I understand that NIN and Amazon are apples and oranges. And all this info is very interesting. My only mail-order experience was back in the early-mid 90s when I was running a official mail-order catalog for Madonna "Boy Toy by Mail" (pre-online sales). I had 2 people I trained to pack merchandise and fill out those horrendous international USPS shipping forms. We had a fulltime job shipping loads of Madonna merchandise 5 days a week. But I have to say, that I prided myself with keeping ample stock, not advertising for merchandise we didn't actually have in stock (so no pre-orders of any kind), and very importantly, I made sure that all merchandise was packaged in extremely protective boxes and shipping materials able to sustain a drop from a second story. No exaggeration. On the rare times when there was a problem or mistake with an order, we made sure we prepared a replacement immediately. Believe it or not, we did not have a huge budget, and yes, we sold merchandise for retail price, not discounted, plus shipping (on average, we charged less for shipping than what we paid). It was probably cheaper for those in the cities to buy this merchandise in-store, but everyone really seemed to like shopping through us. We under-promised, and over-delivered (my boss' mantra). We were so careful to make sure the orders were correct the first time around, so we didn't have to waist any money on replacements caused by our mistakes. Ironically, I believe Madonna's merchandise is now sold through Live Nation.
The way I feel about Amazon, is that it's a choice someone makes to work there, a choice someone makes to sell their merchandise there. As long as they are not practicing anything illegal, I'm fine with them. As a customer, it's hard to find many others companies with such a speedy, and good customer service as Amazon. I trust that I will get what I paid for fast, and I will get a replacement 2-3 days later without having to beg someone online to get what I paid for.
Besides all that, there are no excuses for getting wrong orders out. It doesn't matter if you are Amazon, it doesn't matter if you are a Mom and Pops shop. There is no excuse to package merchandise poorly, considering how much we pay. And if year after year, after year, you pre-sale something, only to not have it available on time, you would think they would learn from this and maybe not pre-sale something until you know for sure you are going to have it. Quality control worked for us back in the day, and we didn't have a lot of money. There are ways of running a business well and not making the same mistakes over, and over. No excuses.