4 ms·

Now explain how Amazon Fresh/Amazon Now will work with that.

dalke 11y ago
Or how to send mail internationally. Or how to pay or even estimate postage if there are distance-dependent costs. Or how to send mail to me when I'm renting a vacation home for a few weeks. Or how to presort bulk mails for cheaper postal rates. Or send mail to the current occupier of a house when the name isn't known. (Obvious ones include advertisements, political mailings, an municipal fee notices.)
- lkbm 11y ago
  > Or how to send mail internationally. Yes, this will only work in areas where it's implemented. > Or how to pay or even estimate postage if there are distance-dependent costs. Presumably you'd include this in the USPS API, which knows your region. I already have to go to Easypost to determine shipping cost. > Or how to send mail to me when I'm renting a vacation home for a few weeks. What? This systems makes that _much_ easier, because the changes are centralized. Instead of updating my address on Amazon, eBay, and everywhere else that ships, I just update the USPS address. > Or how to presort bulk mails for cheaper postal rates. I'm not clear on why that gives cheaper rates these days. Unless your mailing addresses are hand-written, the USPS should be able to mass sort at essentially zero-cost. > Or send mail to the current occupier of a house when the name isn't known. (Obvious ones include advertisements, political mailings, an municipal fee notices.) Traditional addresses would obviously still exist--this is specifically a system of snail mail aliasing. If you don't want to hit a specific person, you could still use those addresses for mailing.
  - dalke 11y ago
    > where it's implemented So how does mail cross the boundary? Assume the US has the system but Canada does not. How will someone from Canada send mail to a US address? More specifically, if you buy something from Amazon, and it's actually delivered from a Canadian shipper, how does the shipper know the address if you've only given Amazon your alias? Does that mean this system would restrict Amazon, eBay, etc. to only work with places which are party to the new system? > I already have to go to Easypost to determine shipping cost I assume you rarely ship things. I used to help send book around the US. It's media mail. We had a scale, and a price list. We weighed the books, put on the right number of stamps, and dropped the mail off at the post office. There was no "API". There was no need to go elsewhere to weigh the books. How many similar systems will break with this proposal? > _much_ easier No, it doesn't. Right now I only need to know the address to have people send things to me. With this proposal, I have to register my mailing address. To give a case in point, last December I did a lot of traveling. I went to CA, NM, OK, and FL. I live in Sweden. In NM my friend in CA pointed out I left my coat there. I asked her to send it to me in OK, where I would be visiting family, as there might not be time for the coat to get to me in NM. I knew the address of where I was driving to in OK, so it was easy to give her that address. Add it's easy to find zip code for an address. Otherwise, I either 1) need to get the special shipping code for my relative in OK, or 2) register a one-off mailing code with the USPS. (Because I do not want any of my other addresses updated.) Both are more complicated than putting c/o along with the street address. > I just update the USPS address. Again, my case was a one-off event. Consider a different problem, which is the question of how to disentangle addresses. Suppose I've been married and living in the same place for 25 years. We've registered everything on the same mail code, including Amazon, eBay, credit card notices, bank statements, mortgage statements. Now me and my spouse have decided to celebrate our silver anniversary by living in Hawaii for two months. While in Hawaii, we still want to use Amazon. But our son, who lives next door, will handle any bills or other things. So we want to