Lion’s Journal

Mrs. Lion and I do most of our shopping on Amazon.com. We place hundreds of orders a year. Over the years, we’ve discovered that there are some nasty traps buried in this wonderful marketplace. Here are a few things you need to know to avoid them.

First, Amazon doesn’t own and sell everything it lists. A seriously large proportion of the products on the site are sold by third parties. Amazon offers listing, warehousing, and shipping services to anyone who wants to sell something. You can become a seller simply by filling out a few forms. The people at Amazon want all customers to be happy and work hard to avoid scammers. The vast majority of third-party sellers are honest merchants. However, some people have figured out how to use Amazon to make a quick buck.

the walmart scam

Very often, Walmart will offer products at significantly lower prices than Amazon and its third-party sellers. We discovered it when we needed to buy dog food. Amazon had several listings for the food we wanted. We picked the least expensive and ordered. A few days later, UPS delivered a large box with Walmart printed on the outside. Inside was the food we ordered.

I was curious and went on the Walmart website. I found our food for $10 less than we paid for it on Amazon. It was over $35, so shipping was free. Someone figured out that they could list the product on Amazon, and then when they got orders, simply place new orders on Walmart. They made a profit after paying Amazon its commission.

That’s not illegal, and as far as I can tell, it doesn’t break Amazon seller rules.  It does leave a bad taste in this consumer’s mouth. It’s easy to start a scam business like this. It only costs a few bucks to register a business name. Amazon releases customer money to sellers when the sellers say that the product is shipped. So, just take the unsuspecting Amazon customer’s order. Use your Walmart credit card (you get 5% off when you do, and after you click “enter,” report the item shipped. Amazon pays you way before your credit card bill is due, and you pocket the difference. Lesson learned. I now check Walmart and Target before making an Amazon purchase.

same seller different price scam

Everyone knows that Amazon reaches more consumers than anyone else. Other online retailers know that, too. When I shopped for an expensive ham radio transceiver, my first stop was Amazon. I found it for $100 below the list price. Nice. Well, I wasn’t born yesterday. I noted the name of the third-party seller. It’s always on the top of the listing near the price. I went to that seller’s website. They listed the same radio for $300 below list (free shipping, too).

A little more research showed that a lot of online sellers double-listed their products on Amazon at significantly higher prices. The sellers win two ways. They make extra money from customers who don’t realize that this scam exists. The make less money, but still get the sale from people like me. The lower price on their site was competitive with other ham radio dealers. The did their competing on their own site and let the suckers buy on Amazon.

discontinued products

Most online retailers, including Amazon, try to keep up with manufacturers’ changes. Amazon subscribes to catalog services that provide images and text for their product listings as well as current status. When Amazon is aware a product is discontinued, it puts a note on the offer. This isn’t true for third-party listings. It seems that they are on the honor system to do the same thing. Surprise! Most don’t.

In August, our Grind and Brew coffee maker stopped working. We went to Amazon to order a replacement. Amazon was the seller and sent us a new one just like the one that broke. It turned out that the carafe didn’t fit under the filter correctly. Amazon took it back and promptly issued a refund. I went back on the site and found a different, more expensive model. We had one of these in the past. We ordered it and it came. Two days ago, a critical piece broke off. Unfortunately, we were a week outside of the Amazon return period.

This coffee maker was sold by a third party. Amazon stocked and sold the one we returned. I called Cuisinart, the maker of the coffee pot. Their customer service people were helpful. They offered a replacement and we accepted. They also told me that the model I had just bought was discontinued.

I went on the Cuisinart website and saw that the model I just purchased was, in fact, not listed. The third-party seller, Deal-Center, didn’t bother informing customers that the product was discontinued. They happily took my money. Did they break the law? No. They just didn’t have their customer’s best interest at heart.

