So, my question is why doesn’t Costco.com use Fulfillment by Amazon? Here’s the reason I’m asking this question: When I recently purchased a new Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR
[Update: a correspondent recommends the Transcend TS32GCF133 133x 32GB Compact Flash Card
As it turns out, trying to buy this simple memory card sent me back down one of my least favorite Amazon.com “rabbit holes” – that of not being able to find the item I’m looking for as being sold directly by Amazon. Instead, Amazon presented me with listings from a bunch of third-party sellers who are selling this memory card through the Amazon platform. Grrr.
By the way, the same thing happened as I was trying to buy the 5D Mark II on Amazon. Only by accidentally checking one afternoon and seeing that the 5D Mark II was actually in stock at Amazon was I able to buy the camera the way I wanted to buy it – from Amazon.com and not from a list of third-party sellers that I’d never heard of! I couldn’t even find a way to have Amazon notify me when the item arrived back in stock – something that seems pretty obvious (to me anyway!).
Frankly, I’m an Amazon Prime fanatic – and almost all of these third-parties aren’t part of that program. I also have a lot more confidence in the goods from Amazon being “factory fresh” vs. those from the third-party sellers I’ve never heard of. In other words, when I shop on Amazon, I want to buy from Amazon directly using Amazon Prime.
After wasting about 10 minutes trying to find a suitable 16GB CompactFlash memory card, I gave up – and headed to Costco.com. At least on Costco.com I’m confident that the goods are “factory fresh”, come with great prices, etc. Costco’s satisfaction guarantee is superb (even though I’ve neve returned anything, I know I can without hassle!).
What’s missing? Frankly, Costco.com’s fulfillment process is downright lousy as compared to Amazon Prime. With Costco.com, it takes days for things to arrive and shipping costs extra.
So, back to my basic, initial question – why don’t these two superb online retailers collaborate on fulfillment? I suppose another option would be for Costco to become a third-party seller on Amazon.com directly. Either (or both) would make a dynamite combination – from two Seattle-based companies who could simply meet over a few cups of Seattle’s Best Coffee and figure it out!