I’d like to take a moment to give Amazon.com half a peace sign. Now if you know me at all, you know I love Amazon. I’ve spent a LOT of money at Amazon over the years. At lunch today I went to their site to place an order for some toys, and was thrilled to see a couple of them were on sale for really good prices. I thought this was great, because I will not be able to go shopping Friday to take advantage of all the big sales because I have to work.
So I pile stuff up in my Amazon basket and go to check out. We’re talking like $300 worth of stuff, right? Mostly toys, but at least one DVD. So what pleasant surprise is waiting for me? They’ve removed the free shipping options. Items that would have had free shipping a couple of days ago now do not, because they are only offering free shipping on toys that are flagged by Toys R Us. Most of the items I am buying do not have this flag. Do you know how much they want to charge me for shipping for my 12 items? Seventy Five Dollars!!!! One item, a Matchbox car set, regularly $39, was on sale for $19. Sweet! But the shipping, if you bought this and only this? Over ten dollars! Ten dollars to ship a Matchbox Set? I want it hand-delivered tomorrow for that price!
So, Amazon and Toys R Us, what I’ve done is found the same items on other websites for about the same price, but with free shipping on orders over a certain dollar amount (no restrictions). You just lost a three hundred dollar sale because you’re trying to take advantage of parents scrambling to “help Santa” by screwing us during this festive holiday season. Thanks for nothing!
