Super Cheap Shipping Super Fast!

I seem to buy something off of the internet every month or so. It's something to do with the ill-gotten gains that keep pouring into my account. Being an inveterate cheapskate, I invariably seem to end up plumping for the "super shipping" option, which offers free delivery in return for a promised delivery date of 12-14 days. Unfortunately for the e-commerce e-merchants, they seem unable to keep to this promise. Instead, the goods seem to show up at my front door 2-3 days later. For example, I ordered my 17" LCD monitor on a bored saturday afternoon, checked 'free shipping (may take a long time)', and was about to leave for work on wednesday morning when I was accosted by a delivery agent with the new device. The same thing happened this week, when I decided to grab 400Gb for $90 purely on the grounds that I'll be bound to need it at some point. I casually stuck in an order on monday night, only for the thing to show up on my doorstep while I was out at work today.

If they want me to spring the extra $10-20 for super speedy delivery, they really out to try to make a service differential. Not that it would bother me too much. Once you aren't too bothered about fast delivery, it just makes the rapidity of turnaround something to be casually impressed by.

Remember, that delivery fees are sometimes the lifeblood of e-businesses. I've made something of a habit of buying items from Amazon marketplace for $0.01, the kicker being the fixed $3.49 delivery fee, which allows them to eek out some kind of a profit from the transaction. But, there's something delightful about claiming that you bought a book written by that guy in the year below you from Uni for $0.01. Well, there is for me, anyway.