Damnazon.

 I had a problem with an Amazon third-party outfit that I thought I'd share with you. It's gotten so easy to shop with Amazon that I often forget that they make plenty of mistakes, and they often work with some pretty dopey outfits. SuperpetLtd is one of those.

I ordered a replacement dog toy, for the dogs. No, not for me. (Sure, they're fun, but it was for the dogs.) Being that my dogs are large, they need big, tough toys that can take a beatin' an' a chompin'. We'd had one of these Chuckit Rugged Flyer toys in the past, and it put up with a lot -- in fact, the elements got to it (mold) before the dogs destroyed it. So I figured I'd get another one. Pulled it up on Amazon, placed the order. It was coming through a third party, but so what?

Or should I say, SAY WHAT?!

Instead of the large version, SuperpetLtd sent a peewee version, suitable for Corgis or Chihuahuas, the kind of dog that could fit entirely inside the mouth of one of my dogs. I double-checked to make sure I'd selected the right size. Yep, large. Okay, anyone can make a mistake; let's tell Amazon and they'll rectify it.

Here's where it got really annoying. 

Because it appears that SuperpetLtd is not in the United States, but in the freaking Bailiwick of Jersey, not information you could have gleaned from their Amazon product page.

Not from New Jersey.

When I told Amazon I wanted to make an exchange, because of SuperpetLtd's mistake, they dutifully passed the notification on to SuperpetLtd, which got back to me in a couple of days with a return label and an insincere apology that they could not provide postage.

So to get my money back for THEIR MISTAKE (let me emphasize, THIS MISTAKE WAS THEIRS AND NOT MINE), I had to pay the freight?

This, I said, will not stand.

Trying to actually get hold of someone at Amazon is, you may know, difficult. There's not even a link for an e-mail. (Here is a link to the contacts page.) I requested a callback and got one; over the course of twenty minutes of my workday time this very apologetic person tried to sort out the issue, as if it were something too complicated for words -- apparently the shipping window for this product had not closed, and no wonder since it was coming from a freaking ocean away; this meant that maybe it hadn't actually arrived yet, even though it had, so they apparently couldn't consider the order complete -- good God, what a mess -- and she told me that they would address it. Sure enough, a couple of days later, Amazon intervened and gave me credit -- not a refund, but credit -- for the amount of the purchase. Which somehow did not get applied when I made my next purchase, BTW.

And also BTW, when I attempted to lambaste the poorly named SuperpetLtd on the Amazon review site, they refused to post my review because it wasn't about the Chuckit product. Which I hadn't even used. Because it was an inappropriate size. Because SuperpetLtd screwed up.

All this over a $10 toy.

At this point I was going to be damned if I sent the thing back. I'm looking around for a non-annoying little dog to give it to. 

What I'm saying is, Amazon is good, but doesn't police its outside vendors that well, and seldom gives you information about them, so let the buyer beware. Otherwise you wind up losing your temper over stupid crap, you don't get a refund, just a credit, and you still don't have the blasted thing you wanted in the first place.

I'm going to try to shop at other sites more often from now on. Amazon has enough of my money.