amazon.com

We need to talk about Prime Now.

| cheriarmour

Hi!

My son is 6 months old.  How in the world…

I like to think about the fact that 6 months ago, which sometimes sounds like the longest time and shortest time ever, I was not yet a parent.  I was big and fat, and waddling around in the late summer heat, but not yet a parent.  And now I like try to balance the fact that I’m a parent and I have some very adult responsibilities with the fact that I feel like I’m totally faking it as a grown-up.

Which brings me to Amazon Prime.  Specifically Prime Now.

So, I work full-time, which turns out, is really freaking hard when you have a kid.  Moms of multiples (I’m friends with this dude who’s a triplet), and moms of more than one, how in the world do you get anything done?

I really do love my job, and part of what makes it a great gig for when you have a kid is how flexible it is.  I work really hard, and I work STUPID hard during our campaign season, however, when I need, I can come and go, I can bring the baby to work with me when daycare isn’t open and let him hang out in my office, and I get to teach, one of my favorite parts of the job.  But, since I’ve been back, I’ve managed to forget something huge at least, at least once a week.  I’ve forgotten parts to my pump, the really important parts.  My lunch, brown bags for milk, storage bags, running shoes for when I’ve been teaching, socks, really, the limit does not exist as far as forgetting things goes.

So, Monday was a total Monday.  Once I got settled at work, it was time to pump.  I headed downstairs, took off my shirt, slipped on my pumping corset thingie, and then realized that in my haste to get dishes washed, I’d washed pump parts, stuck them in the dryer, and then left them there.  I had no bottles and no phalanges.  And I was already pretty uncomfortable by that point in the day.

Enter Amazon Prime Now.

I was kinda of running between meetings, and didn’t have time to run home, so I quickly g-chatted my husband, told him about my mistake, and asked him to look on Prime Now to see if we could find phalanges and bottles for my pump.  They were there, and he ordered them and had them sent to my work address.

I shit you not, within like 40 minutes, just before another meeting was starting, the stuff showed up at the front desk in a brown paper bag, and I was able to bust into it, wash it, and pump, very much to my relief.

I honestly think every time something something cool comes out, like when GPS because readily available to everyone, that technology truly cannot get any better, and then something like this totally blows my mind.  And it wasn’t like it was super expensive either, it was normally priced emergency stuff for moms whose brains haven’t yet returned to its normal size.

Side note: the next day, I forgot sneaks to teach my 12:15 cycling class, and I had to pull some major major major strings (I am so grateful for this friend) to get a pair of sz 10 shoes to the branch just in time for me to teach, then teach again, and then teach one more time.

I’ll get this working/momming thing down pat one of these days.

Have you ever used Prime Now?  What do you find yourself ordering off of there?

Returns (I guess a sorta PSA?)

| cheriarmour

There are a few things I’m wildly passionate about – kinda pet peevy things that have bugged me forever.

One is people not putting their effing shopping carts back at Harris Teeter, which I’ve mentioned before.  It’s kind of a trigger for me.  Like I wrote into the local paper about it.

The second is returns.  Or why I can’t stand the abuse of return policies.

And I think I’m sort of sensitive to this having worked pretty extensively in retail.  We have a really really generous return policy, and unfortunately. what that means is that sometimes folks really abuse the policy, and use it as an opportunity to use us a a closet.  Which totally blows for us (the retailer) because we don’t always get credit on things returned to us so we take an L.  Some of that stuff is built into the prices.  Some of it isn’t, and it drives prices up.  Not a fun place to be.

So yesterday, a person in a group I’m a part of on mentioned that they got a notice from Amazon because as a runner, they’d been ordering shoes, and sending them back, due to some issues with some foot pain and whatnot.  Which I get, but also, I understand completely where Amazon is coming from.

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Now, Amazon isn’t super transparent about what the magic number is that will get you one of those fun notices, but it seems like by communicating early and asking if everything is okay with your account, they’re sending the message that they get it, but you can’t treat them like a personal shopper.

