Amazon Keeps Moving the Bar

[nicoff]

The other day I was looking for a kitchen faucet to replace a broken one. My local hardware store could get me a replacement but it would take 7-10 days for it to arrive.

Not wanting to wait that long I checked on Amazon. I could get it in 2 days (free shipping) and to my surprise they offered professional installation! After choosing installation, a calendar immediately shows available dates/times for the install (the day after scheduled arrival was an option).

The price of the unit with installation was about the same as just the faucet at the hardware store. It took me less than a minute to place the order. The plumber showed up 5 mins early & did the job.

I noticed that this service is being offered by a new division from Amazon called Amazon Home Services. I can see how this can sway someone to buy that big screen TV or whatever from Amazon instead.

This is a variation on the Uber model. From what I gathered, the installers are independent contractors. They negotiated pricing beforehand with Amazon and Amazon handles the scheduling. It worked for me!

[jdandy]

nicoff.......First thing that came to my mind is how does Amazon vet these "independent contractors". Are they established local contractors who are licensed, bonded, and insured or is it just some guy who shows up in a no-name van?

[jadedavid]

Not sure how Amazon does it.
I was a contractor that provided services in conjunction with our local utilities company.
I had to be licensed and insured and was under constant scrutiny as to job performance and customer satisfaction.
I would only imagine that a company like Amazon would be the same as they are ultimately responsible.

[nicoff]

nicoff.......First thing that came to my mind is how does Amazon vet these "independent contractors". Are they established local contractors who are licensed, bonded, and insured or is it just some guy who shows up in a no-name van?

The guy said that he has another job and he is doing this part time to earn extra money. (Many Uber drivers do the same). He volunteered that he also does other contracting work (handy man) so for the guy there is a possibility of extra work in the future.

I have to assume that Amazon runs criminal checks on every one of these guys. (Similar to when a company is hiring a new employee).
The guy was driving his own vehicle; no Amazon logo anywhere.

As far as insurance/bonding I assume that this is likely something that Amazon is providing. I contracted with Amazon and not the individual. Maybe Amazon uses their clout/size to tell these guys that they are automatically covered when working through Amazon? Not sure.

[Mike]

I LOVE Amazon, but the problem (??) with Amazon is that it has totally changed buyer behavior and buyer expectations across the board.

For example, today, if I sell a power cable, the next day the person is asking for the tracking number. But the reality is, the company is averaging 2-3 weeks to build and ship the cable. The customer doesn’t like the wait, but the reality is that these are mostly made to order products by small companies.

Moreover, there is this belief that there is somehow a 30 day trial on anything audio related. I get asked frequently, “is it 30 days trial on Harbeth speakers?” Uh, no....we have to buy the speakers in order to sell them.

So Amazon is great and I’m a big fan, but keep in mind that Amazon is Amazon and their economies of scale cannot be applied to small businesses.


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[kiwi_1282001]

[...]

So Amazon is great and I’m a big fan, but keep in mind that Amazon is Amazon and their economies of scale cannot be applied to small businesses.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I like Amazon to, but their economies of scale are actually crushing a lot of brick and mortar businesses, big and small. They are no fun to supply to as a merchant either.

Amazon has indeed changed buyer expectations. Free 1-2 day shipping, Free returns etc. I was reading an article the other day that suggested a growing number of consumers "over ordered" (i.e. spent more than they budgeted in terms of quantity and $$) because it was so easy to return stuff for refunds.

[UltraFast69]

What Amazon is doing is changing how one not only buys but also how people run their business.

Mass produced commodities at specific price points that build inventory seem to do well on Amazon.

Boutique products, specialty items, build to order products not so well, and perhaps the next platform. In either case UPS and FedEx have done well for me over the years and only predict they will continue so.

It does change the landscape how business owners interact with the public, but not an end all. There are still many businesses out there that operate away from Amazon.

The world is changing and if one stands still, how long will one last?




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[mep]

Anybody in love with all of the Amazon spying devices that people are putting in their homes?

[BlueFox]

Feeling a bit under the weather, so I just ordered a week of groceries from Amazon.