Amazon (sorta) puts the customer first

Amazon.com has traditionally worked hard to satisfy its customers. Well, that’s almost true. They work hard to build systems that will satisfy their customers. If the system fails, feedback from customer service goes to the appropriate software team to fix the issue. That’s supposed to give customers a smooth, stress-free experience.

Note that the Amazon method of providing great experience is by building systems that do it. This works very well for products that Amazon actually sells itself. Policing of third-party sellers is more difficult. If a customer complains about a third-party seller, the feedback goes on the seller’s public page. That’s nice if an Amazon customer checks there. It doesn’t help with the problems I’ve mentioned here. Amazon will get you your money back if you are sent a defective product or none at all. They can’t do much about the scams I mention in this post.

Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware, is especially true online. Even trusted merchants like Amazon can house slippery sellers. The answer is to be a smart shopper. When you plan to buy a large item, check the manufacturer’s website to see if the product is still in production. Check the list price. Then, check a number of online retailers to be sure you are getting a good deal. It’s worth the time and trouble. We’ve saved a lot of money thisway.

The latest right-wing strategy is to label people and businesses that they don’t like as “woke.” The word has a cloudy origin in black slang. The intention is to use this label as a pejorative that will not be bleeped in video and audio media. Florida governor Ron DeSantis labels the Walt Disney Company as “woke” because its then-CEO, Bob Chapik, objected to the Florida anti-gay law.

Aside from the label, DeSantis and his Republican legislature replaced Disney’s special tax district’s board with a hand-picked bunch of religious fanatics and conservative cronies. He claimed that Disney had unique rights with its special tax district. He failed to mention that the state has hundreds of others similar to Disney’s.

What interests me about all this is a look at history. The Reedy Creek district had been in existence for over fifty years. During that time, thanks to Disney, the area around it grew to one of the most prosperous in the nation. Walt Disney World is the largest single-employer location on earth. Over 78,000 people work there. By any measure, the “woke” Walt Disney Company is the best thing that ever happened to the state.

Disney isn’t generally outspoken on political issues. It donates millions to both Republican and Democratic candidates in the state. Before DeSantis’ tantrum, the corporation and the state worked smoothly together to bring prosperity to Orlando. It’s interesting to note that none of the “un-woke” (sleeping?) Republicans could cite a single instance of abuse of power by Reedy Creek.

It’s also interesting to note that DeSantis accused Disney of using Reedy Creek to avoid taxes. He couldn’t say what taxes were avoided but implied that the good people of Orange County and other areas were financing Disney. It turns out that 97 percent of the taxes in the Disney World area is paid by Disney. The other three percent are paid by merchants and hotels on its property. Reedy Creek had a billion dollars in bonds outstanding. Disney was paying them off. Not one cent came from the citizens of Florida.

The DeSantis tantrum has cost the state over a billion dollars in new business. Disney planned to move 3,000 jobs from California to Florida. A new office park had broken ground (outside of the Disney property) to house these workers. That project has been canceled, and workers who were already transferred have been moved back to California.

The Florida situation is just one example of how the far right has hurt our country. People who claim to be for smaller government are inserting laws into social issues. Take abortion. People have strong feelings about it. The Catholic church abhors it. “Woke” people want to let women decide for themselves. Wait a second! Shouldn’t the “small government” conservatives want that? Why would they want to pass laws controlling how women use their bodies? Isn’t that something you’d expect from Iran and Saudi Arabia?

The “un-woke” folks don’t favor balanced budgets and smaller government. They want social control. Their biggest issue is banning abortion. Running a close second is suppressing gay and trans rights. Both are certainly not something a democratic (the method of governing, not the party) nation should suppress.

Another big “un-woke” issue is immigration. It’s unclear what their position is. They are against allowing Latin American immigrants across our southern border. They are apparently fine with Asian and European immigrants. Interestingly, the “woke” folks aren’t exactly ready to open the Latin American floodgates either. There isn’t much difference between the parties on that issue.

