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I recommend reading The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman and Information Rules by Shapiro and Varian.
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Indivara wrote: unless they are clairvoyant or have a time machine
Well, Japan is a few hours ahead of just about everybody else...
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They must have hacked microsoft's telemetry "features".
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I rarely shop Amazon.com but I had a gift card. I ended up needing to return one item. They provided a prepaid return label which was nice. I dropped off the package at the UPS store. An hour later I had an email that my item had been returned and my money was refunded. Sure enough, the refund was already posted.
I do appreciate quick service but this seems silly. Why not just an email stating that they have been notified that the return is in the mail and you'll be reimbursed as soon as they receive it. If someone were to send something back that they had damaged then Amazon will have to re-charge the account.
I should have sent back an empty envelope, just to test their processes, as a quality check. 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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I shop a lot, both on Amazon.com and the other Amazon sites (such as Amazon.co.uk, .de, .fr etc) and have always been extremely satisfied with them. As far as I'm concerned, Amazon is more or less a one stop shop. If they don't have it, it's not worth having... 
Ok, Amazon, you can credit my account now with the money you promised me if I'd say that... 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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It's because Amazon continues to raise the bar in leveraging their Leadership Principles to drive their excellence to new levels.
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I feel the same way. Oh, and by the way, Amazon has been in default in my royalty checks for years. 
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It's a fundamental of optimization. In the vast majority of the cases this is faster, so it leaves less problems pending and less work to do. The exceptions require more time and work but are offsetted by the common scenario.
Maybe in some other country (like Italy) they wouldn't do this way beacuse of different common scenario (our postal service is under-standard and very little ethical, as our citizens).
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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den2k88 wrote: In the vast majority of the cases this is faster
How? It gets scanned when the worker in the warehouse opens it so they could easily send the email and do the refund at that point. Having an automated email and refund at one point in time vs. another point in time is no more efficient or faster.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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RyanDev wrote: How? It gets scanned when the worker in the warehouse opens it so they could easily send the email and do the refund at that point.
This has lead time and it is a pending task. In a huge company like Amazon there may be several tens of thousands of pending operations + lead time. If you know that only a handful of them will require more work you simply skip the pending tasks queue and its associated processing nucleus, which helps keeping the expenses low.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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den2k88 wrote: which helps keeping the expenses low.
Again, I don't see how. It's an automated email and an automated refund. No time is spent at all on this process, at least not by a human. And the time spent by the CPU is identical no matter when it is kicked off. So, if it kicks off when the UPS store guy scans the package or when the warehouse person scans it, there is no difference in cost to Amazon.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Yes but you'd need a component (virtual, software, hardware, machinery, people... whatever) to manage in a queue (meaning lead time + process time) things than can be instantly dealt with and only occasionally have to be properly worked - it's like the Branch Target Prediction in CPU. You execute one of the two branches without checking and go on but before finalizing the operation you'll have the proper check executed. If the prediction was right you avoided a useless wait and bubble in the pipeline, if the prediction is wrong you pay double price. With a prediction rate high enough the overall performances are improved.
Also look at when there are problems: the checking component (office, server, whatever) is non-functional or under performance (50% missing people in the office, server down, peak of activity). Avoiding the queue means that EVERY legit refund will still be immediate and nobody would ever knwo there is some problem. Only non legit refunds end up in the now non-functional queue, but they are a minority, which means that Amazon won't have thousands of people running after them with tens of support requests and bad publicity for not having received a refund in the expected time.
At leat that is how I interpret the procedure, it is an affirmed logistical solution and many other big companies employ it.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree. 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Today my English sucks particularly so I'll try with an example, hoping to express myself a bit better than a baboon.
Let's put the two cases at work, case 1: each package must be confirmed then refunded, case 2: as it is now, refund and then eventually take it back. We have Alice, with a legit refund, and Bob, which has a package that cannot be refunded. Two scenarios: 1 everything is 100% operational, 2 there is some problem in the checking office such that they have a month of job late.
Scenario 1, Case 1 - Everything operational, every package checked and then refunded if eligible.
Alice sends her package back. In a couple of days she receives her refund. She's satisfied.
Bob sends his package back. In a couple of days he receive notice that he cannot be erfunded. He may have other complaints but he's served.
Scenario 1, Case 2 - Everything operational, instant refund and then check.
Alice sends her package back and gets her refund instantly. She's overjoyed and needs no more work.
Bob sends his package back. He receives his refund instantly, then after a couple of days Amazon takes it back and notifies him. He may have other complaints but he's served.
Scenario 2, Case 1 - Office not operational, every package checked and then refunded if eligible.
Alice sends her package back. After a week she has'nt received the refund, she grows anxious and nervous. She opens a ticket on the support. After two weeks she's distressed, the interactions with the support are intensifying. She's becoming distrusting and angry, possible bad publicity. After three weeks the situation is escalating, she's putting bad reviews and angrily threatening legal actions, support calls are mor than daily. After a month she's served but very dissatisfied and will probably look for competitors the next times.
Bob sends his package, does not receive anything, does the same thins as Alice and then his refund is negated. He's angry like a viper, starts cussing Amazon everywhere, won't buy again.
Scenario 2, Case 2 - Office not operational, instant refund and then check
Alice send her package, receives refund. She's happy and satisfied. After a month Amazon knows her refund was legit. No work to be done.
Bob sends his package, receives his refund. After a month Amazon knows he wasn't eligible and taks the refund back. The customer may have other complaints but he's served.
As you see the Case 2, which is the as-is situation, is less vulnerable to bottlenecks and that improves the time to completion of the operations with respect to the customer.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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den2k88 wrote: After a week she has'nt received the refund, she grows anxious and nervous. She opens a ticket on the support.
Yes, IF this happens, then there is more cost overall. I agree with that.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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It was my point from the very start but I've been awful in explaining myself.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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den2k88 wrote: It was my point from the very start but I've been awful in explaining myself.
That's OK. At least you were civil. 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Where's the nearest Amazon depot? Is it impossible that they'd actually received the package by then? Maybe they just ask UPS to open any returns and store them up for one big shipment? Maybe UPS is trialling a teleporter for NASA? Or perhaps Amazon has a number of x-ray demons ready to fly to UPS offices at a moment's notice at all times. I wouldn't put anything past them.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Or, the UPS Store has a time machine. Or, aliens in fast spaceships deliver their packages. Or, I was knocked unconscious and UPS changed all my clocks. Or, a bubble of natural gas exploded and refracted off of a weather balloon. Or, ... 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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RyanDev wrote: Or, a bubble of natural gas exploded and refracted off of a weather balloon
for the quote
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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Your world today, sounds much more interesting than mine. Just saying... 
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It's all in my head.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Bookmarked 
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Maybe they are testing their drone program with returns instead of deliveries.
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RyanDev wrote: An hour later I had an email that my item had been returned and my money was refunded.
An hour later? Geez, I'd give credit to UPS for using their FTL trucks!
Marc
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