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August 23, 2004
Amazon rant
I ordered Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Vol 2 back on August 15. In order to get "free shipping" you had to let them think about it for two weeks (sometime between Aug 27-Aug 31) before they even make a move.
So a week went by and I thought I would rattle their cage a bit by sending them this:
08/21/04 17:05:57
NAME: Richard W Howell
ORDER NUMBER: XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX
COMMENTS: Come on, ship the bloody book! How much money are you
saving by making me wait?
Ok, a bit brusk and tactless, I know, but what have I got to lose? The reply I got from them basically said, go to hell, we'll do as we please and if you don't like it, you can cancel your order.
to wit:
Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.
Sometimes, unexpected fluctuations in supply can add time to our
original availability estimate. I have checked your order, and I can
confirm that we still expect to ship it in time for delivery by the
date listed in Your Account: August 27, 2004 - September 01, 2004.
We will send you an e-mail to let you know when the order has been
shipped. Please feel free to contact us again using the following
link if you do not receive this e-mail by August August 28, 2004:
http://www.amazon.com/contact-us
I have checked our website and found that the current availability of
this item is listed as "usually ships within 11 to 12 days." This
means that typically it take up to 11 to 12 days to obtain and
prepare this item for shipment, but can occasionally take longer. As
you may know, we have several fulfillment centers across the U.S.,
and the items in your order may sometimes be in stock at different
locations. When you place your order, we estimate your shipment date
based on the proximity of inventory to the delivery address, as well
as how quickly we can obtain and assemble items for shipment.
However, as this is not what you expected when you placed your order,
we would understand if you'd prefer to cancel it. You may cancel
unshipped items through the "Your Account" link at the top right of
our home page by clicking the link that says "Cancel items or
orders." After signing in with your e-mail address and password, you
will be able to view your order history and cancel your order for any
item that has not yet entered the shipping process.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience this may
have caused. Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.
Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:
If yes, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/resolved-yes?comm_id=xxxxxxxx
If not, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/resolved-no?comm_id=yyyyyyyy
Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail. Please use the appropriate link above if you need
to contact us again about this matter.
Best regards,
I know if I paid the big $$$, that 11 to 12 days to obtain and
prepare this item for shipment would be more like 11 to 12 hours!
Who's zoomin' who, Amazon!
Posted by nezbitthecat at August 23, 2004 02:13 PM
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Comments
Weerrll... I know that sometimes books I order won't be stocked in the UK and so have to be shipped from America, and that's why the estimated delivery time is 1-2 weeks. With the amount of stuff that they have to ship from one centre to another to meet orders, I guess 1-2 weeks is about right. All their popular stuff is on-hand and dispatched within 24 hours, at least. Oh, but I'm not defending Amazon, they've messed me about way more than is necessary. I'm just giving my theories ;) ~lastingtwilight (yes, I realised you hadn't posted on lj for a while and came investigating :D)Posted by: Claire at August 23, 2004 06:45 PM
Yah. LJ went weird (with DOS attacks, I guess) back in June so I sought an alternative. This is the alternative which runs on my own server. I hope you will keep checking in once in a while.Posted by: Nez at August 24, 2004 03:02 AM
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