Great discussion, all good points for and against. I would say there really isn't any right or wrong answer here as long as it doesn't bother Amazon. I would be curious to see the rules one would have to agree to when signing up with Prime. Especially if there is any mention of personal use only. Doesn't Prime membership also include movies and music? Would this allow the same Drop Shipper members to start selling those if its the same as physical items?
I would think Amazon already tracks these Sellers as its easy for them to identify those members whose Gift Receipts are the majority of their purchases. Anyone can buy on Amazon and have it shipped to someone else without the need to change their Profile. A normal person buying items wouldn't have a whole lot of purchases being sent to other addresses than their own so Amazon could figure that out easily. So they could certainly curtail this trend simply by limiting the number of shipping options other than the members own address. Since this would be so simple for them to do, it looks like they don't care and are satisfied with the volume of purchase even though this must add to their over all shipping costs exponentially. Which brings up the question...are they making as much since their shipping costs, free 2 day shipping, is rising so much because of these Drop Shippers but they are not getting a piece of the pie. Wonder if they have considered a Drop Shipper level of Prime where the membership Fee is higher simply by tracking their Gift shipping, I am sure they have.
Back to my original thought....I feel weird giving an Ebay Seller top Feedback scores even though I am very happy with the experience since it was Amazon that really did everything but they certainly don't warrant anything less I guess. None of this would matter if I would have needed something that added up to over $35 and I got Free Shipping myself as I much prefer buying direct from Amazon as they take returns so easily. Which brings up the question...if I buy something from the Drop Shipper and want to return it, what are they going to do, make me ship it back to Amazon? Do I ship it back to the Seller and they deal with Amazon because they are the purchaser? Your thoughts.
I would think Amazon already tracks these Sellers as its easy for them to identify those members whose Gift Receipts are the majority of their purchases. Anyone can buy on Amazon and have it shipped to someone else without the need to change their Profile. A normal person buying items wouldn't have a whole lot of purchases being sent to other addresses than their own so Amazon could figure that out easily. So they could certainly curtail this trend simply by limiting the number of shipping options other than the members own address. Since this would be so simple for them to do, it looks like they don't care and are satisfied with the volume of purchase even though this must add to their over all shipping costs exponentially. Which brings up the question...are they making as much since their shipping costs, free 2 day shipping, is rising so much because of these Drop Shippers but they are not getting a piece of the pie. Wonder if they have considered a Drop Shipper level of Prime where the membership Fee is higher simply by tracking their Gift shipping, I am sure they have.
Back to my original thought....I feel weird giving an Ebay Seller top Feedback scores even though I am very happy with the experience since it was Amazon that really did everything but they certainly don't warrant anything less I guess. None of this would matter if I would have needed something that added up to over $35 and I got Free Shipping myself as I much prefer buying direct from Amazon as they take returns so easily. Which brings up the question...if I buy something from the Drop Shipper and want to return it, what are they going to do, make me ship it back to Amazon? Do I ship it back to the Seller and they deal with Amazon because they are the purchaser? Your thoughts.