[From Amazon. Thanks to avid Bitterwallet reader Natalie]

[Soup von Marleila]

Well worth checking out some of the seller’s other 28,160 items. Essentially, they appear to have taken all copyright-free clip art ever and stuck it on bibs. From the medical range, our favourites include medical anatomy, quadraplegic cane, ovaries and erm, AIDS?

[Amazon via @Oedipus_Lex]

Well, as my grandmother used to say, fuck my old boots. Only this morning we told you about the insane deal that went down on Hot UK Deals at the weekend, when somebody noticed Amazon were selling a De’Longhi Prima Donna ESAM6600 Bean To Cup Coffee Machine – usually priced at over £800 – for £80.

Of course pricing mistakes happen all the time, we said, and course there’ll be some members who pretend to have received the goods to wind everyone else up, and course there will be a long list of folk who spend their time posting messages about how retailers never, ever, ever make good on pricing errors.

So that means that official Bitterwallet reader Robert has either paid over £800 to play a practical joke on us, or he’s now the proud owner of a De’Longhi Prima Donna ESAM6600 Bean To Cup Coffee Machine:

Over the weekend, a hawk-eyed member of Hot UK Deals noticed a deal that was too good to be true. Member amibee spotted that Amazon were selling a De’Longhi Prima Donna ESAM6600 Bean To Cup Coffee Machine; usually these retail at over £800 but Amazon was listing it for just £82.99.

Now as we all know, mispricings are the devil of online retail. They occur all the time and several hundred orders can be placed before the retailer rescinds the order and apologises for their ‘mistake’; in some cases this means a company sees their mailing lists swollen by several hundred and plenty of new credit accounts opened. Online retailers can do very well from their constant screw-ups.

Naturally, there were Hot UK Deal members who’d seen it all before and assumed the deal wouldn’t be honoured – they rarely are, especially when the error is in the order of £700 on an £800 price-tag. But since then there’s been a clutch of posts, all from different members who claim to have ordered the product, all claiming their accounts have been debited for £82.99 and that they have courier confirmation for deliveries today. It’s not surprising to see somebody employ bullshit-baffles-brains and shout about receiving their order when they didn’t, but it would be odd for several members to do so simultaneously.

Will it happen? Here’s hoping – if it does, it’d certainly beat the arse off our previous best pricing mistakes. If you’re one of the lucky, lucky bastards who receives their £800 coffee machine today, let’s have a photo from you or it never happened – bitterwallet@gmail.com. Cheers!

thanks to official Bitterwallet reader Robert Taylor

[Presurfer]

There was a bit of a spat in the publishing world at the weekend, as well as the careful employment of smoke and mirrors. It all had to with Amazon getting the huff with Macmillan – one of the biggest book publishers in the world. When you’ve built your business on book retail and your future rests heavily on digital e-books and e-book readers, upsetting such a company isn’t great for business, but Amazon gave it a crack anyway.

At the end of last week, Amazon withdrew all of Macmillan’s books from the site after the publisher pushed to increase the price of the Kindle versions of its titles; Amazon was adamant the price (in the US store, at least) should remain below $10 wherever possible, painting itself as the customer champion. Talks reached deadlock when Macmillan refused to give in, and the titles promptly vanished from the main store.

48 hours later, and Amazon capitulated to Macmillan’s demands, with a statement from the Amazon Kindle team reading:

“Amazon customers will decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling ebook. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced ebooks as an alternative.”

The problem for Amazon is that before last week, they may have had the upper hand, but then Macmillan was revealed as one of the major publishers to strike a deal with Apple to sell titles through the new iBooks store, which will allow the publisher – rather than Apple – to dictate the price of their books. There’s far more to it than this; it all gets quite unweldy and complex, but author Charles Stross delves into some of the key issues Amazon are struggling with – namely their attempt to be both wholesaler and retailer, and control the market at all entry points.

There was near-rioting in Bitterwalletville earlier in the month when avid reader Tom pointed out Play.com’s spectacular and entirely unneccessary excess when delivering a t-shirt. Avid readers from across the land booed and jeered and asked “Why do you never pick on Amazon!?” before promptly voting them Best Company In Britain 2009. Some people, eh readers?

Well, Tom has been at it again and ordered more goods online, but this time from your favourite company.  And despite enjoying the most coveted title in the country, Amazon clearly aren’t infallible – as this order of DVDs from them proves:

No padding in a box four times too big for the job. It’s like slinging a sausage down an alley to these people. Packing a box, and a correct sized box at that – it’s not difficult, is it?

This kindle comes with a realistic hand-shaped holder app

With Apple’s much-mooted iTablet/iSlab/iWhiteElephant due for launch in the next few days, Amazon have wised up to the fact that its arrival might push their Kindle e-reading gizmo in the bin marked ‘obsolete.’

