Annoyed by Amazon

It’s my own fault, really. I ventured into this w/out the appropriate research, figuring everyone else loved it, so what could go wrong? 

Get Amazon prime, they said. It’ll be fine, they said. 

I ordered Brent a bunch of belated birthday gifts last week. I’m not very Amazon savvy, but I found everything at reasonable prices, so Amazon it was. I don’t shop online very much, and when I do it’s usually through Target, which I’ve used a dozen times the last few months for bridal and baby shower gifts. Target offers free shipping once your order exceeds $50. I was surprised this wasn’t the case w/ Amazon, and that shipping my items would be over $18. I signed up for a free month of prime to get free shipping. Mama didn’t raise no fool.

Out of the handful of things I ordered for Brent, two needed to be returned. Initially I wasn’t going to bother returning the first item; it was an upright glasses case that was $6 and I was fine just giving it away. The other item was clothing and it was $30 so I was returning that, and I figured I might as well return the glasses case, too. 

I was shocked that prime members didn’t get free shipping. The clothing item was free to return, but the glasses case was $5. $5 to return an item that cost me $6. I was annoyed as I printed the UPS shipping label, but figured this would cover all return packaging fees. Right? 

Wrong.

I called the UPS store to confirm that since I paid for the return label I wouldn’t need to buy any packaging and they said no, I had to provide my own packaging or buy it. I dug through our recycle bin until I found two small boxes. I didn’t retape and assemble the Amazon shipping boxes b/c I figured these would be fine. Right?

Wrong.

I get to the UPS store and the clerk politely informs me the boxes I had weren’t suitable for shipping. He looked at the items I was returning and said bubble packaging would work since they were small items. I agreed, thinking they would be pretty cheap. To return my two items, which had to ship separately for some reason, it was $8.48 in packaging plus the $5 for the return label. Over $13 to return two items, one of which cost half of the bullshit fees I had to pay to return it. 

This is why I don’t shop online.

Rant over, Bridge out.