Amazon Shipping Lunacy - Prime shipping is great

[GTBRMC]

That next day shipment probably cost them less than 5 bucks. Enterprise contracts with the major carriers are heavily discounted based on volume.

Very true. And Amazon is the highest volume account in the world, so the discount must be very heavy, indeed.

 

[Evil Sports]

Murph, Lazer ship might have gone under because Amazon beat the price down so low they couldn't survive

 

[piney1]

Yep, $3.95 delivered. Can't figure it out but I don't buy those tiny batteries at Walgreens, that is for sure.

 

[Mainah]

My sone just asked me to check the shipping status of his new iphone that he work and saved money for this summer. I was reminded of this thread where I saw where it has been on its way to Maine. So it the last 28 hours it has been from China to Korea to Kentucky back across the Pacific to Hong Kong and back across again to Alaska and eventaully it will end up here in Maine. Seems crazy to me for it to back across the Pacific and coast to coast on the US after it was already in Kentucky. UPS must have its reasons but not beimg a logistics guy it seems as if someone failed geography. Photo for proof.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

My sone just asked me to check the shipping status of his new iphone that he work and saved money for this summer. I was reminded of this thread where I saw where it has been on its way to Maine. So it the last 28 hours it has been from China to Korea to Kentucky back across the Pacific to Hong Kong and back across again to Alaska and eventaully it will end up here in Maine. Seems crazy to me for it to back across the Pacific and coast to coast on the US after it was already in Kentucky. UPS must have its reasons but not beimg a logistics guy it seems as if someone failed geography. Photo for proof.

View attachment 46535

I'm thinking the times are local to you. China is ahead of us time wise.

 

[Mainah]

@Murf'n'surf -
I think they are all local to me meaning that there is a set reference point rather than being local time to the package which would make this difficult to figure out. Does not matter if the reference point is GMT or GMT -5 as long as you only have one fixed geolocation to which the time is converted it is in chronological date/time order.

I work with global financial data at a global company and we convert the local originating system date/time of the data to GMT. From there the data can be joined with other data and can all be converted to local time of the data consumer for non data/quant types if needed.

Sorry for the long winded explanation. That question pops up from time to time where I work and some folks have a hard time wrapping their head around it.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Could be a customs issue? Maybe Anchorage is the only point of entry to clear customs for these goods?

It is certainly interesting and worth getting an educated explanation.

 

[Scottintexas]

I liked the time theory without researching it to see if it would work out,
maybe somebody screwed up in Louisville and put it in the wrong container and sent it back by mistake,

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

Speaking of lunacy, we ordered a new upholstery piece for our boat from Babbitt's, well we ordered the wrong section as the parts fische was not super clear. I went to ship it back yesterday via UPS, they wanted $ 106.00 to ship back a $ 195.00 part, so I kept it and ordered the correct part.

 

[Mainah]

So something interesting happen after going to Alaska it went back to Kentucky then to New Hampshire and now on its way to Maine. Perhaps the shipment had to clear customs which is why it was sent back to Hong Kong to get to Alaska. Curiosity has me at this point as to why. From the outside looking in without knowing the why sure seems inefficient to get to Kentucky go back to Hong Kong to go to Alaska only to end up back in Kentucky before moving on from there again. My son's phone has logged as many air miles in the last 3 days as I did the first half of the year. Now if only we could sign our shipments up for frequent flyer miles.

@AZDANSX230HO - I here ya. Cost me a load of money to ship the speakers I took out of my boat to sell to members here. Wonder if @Bruce can hook up this forum with group buying pricing for shipping?

 

[Bruce]

Wonder if @Bruce can hook up this forum with group buying pricing for shipping?

A group insurance discount has long been a goal of mine but I never considered a shipping discount.

 

[Scottintexas]

since there was no departure scan out of Louisville I think it just was sent to HK buy mistake, either left in the container it came in (which just happened to turn around and go to HK or accidently dropped in the HK container after being sorted.

 

[Mainah]

@Scottintexas - You could be right. There is actually a line item for the import scan on the tracking and it was done its second time through Louisville. The shear volume of packages that UPS processes each day there is bound to be a mix up here and there. Boggles my mind that it is still arriving on time today even though it made 3 extra stops covering thousands of miles. Bet those airport shipping centers are daily organized chaos.

 

[Julian]

Its insane with just the amount of shipping they do in a day let alone a year

According to @Life in an Amazon Warehouse: Fear and Efficiency at 35 Orders Per Second, they have 35 orders per second, which means 1.1B a year. Alibaba has 12.7B a year. @ Alibaba In Numbers – Statistics And Trends [Infographic]

Don't forget that Amazon has well over 50 fulfillment centers in the US.