Amazon Patents Bad Service For Bad Customers

mikesd81 writes "Techdirt reports that Amazon has been awarded a patent for Generating Current Order Fulfillment Plans Based on Expected Future Orders. Essentially, if Amazon deems that you won't be a long time customer or ordering again soon, your order will take longer to be expedited."

Comments

Slow service does not make customers repeat!

[Tsu Dho Nimh]

"Essentially, if Amazon deems that you won't be a long time customer or ordering again soon, your order will take longer to be expedited."

And slow service will make me want to be a repeat customer?

Re:Great idea... not.

[Protonk]

this is a GOOD idea, and not that far removed from the Newegg concept. Newegg spends money and charges more in order to push items out the door faster. You can pay MORE in order to get something tomorrow. Partially what allows them to do this IS an ordering system that prioritizes orders from one source over anothers. That is what allows them to fill boxes and get them to UPS faster.

In the case of Amazon.com, you are talking about getting this service without paying for it. If you buy things from Amazon that indicate that you will buy fancy stuff in the future, your order will get pushed out the door faster. If you only buy used books from allied used retailers, then you're order will get fewer CPU cycles devoted to it.

It's just interrupt priority for shipping, basically.

The patent

[Cracked Pottery]

I read as much as I could before my eyes glazed over. The patent doesn't simply address individual customers, it describes a system to minimize costs where a large vendor, such as Amazon, has a number of distribution centers. It as much concerns regional demographic features as individual customers.

Now, I hate business method patents in general, but this one appears to be sufficiently arcane as to not risk much litigation. The point being that it would be extremely difficult to prove infringement by another business, given that business practices are typically kept private.

Of course somebody probably has a patent on labeling isles in stores according to what products are found, and I know somebody had to at least try to patent the mall display that provides a map and legend system to locate stores. Those patents, if they exist, would be an easier target for an infringement suit.

Have we reached such a perfect state of justice that lawyers have nothing better to do than this? Isn't there an ambulance to chase somewhere?

Re:In other words ...

[zarqman]

As I said when this was posted on Techdirt, this system could encourage customers not to shop at amazon, because when you start shopping there the shipping takes longer. Appeasing a small group of users who make up the majority of purchases and irritating a larger group who make only occasional purchases is not the way to go. amazon has already implemented their picking system to discourage customers from buying direct from them. i can't tell if this is another way to discourage customers or if it's merely the formal patent for the existing implementation.

to take advantage of amazon's free shipping, you have to be willing to let amazon sit on your order for a while before actually picking it. in my experience, across many orders, this results in about a one week (!) delay. then it's another week or so for ground shipping to deliver it to you.

amusingly, amazon's own marketplace sellers typically ship right away, so it's generally faster to order from one of them than amazon directly. those, of course, don't ship for free. but they do typically ship for less than amazon charges (at least for what i tend to buy).

i'd buy at least twice as much from amazon if they'd just pick the orders within a day or so. i often order from their competitors just for this reason.

if this is a new plan to cause certain shoppers even more delays in shipping, it may cost them even more business. not smart.

Re:In other words ...

[Bwana Geek]

You'd think that, but according to the 80-20 rule, 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of their customers. If they give superior service to their most loyal customers, I bet their profits will increase overall.