[Skanda]

Anybody in love with all of the Amazon spying devices that people are putting in their homes?

my old boss is the head of amazon alexa. i worked with him from the time i was 17/18 to 22 on building a natural language processing system that won a darpa contract and was subsequently deployed to do speech-to-speech translation accross languages. while i have qualms about the use of the always-on microphone, it is amazing to see just how far natural language processing has come. not that our product was bad, it was good and we beat 11 teams from places including IBM to win that contract but one of the product requirements was it needed to operate off the phone only: no signal, no wifi. fast foward to 2019 and google launched the pixel 4xl which has an inbuilt english language model instead of utilizing the internet. google's first english language model was something around 1mln lines of code...the most recent one is 500 which is why it can be placed on device. fascinating.

incidentally, for many years i covered amazon stock using a variety of data sets. people's web search behavior, credit card transactions, email receipts - whatever we could get our hands on. i had a number of models i would use to forecast amazon quarterly earnings and the average error was something like 0.5% away from what they reported. however, the real interesting thing was digging into the consumer trends. we saw that as Prime grew it actually removed seasonality in the business around holidays. so normally people would do the bulk of their christmas/holiday shopping in the few weeks prior to christmas but we saw that transactions actually began to be done closer and closer to day of...because they were offering 1 day shipping. it was amazing to see that transformation over 2 years as prime went from a luxury/niche product to something that most amazon shoppers opted for.

another amazing thing we noticed in our data was amazon's subbrands. they have something like 600 brands of which amazon basics is probably the most known. we saw that duracell made up 95% of all batteries sold on amazon until amazon basics launched their competing battery. within 1 year amazon basics' batteries made up 95% of all batteries sold on amazon and duracell dropped to 5%. i have never seen that kind of speed in market share change in any other brand

on a personal note, i don't shop much at amazon anymore. nothing against them really - for big ticket items such as audio or (random but prevalent as i'm dealing with it right now) chef's knives i prefer to go to a specialist. for smaller, cheaper, household goods amazon is great. for the mid priced items i worry about the authenticity. i did buy a tv from them with confidence and used amazon home services to have it mounted and it was a great customer experience that i can highly rec

sorry for the long rant but hope it was an interesting read!

[MikeCh]

I would like to see them reduce packaging waste for the products they send. I mean seriously, if I order plastic spatula it will likely come in a box 18" x 12" x 6" thick with 20 or more air pillows in it.

[nicoff]

From Amazon Home Services website:


“Amazon Home Services*will also allow customers to*make appointments and get estimates on household projects. The platform requires service providers*and their employees to get*thorough background checks.

And, finally, one other notable difference is that Amazon will*also stand by the work being conducted, through something it is calling the “Happiness Guarantee.”*The guarantee promises that*if*customers are not satisfied at the end of a project, Amazon will ensure the job gets done right or provide a refund.”

That answers a few questions raised above.

[nicoff]

From Amazon Home Services website:


“Amazon Home Services*will also allow customers to*make appointments and get estimates on household projects. The platform requires service providers*and their employees to get*thorough background checks.

And, finally, one other notable difference is that Amazon will*also stand by the work being conducted, through something it is calling the “Happiness Guarantee.”*The guarantee promises that*if*customers are not satisfied at the end of a project, Amazon will ensure the job gets done right or provide a refund.”

That answers a few questions raised above.

PS. I am starting to see Amazon Lockers in 7-11 stores. An option to avoid the bandits and a place to return purchases. Convenience is key.

[W9TR]

Alexa has been banished from our home. She has not been missed. Not even a little bit.

Natural voice tech is really interesting but the reality is that it still falls apart for all but the simplest interactions.

[nicoff]

Alexa has been banished from our home. She has not been missed. Not even a little bit.

Natural voice tech is really interesting but the reality is that it still falls apart for all but the simplest interactions.

An Honest question: who does grocery shopping in your house? You? Your wife? Both? If both, do you go shopping together all the time?

[Kingrex]

I signed up for leads through Home Advisor. I had to provide a license and ubi or ein. I forget which. Not much scrutiny. They are all desperate for good tradesmen. Home Advisor gets their revenue from me. Amazon gets their revenue from you. But, both still need me, with a license, willing to do spare change work. I have yet to accept a home advisor job as I still have 3 months of stable base contact through a general booked out. I turn down work every week. I even told the general to clamp down on the spicket. I fired my help and went back to just me. Life is way better without employees. Employees are lazy good for nothing slack jawed think they deserve everything for nothing people. I went through 6 union people and decided it wasn't going to work. I dont know how Amazon can do it. Outside of they dont actually offer any service that requires a license. I dont think swapping a fart fan or changing a faucet requires a license. It should. Jobsite story the other day was a homeowner changing a faucet snapped the shutoff valve free from the stubout under the sink. In the 5 or so minutes it took for him to figure out how to turn of the main, his entire main floor was flooded. All the hardwood had to be torn up and thrown out. The first 2 feet of drywall had to be removed as well as insulation. $50k in repairs.

