Amazon Just Not the Same

For over the last two decades, my number one shopping source has been Amazon.  I bought practically everything through them from clothing to electronics to art supplies to household items and appliances.....as well as monthly grocery subscription items.   I would compare prices with other places and for the longest time found the prices were cheaper through Amazon.  Well it's no longer the case.

It used to be you could count on their Guaranteed Delivery dates minus UPS, USPS, or FedEx mix-ups but that too is no longer the case.  On the item page you might see you can count on delivery by a certain date only to learn AFTER placing the order that the dates are not as initially stated.

Used to be their customer service bent over backwards to work with their customers.  Now you basically get "oh so sorry for the inconvenience, BUT...."

Used to be if an item turned up lost in the mail or damaged, they would get a replacement right out to their customers.  That too is no longer the case.

Scams...........it happened to me this year where I ordered food storage containers only to receive a broken pencil.  Reached out to Amazon Customer Service and they did provide a return slip only for the return to be rejected and the broken pencil sent back to me.  I'm sure not all Marketplace vendors are untrustworthy but how do you know until you've been burnt who you can trust and who you can't.  You can't even go by company reviews.

Knockoffs..........again from experience ending up with what I thought was the real deal only to learn it wasn't.

Reviews cannot be trusted either.  I've learned that there are companies who have found multiple ways of generating fake reviews in their favor.

Used to be you could count on your items being packed well but now you're lucky to get a crumpled up piece of packing paper or a couple pillow packs stuck in the box.  And it's unreal the wastefulness of the company and their marketplace vendors sending out small sized items (often a single item at that) in huge boxes where contents bounce around during shipping.

As for paying the Prime membership.........I seriously wonder if it's worth it now that I fear placing orders through them.  I initially went with Prime because of the free shipping as it was worth it for a long time.  BUT, all other places do offer free shipping with minimum dollar orders that are easy to reach.  All the other benefits of Prime, I really don't use enough to warrant the high price, so why should I continue.   It keeps going up and yet their service continues to go downhill.  Something I'm going to have to really consider.

My latest attempt has been totally screwed up.  From one order, it was split up into several packages.  Three items were packaged together and shipped out only for an email sent to me the day it was to be delivered that the package was being returned to Amazon without a definitive reason.  Said I'd get a refund within 2-4 days after they receive the return but when will that be???  Another item was packaged by itself and managed to make it to me...a day late, mind you...yippeee!  And I'm still waiting on several other items that were supposed to be delivered on the 11th and I get a message they are running late.  Said I could cancel the order if not received by a certain date but they left the date off.  I go to cancel those items and I get an email saying cancellation failed and that they were in the middle of being processed and sent out.  Seriously???!!!!

I'm honestly afraid to shop Amazon anymore .........which is really sad.  I guess they've become too big and just can't handle things like they used to.  They don't appear to screen or care who sells through them because in the end, they get their commission.  As for customer satisfaction as it used to be..........the company is so big now that it doesn't appear to be of importance.  So sad to see quality and reliability become so diluted as it has with its growth.

The good news...............for places like Best Buy, Walmart, and the likes.......they are starting to regain customers from what I'm reading.  I'm definitely not alone in my disappointment and feelings..... more and more people are experiencing the same and worse.  At least with these other places, you can actually walk into a store or physically talk to someone in customer service or return without a lot of hassle (until their policies and service change.)

November Challenge - Winter Season

This month the challenge between myself and my friend overseas has to do with the Winter season.  Changes in temperature, foods we might eat this time of year, clothing we might wear, activities we might be involved in, holiday preparations, etc.

Winter Season to me means (or should mean) cold fresh air, beautiful autumn colors before the trees turn bare, relief from summer bugs and mosquitoes, the threat/anticipation of snow, the smell of wood burning in wood stoves and fireplaces, fixing hot chocolate and eating foods (stews, soups, etc.) to warm your insides, ..... all of which go hand in hand with back to back Holidays starting in October.  Unfortunately, it's not that way for me now and hasn't been the last six years.

For us there's not much change and I have a real hard time with the season and holidays. 

We don't really dress very differently except maybe throwing on a long sleeve shirt or light weight jacket.  We don't fix different meals you might with cold weather moving in.  Flowers continue to bloom and trees remain green (at least where we are).  Mosquitoes and all sorts of flying and crawling critters are the daily norm.  I avoid going out as I don't care for the craziness of holiday shopping or seeing Christmas decorations that just seem out of place here.  I don't even look forward to putting up a tree, nor do I set out all the decorations I used to.  Too much trouble for decor that just doesn't fit.

With all that said, I decided to work a page about some of what I miss by living in a subtropical climate....illustrating a new ornament representing one aspect of Christmas in Florida and how it contrasts with everything I associate with this time of year...........it just doesn't feel right :-(

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / QoR and W&N watercolors / Pilot Vanishing Point with Lexy Grey ink.

Bougainvillea Planting

A couple years ago we purchased this bourgainvillea that is different from a huge one growing in the front yard.  The one in the front has more reddish color flowers whereas the one we purchased produces purple.  Plus the flowers or bracts are shaped a little differently.

For awhile it was sitting in its original pot on the back patio until the canopy grew too large to get around.  Trying to make a decision where to place it permanently on the property, we sat it in the back corner outside of the sunroom.  And there it sat since we just couldn't make up our minds.

With the passing of time, the tree's roots pushed through the bottom of the pot to include a large feeder root making the decision for us.  We were afraid of what might happen if we cut that main root or ripped up the smaller roots growing in the soil.

We thought maybe digging under the pot and the root might work by lowering it into the ground when the idea came to us to instead work the ground up around it.  That way we wouldn't have to worry about stress or shock to the tree.  The pot was easy to cut away and now the tree is permanently in it's spot without fear of damage.

We love how this was trained as a single braided trunk versus the one in the front that is more of a large shrub branching out in various directions.

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / QoR watercolors / Lamy pens - Dark Green, Dark Red, and Document Brown

New Fountain

We've been working outside (Terry works and I supervise.....lol)......little by little reworking the garden bed in front of the house for months.  We took out several overgrown shrubs that were crowding the area where we plan to set up large pots to house flowering plants.  The pots will hopefully help with minimizing maintenance where we're just getting too old to be down on our hands and knees trying to weed and whatnot with plants growing directly in the ground.

One of the additions to the front is a fountain placed in front of our bay window.  It's been a gorgeous last few days with the temperatures finally dropping around 80 during the day.  It's been breezy as well helping with all the bugs........especially mosquitoes that do not care if day or night to be out.

Sketched this over a period of the last few days representing the fountain.  Great exercise in working ellipses.  For the granite look, I only made enough marks to suggest the texture.  Finally finished this morning.

FIbook75x75 / Stonehenge Aqua / QoR watercolor / Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils / Lamy with Doc Brown ink.