02-03-2018, 04:49 AM
Many decisions made by companies today use algorithms. I don't know whether Amazon does this with their shipping, but they may if helps them calculate profit margins.
I had a friend who sold on Overstock. He wanted to raise his prices on the products he had listed, but first had to submit the proposed increase to them. He was told it would be tested by their algorithm which would determine if the higher cost would result in lower sales volume, and consequently lower overall sales totals. If it did, Overstock would collect less money and wouldn't approve the increase. He was told this was also to his advantage, because it would maximize his profit too.
Amazon could potentially use a system like this for shipping, or as others have pointed out help them determine which items are prohibited from air transport on passenger planes (not always accurate across en entire category.) This might explain why the prohibited items change from week to week, and why the customer service people can't explain why one thing ships or doesn't, because they didn't program the inscrutable algorithm.
I had a friend who sold on Overstock. He wanted to raise his prices on the products he had listed, but first had to submit the proposed increase to them. He was told it would be tested by their algorithm which would determine if the higher cost would result in lower sales volume, and consequently lower overall sales totals. If it did, Overstock would collect less money and wouldn't approve the increase. He was told this was also to his advantage, because it would maximize his profit too.
Amazon could potentially use a system like this for shipping, or as others have pointed out help them determine which items are prohibited from air transport on passenger planes (not always accurate across en entire category.) This might explain why the prohibited items change from week to week, and why the customer service people can't explain why one thing ships or doesn't, because they didn't program the inscrutable algorithm.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves