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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (78544)	9/25/1999 12:05:00 AM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

Maybe that's why the walmart exec in charge of their logistics and warehouses quit? He saw things falling apart and wanted to get out while the getting was good.. *** You would think that after over a quarter billion bucks spent in warehouses and software, they could (a) ship items timely, (b) charge less than $12 for shipping a CD a mere 500 miles north and (c) have their software update estimated shipping times so that other customers are not disappointed as I was, (the item ordered eight weeks ago and cancelled today still appears as "usually shipping in 1-2 weeks").

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (78544)	9/25/1999 5:45:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

I'm sorry for your bad experience shopping at Amzn i order this past summer from CD's to books never had a problem with there service. Mark, It has been my experience that the majority of successful e-commerce sites have excellent customer service. My definitition of successful is a decent selection and a decent brand name. I don't want that confused with profitable at the moment. KIS will be after me<G> None of the e-commerce sites are turning a profit and a lot of that problem is not due to just the slim margins. It is due to their attention to customer service (in this case fulfillment) which is far higher as a percentage of the sale than is the case in a brick and mortar operation. A good example here is BN.com versus the brick and mortar Barnes and Noble stores. My experience has shown that is nearly impossible to execute flawlessly in retail. Something somewhere will go wrong. There are too many transactions to have a perfect record. I can't say what the outcome of this will be . As a reasonably successful brick and mortar retailer, I see changes coming in all retailing areas. I am presently paying to put David Jewelers online with secure ordering but only for a portion of our products. Those will be our best selling items. I cannot afford a site that would be all inclusive. I do need to be online to learn how well this will work and to not get left behind as shopping habits change. I am not expecting the online portion of my business to be profitable for a long time nor do I anticipate people that have never heard of us to order from us. I am strictly looking for a local presence for the men thaty buy for the women but do not like to take the time to shop. My point is I already expect fulfillment errors to occur. If I knew what they would be, I would correct them now. My early perception of AMZN and going short was proven wrong by the market and I did tell that to William. It is not an easy way to learn a business. It is new. It is not the same as catalogue shopping. We have done that in a sense for years when we mailed flyers to our customers or placed them in the newspaper. With all this said, I do not have a clue if AMZN will ever turn a profit. I do know that if fulfillment failed for a customer it is rare. It is amazingly rare considering the amount of orders they process. Glenn