7 ms·

About 6 years ago I ordered a tv on Amazon, it was going to be shipped out and delivered in about a week. About an hour later I got a phone a call with a thick

by jweir 7y ago

About 6 years ago I ordered a tv on Amazon, it was going to be shipped out and delivered in about a week. About an hour later I got a phone a call with a thick accented voice – "John, John, are you home?" "Who is this?" "I got your TV, we can come over right now." Sure enough they pulled up with their van and I got my TV about two hours after I ordered. Unknown to me I had ordered it from a Hasidic run company just down the street from my home in Brooklyn.

GhettoMaestro 7y ago
Nice! I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster.
- drdeadringer 7y ago
  All other things being equal, if 2hr delivery happened to me I'd at least be tossing referrals around if not being a return customer [maybe they sell only TVs and I only needed the one].
  - jweir 7y ago
    I dug up the seller info - Always A Deal https://www.amazon.com/sp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfilled=0&isCBA=&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&orderID=111-2142812-5432229&seller=A1KA0BTOUH8C9F&tab=&vasStoreID= https://www.amazon.com/sp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfi...
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  Definitely. The credit card only charges when it ships.
  - GhettoMaestro 7y ago
    I never thought about that. I figured Amazon was just being a middle-man for some insane amount of money and making a nice spread off of it.
    - toasterlovin 7y ago
      Amazon seller here. Amazon doesn't make funds available for disbursement until 7 days after delivery. At that point funds are available for disbursement, but they aren't necessarily disbursed. Seller accounts created before 2011 have what are called daily disbursements: the seller has a button they can click once every 24 hours that will disburse all available funds. Most sellers accounts opened since then have bi-weekly disbursements, though, so all available funds get disbursed every 14 days.
      - Smithalicious 7y ago
        God I hate the word bi-weekly; if you hadn't specified 14 days I would've thought it was twice a week. "bi-weekly" is never the right word to use because you always have to add additional information that makes it redundant.
        toasterlovin 7y ago
        For some reason the bi-weekly vs. semi-weekly thing doesn't confuse me, but I take your point and the dictionary seems to agree that it can mean either every two weeks or twice a week.
        Smithalicious 7y ago
        It confuses me because I regularly hear "bi-weekly" to mean "twice per week". I don't think I've ever heard someone say semi-weekly. Usually you can make a good guess of the intended meaning from context, but the two time intervals are similar enough that it's frequently ambiguous.
        hunter2_ 7y ago
        Interesting... in my area (NYC) I only hear people say it to mean 14 days. I suppose the rationale is to think of "bi" as "two" (precisely as you'd do for bicycle, bisexual, binomial, etc.) rather than as "twice" and then the ambiguity disappears. Counterexample supporting ambiguity: the word bisect, which means two sections, but can quite easily also be thought of as halving!
- asdfman123 7y ago
  They probably were able to save money by delivering it directly, instead of taking it to a postal office to ship it which probably would have been more work anyway.
  - mdorazio 7y ago
    Also their breakage rate (and thus returns processing and associated Amazon hit) will likely be much lower since they're delivering it themselves.
- Alupis 7y ago
  > I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster No - Amazon pays sellers every other week.
  - CamelCaseName 7y ago
    This is not necessarily true. Some sellers can request disbursement at any time. For a breakdown of when Amazon pays sellers, see [0]. In this case, the only delay is the 7 day holding period after the latest possible delivery date. For example, if you sell and deliver a product on Jan 1st, you may be able to disburse the funds as soon as the 8th. However! This example does not hold for the situation described by the GP because no tracking information can be provided to Amazon. In which case, the longest possible delivery period in the shipping method selected will be used. More importantly, what the seller did as described by GP is big liability, for two reasons: 1. Phone numbers should never, ever, be used to contact the customer directly. They are for the seller to give to the carrier. This is a violation of Amazon's ToS. 2. Sellers should never, ever, deliver directly to buyers. Not only will this hurt their valid tracking rate metric, but it also makes them a very easy target for item not received cases as there is no proof that the item was delivered. The only recourse in a case like this would be through small claims court. And on a much more minor note, it's unprofessional to visit a buyer in person. Amazon is not eBay. [0] https://3t122x28ppxb3z3e3u3i0eib-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/amazon-payouts-timeline.png https://3t122x28ppxb3z3e3u3i0eib-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-...
    - Aloha 7y ago
      Maybe? They can still use the same tracking mechanisms, I mean when I order from the pizza place, they don't contract it out, so why should I care of my amazon seller does?
      - Alupis 7y ago
        For orders over 10 USD, Amazon requires a verifiable tracking number from one of the major carrier services. (It's possible to "ship" an order without a tracking number, but the seller takes a hit to their account metrics, and Amazon will eventually freeze their account for review). This is so they can verify you actually shipped the package, and verify it was delivered within the fulfillment promise date range, ie. if you paid for 2 day shipping or whatever. There are some sellers that have been approved for self-delivery of packages, which are not trackable. In these cases, they usually forfeit all rights to dispute non-delivery claims and more. So, it's pretty risky for the seller.

