Amazon Prime

Amazon. The f*ckers. Yet again they decide to clumsily shaft the residents of the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. Their Amazon Prime service has been launched and I was all clicky-fingered ready to sign up and pay my stg£49 to get this useful service.

However, I forgot just how crap Amazon are at geography and how they seem to be incapable of recognising that

• ‘Northern Ireland’ is just one part of a larger island
• Ireland is a large, literate country with reasonably high disposable incomes
• ..and a lot of their business is actually based here (customer services in Cork, a data centre in Dublin
• Deliveries shipped to Belfast or Derry often are transited through Dublin airport

So, I trundled through the terms and conditions of their service. Deliver to ‘Mainland UK’, delivery to ‘Other United Kingdom Locations’ which includes the Channel Isles and British Forces Posted Overseas, but not a whit of delivery to the Republic of Ireland.

So, I decided to see if they have any logic that prevents people in the Ould Sod from signing up, much like they have checks and balances to stop us buying software or computer games or electrical goods.

Ehhh… nope, I’m allowed to right through to the bit where I’d have to part with cash irrespective of what address I use.

So, Amazon will take money off me for a service that they can’t/won’t deliver (no pun intended), because they are not using information they have about me (my address) to prevent me parting with cash, or they can deliver it (ie Prime deliveries to Irish Republic) but they have bungled their Terms & Conditions because they’re idiots, like those people who claim Oscar Wilde was British.

I’m fricking angry now. Must go have a coffee to cool off.

Mulley – if you’re reading a Nintendo Wii will calm me down nicely.