I’m particularly troubled by the DeSantis/Florida situation. It’s the first serious case of a politician using his party’s power to seek revenge against a company that dared to disagree with a law he passed. Whether or not you agree with that law, the idea that a state government dominated by a single party can try to destroy a private business for speaking out has to bother even you sleepy, un-woke people.

That’s wrong by any measure. Dissent is a powerful agent that keeps governments honest. When it is suppressed, totalitarianism is moving in. The Republican “un-woke” people aren’t stupid or evil. They are good people blinded by ideology. If nothing else, America stands for free speech and individual freedoms. We’ve fought wars to preserve those values. They are in danger now. I hope that the “un-woke” will wake up and realize that the Constitution and the values it protects are more important than any social issue.

Love is like gravity. You barely notice it when it’s there, but when it’s gone, the world completely changes. I can’t imagine what my world would be like without Mrs. Lion. Her love supports me and keeps me grounded. Every corner of my life includes her. I’m pretty sure it’s the same for her. It’s the way marriage is supposed to work. This is both a blessing and a curse. All love ends in either divorce or death.

The deeper the love, the more tragic its end. I’m older than my lioness and much more likely to die first. Death is the only thing that can separate us. I worry about her. I suppose that’s normal. It’s worries like this that keeps the life insurance industry rich. That’s not what this post is about.

It’s about appreciation. We don’t appreciate gravity because we’ve never had to live without it. I’ve stuck to the earth, sometimes painfully, when I’ve fallen since my birth. I expect to continue until I die. I’ve been with Mrs. Lion for over twenty years. It’s hard to remember not being with her.

She’s taken care of me when I’ve been sick or needed surgery. She fills in the cracks in my life created by my loss of vision and balance. Like gravity, she does this silently without complaint or cost to me. I know it isn’t free for her. She has to do a lot of things I did in the past. She doesn’t look for gratitude or praise. Like gravity, she just keeps me firmly in contact with the ground.

I am grateful. I plainly see the extra burden I’ve become. It hurts me that I’ve come to this. The alternative seems worse, at least for now. If I’m gone, the workload lessens and stress might be reduced. I think I would be missed, at least for a while.

I keep asking myself if I’m being selfish. Am I just taking up space and wasting her energy? I’m happy in my newly limited world. Thanks to her, I’ve been able to compensate for most of my lost abilities. But at what cost? Gravity seems happy to keep me glued to the planet. I hope Mrs. Lion is too.

The tenth anniversary of this blog is coming up in a few months. It documents a decade of male chastity and about five years of domestic discipline. We’ve written over 6,300 posts, and over seven million people have visited our site. Most have seen pictures of my bottom and penis.

Aside from writing about male chastity, spanking, and domestic discipline, we’ve also traced my experiences with ED. ED is the most emotionally charged of all the topics we’ve addressed. The good news is that after a lot of experimenting, we’ve found a solution that restores full sexual functionality to me. I’m very happy about that.

All of our writing has been about me on the receiving end of the paddle and female authority. That isn’t a completely accurate picture of me. It’s true that Mrs. Lion is firmly in charge, and I am under her discipline. It’s also true that I spent the majority of my life on the other side of the paddle, delivering spankings and other fun sensations to willing females. There are times that I remember with fondness those sessions that evoked female screams and tears.

It’s true that blogging can inspire true friendships. Despite our 180-degree political differences, Julie of Strict Julie Spanked, has become a true, lifelong friend. I’m very happy to have found her. Real friends are rare and precious. Spankable real friends are like blue diamonds.

My relationship with Mrs. Lion has benefited from our blog. It has allowed us to express feelings and desires in writing. I’ve discovered that sharing this way allows me to work out sometimes-scary needs in a safe place. We’ve done this with our posts and with emails to one another. The requirement to post regularly (almost daily), forces us to stay current with one another.

I can’t claim that we are the typical kinky couple. There’s no such thing. Maybe some of what we’ve learned will help others in their adventures.  I’m just happy that you are along for the ride.