change the address for Amazon ONLY. How do we do that? I can't just update the USPS address because everything will be routed to Hawaii, which I don't want. Nor can I tell USPS that when Amazon sends to special code XYZ then to instead ship to an address in Hilo. > I'm not clear on why that gives cheaper rates these days You don't have to be "clear", only accept that it's true. A DuckDuckGo for "presorted mail" points me to http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/sorting/presortingMail.htm http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/sorting/presortingMail.ht... which says "Many mailers choose to presort their mail because it results in lower postage. Because you're doing some of the work, it costs the Postal Service less money to process and deliver those pieces of mail. We pass that savings on to you in the form of commercial postage prices. Basically, "presorting" means grouping mail by ZIP Code." > the USPS should be able to mass sort Your beliefs about the postal system do not appear to be correct, nor have been correct for decades. > this is specifically a system of snail mail aliasing And a system which introduces a lot of headaches for little gain. How do I change an alias? Do I go online? What if it's been 10 years and I've forgotten the account details? Do I go to the post office to get access again? Can my spouse change the information? Can I designate someone else, like my lawyer, to change it? How safe is it from identity fraud? What is the legal method of recovering from fraud? What level of privacy will there be on the alias? Can companies share or sell the information? Can the alias-to-physical address be subpoenad? Is the subpoena filed in state or federal court? Does the other side get to file an objection before that information is released?
    - lkbm 11y ago
      > How will someone from Canada send mail to a US address? Can't the USPS translates it when it hits their jurisdiction? The Canadian post isn't delivering mail in the US. The USPS is. > We had a scale, and a price list. If you're selling on Amazon, replace your price list with typing the address into Amazon and receiving a response. If you're selling on your own, you can collect traditional addresses and use those. > While in Hawaii, we still want to use Amazon. But our son, who lives next door, will handle any bills or other things. So we want to change the address for Amazon ONLY. > How do we do that? I can't just update the USPS address because everything will be routed to Hawaii, which I don't want. > Nor can I tell USPS that when Amazon sends to special code XYZ then to instead ship to an address in Hilo. Sounds like in that case the proposed system is as bad as what we currently have--you still have to update things on a mailer-by-mailer basis. That's annoying, but it's exactly the same as what we have right now. In some cases this is not an improvement, and in other cases it's better so... > You don't have to be "clear", only accept that it's true. No, I have to accept that it should be true. If it's an anachronism of days past, losing it is good. Even if it's not, it's not a given that the tradeoff isn't very much worth it. > How do I change an alias? Do I go online? What if it's been 10 years and I've forgotten the account details? Do I go to the post office to get access again? Can my spouse change the information? Can I designate someone else, like my lawyer, to change it? How safe is it from identity fraud? What is the legal method of recovering from fraud? We currently have mail forwarding. Copy that and streamline it. > What level of privacy will there be on the alias? Can companies share or sell the information? Can the alias-to-physical address be subpoenad? Is the subpoena filed in state or federal court? Does the other side get to file an objection before that information is released? Yup. It will take time to nail down all the details of how this would work. I'm certainly not arguing against that, so I'm not sure what this whole thread is about at this point.

