jumped up $10 and was available with prime shipping

It was still the cheapest we found, so we bought it anyways. But now we comparison shop more.

Such a PITA of a dance to compare Amazon, Costco, and local grocery/big box

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#7

Post by cc439 »

alphakappa wrote: post #5

Anecdotal, but lately, I've noticed that items I purchase do not ship immediately from Amazon, so while the shipping time itself may be 2 days, I get the product several days later which kinda defeats the purpose of Prime. Not to mention that several of the items that I purchase are 'add-on' items, which means that I need to accumulate $25 worth of items to ship them (which is pretty much what every non-prime member…

I have a friend who works as an area manager in one of the bigger fulfillment centers and he offered a good reason for the processing slowdown after Christmas (although it doesn't explain how the issue is still alive).

Staffing a warehouse requires a lot of foresight. Overhead has to be kept lean and demand is very seasonal. Amazon forecasted their largest holiday season ever and staffed accordingly but the information they used to forecast the post-holiday slowdown assumed trends would be roughly similar to previous years. It turns out that this holiday season was a sort of tipping point for consumers acceptance of online purchasing and post-holiday demand barely dropped. All that seasonal labor had been let go but they needed to bring on a large number of permanent employees which takes time.

I don't think it takes ~3 months to find the necessary workforce but I think it explains some of the issues Amazon has been experiencing lately.

Re: Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs

#9

Post by epochwolf »

admiraltbags wrote: post #3

This is interesting. I'd like to hear what HN's take is on this. I noticed that about 30% of the time products take 3 days, not the advertised 2 to get to me. I live in SF so they really have no excuse. Didn't bother me to much but never the less annoying when paying for the feature. Another slightly off-topic gripe about prime I haven't seen much flak regarding is shipping things like a roll of duck tape in a 12x16"…

I currently live in Ohio and it really is 1-2 day shipping here. When I lived in Seattle, 2 day shipping was 3 day shipping for anything shipped from east of the Rocky Mountains.

I don't know if there's a lot Amazon can do about that. There's big mountains in the way. You're looking at quite a few extras hours in transit compared to a place closer to the warehouse. (Even with using planes)

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