I would like to take a minute to thank my sponsors…

My weekend has been sponsored by utter frustration.  But I could not reach the height of my frustration without:

Amazon.com – who everyone touts as a great friend to the military family because they ship to APO addresses.  Well, they do, but their third party sellers/shippers do not.  After hours of research and deciding what netbook to purchase, do you think it was amazon.com who ships it, even though it is labeled as though they themselves have it in stock?  No.

Walmart.com – also a proponent of shipping to APO addresses.  FREE shipping to APO addresses even!  Well, everything except the netbook I want to purchase.  I never liked you Walmart.  Now I like you even less.  The only reason you were considered is because Target doesn’t ship to APO addresses at all.

BestBuy.com – does ship to APO addresses!  But only had crap for sale.  (Every single netbook only had “Windows 7 starter edition.”  Which is great for netbooks.  But with no option to upgrade in case we wanted to watch movies on our netbook, worthless.)

RadioShack.com – who does not ship items over $100 to APO addresses.  (again, worthless.)

Acer.com – does not sell from their website.

Toshiba.com – does not ship to APO addresses, but recommended, at our own discretion of course, to use a service like APObox which has a person to receive your item and then forward it to you.

Dell.com – Does not ship things efficiently to APO addresses and does not make it easy.

I did not get to HP.com.  My internet limit is almost up.  (sigh)

I did get to look locally as well.  The local electronics store – like a German Best Buy – K&B had a few netbooks.  For 250 euro, instead of  $250.  I haven’t seen a Saturn, which I hear is a good German store for electronics, anywhere in the area.  I know they have them out west.

Honorable mention goes to our Post Exchanges (="PX", which is our version of a general store with everything from furniture to appliances to toiletry products.  Kind of like our local Target.) on Vilseck and Grafenwoehr, each of which had absolutely NOTHING in stock for netbooks.  (But, plenty of Casio keyboards.  Really?  Are these the things soldiers and their families need en mass?)

The ultimate winner was shopmyexchange.com which is the online version of the PX.  You have to have a username and password for this site so they can verify that you are eligible for the PX benefits.  Like free shipping!  NO sales tax!  A website that's impossible to load on a slow internet connection!  (we had to order from John's office today.)

And, for the item I wanted, a nice $60 price increase over the competition like amazon.com and Walmart.  I think it’s a racquet.

But, it was on sale!  For $15 off the original price!  

Really, you dillweeds??  THAT is not a sale.  $15 off of a $50 item is a sale.  $15 off of an item over $300 is less than 5%!  And you’re still overcharging!  But, hey, I didn’t have to pay sales tax or shipping, right?  And yet I'm still paying $50 more than what I was going to pay.

And then they thank us for our service like they’re doing us some sort of favor.

No no, AAFES, thank you.  I only used you as a last resort and I feel somewhat dirty after the whole experience.  Like I was forced to spend more money due to my overseas living location.  Congratulations, vendors, for making me want to poke myself in the eye.  Oh, you can stop acting all military friendly too.  You all suck.

But at least I get a netbook and can easily lug around a mini computer all around Europe.  Or at least easily hang out in the Java café. 

As another example....Victoria's Secret.  Granted, it's not an expensive electronic item.  But I put my order in.  APO was no problem.  They estimated 3 weeks for delivery.  It came in a week.  THANK YOU to Victoria's Secret!!