As a consumer in that scenario, the only way to stop the cycle is to tip well no matter how bad the service.

Oh, hell no.

Can you say "Self-fulfilling prophecy"? I tip on amount of the bill before the coupon for good service -- but if I get shitty service because the waiter thinks I'm not going to tip well, guess what: he's right.

I've noticed the TSA getting lampooned a lot (e.g. "Cat people, dog people" "We all look the same way nude." "Good point") -- and have seen some less than flattering portrayals of Fatherland^W Homeland Security on popular TV. Now this could be all part of a Hollywood conspiracy to let the hoi polloi blow off some steam with comedy, but it could also be a reflection of public opinion tilting against the insidious creeping fascism that threatens to blanket us in the absence of popular resistance.

Duh moment for me -- you meant that the 90 day clock would have run out on the Prime membership charge. That's true. And I assume there's a choice of law in the Amazon terms that means I couldn't sue them in a local court, but I guarantee I would find some way of either getting a pro rata refund or making them wish they had given me one.

I'm acquainted with the limit -- had a problem with eBay/Paypal (pre-merger) some time ago and when it became apparent that PayPal's "dispute resolution" process's primary purpose for being seemed to be for running out the Fair Credit Billing Act clock, I went ahead and disputed with my bank and got the refund due me that way. I would have done the same thing with Amazon.

Thanks!

Do you have a link to this? I'd be interested in seeing what happened. Was it an actual pricing error--not that handling it that way would have been acceptable in any case? Were I to have been so affected, I would have just disputed the charge for the Prime membership as well.

After all, if the masses started using Linux then all the die hards would have to go somewhere else to feel superior.

I heard Hurd is looking for new users.