[mep]

I signed up for leads through Home Advisor. I had to provide a license and ubi or ein. I forget which. Not much scrutiny. They are all desperate for good tradesmen. Home Advisor gets their revenue from me. Amazon gets their revenue from you. But, both still need me, with a license, willing to do spare change work. I have yet to accept a home advisor job as I still have 3 months of stable base contact through a general booked out. I turn down work every week. I even told the general to clamp down on the spicket. I fired my help and went back to just me. Life is way better without employees. Employees are lazy good for nothing slack jawed think they deserve everything for nothing people. I went through 6 union people and decided it wasn't going to work. I dont know how Amazon can do it. Outside of they dont actually offer any service that requires a license. I dont think swapping a fart fan or changing a faucet requires a license. It should. Jobsite story the other day was a homeowner changing a faucet snapped the shutoff valve free from the stubout under the sink. In the 5 or so minutes it took for him to figure out how to turn of the main, his entire main floor was flooded. All the hardwood had to be torn up and thrown out. The first 2 feet of drywall had to be removed as well as insulation. $50k in repairs.

I bet people really enjoyed working with you. My guess is that if all of your disparaging statements are true, you got what you paid for.

[Kingrex]

Maybe I am a little bitter mep, but you go take tens of thousands out of your bank account and hand it to someone else every month. Its the most gut wrenching hard process you will endevor in. Employee cost me $1 a minute. My best guy came wondering down to where I was working one day 10 minutes befor lunch break with his food in his hand. I asked what he was doing. He said break was soon. I asked again, so what are you doing. He said he was coming down to heat his lunch so he could have it warm at break. It adds up dude. But you dont care. Your an employee or most likely freelance. Employee suck. Very few are good now a days.

So head my advice. The guy sent by amazon better have a real lcense or amazon better have insurance. Did you read the smal print. I bet it say amazon is not responsible for damage they may cause. Home Advisor takes no responsibility if a contractor damages your home. They checked my license upon signing up. So far thats all they have asked me for.

Most old salt tradesmen who have a real business. UBI, EIN LNI and local city license are good hard working people. We are becoming few and far in between. You would be blessed to have me rebuild the power system in your listening room. I'm one of few who understand audio enough to ground, isolate, damp, employ high quality materials etc. I rock at powering an audio rack. Others do too, but good luck finding one unless you purchase a setup from a dealer like Mike and ask he provide a guy who does it right. I assume Mike has found one, and probably had to coach him to get the install where Mike was satisfied. And he wont be inexpensive. You pay for the level of detail I bring.

[MikeCh]

Deleted

[nicoff]

With that kind of attitude toward employees, no wonder you don’t have any. Maybe you can’t get any good people because they are aware of what you think of employees in general and the good ones much rather work for other companies and help them build a real successful business.

[blackdog]

The guy said that he has another job and he is doing this part time to earn extra money. (Many Uber drivers do the same). He volunteered that he also does other contracting work (handy man) so for the guy there is a possibility of extra work in the future.

I have to assume that Amazon runs criminal checks on every one of these guys. (Similar to when a company is hiring a new employee).
The guy was driving his own vehicle; no Amazon logo anywhere.

As far as insurance/bonding I assume that this is likely something that Amazon is providing. I contracted with Amazon and not the individual. Maybe Amazon uses their clout/size to tell these guys that they are automatically covered when working through Amazon? Not sure.

This guy would not have been allowed to get in the door. Amazon vetting is a joke, and so is any insurance they claim they have. No licence - no work.

[Kingrex]

With that kind of attitude toward employees, no wonder you don’t have any. Maybe you can’t get any good people because they are aware of what you think of employees in general and the good ones much rather work for other companies and help them build a real successful business.

How many people do you have on your payroll, and if you could sell for the right exit dollar, would you?
Ask your friends who own the business and employee people how they feel. I think you will be surprised.

Anyhow, the point really is, who is this amazon guy showing up at your house with a bag of tools. Why is he doing 2 hours of work (travel, billing, on site performance, staging) for $40. Good luck. I honestly hope you get a good one. The good ones I see are in the field 8x5 making $72 per hour total package.

FWIW My best guy I kept the longest. I offered him a slice of the business. A $20 an hour raise if he performed and made his apprentice perform. He said no. He said it seemed to hard to have employee. He did not want his pay tied to someone elses performance. What does that tell you.

[ethanmarcos]

I am on Amazon Music for about a week and really loving it