Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#141

Post by mindslight » Sun, Apr 24, 2016, 5:38 PM UTC

surrealvortex wrote: post #139

mindslight wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you've indirectly answered my question - Amazon has its own reality distortion field. Are you really not aware that every other merchant and shipper has specific cutoff times? It's based on truck schedule rather than link capacity - the essential measure is weight , which primarily necessitates more fuel. The only "distributed system" in question is Amazon's own computer system. In which case no, it does not…

Um, if someone else cancels, they free up the resource (volume or weight or number of packages). This allows some other package to use the resource. This essentially makes it non-static, since it depends on the number of shipments that will consume that specific resource. Your reply seems to suggest that you can get a truck to carry infinite capacity just by using more fuel. Not sure if you meant something else.

Space/weight limits of trucks are not the critical factor - sure, they're "infinite" if you insist on thinking in the wrong paradigm.

This isn't the Internet where links have a bounded capacity and zero marginal cost. The trucks/planes have their schedule - more packages mean more fuel is used, not exhaustion of discrete slots. Delivery services do not make money by queuing packages.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#142

Post by surrealvortex » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:42 AM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #141

surrealvortex wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, if someone else cancels, they free up the resource (volume or weight or number of packages). This allows some other package to use the resource. This essentially makes it non-static, since it depends on the number of shipments that will consume that specific resource. Your reply seems to suggest that you can get a truck to carry infinite capacity just by using more fuel. Not sure if you meant something else.

Space/weight limits of trucks are not the critical factor - sure, they're "infinite" if you insist on thinking in the wrong paradigm. This isn't the Internet where links have a bounded capacity and zero marginal cost. The trucks/planes have their schedule - more packages mean more fuel is used, not exhaustion of discrete slots. Delivery services do not make money by queuing packages.

What? Trucks do have a bounded capacity. A truck cannot carry more than x kgs of packages or y liters of volume. Are you arguing against that?

If Amazon had asked for a single truck from UPS at 5 PM from warehouse A (the number of trucks ordered is a business decision), it can only allocate x kgs of packages or y liters of volume to that resource.

Edit: Just to clarify, the number of trucks may often be decided waaay in advance.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#143

Post by phil21 » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 8:43 AM UTC

killbrad wrote: post #125

rudolf0 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to shove "subscribe & save" in my face 3-4 times during the process of choosing and purchasing a product is annoying, too. Yes, I get it, you make more money in the long term when people subscribe. I wish there was a global opt-out for it.

I've never noticed this actually. Example of a product that does this? I tried Sub&Save for Tide a while back but the one I wanted kept getting cancelled and I was offered an alternative so I stopped trying and went with buying it at LocalStore,Inc.

Yep. This has made Subscribe & Save nearly useless for me. The convenience factor is entirely wiped out when I run out of laundry detergent because I missed the e-mail stating the product is now no longer eligible.

Amazon became a killer app for me (and most, I presume) due too the UIx. You clicked a button and you generally got pretty-close-to-cheapest priced product delivered very quickly.

Now it's just getting complicated, and you have to expend energy to ensure you're not getting actively ripped off by looking at only Prime items/etc.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#144

Post by mindslight » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 4:49 PM UTC

surrealvortex wrote: post #142

mindslight wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Space/weight limits of trucks are not the critical factor - sure, they're "infinite" if you insist on thinking in the wrong paradigm. This isn't the Internet where links have a bounded capacity and zero marginal cost. The trucks/planes have their schedule - more packages mean more fuel is used, not exhaustion of discrete slots. Delivery services do not make money by queuing packages.

What? Trucks do have a bounded capacity. A truck cannot carry more than x kgs of packages or y liters of volume. Are you arguing against that? If Amazon had asked for a single truck from UPS at 5 PM from warehouse A (the number of trucks ordered is a business decision), it can only allocate x kgs of packages or y liters of volume to that resource. Edit: Just to clarify, the number of trucks may often be decided waaay…

I'm arguing that the capacity of the truck generally does not matter. A toilet bowl has a bounded capacity too. But by the time you're thinking about it, you have a different sort of problem.

The cutoff windows they do give are too long to support your theory (what if demand then spikes?), unless Amazon also retracts those windows (which would also be customer hostile). I'm not saying the constraints you describe are impossible, just highly unlikely based on how every other merchant/shipper works. The tiny gain from optimally packing trucks does not seem to outweigh the additional complexity required to do so.

Re: Amazon blocks non-Prime members from buying certain video games

#145

Post by zodPod » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 10:16 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #72

comex wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like they needed it the next day after they called support, at which point they had already waited some time without it shipping.

Good point. Still sounds like the commenter expected it before the guaranteed date, but maybe Amazon just screwed it up that badly.

The guy above is correct. The order said 5-8 days and I ordered it on Monday and needed it Saturday. 5 days could have possibly allowed it to arrive on time even within the window and I had past experiences where Amazon had just shoved stuff in the mail and it arrived in 2 days. HOWEVER, they waited until Thursday to even start the shipment process because then it would've arrived on/around Tuesday of the next week making it 7ish days which is the longer of the range as well.