It's clear that you don't understand Amazon's business nor do you appear to be willing to listen to reason.
> This is hardly the first time their system has been overwhelmed
They have specifically said, publicly, multiple times, that they've never seen an increase like this before in the history of their business.
> it’s designed to be robust and maximize profit.
Within limits. It doesn't scale infinitely. There is a human aspect involved that doesn't scale instantly.
> Further, a simple ships in X weeks gives them plenty of time to ramp up staff.
Except, again, you are not accounting for lost profits due to increased customer service requests, increased credits to Prime members for not meeting the Prime SLA, increased costs of the warehouses being full of products they can't move because they are constantly moving the new essential products that are coming in, and a whole bunch of other fixed costs that they have not related to their variable costs.
I have talked with warehouse employees, so I have a solid idea how it operates.
> They have specifically said, publicly, multiple times, that they've never seen an increase like this before in the history of their business.
That’s true, but not that relevant.
> Increased customer service requests
Customer support is a controllable expense. When customer support lines spike past a threshold they simply lack the people to take additional calls etc.
> Warehouses being full
Amazon has cut down on new items being added while still shipping some non essential items. What your suggesting is an extremely dumb move their not going to make.
> > They have specifically said, publicly, multiple times, that they've never seen an increase like this before in the history of their business.
> That’s true, but not that relevant.
It was in direct refutation of your claim that they have dealt with this type of load before. They haven't and they have said that they have never dealt with anything like this before. That's why it's relevant.
> Customer support is a controllable expense. When customer support lines spike past a threshold they simply lack the people to take additional calls etc.
You clearly don't understand Amazon if you think this is true. Customer service is their number two core competency after logistics. It is paramount to their success.
Besides, what do you think happens when they stop answering customer service calls? Do you think people just go away? Obviously customer service is important to their business or they wouldn't have it. They can't just drop calls. So no, it's not really controllable.
> What prime SLA?
They're still giving credits if you call in and complain that your item didn't arrive within two days. Even though it tells you before you order that it won't.
> It was in direct refutation of your claim that they have dealt with this type of load before.
No, I said they have dealt with load past capacity before. Saying it’s 1% or 200% over capacity does not change the fact they have procedures in place to deal with it.
> It is paramount to their success.
Yet, you have not said how it suddenly inherently spikes in cost after their capacity is reached.
> They're still giving credits if you call in and complain that your item didn't arrive within two days.
That’s not an SLA, they will do quite a bit if you call and complain up to a point. It’s designed to maximize revenue not a contract obligation, many companies budget this under advertising costs for a reason.
Further, on the flip side they can reduce normal advertising spending which is more than enough to cover some nominal difference. But you don’t need to take my word for it, their a public company and we can just wait and see what their profit is.
> This is hardly the first time their system has been overwhelmed
They have specifically said, publicly, multiple times, that they've never seen an increase like this before in the history of their business.
> it’s designed to be robust and maximize profit.
Within limits. It doesn't scale infinitely. There is a human aspect involved that doesn't scale instantly.
> Further, a simple ships in X weeks gives them plenty of time to ramp up staff.
Except, again, you are not accounting for lost profits due to increased customer service requests, increased credits to Prime members for not meeting the Prime SLA, increased costs of the warehouses being full of products they can't move because they are constantly moving the new essential products that are coming in, and a whole bunch of other fixed costs that they have not related to their variable costs.