End of a Long Relationship

No, Anu and I are not separating. Our relationship is great. It's Amazon that I'm breaking up with, after thirteen years (I bought books from Amazon when they first opened).

Amazon was unable to ship me my books without damaging them after 3 tries. Even after two complaints, the books were still just tossed into a box and the edges and corners damaged.

I will no longer order art books or other collectible books from Amazon. They just can't get it right. When a customer complains about a specific problem, and you then repeat that mistake twice in a row, while supposedly attempting to redress the mistake, that is outright embarrassing. I'm still willing to buy non-art, non-collectible books from Amazon, so I guess we'll still be friends with benefits, but I think it's time I see other booksellers.

Amazon is so focused on their other businesses, including trying to destroy the wonderful cultural artifact that is the book with their Kindle device and ridiculously overpriced, transient digital books, that they no longer really deserve to be called a bookseller anyway. I'm going to give my money to smaller businesses, like local booksellers and Bud's Art Books (who ship their books perfectly packaged). I've also just received my first order from Heavy Ink, but I'm less than thrilled with their packaging (they're new and small, so we'll see if they respond to my complaints or not). though it's still better than the absolutely terrible job Amazon does.