More Amazon.com Troubles

When adding something to my wish list:

Important Message
There was an error processing your request. Please try again later.

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When trying to remove something from my wish list:

An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're working to resolve the problem as soon as possible. If you were trying to make a purchase, please check Your Account to confirm that the order was placed. We apologize for the inconvenience.

====

Am I the only one whose having trouble with this? And during the busiest shopping time of the year.

Full name:
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

This is not amazonwatch.com.

Slashbot
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Apparently neither is amazonwatch.com - that's a "this domain for sale" spam page.

Full name:
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

and if you purchase something in your wishlist, it stays there.

fool for python
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

At least they are catching the errors. That is smart. I'm amazed at the number of places that just fail ... just plain fail. I had BellSouth tell me that my transaction "might or might not" have succeeded ... which imho is worse than a failure.  That answer was STUPID. Then my BANK, yes my bank, had just complete failures that were not caught at all. I happen to be a 'web programmer' and I try and catch all of my assumptions and send me email when they fail but so far I have not convinced any of my cohorts to do the same.  Assumptions will fail and you should be there to catch and handle them appropriately ... you can do no more. I say parabens to Amazon for catching them.

Me
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Obviously things you purchase stay on the wish list.  It wouldn't be much of a wish list if they removed items making it obvious when a gift has been purchased.  I believe they used to remove items when purchased but then introduced the current behavior as a feature specifically to make gift purchases less obvious.

Yes, they could add some special logic to remove items when the wish list owner is also the purchaser but the point of the wish list is more of a gift registry rather than a personal want-to-buy list (though many, including myself, use it as a personal list).  Also, this might reveal gift purchases in cases where a computer is shared. 

Is it really that hard to use the "purchased items" filters at the top of the wish list?

SomeBody
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

According to their own help files for buying from your wish list:

"First, you'll want to see if anything has already been purchased for you. If items have been purchased, you'll see a line of text that reads "Reveal the items that have already been purchased for you." Click the link to reveal the gifts that others have bought for you. If the item you want to purchase has not been purchased, you can click either the "Add to Shopping Cart" or "Buy now with 1-Click" button to purchase the item directly from your Wish List."

Interaction Architect
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

My own preference would be for "show me stuff that has *not* been purchased yet" by default.  Even better if they had a wish list and a gift list as separate lists.

but whaddoiknow
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Isn't the whole point of a wishlist and/or registering somewhere that you *don't* get a duplicate of something you already have?

If you or someone else buys something for you from your wishlist, it should disappear. I'd hate to get the same item twice.

This is why my wish list isn't viewable by anyone but me. I was actually thinking of creating a 2nd account with a "real" wishlist.

www.MarkTAW.com
Thursday, December 4, 2003

Duplicate purchases from a wish list are not a problem.  The wish list is displayed differently for the owner than for others viewing it.  Amazon doesn't remove purchased items from the owner's view specifically so the owner doesn't accidently spoil the surprise.  It's trivial for the owner to click the "purchased items" or "unpurchased items" links to get filtered lists and it's also trivial to click "Delete" a few times in the purchased items list to clear it out.

This isn't rocket science and Amazon knows what they're doing. 

SomeBody
Thursday, December 4, 2003

Ah. Thanks for clearing it up. I guess since I don't share my wishlist, I never had any reason to learn about those features.

www.MarkTAW.com
Thursday, December 4, 2003

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