The technology that powers the company's logistics operations was taken down by an issue with the cloud computing system.
During the peak holiday season, Amazon was already dealing with more complicated and expensive logistics due to a labor shortage. Each day closer to Christmas, Amazon's share of online sales grows.
Amazon Web Services began reporting higher error rates on Tuesday. Workers across the country reported that the systems that they used to process products had stopped working because of Amazon's cloud services.
Richard Rocha, an Amazon spokesman, said in a statement that the A.W.S. team is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Problems persisted into Tuesday evening.
Hundreds of status updates were shared on Facebook by workers. Managers sent them on their lunch breaks an hour early in hopes that the problems would be solved by the time they returned. Others said that their managers asked them to sweep floors or give them paid time off to leave early. Many people said they were waiting.
Some employees in the Midwest are playing cornhole by the time clocks and some are chilling in the break room.
The companies that rely on Amazon's cloud computing experienced disruptions as well. Customers have reported problems with Amazon's voice assistant and Disney's streaming service. The presale of tickets for the tour was delayed.
Many services have already recovered, however, we are working toward full recovery across services.