dalke 11y ago

Or how to send mail internationally. Or how to pay or even estimate postage if there are distance-dependent costs. Or how to send mail to me when I'm renting a vacation home for a few weeks. Or how to presort bulk mails for cheaper postal rates. Or send mail to the current occupier of a house when the name isn't known. (Obvious ones include advertisements, political mailings, an municipal fee notices.)

lkbm 11y ago
> Or how to send mail internationally. Yes, this will only work in areas where it's implemented. > Or how to pay or even estimate postage if there are distance-dependent costs. Presumably you'd include this in the USPS API, which knows your region. I already have to go to Easypost to determine shipping cost. > Or how to send mail to me when I'm renting a vacation home for a few weeks. What? This systems makes that _much_ easier, because the changes are centralized. Instead of updating my address on Amazon, eBay, and everywhere else that ships, I just update the USPS address. > Or how to presort bulk mails for cheaper postal rates. I'm not clear on why that gives cheaper rates these days. Unless your mailing addresses are hand-written, the USPS should be able to mass sort at essentially zero-cost. > Or send mail to the current occupier of a house when the name isn't known. (Obvious ones include advertisements, political mailings, an municipal fee notices.) Traditional addresses would obviously still exist--this is specifically a system of snail mail aliasing. If you don't want to hit a specific person, you could still use those addresses for mailing.
- dalke 11y ago
  > where it's implemented So how does mail cross the boundary? Assume the US has the system but Canada does not. How will someone from Canada send mail to a US address? More specifically, if you buy something from Amazon, and it's actually delivered from a Canadian shipper, how does the shipper know the address if you've only given Amazon your alias? Does that mean this system would restrict Amazon, eBay, etc. to only work with places which are party to the new system? > I already have to go to Easypost to determine shipping cost I assume you rarely ship things. I used to help send book around the US. It's media mail. We had a scale, and a price list. We weighed the books, put on the right number of stamps, and dropped the mail off at the post office. There was no "API". There was no need to go elsewhere to weigh the books. How many similar systems will break with this proposal? > _much_ easier No, it doesn't. Right now I only need to know the address to have people send things to me. With this proposal, I have to register my mailing address. To give a case in point, last December I did a lot of traveling. I went to CA, NM, OK, and FL. I live in Sweden. In NM my friend in CA pointed out I left my coat there. I asked her to send it to me in OK, where I would be visiting family, as there might not be time for the coat to get to me in NM. I knew the address of where I was driving to in OK, so it was easy to give her that address. Add it's easy to find zip code for an address. Otherwise, I either 1) need to get the special shipping code for my relative in OK, or 2) register a one-off mailing code with the USPS. (Because I do not want any of my other addresses updated.) Both are more complicated than putting c/o along with the street address. > I just update the USPS address. Again, my case was a one-off event. Consider a different problem, which is the question of how to disentangle addresses. Suppose I've been married and living in the same place for 25 years. We've registered everything on the same mail code, including Amazon, eBay, credit card notices, bank statements, mortgage statements. Now me and my spouse have decided to celebrate our silver anniversary by living in Hawaii for two months. While in Hawaii, we still want to use Amazon. But our son, who lives next door, will handle any bills or other things. So we want to change the address for Amazon ONLY. How do we do that? I can't just update the USPS address because everything will be routed to Hawaii, which I don't want. Nor can I tell USPS that when Amazon sends to special code XYZ then to instead ship to an address in Hilo. > I'm not clear on why that gives cheaper rates these days You don't have to be "clear", only accept that it's true. A DuckDuckGo for "presorted mail" points me to http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/sorting/presortingMail.htm http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/sorting/presortingMail.ht... which says "Many mailers choose to presort their mail because it results in lower postage. Because you're doing some of the work, it costs the Postal Service less money to process and deliver those pieces of mail. We pass that savings on to you in the form of commercial postage prices. Basically, "presorting" means grouping mail by ZIP Code." > the USPS should be able to mass sort Your beliefs about the postal system do not appear to be correct, nor have been correct for decades. > this is specifically a system of snail mail aliasing And a system which introduces a lot of headaches for little gain. How do I change an alias? Do I go online? What if it's been 10 years and I've forgotten the account details? Do I go to the post office to get access again? Can my spouse change the information? Can I designate someone else, like my lawyer, to change it? How safe is it from identity fraud? What is the legal method of recovering from fraud? What level of privacy will there be on the alias? Can companies share or sell the information? Can the alias-to-physical address be subpoenad? Is the subpoena filed in state or federal court? Does the other side get to file an objection before that information is released?
  - lkbm 11y ago
    > How will someone from Canada send mail to a US address? Can't the USPS translates it when it hits their jurisdiction? The Canadian post isn't delivering mail in the US. The USPS is. > We had a scale, and a price list. If you're selling on Amazon, replace your price list with typing the address into Amazon and receiving a response. If you're selling on your own, you can collect traditional addresses and use those. > While in Hawaii, we still want to use Amazon. But our son, who lives next door, will handle any bills or other things. So we want to change the address for Amazon ONLY. > How do we do that? I can't just update the USPS address because everything will be routed to Hawaii, which I don't want. > Nor can I tell USPS that when Amazon sends to special code XYZ then to instead ship to an address in Hilo. Sounds like in that case the proposed system is as bad as what we currently have--you still have to update things on a mailer-by-mailer basis. That's annoying, but it's exactly the same as what we have right now. In some cases this is not an improvement, and in other cases it's better so... > You don't have to be "clear", only accept that it's true. No, I have to accept that it should be true. If it's an anachronism of days past, losing it is good. Even if it's not, it's not a given that the tradeoff isn't very much worth it. > How do I change an alias? Do I go online? What if it's been 10 years and I've forgotten the account details? Do I go to the post office to get access again? Can my spouse change the information? Can I designate someone else, like my lawyer, to change it? How safe is it from identity fraud? What is the legal method of recovering from fraud? We currently have mail forwarding. Copy that and streamline it. > What level of privacy will there be on the alias? Can companies share or sell the information? Can the alias-to-physical address be subpoenad? Is the subpoena filed in state or federal court? Does the other side get to file an objection before that information is released? Yup. It will take time to nail down all the details of how this would work. I'm certainly not arguing against that, so I'm not sure what this whole thread is about at this point.