From the Field

Amazon.com, The Lazy Consumer’s Friend

December 21st, 2009

Happy Holidays or whatever! I’m keeping it casual because it’s a recession year and I’m still not sure that the holidays are actually here yet. They are, of course, but this year’s cheer feels a little half-hearted. Maybe I’ve been ignoring all the ham-handed retailers pitching me on the “most wonderful (shopping) time of the year,” and the dated Christmas specials on TV, and the cheap plastic Santas in creepy shop window displays, or maybe I’m a cold husk of a man. Whatever it is, the spirit just isn’t in me this year and I waited until the eleventh hour to get a handful of gifts. But hey! That’s why Amazon.com gets a special nod from me this season. I did virtually all my shopping virtually, from the comfort of my home, mousing my way through Amazon’s site until I had secured some passable gifts to send to my family. And then I had Amazon.com gift-wrap them all and ship them directly to their houses like Santa Claus himself! No middleman action for me, and all of the gifts will arrive on time, neatly wrapped by some mystery set of hands that are certainly more adept than I at wrapping things up in festive papers. What a country!

In spite of sounding like a complete shill at the moment, I’d also like to acknowledge Amazon’s airtight returns department. I recently bought a multimeter to test some parts of my pinball machine (more on that topic in a future post), and one of the functions on the meter was dead on arrival. I’ve never had to return anything to Amazon before, but after three clicks and a print-out I was on my way to drop the package back in the mail, postage-paid. I requested a replacement through the returns process, and within 30 minutes I had an email in my inbox explaining that the new multimeter would be at my door the next day. They just made this lazy consumer’s Christmas a little merrier.