Naturally, this has displeased them greatly and they’ve decided to get their act together in an attempt to make the Kindle into more of a versatile piece of kit. They have opened up the Kindle platform to allow third party developers to create new ‘active content’ for it, or ‘apps’ as they have become known to people who have an aversion to using the word ‘lication.’

Software developers can register interest in developing applications for the Kindle through Amazon’s website – travel guides and word searches and puzzles are already on their way for the e-reader. But as the Kindle is a black and white device with no touchscreen and miniscule sales compared to the iPhone, developers are probably more likely to get rich from inventing an invisible horseshoe or a fish helmet.

We know it’s the weekend but what are your thoughts on all of this, readers? Or on anything at all – we’re not fussy.

When it comes to naming 2009’s best company, you, the Bitterwallet readership have spoken, and not in the loud booming voice we expected from you either.

The winner of yesterday’s vote was Amazon, which is no real surprise as the online retailer bagged almost as many nominations as every other company put together.

But what was surprising was how tight the result was in the end, with the plucky youngsters from Ebuyer coming a close second. Well done them.

Thanks for all the votes you cast and start training your keen eyes on good and bad customer service in preparation for the 2010 polls – they’ll be here before you know it.

We’re not ashamed to admit that this is a particularly moist piece of internet that you find yourself gawping at. We’re teary at what sits before you – the grand final of Bitterwallet’s inaugural Best Company In Britain award, the one that covers the year formerly known as 2009.

Following yesterday’s nail-grinding semi-final, Richer Sounds and John Lewis join Amazon and Ebuyer as the four companies you hate to hate. Or even love to not hate the most. Whatever.

So then, this is it – a rare moment of unbridled and unfettered posi-bloody-tivity among all the whining and grining (a word that we’re fairly sure we just made up!) that normally goes on around here.

You have until midnight tonight to cast your vote – it may not take you as long as that to make up your mind. But please, whatever you do, be careful. You’re messing with people’s feelings here.

From the crack team of statisticians who brought you Bitterwallet’s ‘Worst Company In Britain 2009′ saga comes its lighter, brighter cousin – the ‘Best Company In Britain 2009′ award.

Over the next couple of days we’ll reveal the top eight companies according to your nominations. Your votes will then shape the line-up of the grand final, the result of which, if the nominations are anything to go by, will be as overwhelming as Heather Mills McCartney in a Best Monoped Ex-Wife Of A Living Beatle vote. Still, eh?

You have until midnight tonight to comply with this survey and the top two will go through to the final. Good luck…

Chorlton - obsolete

You lot bloody loves Amazon you do. That’s the feeling we’re getting from the nominations that have come in so far from you for our Best Company in Britain 2009 poll. They’re the hot favourites to win it and no mistake.

Now, in what seems like a calculated attempt by Amazon to guarantee themselves big Bitterwallet votes, they have announced that they are making their free Super Saver delivery a permanent feature, following a trial run over the Christmas period.

Previously, customers only qualified for free delivery if their order was above £5 and it isn’t so long since the minimum order amount for Super Saver was a bewildering £15.

Now that the free delivery option is permanent, the noble art of trying to find the cheapest items required to bump up your basket and qualify your order for Super Saver is a thing of the past. Like Spangles, Chorlton And The Wheelies and the miner’s strike.

It’s a move that should guarantee another few nominations for Amazon in our Best Company contest while striking a blow against their rivals like Play, Zavvi and former NUM leader Arthur Scargill. Maybe not so much Scargill.

Several months it was launched in the US, the Amazon Kindle DX is now available to UK customers. Hurrah! Named by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos after the main protagonist of popular 60s tv show and hit movie The Fugitive, now both the 6″ Kindle and 9.7″ Kindle DX are available with free wireless delivery, although nobody has bothered to work out the price of either in pounds; the Kindle still retails for $259 (£162) while the DX costs $489 (£305). Before you break out the credit card, be warned – according to Pocket Lint, import taxes and shipping will see the price of the DX jump to nearly $600 (£375). Get them while they’re hot, kids. And yes, we know.

Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra, still captivates millions with his swing ‘n’ big bandery and to this day, still epitomises cool to a certain type of person. Of course, there’s others who think he’s shit… and those people are advised to look away now as we’re going to point you in the direction of… well… to say this is a bargain is something of an understatement.

Now, Amazon have been known to make massive errors on pricing things up before and it’s not clear whether this latest thing is a mistake or not.

Basically, for a paltry £8.99, Amazon are selling ‘Concepts’ by Frank Sinatra. That’s a smooth, swingin’ 244 digitally remastered tracks. If you were to buy those tracks individually, it’d cost you £160 more or something.

The deal is live at the time of press so get in there quick before someone realises the terrible error they’ve made. Our Andy is already on it and can vouch for it working!

Don’t say we never do anything nice for you.

[Musically]