Amazon.com is not a nice place

Image courtesy of So You Think You Can Invest

Boycotting Amazon.com seems to be rather in vogue right now (their hotly contested court battle regarding ebooks sparked widespread disdain). But this weekend I discovered a whole new reason to stop using the mega-retailer: add-on purchases.

It seems the company has designated a range of low-cost items as "add-on items" and will not ship them to you until you meet a minimum purchase requirement of other stuff. If, like me, you primarily use Amazon because they offer cheap goods, this is incredibly bad news. Want a cheap DVD for your potluck this weekend? NOPE. Need a trowel to do some gardening before the frost hits? TOO BAD. Want to buy a box of condoms before your date on Thursday? JUST GET HERPES, YOU LOSER.

When Amazon treats their vendors badly, it can cause a moral dilemma for their customers: do I save money or uphold my principles that fair treatment is right and good, even when it costs me more? But now they're treating their own customers badly. They've made my decision quite easy.

I won't be bullied into spending money on crap I don't need just to save a couple bucks on stuff I will actually use. That's about the worst face that capitalism can present.

Goodbye, Amazon. It was fun while it lasted, but you've become obnoxious and controlling, and, frankly, I have plenty of that in my life without you.