Amazon (long term traders) Warning!

Discussion in 'Trading' started by bali_survivor, Nov 28, 2003.

  1. There is a well known trader who goes shopping with his familiy and whenever he sees a new shop / retail chain etc. doing well he will invest in that.
    Same thing he does in reverse - when a chain is well regarded and the shops are empty he will short it.

    For years I have shopped with Amazon. Trading books are not that cheap and I have bought (at a guess) 75+ books from them in the last few years alone.

    Because I live not in the US I thought "Great, they now have digital books and I do not have to wait a week or two for it to arrive".

    Somewhere between my machine (stock standard XP Professional installation) , Acrobat reader's "Digital Activation" and Amazon the digital book got stuck and was not downloaded onto my machine. Yet Amazon states that " their records show that it is succesfully downloaded"

    1) You cannot return a digital book (yet you may pay the same rpice for it as the physical book)
    2) You cannot contact Amazon directly, except through a myriad of vague and useless help forms
    3) Even when offering to pay for the shipping costs and ordering the same book they will not do this
    4) Digital shipping - you wait 36 hours before getting an answer to a complaint, negating the whole fast delivery scene

    In short: I am out of pocket and Amazon does not want to know

    (Very good business concept. Yeah..... NOT! )

    Lesson learned: Never order anything that gets delivered "electronically" across the web when you can take physical delivery of it.

    Warning to long term traders: See the first paragraph, make your own conclusions.
     
  2. Great observation, thank you so much!

    I'll dash into our trading room and will tell all our traders to sell and short all AMZNs we have and
    don't have! Furthermore, I will also issue a downgrade next monday!
     
  3. Riskmanager,

    Like your whitty remark. The point I wanted to make was that when a business concept is flawed then it does not spell much good for the long term for a company. (unless they rectify it)

    Peace
     
  4. So what should we do with SBUX. I just got served a coffee today from a surly Starbucks clerk.

    Although that was in jest, I do somewhat agree with the premise that sometimes what you see when out shopping is as important for an investor as hours spent staring at a chart. However, I think that issuing a Warning about AMZN due to a download problem is a bit extreme. Now, if it was a common problem and they were betting large on the technology, then I could see your point. However, I think you may just be venting your frustration here. (nothing wrong with that).
     
  5. Perhaps my background in the computer industry plays a role as well.

    Just like seasoned traders (which I am not) pick up on subtleties so do I pick up on subtleties in the computer industry.

    ( FWIW The last project I helped getting off the ground was potentially worth over 100 M US. )

    In this case it is not only the download or a sultry employee. There are many more small things that indicate things are not well. I am not going to go into detail, serves no purpose.

    Peace

    (Do not feed the trolls, the trolls live of negativity)
     
  6. Hey, I'm also in the IT industry and would be interested in hearing what other problems you're seeing with Amazon's technology.

    -Fast
     
  7. Have you ever ordered a Book on Amazon.com MarketPlace(a third party book dealer/book shop on amazon) ,there prices are really cheap but they have never got the books in stock.I just waited 3 weeks for a book which should have been dispatched in 24 hours.
     
  8. Fast Trader

    that would be free advice and my fees when I designed internet businesses varied between 2700 and 4200 US / day.

    Peace

    (Do not feed the trolls, the trolls live off negativity)
     
  9. Stock Operator

    Yes I did have once that problem too but that is something that can happen all the time. Errors are being made and are often unavoidable.

    The issue is that the business concept is flawed.
     
  10. No disrespect, bali, but you would not be the first "analyst" to prematurely mark the death of AMZN.
     
    #10     Nov 28, 2003