Which I totally get. I have, we all have, been in a spot where you have to return something because it’s just not working, defective, or not what you thought it was, but when you’re staring at 4, 5, 10 returns in the span of a month, you really need to question if there’s another way you need to start going about purchases.

So I know places like Amazon, Lululemon, and REI cracking down on their return policies is so annoying, but super necessary.  And if you find yourself starting to become a chronic returner of an item, or a category of item, it may be time to switch up the game plan.

Onto happier things!

What are your favorite places with the BEST customer service?

I continue to be impressed by Amazon – I broke my Kindle, and they really were apologetic, and asked what they could do to help me fix it.  I totally ended up buying another because they were so nice to me.

FitBit – I lost the band on the Flex Twice – ended up spending MORE money because of how awesome they were to work with.

Lululemon – I checked in with one of their educators to find some good maternity stuff, and because they know their products so well, they were able to give me immediate word on what would work throughout the pregnancy.  I will spend some money there for sure!

Something bad happened to my Kindle.

| cheriarmour

I got my Kindle a few years ago.  I was kind of having a really tough year – I had just broken up with a boyfriend, was feeling a little meh, and in the mail from my younger sister Debra was the coolest invention since the iPhone – an Amazon Kindle.

I dressed my Kindle up – I bought a skin for it to jazz it up, and got it its own little sleeve holder to go in so I wouldn’t step on it on drop it in its off-time.  The Kindle took me through that breakup, through a summer at a camp in Virginia, though hurricane Sandy, through my employment at the bakery (it was great for breaks), and through time at the pool.

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One of the only pics of me and my Kindle, when it was still living.

Last Sunday, while my husband was trying to bore me by forcing me to watch NFL, I went to flip on my Kindle, and something just wasn’t right. The screen was weird and frozen, and I immediately, immediately got on the phone with Amazon Kindle support.  To their credit, Amazon has absolutely incredible customer support, and they were super helpful, but after a few “tried-and-true” fixes, I had to resign to the fact that my Kindle wasn’t coming back, and that Amazon no longer manufactured that old-school style.

They were great.  They’re sending me a refurbished model and I only paid the difference for them to ship it to me.  I will have to ship the old one back, and in the meantime, I’ve honestly felt a little bit lost.  I’ve been reading bits and pieces off of my iPhone screen, and patiently stalking the mailman for the day when my package gets here.

What’s one piece of technology you feel attached to? 

Can I take a second to give @Amazon a shoutout?

| cheriarmour

This is gonna be a quick one, but I wanted to write on this before I forgot.

I have had many an experience with Amazon customer service and all of them have been wonderful.  And before you accuse me of being shady, I am declaring right here, right now, that this is my own opinion, and they are not paying me to say this.  Even though if they did, that would be awesome because I’m getting married and I keep ordering all this wedding stuff off Amazon.

But I digress.

Today, at the public library, I found this awesome book called Vintage Wedding Style, and once I got to flipping through it, I found a few pages that I would like to dog ear for my own nuptials coming up here in about 6 or 7 months.  So I decided it was worth it, and that I’d order the book on Amazon.  And for anyone who follows getting married, check this out, there are some awesome DIY ideas in here, including one for crepe paper flowers that I’m not skilled enough to try, but I’d love to see how yours turns out!

Vintage Wedding Style

I found it, ordered it, and then was forced to order two more nail polishes.  Not my fault.  But they were beckoning me.

Well, I went back to review my order, only to discover that I had had the items shipped to an apartment I hadn’t lived in for years.  And in a panic, I called Amazon, who resolved the issue literally within 5 minutes without any annoyance or hesitation from the guy on the other end.  The guy actual acted like it was his pleasure to be helping me, incompetent fool, out with her mistake.

So for best customer service of the day, Amazon.com totally gets my vote, and for as much wedding stuff as possible, I will be purchasing from them.  Thanks Amazon!  You guys made this neurotic bride’s day!