Lost in LoC

This past Friday I purchased 2 books from amazon; xUnit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code and Implementation Patterns. I picked these books because they had lots of yellow starts beside them and I figured they’d be a good great addition to my growing library. Also, given that we’re using the few days we have between each iteration as clean-up days, I figured purchasing some more literature on refactoring both code and the code that tests code would be some amor excellente! My apologies to those that don’t speak spanish for using spanish, and my apologies to those that do speak spanish for butchering your language. Anyways, I digress…

I purchased the 2 books first thing Friday morning and decided to ship them priority to my house in The Queen City. Yea, I said I shipped them priority. I’ve never shipped anything priority from Amazon, but I’ve been so impressed with amazon’s regular delivery times that I assumed that a priority shipped order would instantly materialize on my desk almost. Or, at the very least, be here the next day. And since I’m heading back up to VendAsta HQ on Wednesday morning, I wanted the book and a bit of reading time before my departure.

I put emphasis on the word “bit” because, at this point in time, a tiny bit is all I’ll have time to cover. According to Amazon.ca’s package tracking system I can expect to see receive the books on April 8th, 2008. I ordered them on April 4th 2008. They were shipped April 4th 2008. But I won’t receive them until April 8th. I’m somewhat miffed, and I’ll break it down as to why right about… now.

When you spend over 39 smackers at Amazon.ca you get 3 shipping options:

1. Super Saver Shipping - To be honest, I’m not sure what this is. I think it’s Express shipping, but free, and possibly slightly delayed because it’s, well, free. I typically take advantage of Super Saver Shipping because it’s super, and it saves me shipping fees. In my experience it takes 3 days.
2. Express – Takes 2 – 4 days. I’ve only used express twice in my life, and both times I received the items in 2-3 days. For the cost it’s adequate.
3. Priority - The most instensively urgent sounding shipping package, with a matching cost to boot!  This package is literally 250% more expensive than Express and takes 1 – 3 days.

Wait, hold on – lets review that for a moment.

Super Saver Shipping: 2-4 days; Free (have to spend 39$ or more on your order though)
Express: 2-4 days; 3.95$ per shipment + 1.95$ per book.
Priority: 1-3 days; 10.95$ per shipment + 1.95$ per book.

Something ain’t right here… but I can’t quite put my finger on it… I think — oh yea! There it is. Priority shipping is a complete rip-off. Given that Priority takes 1-3 days, yet is restricted by the same constraints of Express (no weekend delivery) I fail to see why it merits a 250% markup from Priority. The possibility of receiving your items only 1 day earlier is just that, a possibility, but the 250% markup is a guaranteed reality. If a person is going to fork over 15$ plus tax (that’s about 430$ total here in Saskatchewan) I think it’s unreasonable to offer the same service provided by a package that costs half that.

At the end of the day it’s about managing expectations. If you’re going to charge a premium for a premium service, you better deliver a premium product. However, if there’s a 66% chance that you’ll only be able to deliver an average product for a premium price, you can guarantee the customer will not only be unsatisfied with the result, but they’ll likely never pay for that service again. And that’s a helluvan opportunity cost.

I suppose that’s the risk/reward factor associated with premium services. If you charge top dollar and deliver on expectations, you’ll develop a healthy and very profitable relationship with your customer. As that relationship grows your allowance to make the occasional mistake also increases (but don’t push your luck). If you stumble out of the gate, however, you’ll never make up the lost ground. For this reason, I think it would be best for Amazon to either reconsider the amount they charge for Priority shipping, such that it’s more in line with their other shipping options, or to provide a perk in priority shipping that does not exist with their other shipping packages (such as weekend delivery, or 10% off your next purchase).

How does managing expectations translate into your day to day life?