Full Moon rising

Amazon's business model sometimes seems enigmatic.  At the end of July I'd submitted an order for 7 disparate items.  Was a little surprised that their delivery date was estimated out to the end of August through the first two weeks of September.    Two items from that order did arrive early but the rest sat and didn't even ship.  Amazon's way of punishing me for not using their Prime service?   That didn't seem logical since a) if I didn't need them right away I wouldn't mind the wait and b) if I needed something quickly I'd buy it elsewhere and cancel the order.  

Near the end of August I had another order of 11 items.   They also were scheduled to be delivered within the first two weeks of September.  Odd.  Do Amazon workers take vacation in August?  Since I had two orders outstanding and not yet shipped, I asked Amazon AI if they would combine some items from the two orders.  NO, was it's answer giving the reason that they were from two different orders.  OK, I thought,  just asking.

With the estimated delivery date approaching,  suddenly everything shipped this week except for one box of Christmas cards and a special pop-up Christmas card.  Even though the cards hadn't shipped, they were scheduled to be delivered today.  Didn't think that was going to happen.  It didn't.  Later in the day I got a notice that the box of cards were delayed and wouldn't be here until next week.  Then I received a notice that the pop-up Christmas card was no longer available.  They were cancelling that part of the order.  (This is why I order my Christmas cards and calendars in August - plenty of time before I need them.)  

I also got a notice that an item from the first order and an item from the second order would be delivered together on Friday.  I double checked that they were indeed from two different orders.  You can't trust AI.

P.S.  On Friday, the rest of everything I'd ordered in the last two months was delivered by UPS - except for the special pop-up Christmas card that Amazon said they no longer had in stock.  Yes, even the box of Christmas cards, that I was notified wouldn't be arriving until next week, was tucked inside a box containing other items.  Plus there was a box containing an item from the first order and an item from the second order.