More On Amazon & The Baby Registry
I want to thank everyone for their support! Every call, e-mail, letter and fax is so appreciated. I’ve since had two contacts from Amazon about this issue.
The first was last night from Amazon.com Executive Customer Relations, an entity I had never heard of before. Stephanie writes:
Hello from Amazon.com.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience you encountered when trying to set up your baby registry. Our system does require an event date; however, this date can be edited later.
If you know the approximate date your new child will arrive, you may enter that; if not, simply enter a date a few months into the future. I understand that with adoption it is difficult to predict the exact date, but the due date can be easily changed on the “update registry information” page:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/edit-babyreg.htmlAlso, you may use the “parents’ notes” field to explain the situation.
I hope this information is helpful, and congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family!
Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.
Regards,
Stephanie
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
The second was a reply on this site to my previous post from AmazonEmployee:
As an Amazon employee, let me begin by apologizing for the Customer Service response. It is quite possible the the Customer service representative wasnt aware of the options you have. Let me explain,
Although the ‘due date’ terminology doesnt really cater to adoption, you can enter any date you please for that column. Once entered, and information can be changed anytime you want, just like any other customer information on Amazon. This way, you should be able to change your date at any time, to any date.
I tried creating a fictious account to test this, and it worked.
I’ll try to forward this to the people at CustomerService to see that this doesnt happen again.
While I appreciate their responses, I think both missed the point of my original complaint. I responded similarly to both people:
Dear Stephanie,
I appreciate your having taken the time to write me and explain how I can manage the registry as an adoptive parent. However there is a point I am trying to make that I’m not sure you completely recognize. One of the hardest things for an adoptive parent-to-be is the not knowing when you’ll match or if you will match with expectant parents who wish to place their child for adoption. I do understand that I can make up a date and change it at will. However, the date is the problem.
Putting in a date causes anxiety about whether we will match before that date. What if we have to wait over 18 months, 2 years? The problem is in having to enter a date at all. After all we go through with infertility in the first place, the waiting and not knowing is additional torture.
What I am asking is whether there is a means of making the date field optional, period. BabiesRUs has added an “are you adopting” field to their registry. Go the next step and add an “are you adopting” field and then *not* require a date for those who are adopting. Would that be so complicated? Considering the fact that you can track my purchases, make recommendations based on my previous orders, and stock everything from groceries to hardware, would making such a change really be *that* hard?
As I have communicated my frustration in the infertility community, I have found other adoptive parents who share my same feelings of hating to be made to choose a date for such an imprecise process as adoption. It’s been a long road getting here. If you could make things a little easier for us, that would be much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Liana
Whereas Shakespeare said, “The play’s the thing,” for infertiles the date’s the thing. I hope that they hear what I am saying. I’ve heard from too many adoptive parents and parents to be that they feel the same way that I do about having to enter dates, made up or otherwise. I know that I’m not standing alone in this.
As an interesting aside, I have been having an interesting discourse/debate with a gentleman on Reddit.com about my upset with Amazon. He believes that I am making much ado about nothing (I seem to be in a Shakespearean mood today) and I disagree. Check out the discourse and see what you think. You can also add your own comment on the post. Reddit link to Amazon.com: Adoption Unfriendly?
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I love you. What else can I say? You fight the good fight and you do it so well. I hope they’ll make the changes.
Cynical view: Amazon sells your data (unless you explicitly prohibit it) to other companies. At minimum, it also uses that info to market more stuff to you and to build one of the most comprehensive profiles of you in any database in the world. That “due date” has a LOT of dollar value to Amazon. From that date, they will know the age of your kid for the rest of his/her life. When the kid turns 1, you’ll receive info about toddler products. When he/she turns 6, you’ll get info on elementary school related products and info. At 13, designer clothes and music, etc… .
So of course they want to force you to enter this date or a best approximation of it. Without that date, they cannot sell your info for as much money.
So, I think your odds of getting this to change are low short of creating a very big protest. (I’m behind you).
Also, as someone in the web/software industry, while customer service reps mostly just apologize, they CAN enter an “enhancement request” in their systems.
Even better, though, is to get a hold of the product manager or brand manager for the Amazon Baby Registries. His/her job is to figure out what features should be added or changed to the baby registry product. Maybe he/she can be convinced that it makes Amazon more money to NOT require this tidbit of info.