Comment by CamelCaseName | Hacker News Reader

Comment by CamelCaseName | Hacker News Reader

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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-...

Admittedly I did not think about the proof of delivery aspect. Definitely would cause issues. Although I imagine it could be mitigated by forcing the person to click "I accept delivery" on their Amazon account when you meet up, that way the retailer knows it is actually the person in question.

A lot of assumptions there. Why is delivery from the he vendor unprofessional and unreliable, compared to Amazon who hires anyone off the street as independent contractors to handle deliveries?

It's a very oligopolistic view to say only Amazon and a few big companies are trustworthy logistics providers.

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?

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.

Speaking of which: Amazon (and ebay, too) had recently started using a UK-based service called Yodel.

Last time Yodel had delivered a parcel of $50 to my door (marking it as delivered), which obviously got stolen. You can’t call Yodel - their line is always busy, and the line is not a free number.

Yodel had done that regularly to me, but I could never contact them or do anything about my delivery, since their customer service is horrendous.

Is there any way to set it up in Amazon (or ebay, too) so that their fulfillment never uses a certain delivery brand?

> Is there any way to set it up in Amazon (or ebay, too) so that their fulfillment never uses a certain delivery brand?

No, unfortunately not. Well, unless you're open to moving outside of Yodel's delivery radius.

eBay has no fulfillment network, so you can reach out to the seller and ask for a different shipping method. You should expect to be asked to cover the cost difference though.

You can also do this on Amazon as well, just make sure that the product you're buying says "ships and sold by XYZ". Send them a message prior to ordering and they'll let you know if they can accommodate.

>Is there any way to set it up in Amazon (or ebay, too) so that their fulfillment never uses a certain delivery brand?

Amazon support was able to do this for me. They also CC:d me on a really strongly worded email to the delivery company, which I found really surprising.

This was one of the euro amazons with european support staff.

Did it actually work? Did they actually stop using that delivery company for your packages (and is the company common enough for this to not be random chance)?

Yes, and yes. I probably get closer to 1000 deliveries annually.

The risk here is that the customer commits fraud by saying they did not receive the TV. Amazon may side with the customer and refund the money; but the merchant should still be able to file a small claims lawsuit or maybe even a police report.

> Some sellers can request disbursement at any time

This applies to very few sellers.

> This applies to very few sellers.

Fair enough. I am one of those few sellers and I tend to assume it's more commonplace than it is.

In any case, I don't really understand the desire for instant disbursements. Certainly you eliminate the risk of Amazon carrying a larger balance than necessary, and in rare cash crunch situations it may rescue the day... But beyond that, why is it so desireable?

Retail is all about accounts receivable vs payable. Getting money faster means it can create interest while you wait to pay suppliers.

For most businesses at scale, cash flow is a gating factor for growth and profitability. This is why businesses always try to get cash on delivery, but pay their vendors Net 60.

"unprofessional to visit a buyer in person"

It might be unusual in the context, its not unprofessional, and in certain contexts associated with a premium service.

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