Monday Musings: I didn’t need it anyway

I ordered a cover for my webcam from Amazon because, even though the lights aren’t on when I’m not using it, I still don’t trust that it’s not scanning my place. The package containing the cover, however, has been on quite the adventure and still hasn’t arrived at my house.

My package was supposed to arrive by December 10. As you can see, it was in Scottsbluff. Instead of being put on the mail truck and brought to my house, it went to California. When I went to look to see what happened, there was a message on the tracking page stating, “This package is delayed due to severe weather in the delivery network.” The expected blizzard in town arrived during early morning hours of December 13, as expected, three days after my package had arrived in Scottsbluff.

I can only surmise the package arrived in Scottsbluff and it didn’t want to stay, choosing instead to travel to California. I’m now being told it might arrived by December 20.

For those of you not familiar with the area, the distribution center in Colorado, where the package was originally scanned, is a three-hour drive from my house in Scottsbluff. It was shipped via the U.S. Postal Service. City of Industry, California is an 18-hour car ride or 4-5 hours by plane. I wonder which way my package went and if it got to look out the windows while it traveled.

Omaha is around a 7-hour drive. It is the last known location of my package. It left Omaha 22 hours ago. Typically, anything coming from Omaha or Commerce City, Colorado travels to North Platte first, chills out for a day, probably eating Dunkin’ Donuts, Amigos, or Runza, and then travels on to Scottsbluff. I fully expect to log onto Amazon tomorrow and find my package touring around North Platte.

Damn it. Now I’m hungry.

While I can sit here and make an amusing post about it, the fact is Amazon has become increasingly frustrating for me. I pay for Amazon Prime, which is supposed to provide two-day delivery. For many years, this was the case. Even after the COVID pandemic hit, I was still receiving packages in two, sometimes three days.

Over the course of 2022, this has grown to an ever-increasing span of time. I’ve had several refunds, packages that take two to three weeks to arrive, and packages that never arrive. Of the refunds, the packages arrived in one case three weeks later and in another more than a month. I don’t know what actually happened to the ones that never arrived because the shipping information never went farther than the “package received” stage.

The packaging itself has become atrocious. I order a box of tea. It arrives in a padded mailer with the box crushed and the packaging torn. I have counted to 100 more times than I’d like to admit this year.

I ordered an extension cable for my headphones so the cord is 10 feet long instead of two feet long. You’re thinking padded mailer. Nope. In a box that could fit three 100-count boxes of tea. At least my cats had a new toy they could jump in and out of until they destroyed it.

How about glass containers? Surely, they would go in a box with packing material. Surely, you jest. They arrived in a padded mailer. Two of the lids were damaged. The company replaced the lids. I have no idea how the containers didn’t break.

Paul watches Amazon video, otherwise I would get rid of Prime all together. It’s become almost useless to me. The vast majority of my purchases these days are books and I don’t need them tomorrow. I can wait a week or so like I did in the early days of Amazon when there was no Prime and Amazon sold books and book-related accessories. Most of the items I used to purchase or purchase via subscribe & save are no longer available or I can get it from the parent company’s website.

I stopped purchasing computer parts and other electronics from them for two reasons – items listed have the spying Alexa garbage on it or I spend hours trying to determine if what was shipped to me is real or fake. I can easily spend hours comparison shopping and then never purchase anything because I’m frustrated.

I requested a refund from Amazon for the webcam cover. Until I can get to a store where I can purchase a cover in person, I’ll keep placing the old washcloth over top of the webcam when it’s not in use. Will the package arrive? Who knows.

In the mean time, I’m going to continue to live in a world where my package is having the time of its life. Maybe one day, I’ll actually get to meet it.