I Feel Spied On
by Darkmistress - Written: Feb 17 '02 (Updated Jun 24 '02)
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I ordered an item which would remain nameless except that I already reviewed it here (A Wish For Wings That Work video) from Amazon.com. I had no choice really. I went searching for the item at Borders.com out of misguided loyalty. The online ordering for Borders is operated by Amazon because when Borders was running it they screwed it up so badly.
I was relatively pleased with my Amazon experience. The site is easy to navigate. The ordering part was pretty easy. They emailed me promptly to let me know they had received the order and again when they shipped it. I had the video within days during Christmas madness. Pretty cool, I thought. In the future I will keep this in mind. You know, when I’m a highly paid romance novelist and no longer need to go to a bookstore daily so I can afford incidentals like health insurance, the mortgage and the electric bill. I even popped in once in a while checking availability on odd little things for my husband. I kind of didn’t like that Amazon remembered what I had looked at seemingly forever, but as someone who works in retail I understand the value of being able to remember a customer’s regular searches. This way you can save them time by telling them if what they want is in before they go searching for it themselves.
So I wasn’t totally creeped out by this "feature" until the other day when I was searching through a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan site and saw my name in an Amazon banner.
There it was in white and black on a site I had never been to before. "Hello Christin Morris!"
First of all, why are you calling me by name on another site? Just wanted to let me know you were watching, Big Brother? A subtle reminder that I need to clean out my cookies? I do not and never will identify my customers outside the store. (Although I have fantasized about informing the guy who works at Kmart and buys Playboy that the new issue is in when I see him at his job. I won’t , but I’d love to see his face turn the same color as his bright red hair.)
Second of all, if you’re going to invade me like this, work out a way where you can use my name and not the sawed off version. I can’t tell you how many standardized test results came back for ‘Christin’ instead of me, but ‘Christin’ has some very nice numbers to her credit.
Should this drive me permanently away from Amazon?
Heck if I know if it should, but it will. This little ‘service’ doesn’t give me warm fuzzies, it gives me chills. I have customers that I’ve developed good relationships with, Jeff the real estate mogul, Folgers (so named for his coffee habit), pony tail guy, the guy who calls me ‘dear’ because he doesn’t know my name, the senile woman who doesn’t remember me from conversation to conversation, the woman with the fantastic hair, the Royalty Lady, and I wouldn’t dream of talking to these people outside the store. They expect me in the store; they don’t expect me in the supermarket, in the mall on the side walk or at a Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan site. It’s an invasion.
I expect to be greeted on the Amazon site. I don’t like it and would rather be known as ‘obscure animation woman’ but they didn’t ask me now did they?
I don’t expect Amazon to pop out at random on any old site calling me by name and reminding me that they still have the Mr. Bumpy (get your mind out of the gutter, it’s an old Saturday morning cartoon character) tape I was looking at last time.
Hasta la vista, Amazon. I’ll shop with merchants who don’t act like clingy, needy acquaintances who will run up to me anywhere gushing to make sure I remember them. I remember you. And I remember you for all the wrong reasons.
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