November 1, 2006
The Mysterious Amazon
Is it just me, or are others recently encountering problems with Amazon.com?
For instance, I recently ordered some bath salts. It took a very long time for the order to ship (at least compared with what I'd experienced with some earlier shipments of the same product). Then, the package arrived damaged: the glass containers for the salt had been poorly packed and were shattered in transit. Much of it spilled in my kitchen when I opened the package. The little that remained is now sitting in the torn open corrugated cardboard shipping box in my garage. So now my garage smells of lawn mower, solvent, varnish, assorted other household product fumes, ... and sandalwood, jasmine and rose.
So, I called Amazon's customer service number (believe it or not they have one) and asked them to re-ship. They agreed and yesterday the replacement shipment of salts arrived...in the same condition! Another crappy packing job with the same sorry results.
So I called Amazon customer service again. My aim was to get them to re-ship, this time packing the salts correctly (styrofoam peanuts and all that). They were basically unwilling to do this, despite the fact that this time I had refused delivery and thus they would be getting back the evidence that there really was a problem. They need to "investigate" what is going wrong with the process.
So I told the Amazon representative on the other end of the line (who was, to be sure, very nice) that this isn't the Kennedy assasination. A large scale investigation is unneccesary. The root of the problem here is clear: you can't ship glass containers essentially unprotected.
But he insisted that my only remedy was a refund, which I accepted at that point.
Now, I understand that Amazon is a big and diverse organization and that the left hand can only communicate with the right one through elaborate bureaucratic procedures. And I also understand that the Amazon representative with whom I spoke must operate in this context.
But this is the big rub in dealing with an outfit like Amazon: the most trivial problem (I want to do business with them; all they need to do is pack a box correctly) turns into a big production. This pitfall isn't a real problem as long as things are basically running smoothly, but when they aren't...
In the end, I just ordered the salts directly, from Better Botanicals. I would rather have dealt with Amazon (their prices are better).
Posted by dag at 9:28 AM | Comments (2)
October 25, 2006
Housekeeping
I have made a few changes to Aging Disgracefully, mostly in the categories department. First, I have renamed the category "Food" to be "Bread". Why, you might ask? Because it occurred to me that it might be a nice juxtaposition with "Circuses: The Holy Game", another new category. "Circuses: The Holy Game" has been created to cover the all-important upcoming NCAA basketball season.
"Immortal Beloved" will serve as a tag for all posts related to my wife. I chose this in honor of my favorite composer and because it occurred to me that the wife might interpret "The Relentlessly Nagging Shrew" as negative in tone.
"Plinian Eruptions" is a special category reserved for outbursts. I had planned on two categories here: "Plinian Eruptions: Time Warner Cable" and "Plinian Eruptions: Everything Else", but it occurred to me that that might make that area of the site seem too crowded.
"The Bittersweet Symphony" is for music. "The Epicurians" is for every form of indulgence not covered by another specific category.
"The Meditations" is where I'll go on endless and tedious philosphical digressions, each and every turn of which I am sure you, dear readers, will follow with breathless anticipation and excitement.
"I, Claudius" is where I will follow politics in the next few years. It would seem that we may be in for quite a ride in this regard. It is also where I will address all matters related to the Empire, whether of Claudius's time or ours (cleaving to the matter at hand, Cartman had the essential handle then and now: "They Don't Respect Our Authoritaaaay").
Finally, I announce this in "L'Etat", my new category related to the management of Aging Disgracefully.
Update: I have created yet another category, "Dismal Science", to house all of my ramblings on Res Economia.
Posted by dag at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)