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

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (35238)	1/17/1999 8:16:00 PM
From: marion (Hijacked)	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Not All Online Shoppers Pleased .c The Associated Press By RACHEL BECK NEW YORK (AP) -- Mike Fox placed eight orders through online retailer Amazon.com with the expectation they would arrive in time for his relatives and friends to open on Christmas morning. Much to his irritation, six of them were late. The Seattle-based company began e-mailing customers on Dec. 21 to warn them that inventory shortages might cause delays. Amazon.com ultimately compensated Fox for the foulup by paying some of his shipping costs, but that didn't soothe his feelings. ''This whole experience was frustrating and embarrassing,'' said Fox, a software engineer in North Carolina. ''Amazon was the name I trusted the most ... now I know I can't shop there if I need to count on something arriving by a certain time.'' With the holidays now over, horror stories are emerging about packages failing to arrive on time, credit cards charged for items never purchased and inadequate customer service to handle such problems. E-commerce soared during Christmas time, as millions of new customers tried buying online for the first time. Internet research firm Jupiter Communications estimates holiday sales totaled $3.14 billion. Overall, customer satisfaction was quite high. Many people found what they wanted, easily bought it online and the item arrived on their doorstep in time for Christmas. But there were glitches that disturbed many shoppers, and analysts warn that such problems could turn some shoppers away for good. A survey of 2,300 online holiday shoppers to be released today by Jupiter found that a surprisingly small 37 percent said they would spend more next Christmas, while 58 percent said they would spend the same and 5 percent would spend less. ''You can't blow any part of your online game. You can't let your customers be disappointed,'' said Farhad Mohit, president and chief executive of Los Angeles-based Bizrate.com, an online market research firm. ''Up until now, online merchants worked to acquire customers, but now the key has to be making them repeat shoppers,'' he said. More than 270 shoppers filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau over Shopping.com, charging that the online store hasn't fulfilled orders or provided proper customer service. Of those complaints, 199 have been resolved, three are unresolved and 70 are pending. Other sites, like barnesandnoble.com, the auction house eBay.com and toysrus.com, shut down or slowed to a crawl due to heavy demand. Some, including macys.com, kept taking orders for inventory that was already out of stock. Research firm Bizrate.com, based on a survey of 67,000 shoppers in the fourth-quarter, found that 96 percent of those who got their merchandise on time said they will buy again online, but only 46 percent of those who encountered delivery problems said they will consider making another purchase. Realizing that any gaffes can deter shoppers, some merchants are already improving their online systems. 800.com, for instance, upgraded its network to handle more than double the traffic. The Portland, Ore.-based consumer electronics retailer faced a shutdown in early December when too many shoppers logged into its site to buy three movies or CDs for $1. Many companies, including department store Azazz.com, let consumers get real-time answers to questions about products, availability, purchasing and shipping. Others are joining forces with shipping companies to allow consumers to track delivery of their purchases right from the Web site to their home. ''If I place an order, I want to know where it is and who is bringing it to my home,'' said Peter Nicholls, president of TanData, which is partnering with UPS on the tracking software. ''There is no reason this isn't part of the online experience.'' 1-800-FLOWERS recently launched its ''Win Back'' program, where it calls shoppers who have complained about their online orders. On some occasions, the flower-delivery company will also send consumers $5 to $50 gift certificates to compensate for poor service. But the changes still might not be enough to woo some shoppers back online. ''It's not so much of a given anymore that a shopper who buys online once will buy again,'' said Nicole Vanderbilt, an Internet commerce analyst at Jupiter Communications. ''They are becoming less forgiving of all the glitches.'' AP-NY-01-17-99 2011EST

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (35238)	1/17/1999 10:33:00 PM
From: tonyt	Respond to of 164684

>I was saying this a year ago;-) ...when AMZN was about $9 ;-)

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (35238)	1/18/1999 4:52:00 PM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 164684

Never thought of it this way before- but this author thinks that Amazon has NO CHOICE but to get their stock price substantially lower. At its current price there is no chance in hell of a secondary offering, apparently: The clock is ticking on this POS. I think I'm going to buy a truckload of LEAPs on this thing. There is simply no way they can be in business in 12 months at this stock price. They will be out of cash!! For this same reason, I don't see any investment bank wanting to get near Amazon with a 100 foot pole. If they priced a secondary at the current price, they expose themselves to huge lawsuits when the price drops substantially. They cannot realistically justify the current market price so they cannot defend themselves with any sort of hard data to prove that Amazon is really worth $140 a share when they are sued. Since banks are only willing to price shares based on some value that they feel comfortable that they can defend in a court of law, no bank will want to touch Amazon. For example, if Merrill Lynch did a secondary for them, they could only justify a price of $50/share pre-split or $17 now. Can you imagine what would happen to your $140 stock if Amazon did a secondary at $17 a share? Your stock would be worth less than $17 due to the additional dilution. Of course, this won't happen because Amazon would not allow a bank to price it's secondary shares well below the current market price. This is why Amazon will have a hard time putting a secondary offering together. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They would have to sell it themselves over their Web site to their customers/investors that are foolish enough to buy them. Without a secondary and with $350 million plus in junk bond debt to service, Amazon will be out of cash to finance its operations within a year or so. This is why I believe they will be forced into a position that they will have to declare bankruptcy.