another amazon trip

If I know anything, it is how to milk several essays out out of a mundane event.

You might think there is nothing more to discuss about my little experiment with ordering DVDs and a book from Amazon, and then having it delivered to my Mexico post office box.  Everything worked even better than promised.  Or so I thought.

While looking through the 1100 pages of David McCullough's biography of President Truman, I noticed a little problem.  The corners of the last two pages had been torn off.

My first thought was that the pages were damaged due to faulty packing.  But I was wrong.  A closer examination disclosed the real cause.  During the binding process, the corners were torn off and pasted under the back cover.

The defect does not affect the reason I bought the book.  None of the text is affected.  But if I had seen the defect in a bookstore, I would not have spent $25 to buy that particular copy.

I was reluctant to contact Amazon.  After all, I did not want to go through the hassle of boxing up the book and sending it back to The States.  Instead, I lobbed the problem back to Amazon with a description, but no suggested resolution.

Within hours, a customer service representative informed me a new copy of the book was on its way to me.

And that is one reason I like Amazon.  It knows how customer service should work -- proving that corporations are not necessarily impersonal entities.  Most Mexican businesses could learn from the model.

The Amazon story just gets better and better.  So much better that I also bought a Kindle version of the book.  (The hardbound copy is too heavy to read in the pool.)

The company's professionalism has helped me decide it is time to buy some more DVDs and CDs. 

See, its model works.  Shareholders take note.