Christmas is just about here!  The house is decorated, the tree is trimmed, the stockings are hung, and the presents are purchased… and then the final gift arrived via UPS.  Yippee!

Sounds like I should be relieved, so why am I sitting here in awe, slowly shaking my head and muttering “Where, oh where, has the common sense gone?”  I think it’s because, instead of me being the one who has gone mad, someone in the shipping department at Amazon has lost their marbles.

I was waiting on a little “Tinkerbell” paperback book for our daughter (a book that, mind you, had her burst into tears when we visited her school Book Fair {it was the only book she really wanted} and we discovered it was sold out!)  So, yes, the book was incredibly important but I was sickened with how it arrived.

This little book, costing all of $3.99, arrived in a box (including a bunch of air pillows!) that was so large it could have safely shipped at least 75 of them.  Overpackaging at its excessive worst!  WHAT was someone thinking?  I guess they weren’t… or they got confused… or they ran out of boxes and this was the only one left… (a size that could have fit a MacBook and packing materials, for pete’s sake!).

All this after our son’s book arrived the day before, BENT IN HALF, smashed next to a “Wall-e” DVD, in a box that barely FIT the DVD itself!  This does NOT make Mom Goes Green happy!  But how do we know this will happen and how do we stop it?  And how do we not feel guilty when a simple purchase breaks the fundamentals of our own “green rules”?

I don’t have a single answer for this.  It’s not easy complaining to Amazon… they make it really simple for them not to address your issues, beyond customer service.  If you know of a way to let them know, let ME know!  I just can’t imagine what guidelines they are following, but I personally think they stink… a big, fat, non-green stink!

… and I actually gave them kudos for their “Frustration Free Packaging”! Wake up, Amazon.  There is a LOT of work left to do!