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Dr. Matt Lee (mattl)

Web standards, accessibility, free/open source software, old UNIX/TV/Music and occasional wargaming

Amazon customer service (2009) (2009)

So, tonight I finally got around to signing up with Amazon.com — I had been putting it off for a while. The experience is somewhat different to the UK version, in so much that Amazon really delivers on a whole lot more promise than it does in the UK.
Point 1 — Repeat orders
Now I don’t have to worry about my cat getting fed — Amazon are going to ship a 24-pack of catfood to my house every 30 days for the rest of time. Kitty will be happy. Also ordered some healthy snack bars, some bathroom products and some vitamin suppliments on the same setup. Pick 1, 2, 3 or 6 month delivery windows for the products and boom.
Point 2 — Extra options
I get a little sick of seeing all the bullshit for Kindle on Amazon.com — there really ought to be a way to say “No, I really don’t want a DRM-laden swindle” and never have to see the vague and persistent pleading that comes from all their Kindle nonsense. But amongst all that crap, I did pick up on a way to get my book from Amazon in a hardback form at a price lower than the paperback.
Point 3 — Speak to a real person
I had a couple of problems with signing up for my trial of Amazon Prime — first it refused to let me sign up at all, and then it insisted I had signed up before and refused to give me a trial at
all. So, I let Amazon know and now there’s a real person, who called me, and is dealing with my problem. At midnight.
Why am I up at midnight buying things on Amazon? Well, I have a nasty cold, so I’m away from work and taking a variety of cold medicines which leave me sleeping weird hours. My favourite so far is the ‘CVS Pharmacy brand Cold and Flu remedy’, which as clearly marked on the box is ‘Recommended by the CVS Pharmacy’ — not sure what to make of that. Either they’re being overly sincere, or their customers are usually fooled by any vague recommendation. Made a note in my to-do list to contact CVS and see if they’ll put my face on the box instead.

Published: Thu Jan 22 2009 20:48:23 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) by