by jweir 7y ago

GhettoMaestro 7y ago

Nice! I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster.

drdeadringer 7y ago
All other things being equal, if 2hr delivery happened to me I'd at least be tossing referrals around if not being a return customer [maybe they sell only TVs and I only needed the one].
- jweir 7y ago
  I dug up the seller info - Always A Deal https://www.amazon.com/sp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfilled=0&isCBA=&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&orderID=111-2142812-5432229&seller=A1KA0BTOUH8C9F&tab=&vasStoreID= https://www.amazon.com/sp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfi...
CydeWeys 7y ago
Definitely. The credit card only charges when it ships.
- GhettoMaestro 7y ago
  I never thought about that. I figured Amazon was just being a middle-man for some insane amount of money and making a nice spread off of it.
  - toasterlovin 7y ago
    Amazon seller here. Amazon doesn't make funds available for disbursement until 7 days after delivery. At that point funds are available for disbursement, but they aren't necessarily disbursed. Seller accounts created before 2011 have what are called daily disbursements: the seller has a button they can click once every 24 hours that will disburse all available funds. Most sellers accounts opened since then have bi-weekly disbursements, though, so all available funds get disbursed every 14 days.
    - Smithalicious 7y ago
      God I hate the word bi-weekly; if you hadn't specified 14 days I would've thought it was twice a week. "bi-weekly" is never the right word to use because you always have to add additional information that makes it redundant.
      - toasterlovin 7y ago
        For some reason the bi-weekly vs. semi-weekly thing doesn't confuse me, but I take your point and the dictionary seems to agree that it can mean either every two weeks or twice a week.
        Smithalicious 7y ago
        It confuses me because I regularly hear "bi-weekly" to mean "twice per week". I don't think I've ever heard someone say semi-weekly. Usually you can make a good guess of the intended meaning from context, but the two time intervals are similar enough that it's frequently ambiguous.
        hunter2_ 7y ago
        Interesting... in my area (NYC) I only hear people say it to mean 14 days. I suppose the rationale is to think of "bi" as "two" (precisely as you'd do for bicycle, bisexual, binomial, etc.) rather than as "twice" and then the ambiguity disappears. Counterexample supporting ambiguity: the word bisect, which means two sections, but can quite easily also be thought of as halving!
asdfman123 7y ago
They probably were able to save money by delivering it directly, instead of taking it to a postal office to ship it which probably would have been more work anyway.
- mdorazio 7y ago
  Also their breakage rate (and thus returns processing and associated Amazon hit) will likely be much lower since they're delivering it themselves.
Alupis 7y ago
> I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster No - Amazon pays sellers every other week.
- CamelCaseName 7y ago
  This is not necessarily true. Some sellers can request disbursement at any time. For a breakdown of when Amazon pays sellers, see [0]. In this case, the only delay is the 7 day holding period after the latest possible delivery date. For example, if you sell and deliver a product on Jan 1st, you may be able to disburse the funds as soon as the 8th. However! This example does not hold for the situation described by the GP because no tracking information can be provided to Amazon. In which case, the longest possible delivery period in the shipping method selected will be used. More importantly, what the seller did as described by GP is big liability, for two reasons: 1. Phone numbers should never, ever, be used to contact the customer directly. They are for the seller to give to the carrier. This is a violation of Amazon's ToS. 2. Sellers should never, ever, deliver directly to buyers. Not only will this hurt their valid tracking rate metric, but it also makes them a very easy target for item not received cases as there is no proof that the item was delivered. The only recourse in a case like this would be through small claims court. And on a much more minor note, it's unprofessional to visit a buyer in person. Amazon is not eBay. [0] https://3t122x28ppxb3z3e3u3i0eib-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/amazon-payouts-timeline.png https://3t122x28ppxb3z3e3u3i0eib-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-...
  - Aloha 7y ago
    Maybe? They can still use the same tracking mechanisms, I mean when I order from the pizza place, they don't contract it out, so why should I care of my amazon seller does?
    - Alupis 7y ago
      For orders over 10 USD, Amazon requires a verifiable tracking number from one of the major carrier services. (It's possible to "ship" an order without a tracking number, but the seller takes a hit to their account metrics, and Amazon will eventually freeze their account for review). This is so they can verify you actually shipped the package, and verify it was delivered within the fulfillment promise date range, ie. if you paid for 2 day shipping or whatever. There are some sellers that have been approved for self-delivery of packages, which are not trackable. In these cases, they usually forfeit all rights to dispute non-delivery claims and more. So, it's pretty risky for the seller.