When I was growing up, I had a group of friends. (Amazing, isn't it?) Anyway, being high school students and college students, we usually didn't have a lot of money. During the holidays, we would make promises to each other not to buy each other gifts, or some years when we were feeling particularly saucy, would put spending limits on such gifts - $10.00 or so.
There was always one person that made the promise and bought everyone presents. We would get mad, they would protest that we didn't have to buy THEM presents, but there was an obligation. We would have to spend the money.
Well, I'm not friends with any of those people anymore. Time and lives have diverged and blah blah blah. I figured I was over that nonsense. Though I have a little more money now, I pay bills and help out among family. So, we make the same deal with family members. And again, despite all the promises, there is one person that goes out and buys gifts anyway. "You don't have to buy ME anything!" Yeah right.
So there I am, on December 23rd or whatever, shopping on Amazon.com for a present that I know will not get here in time. I feel somewhat guilty about it, but if they'd followed the rules, it wouldn't have happened. But, being Amazon.com, I figured they'd ship it sooner or later, even if I was cheap and chose the Super-Saver shipping. Ah me and my silly beliefs!
It got here yesterday. But that's not all. Yup, two weeks before they even shipped it out, much less delivery time. I figured what the heck, it's the holidays, they're busy and swamped. But... I made another order on January 8th, because I needed some computer supplies. Again, I chose Super-Saver shipping, and again... they just send me a note today saying they were shipping it. Note - it hasn't left their warehouse, they just arranged for it to be shipped. Add another day or so for the post office to pick it up. That's 5 days before it left their warehouse.
So the question is, are they slowing down because they're that much busier now, or are they slowing down because they want me to convert to their secret tax in the program Amazon Prime for $79 a year? I've checked the news and can't find anything about it, but it does seem somewhat suspicious. Oh yeah, and that's not the complete order - they're still waiting for part of it.
I dunno.
- Jim
