figured it out

Got an e-mail from Acorn early this morning: they cancelled my outstanding order.

I guess the item is never coming back in stock, despite their still having it on the website for order. Or maybe they got ticked off with me and decided to cancel my order after I complained. (The website is now claiming it's back in stock on the 22nd. Which would be too late for Christmas)

I found a slightly different version (t-shirt rather than sweatshirt, and different design) on Amazon with two-day shipping. I admit I ordered it slightly out of pique.

One other thing I noticed Amazon does with a lot of non-Prime items, it says "arrives before Christmas" or "will arrive after Christmas" even before you add it to your cart. That's good customer service, it gives the person the choice up front, without making them order and then e-mailing them and going "We don't know WHAT went wrong!"

But I figured out why this bothers me so much: I know I won't get what I really want for any gift-giving occasion (because the things I really want don't come from a store) but I would like to be able to GIVE what I really want, and it frustrates me when a business claims to sell something but it is perpetually out of stock.

So I'm disappointed and while I'm sure my mother will be happy with the substitute, I'm still disappointed. And it just feels like the world is a little stupider and a little more disappointing than it absolutely needs to be.