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Ordering from (and selling on) Amazon

r2g (apparently) - 01:19pm Jan 24, 2007 PST
via email

> **Review a Book, Get a Free Ebook** -- We were happy to hear from our
> friends at Peachpit Press that Joe Kissell's "Real World Mac
> Maintenance and Backups," which contains "Take Control of
> Maintaining Your Mac" and "Take Control of Mac OS X Backups," went
> into a second printing recently. The book was selling extremely well
> on Amazon.com for a while after it first came out, with very high
> sales rankings. But then Amazon ran out of stock, and with a 1 to 3
> week wait, people stopped ordering, and the book lost its momentum.
> Curses!

I'm wondering if Amazon's shipping policy contributes to that lose of
momentum. Personally, if I go on Amazon to order several items and
one of those is out of stock, I delete it from my selection because I
don't want to delay the shipping of my other items under, the "group
items to as few shipments as possible" method, or have to pay extra
to ship items "as they become available" (at which point the order
seems to break down into more shipments than warranted, considering
that, say, all other items are listed as "in stock.")

Any other online/mail order company I've ever ordered from would list
out-of-stock items as "backordered" and ship them at no extra cost
when they becomes available. Amazon's method makes it much less
attractive -- not only do you have to wait for them to restock, you
have to pay extra or try again at a later date (which you're less
likely to bother).

Although I haven't done any comparison studies, it seems to me that
Amazon's shipping charges are generally higher *and* their actual
delivery dates slower than other vendors I've dealt with.

Mark as Read

DanK - Jan 31, 2007 7:23 am (#4 Total: 10)

Posts: 1

Re: Ordering from (and selling on) Amazon

There is also the issue of their "Standard Shipping" versus their "Free Super Saver Shipping". In-stock items ordered from Amazon using Standard shipping (which the customer pays for) usually are shipped the day after ordering. But with the free shipping, you wait...and wait...and wait... I always wonder "What are they waiting for???" Do they intentionally wait with the items so people don't use the free shipping? For comparision, books ordered from Buy.com using their free shipping usually ship in a day or two after ordering. Anyone know why it's so slow with Amazon?

jwblist (apparently) - Jan 31, 2007 11:42 pm (#5 Total: 10)

via email

Posts: 768

Re: Ordering from (and selling on) Amazon

On Jan 31, 2007, at 7:23 AM, DanK wrote:

> There is also the issue of their "Standard Shipping" versus their
> "Free Super Saver Shipping". In-stock items ordered from Amazon
> using Standard shipping (which the customer pays for) usually are
> shipped the day after ordering. But with the free shipping, you
> wait...and wait...and wait... I always wonder "What are they
> waiting for???" Do they intentionally wait with the items so people
> don't use the free shipping? For comparision, books ordered from
> Buy.com using their free shipping usually ship in a day or two
> after ordering. Anyone know why it's so slow with Amazon?

In my experience, free shipping items arrive quickly (a day or three
before Amazon's guestimate), if they were claimed to be in stock, and
pretty much regardless of where Amazon sends them from. But I'm not
nearly as busy an Amazon shopper as I suspect Jeff B would like me to
be.

--John

David Emme (apparently) - Jan 31, 2007 11:42 pm (#6 Total: 10)

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Posts: 15

Re: Ordering from (and selling on) Amazon

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On Jan 31, 2007, at 8:23 AM, DanK wrote:

> There is also the issue of their "Standard Shipping" versus their
> "Free Super Saver Shipping". In-stock items ordered from Amazon
> using Standard shipping (which the customer pays for) usually are
> shipped the day after ordering. But with the free shipping, you
> wait...and wait...and wait...

My experience with their Free Shipping is:

- When I select it, the Web page tells me there may be a 3-5 day
delay (or some such) before the item is shipped

- When I get the order confirmation, I get a "far-future" ship date
prediction

- However, the item seems to arrive in a reasonable amount of time,
all of the above notwithstanding. Perhaps not as quickly as if I'd
paid for shipping(?), but invariably lots sooner then the
"threatened" ship date.

I guess it's reasonable to expect that they're trying to scare/entice
the instant-gratification crowd to pay for shipping...

YMMV
-Dave
--
War doesn't determine who is right -- only who is left.
      - Bertrand Russell

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aking (apparently) - Jan 31, 2007 11:42 pm (#7 Total: 10)

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Posts: 19

Re: Ordering from (and selling on) Amazon

On 1/31/07 10:23 AM, "DanK" wrote:

> There is also the issue of their "Standard Shipping" versus their "Free Super
> Saver Shipping". In-stock items ordered from Amazon using Standard shipping
> (which the customer pays for)

In my experience, if I qualify for "super saver shipping" the onus is on ME
to check that method of shipping at checkout time. The default has always
been "standard shipping". I find that practice to be dubious.

I've never had the experience of waiting extraordinary amounts for delivery
though. (possibly right before this past Christmas but I can't blame Amazon
for a few extra days that time of year.)

Adam

dr (apparently) - Jan 31, 2007 11:42 pm (#8 Total: 10)

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Posts: 514

Re: Ordering from (and selling on) Amazon

DanK wrote:
> There is also the issue of their "Standard Shipping" versus their
> "Free Super Saver Shipping". In-stock items ordered from Amazon using
> Standard shipping (which the customer pays for) usually are shipped
> the day after ordering. But with the free shipping, you wait...and
> wait...and wait... I always wonder "What are they waiting for???" Do
> they intentionally wait with the items so people don't use the free
> shipping? For comparision, books ordered from Buy.com using their
> free shipping usually ship in a day or two after ordering. Anyone
> know why it's so slow with Amazon?

I think they're waiting for a full load for the wagon. Them they call up
the livery stable and let them know to send over a driver and team. At
least it appears that way.

But I do bet they have a deal with a low cost freight company where they
fill up some standard sized container for particular range of zip codes,
ship the contain to there and they get dumped into the mail. At least
that's how it appeared to happen with one of the mail order computer
companies a year or so ago.

j-beda (apparently) - Feb 2, 2007 4:02 pm (#9 Total: 10)

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Posts: 157

At 9:42 AM +0200 2/1/07, David Emme wrote:
>My experience with their Free Shipping is:

Up here in the "Great White North" I seem to be very nicely
situated close to one of their (only?) Canadian warehouses. I have
occasionally ordered something early in the morning one day and with the
free shipping received it the very next day in the mail. I am about 100 km
NE of Toronto - I suspect that their shipping centre in in the Toronto
region somewhere.

--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

nanross - Feb 2, 2007 4:04 pm (#10 Total: 10)

Posts: 1

I am a computer novice and eager to learn whatever I can. I noticed the comments on Amazon free shipping. I've ordered from them quite a bit and was always amazed at how quickly I got the items....I once got it the next day but always faster that their estimated time. I usually don't post on this group since everyone seems to know so much more than I do.

There were a couple of times when an item was back ordered, but I was always notified and had the option of cancelling.

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