In the run-up to GASP I purchased twelve author copies of Over Her Knee to sell at my vendor fair table. They arrived in several different packages for some reason (which makes no sense because they’re all printed at the same location in South Carolina), which isn’t really a problem. 

This… This was a problem. 

Why, Amazon? Why would you do this? Those stickers are not removable. My only recourse was to return the books (along with another one that had its corners rumpled in such a way that I didn’t want to sell it). At least Amazon makes returns easy. 

Weirdly, though, I had to actually return the books to get my money back. Sometimes when I try to return something to Amazon they just tell me to keep the item; that happened recently with a $45 sweatshirt I bought someone as a gift which arrived in the wrong size. But the books, which are less expensive, had to be mailed back. That means extra time spent getting them packaged up and dropped off at the UPS Store, and extra work for UPS to get them to the return center… Where they’ll probably just be thrown away. 

If I’d bought a computer and needed to return it, sure, I get it, I should ship that back. But a few paperbacks? That are just going to be tossed? What’s the point? 

Of course, if Amazon had (a) not put non-removable stickers on the books and (2) shipped all the books together in a box, instead of some of them coming in envelopes, none of this would’ve been necessary.