Wow, impressive, Amazon

[dwell]

Ordered a $10 pair of earbuds because my Shure's broke (<3 Shure's 2-year warranty BTW) yesterday (Saturday) and checked status this morning and it's OFD by Laser <laser noise behtwwweeewww>. Sunday delivery on a $10 pair of earbuds, people.

 

[datalink7]

I guess it doesn't take much to impress people. Amazon was merely doing what you paid them to do. I remember Outpost did this routinely yet they went out of business.

Webvan was impressive back in the day. Free grocery delivery in 30 minute window of your choosing. Now that was service. Amazon owns failed Webvan now I believe.

But people aren't talking about Amazon doing what they paid them to do. They are talking about getting packages the same day as ordering or, like me, three days later in the middle of a war zone. That is better than "merely what you paid them to do."

 

[her209]

Amazon can do no wrong.

Have you ever bought bare hard drives from them?

 

[ponyo]

But people aren't talking about Amazon doing what they paid them to do. They are talking about getting packages the same day as ordering or, like me, three days later in the middle of a war zone. That is better than "merely what you paid them to do."

Shouldn't most of the credit go to the courier company rather than Amazon?

Slightly related but bit off topic, my wife recently flew to Korea on Korean Air. She bought economy ticket but they upgraded her to business class for free at the gate along with about 10 other people. She didn't ask for it. They just called her name and offered it to her for free. On a 14 hour flight that's a nice upgrade in comfort. Now that's good customer service especially from an airline.

 

[Nebor]

Amazon is a pretty amazing retailer. They're also sons of bitches for what they're trying to do in preventing states from receiving the taxes they're owed - for unfair advantage.

I'm about ready to call for replacing the sales tax with an income tax increase to screw Amazon right back on the issue, and let B&M companies have a level playing field.

I'm a Prime subscriber who has raved about Amazon, but I'm avoiding buying right now. Not quite a boycott - that's a pretty high price with Amazon. They can 'do wrong'.

Oh god, Amazon will be in serious trouble if Craig "calls for replacing the sales tax with an income tax increase." Because Craig speaks for the people, and what Craig says, goes. :biggrin:

 

[mizzou]

I really hope they don't mess with the free shipping PRIME deal, it's so awesome

I do wish it was easier to navigate through the trash items online, without having to scour through online reviews to see if something is legit or not.

 

[sactoking]

I guess if you order a bunch of stuff on impulse that you just *have* to have right now Amazon Prime could be cool. But Prime costs $80/year for that "free" shipping. I can ship super saver for free and get my item just as fast. In the rare instance that I need something right now and I don't trust super saver to get it to me in time, I can probably buy it locally. I might pay a couple bucks extra to buy locally, but it takes a lot of *must have* impulse buys to overcome the $80 flat fee.

Basically, if you have self-control and/or can plan 48-72 hours ahead, Prime is an absolute waste.

 

[Deeko]

I guess if you order a bunch of stuff on impulse that you just *have* to have right now Amazon Prime could be cool. But Prime costs $80/year for that "free" shipping. I can ship super saver for free and get my item just as fast. In the rare instance that I need something right now and I don't trust super saver to get it to me in time, I can probably buy it locally. I might pay a couple bucks extra to buy locally, but it takes a lot of *must have* impulse buys to overcome the $80 flat fee.

Basically, if you have self-control and/or can plan 48-72 hours ahead, Prime is an absolute waste.

Chalk me up in the no patience / self control category then Before Prime, I rarely ordered from amazon because I didn't want to wait a week, I'd just go to a store.

 

[BudAshes]

Have you ever bought bare hard drives from them?

Yeah i would say pc hardware not the best idea to get from them. Especially oem.

 

[Nebor]

I guess if you order a bunch of stuff on impulse that you just *have* to have right now Amazon Prime could be cool. But Prime costs $80/year for that "free" shipping. I can ship super saver for free and get my item just as fast. In the rare instance that I need something right now and I don't trust super saver to get it to me in time, I can probably buy it locally. I might pay a couple bucks extra to buy locally, but it takes a lot of *must have* impulse buys to overcome the $80 flat fee.

Basically, if you have self-control and/or can plan 48-72 hours ahead, Prime is an absolute waste.

You're forgetting about the included access to Amazon's streaming movie library.

I spend ~$500 a month on Amazon, so prime is totally worth it. Also there's no place to buy many things locally, since I'm a 3 hour drive from the nearest major city.

 

[sigmanova]

Have you ever bought bare hard drives from them?

i bought 3 bare hard drives from them.

the first one, a 1 TB Samsung F3 Spinpoint was purchased through their affiliate in NJ; perfectly packaged but it take a week from ordering.

I've also purchased two 2TB Samsung F4's directly from Amazon (December 2010 and February 2011). Although packaging was definitely the bare minimum it was done tightly enough to keep the drives from rattling or moving around during transit. i'd buy hard drives again from Amazon.

 

[AreaCode707]

For years after inception, Amazon shipped their corporate personnel out to the fulfillment centers during the holiday rush. Jeff Bezos and the entire C-level team would fly to Lexington, KY or other distant locations and work the line. There is a very deep-rooted understanding of the criticality of shipping, and how vital efficiency in shipping process is.

Amazon uses a Kaizen approach to business, especially in the fulfillment centers. They create task teams of mixed-level employees, everything from order pickers up, and take suggestions about how to improve. Even tiny improvements make a huge difference when you're dealing on the Amazon scale. For instance, one Kaizen team mapped out a different order-picking path that reduced the steps walked by almost 1/3. Amazon quantifies every improvement in time and dollars saved. (Obviously this was for an area where the order picking is done manually; a lot of FCs have electronic order picking too.)

On top of all this, part of the Kaizen approach is that any worker can call a stop to the line at any time if a defect is spotted. It's an extreme approach to quality control but it forces overall improvement because too many stops draws attention to a problem earlier in the line and gets it fixed.

Kaizen teams that make improvements are publicly recognized in front of the entire company, with representatives flown to Seattle for an award at the company all-hands meeting.