Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Biggest small cheapness fail ever

I was so very impressed with myself that this nail polish I wanted that cost $8 in the store, but that was sold out just about everywhere, was $6.75, shipping included, on Ebay - new, even, apparently. I don't usually shop online, but made an exception. Because I don't usually shop online, I remembered to change my billing address, but somehow missed that Ebay had my old shipping address, in Brooklyn, in a building whose front door is, on a good day, locked. I emailed the seller (also in Brooklyn), but it was too late. I caved and ordered another, realizing that my time is worth quite little, but not so little that I'll spend an hour on the train and another half-hour on foot to attempt to break into my own old building to get $7 worth of nail polish that for all I know either isn't there yet or has already been taken. So, uh, free mint-green Essie for the lucky residents of 7th and Union, I suppose.

4 comments:

Britta said...

My friend made a late night impulse purchase of measuring cups off of amazon because she had trial free two day shipping, and UPS failed to deliver three times, and told her she needed to pick them up at the UPS station on 85th in South Chicago. Since she only bought them online and not at the store because of the free quick shipping, she didn't want to spend more on public transit (with risk of getting shot) than she did on the cups themselves, so basically, instead of being something convenient, she just wasted about $5.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

I think your friend made the right move. I wouldn't even go to Park Slope for $6.75, let alone S. 85th St. in Chicago for $5.

Matt said...

You can't just have it forwarded because of a change-of-address form? That's usually worked for me. (I've sent stuff to old addresses before, alas.)

As for UPS- I hate them and avoid using them as much as possible, for this sort of reason. I'd vastly rather have something delivered by the regular post-office.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

I did set up mail forwarding, but this was a while ago, and I'm not sure if it applies to this. So maybe I'll have to sell a spare nail polish on Ebay myself, if it shows up....