Amazon.com's Horrible Business Practices

Several times over the past few months (including over Christmas) I shopped on Amazon.com, as millions of others do, and was subsequently charged TWICE for items I purchased. The first time this happened during Christmas time, and because of the double charge on so many items, when it came time for the items to ship, the second charge was declined and therefore the items never shipped and my Christmas gifts never made it (even though I had already been charged once when I made the purchase and the money was there) -- making me look like an asshole. That first charge is an "authorization hold" to make sure there is enough money on the card you are using for the purchase. After the seller prepares to ship the item, your card will then be charged a second time, making you, the buyer, wait for your money from the first "authorization hold" to be released back to you. Hmmm... how, in any way, shape, or form, is this a way to do business? If I buy $200 worth of items, WHY should I then be charged $400 and have to wait 3-10 days (or even longer) to get my $200 back? Not everyone can afford to do that, especially not me! So, unless I'm rich and have tons of money in the bank, I guess I won't be shopping on Amazon.com anymore!

Charged twice. 3 days apart. Why is this necessary? And, before the $34.19 purchase ships, they will charge me for it again. Forcing me to wait days to get my $51.78 back! That's a LOT of food and gas I'll be missing out on during that time!

It seems to me that the seller is the one who should have to wait for the first charge to clear, since the one who wants our business is, after all, the seller!

Every time I've made an issue about this, Amazon.com simply tells me that this is how payments are processed. OK, well, I am sure I am not the only person who will say that when I go shop somewhere else, and might have to pay a little bit more, but am not charged double and forced to be without much-needed funds for days and days, that this is just how I prefer to shop so that I am only charged once.

Since Amazon.com does not seem to care about the little guy (me), I will make it my business to care about everyone like me and make a very large issue about this. I can promise that tons of people are going to care that someone like me, a disabled single mother with very little money to begin with, is not being taken seriously by some giant company who doesn't think I matter. If Amazon.com doesn't think the little guy can reach out to millions of other customers, and potential customers, and make them look like the assholes that they are for not fixing this issue, then Amazon.com is about to realize just how wrong they are for that assumption!

*I realize I currently have ads running on my blog for Amazon.com. I plan to leave the ads running and continue to be an affiliate for Amazon.com to give them a chance to resolve this issue and change the way they process their payments. If, however, something is not done about this, I will be removing them, and continuing my campaign of smearing their name all over the internet.