Saturday, May 9, 2009

Super Saver Shipping

So, I pick up this book on Amazon as a gift for a friend of mine. Lots of books qualify for "Super Saver Shipping", but the book is $5.21 short of giving me the option.

"No problem", I think to myself, "I'll find something I want in the 5 to 6 dollar range that's also eligible for 'Super Saver Shipping' ". First I look at dice. Almost no dice qualify for "Super Saver Shipping". I then proceed to look to see if there is a USB keyboard, or USB anything else I can get in that price range.

I find a few things in my price range that do qualify, except that they are being sold at multiple prices, and don't actually qualify at the price range I want after all. I come upon a USB printer cord which I consider because a friend is borrowing mine, but decide that that's stupid because I can just get mine back whenever I want.

I try to find a tabletop roleplaying book I want for the shipping. No luck on anything that peaks my interest. I look at a few toys. I eventually find myself looking in the grocery department.

After combing through literally thousands of search results, I finally find an item that qualifies in my price range that isn't a sex lube or something (this happened repeatedly). Some candy bars. No image available. At this point, it's three in the morning. I add it to my order, and I finish the entire ordeal. Having done this, I would like to offer Amazon some suggestions about their search.

1. Let me filter by "Super Saver Shipping" eligibility
      This would have saved me so much time. Hours of time in fact.
2. When I filter by a price range (like $5-$6) please don't ignore those parameters.
      Most of the groceries are sold at one price and one price only, yet for some reason, despite filtering by $5-$6, random other items would pop up that were completely outside the range at $10, $20, $30, and even $40 dollars.

That needs to be fixed. During my search, the most frustrating scenario was seeing a product that WAS eligible for "Super Saver Shipping" that was both FAR outside my desired price range, and also something I would never want. This was the majority of "Super Saver Shipping" items. I do not know how these items are selected, but I'd like it if the items selected were less terrible.

Maybe in that little box telling me how much more I'd need to spend to get "Super Saver Shipping" you can have a link that says "Suggestions" that I can click to find items that might finish out my order proper.

Amazon. I love your low prices. I clearly don't love searching for "Super Saver Shipping" items to round out an order.

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