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.

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.