10 September 2005

Amazon.Snafu

I swear, Amazon.com has got the strangest system; but I'll be damned if it doesn't work out to my advantage. As some of you will remember from this post, last week I placed an order on Amazon for two U2 singles (The Fly (1991) and City of Blinding Lights (2005)), plus Confessions by Augustine. I got an E-Mail a few days ago, from which I'll quote the appropriate sections.

Greetings from Amazon.com.

We thought you'd like to know that we shipped this portion of your order separately to give you quicker service. You won't be charged any extra shipping fees, and the remainder of your order will follow as soon as those items become available.

The following items were included in this shipment:
-----------------------------------
Qty Item Price Shipped Subtotal
-----------------------------------
1 Confessions (Penguin Classics $8.95 1 $8.95
1 City of Blinding Lights [CD-S $12.99 1 $12.99
-----------------------------------
Item Subtotal: $21.94
Shipping & Handling: $4.13
Super Saver Discount $-4.13
Total: $21.94
Paid by Visa: $21.94
--------------------------------------------------------------------
You have only been charged for the items sent in this shipment. (Per our policy, you only pay for items when we ship them to you.) The following items will ship separately, as soon as they're available:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Qty Item Price Not Yet Shipped
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Fly [CD-SINGLE] [IMPORT] $12.99 1

via UPS (estimated delivery date: September 14, 2005).

Okay, I can handle that. The Fly single is what, fourteen years old, almost to the day, right? So then I get this E-Mail, which I've only just now even noticed as it's sandwiched between two messages from The Wife in my inbox.

Greetings from Amazon.com.

We thought you'd like to know that we shipped your items today, and that this completes your order. The following items were included in this shipment:
-----------------------------------
Qty Item Price Shipped Subtotal
-----------------------------------
1 Fly [CD-SINGLE] [IMPORT] $12.99 1 $12.99
-----------------------------------
Item Subtotal: $12.99
Shipping & Handling: $1.84
Super Saver Discount $-1.84
Total: $12.99
Paid by Visa: $12.99
-----------------------------------
via USPS (estimated delivery date: September 14, 2005).

Well, today The Fly single arrived via USPS, not UPS, four days early. I'm still waiting on the other package, which shipped the day before; my guess is that if it was shipped on Tuesday, it'll probably arrive Monday, which is still two days ahead of their estimate.

It strikes me as a bit unprofessional that the later packaged arrived before the former one, and that it wasn't shipped the way they said it would be shipped. Even so, I'm not in a hurry to get my stuff, and because of that, I'm getting it shipped for free; it's also arrived so far ahead of schedule, and they've paid extra shipping costs in order to ensure excellent customer service.

Bottom line? It's a little screwy, but if it works out to my advantage (which shopping from Amazon usually does), they can supply my books and music any day.

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