Open Letter

Dear Amazon.com,

I suppose it's silly to write a love letter to a corporation but I do love you. I love how you save me lots of stress and headaches during the Christmas season.

While I've been an Amazon shopper for years - you were the ones to send me books in English when I first moved to Germany without it being a huge hassle - I started to take advantage of shopping with you for Christmas gifts for my family in the US a few years ago. You see until then I used to spend a few weeks shopping for my family and then I'd spend time finding a box to stuff it all in and then spend time taking it all to the post office. And the postage to send it to America was almost always more than the contents of the box. Most of the time the package never got there in time for Christmas. The final insult was when I sent a large box to my family that had inside some expensive gifts and a couple hundred dollars in cash (yeah, I know...don't say it) that was never delivered and never returned to me. A $600 mistake.

Now I go on your website and I pick gifts for my family and friends. Books, CDs, DVDs, household items, bath items, home accessories - you have just about everything. I have the items shipped directly to them and if what I'm ordering is in stock, they get it within a few days. I save so much money on postage I can buy them nicer gifts and if the dollar is especially weak against the euro, I save even more.

Here it is, December 6th, and all of the Christmas shopping for my loved ones in the US is finished. I can now relax and know that their gifts won't end up stolen by some theiving bastard somewhere between Germany and North America waylayed and lost forever. Christmas shopping for my overseas family is actually fun again.

I love you, darling Amazon. But can I say you really charge way too much for giftwrapping services? I may love you but I'd rather send a nekkid gift than give you $4.99 to shove it in a gift bag. I won't hold it against you though.

Hugs and kisses,

Dixie