I just wanted to take a minute to thank Amazon.com. They've been my primary retailer for over a decade now, not to mention the seller of most prizes in the goo game and Oscars contests on this site. Once they started offering their Prime service ($80/yr gets you free 2-day shipping and discounted overnight shipping), they leveled the playing field against local retailers: No longer did I feel the need to save up a list of several items and buy them all at once to save on shipping. If I wanted a particular item, I just ordered it, and it showed up two days later. This has saved me more 45-minute drives across town to Best Buy than I can count.

But they really bought my lifetime loyalty this week, at a cost of $80. We ordered two items for that much, to be delivered the same day. UPS said the packages were placed at our front door at 5:19pm. We were home and heard no doorbell. I stepped out at 5:25pm and saw no packages. I walked around the building and asked neighbors if they had it, nothing. The front office of the apartment complex didn't have it either. It couldn't have been theft in that brief six-minute window, which leaves driver error. UPS made me jump through hoops for days even to file a claim, and ultimately wouldn't help. So I told Amazon about it. They sent replacements overnight, no questions asked, with a friendly apology. I expected a lot of hassle just to get a partial refund, not treatment this fair. I suspect that the sizeable sum I've spent there over the years might have helped, but anyway, I'm glad to get it. This is the way to thank a customer, and here's thanking them right back. There's finally a new Best Buy opening in my neighborhood, but I see no reason to shop there.


Four Replies to Amazon Appreciation

Aaron Shurtleff | August 27, 2008
I have to echo Scott's sentiment. I also had an order that UPS claimed was delivered not show up at my doorstep, and Amazon.com also sent me a replacement immediately. Best of all, when the original shipment ended up showing up (I suspect it was delivered to the wrong door, and a neighbor put it on my doorstep later), Amazon sent me a label to send it back to them, so I wouldn't have to pay for the shipping back to them! (Yeah, I know. Could have kept the second delivery, but I wouldn't have felt right about it). And I don't even have Prime service! Amazon.com is totally awesome in the customer service department.

Steve West | August 27, 2008
Except for that one occasion when I needed Ernest Goes to Camp and I needed it now(!), I make all my DVD purchases via Amazon.

Tony Peters | August 27, 2008
My UPS man has an odd sense of humor, I ordered a rear tire for my motorcycle so he put it in my driveway against the garage door and like scott I was home at the time. My garage is on the other side of my lot so it was a little strange. I love Amazon..if it wasn't for them I would have died a brain death with the lack of english bookstores in the far east

Amy Austin | August 27, 2008
Well... much as I would like to join in the lauding of Amazon for the good that they do provide, I have also been having a bit of a moral dilemma for some time now over issues brought into focus by Michael Vick's animal cruelty spotlight last year and the more than understandable concerns of the Humane Society, an organization that I am (unsurprisingly to anyone here) quite sympathetic to. So much so, that I took about 14 of the 18-month window to spend one of Scott's generously gifted certificates, before deciding that the money had already been spent to Amazon's profit/benefit. I have since made at least one order through them that I can think of -- for pills to help C.C. with the effects of her growing tumor -- and now believe that I can go on purchasing through them despite the decidedly gray area that exists for me on the matter. Here are a few links, for those not already aware:

background to controversy -- last summer

black/white/gray -- where do you draw the line to "freedom of speech"... or do you? (comment #13 priceless, btw)

cock*fighting* okay... "other activities", not so much...

this May: "partial settlement reached", but "Amazon has vowed to fight on"

Amazon.com: Now with 50% less cockfighting (First Amendment not a defense for peddling contraband)

(Man, that was a pain in the ass to format!)


Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

Everybody Loves George

As long as everyone already knows I'm years behind the rest of the culture, can I recommend That's My Bush! before Dubya actually concludes his presidency? We just finished watching the short series; it starts weak but gets pretty strong by the end. Go »

Unexpected Easter

This has been an unusual few days. Kelly's father had a stroke on Thursday, so we left town suddenly to see him, ultimately choosing to drive since we can't afford plane tickets on no notice. He's going to be fine; his vision was affected at first but he seems recovered now, pending another examination. Go »

Dr. Jerk

I wish doctors would treat me like a person, instead of a fat person. No matter what complaint sends me to the doctor in the first place, within minutes, every visit turns into a conversation about how I need to lose weight, and what will happen if I don't. Like I haven't tried a thousand times to lose weight. Go »

The Revised Revised Revised Story

Last spring, This Modern World ran a great parody charting the decline of civil liberties in recent years, after the then-shocking revelation that the government was building a database of every call made in the country: (link) I was reminded of that over the weekend as the latest shocking revelation came out, that the FBI has vastly abused its new ability to request confidential information in the interest of national security (link), almost as if it was the next panel in the strip. Except I'm not laughing. Oh, what I'd have given to be the reporter at Alberto Gonzales's press conference this morning. Go »

More Hypocrisy

Well, now that I've written at length on TC about how I consider online videos an unpleasant medium, this is the perfect time to share some! This year's Lazy Sunday might be this SNL bit with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samburg. NSFW. Go »

House Hunted

I'm not superstitious, or I wouldn't say this until the closing next month: Kelly and I are buying a house. It's a great house, too, with a guest bedroom and a pool, and the neighbor training horses in the back yard every day, and plenty of room for just about whatever we'd want to do with it, at a lower price than similar houses around here. It's not a hundred percent perfect but damn if it ain't close. Go »