My brother ordered an Xbox 360 from Amazon quite some time ago, and was given a delivery date of early December. Then his Xbox blew up, so he decided to edit the order slightly and pay for first class delivery rather than super saver delivery, which takes slightly longer. No problem, said Amazon. Your delivery date is now 19 February.

I don’t know the exact words my brother used at this point, but they’re not hard to imagine.

According to Amazon, whenever you edit an order – to change your card details, to upgrade from free delivery to first class delivery, to add gift wrap, whatever – their system treats it as a brand new order. It doesn’t tell you that before, during or after the edit, and if you try and complain you get some really patronising emails. Hurrah for online customer service.