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September 23, 2004
The Revenant Amazon Order.
So, here's what happened. Last July I ordered a book. A reprint of Dudley Wright's 1914 Vampires and Vampirism from Amazon.ca. IT was shipped July 13. And it never arrived. When I checked the order on the web page it showed that it didn't even make it to Toronto, ending up in Mississauga, but was listed as delivered. If you don't know already, Amazon hides its complaints pages deep inside its site. If you want to talk to a human, it takes work.
I found this contact information and I emailed for help for my missing package. Amazon is very good about responding and sending out another package. It arrived in a week or so. But the first package was lost.
When I got to work yesterday there was a red letter on my desk with "FINAL NOTICE" written on it, saying that it was the last chance to pick up some package at the post office. Some post office pretty far from campus. And the package was being held until two days ago. So I called and it was still there.
Now is always a good time for some exercise, so I walk on up to this post office and get my package. No shock. They can't find it. The woman I talked to had only checked to see if the package was in her computer, when I'd called to find out if it was really there, she'd not checked the actual package. After about 10 minutes of looking and relooking, it was found, elsewhere. I got my package and left. I was considering refusing to accept the package, but I wasn't sure what it was, it had no indication on the package, and I had no idea what would happen to it if I tried to refuse it... something nasty.
Took it back to my office and sure enough it was the original book I'd ordered. It had taken just over 8 weeks for the package to arrive in Toronto from Amazon.ca's warehouse... in Mississauga. For the unwashed, Mississauga is the city next to Toronto, and their borders actually touch. You need to watch the signs very carefully to find the one that marks the boundary, on the bridge over the Credit River.
As you could imagine, I'm a good boy, so I email my Amazon address that I'd used to complain about the non-arrival of my package, so that I can complain about the arrival of my package. How convenient. You can imagine how fast and enthusiastically thankful the Customer Support person was. They would love to have the package back, if I would just click here and fill in this form. And I did, and was informed that I had no outstanding packages. So I emailed customer service again, to more apologies. And would I please just send the package to this address. I idly wonder if Amazon Customer support folks smoke crack. They want me to pay to return a package that they couldn't bother to send to me, or bother to track down and get returned on their own? After another email they assure me that they will reimburse me for the cost of shipping it, but not the time involved for me to do it. What the hell. I'll send it back by first class courier.
Posted by jason at September 23, 2004 08:54 AM