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Amazon Doubles Deliveries in 2016 For Third-Party Sellers (reuters.com)
Amazon.com shipped 50 percent more items this holiday season than last for third-party vendors and doubled the amount for 2016 overall, the retail giant said on Wednesday. From a report on Reuters: Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, has said the 2016 holiday was its best-ever shopping season. However, high spending on warehouses and video production are expected to drag on profits. More sellers are paying the company to store, pack and ship their goods through the Fulfillment by Amazon service. Amazon more than doubled the items it delivered for other sellers in 2016 from the year prior to exceed two billion, a spokesman said.
Amazon is a cesspool. For many products, you can't tell what you're ordering or what you'll be receiving. Example: I needed to buy a slightly non-standard air filter. Hey, Amazon has it... except they lump together 20 different suppliers. And the item description and pictures says it's OEM it's clear from the comments that most of them are made by a different company (that's fine, but label and price them correctly) or are chinese knockoffs.
To be fair, it's his first order.
Which means he used "free shipping". And given Amazon of late, that really is a mistake.
If you're not a Prime member, this is how Amazon free shipping works now. You place your order, and select free shipping. Amazon then waits 7-10 days on your order (not Prime). Then they check again to see if your item is in stock, and if they can sell it to you (i.e., it didn't turn prime-only, and the price is what they're willing to sell you). If so, great, it's then packed and shipped to you. If not, then it's aborted and your order is cancelled (potentially).
Amazon really has become like Costco and is really a member's shopping club. The only difference is they let you browse and potentially may sell non-members stuff.