An Open Letter to Amazon.com
I am writing this email in response to the recent debacle surrounding Kim Harrison’s book Black Magic Sanction (Kindle Edition).
I pre-ordered the e-book for about $8 in February. I later discovered that the e-book would not be released at the same time as the hardback edition. Of course, I was not notified of this; I had to find it out on my own by searching the web. I decided “okay, I paid less. I’ll wait.”
On the release date, April 6th, I waited patiently for my e-book to download to my Kindle. All day long I waited, and waited, and waited. I assumed you must be staggering the downloads throughout the day, to avoid overloading the Whispernet network. So I waited! This morning, I get up and (guess what!?!), NO BOOK!
I called Amazon customer service and politely asked what was wrong. Kieran informed me that the publisher had changed the price and that the $8 version was no longer available. He offered to give me a $5 credit if I would order the $12.99 version. I did so and chose not to berate Kieran for something he had no control over (i.e. – Amazon’s overall incompetence in handling this). Let me explain the ways in which Amazon has screwed up…
1) Not notifying me that my pre-order has been invalidated. Did this happen sometime around midnight April 6th, the release date?!?! Or did it happen weeks ago?!? I’m betting on weeks ago…
2) Not notifying me that I would NOT be receiving my e-book on April 6th. I had to call and ask where it was! Which leads me to #3.
3) Forcing me to call and clear up the problem. If I hadn’t called, would you have just ignored the problem until the price dropped in a few years, then sent me the book?
4) Falling back on “we haven’t charged your card, so we really haven’t sold you anything.” When I explained the situation back to Kieran, he was careful to point this out. I’ve learned my lesson about pre-ordering. Let me state this very clearly… I will NEVER, EVER pre-order something from Amazon again. I will make sure that NONE of my friends EVER pre-order something from Amazon.
I understand that you and the publishers are having your little fight over who controls the distribution channel. I also understand that eventually someone will win and the problems will get ironed out. I also understand that once someone controls the distribution channel fully, prices will go up for the consumer. I accept all of this.
What I do not accept is incompetent customer service during this period. You have seriously damaged your relationship with a valuable customer. You have, in all likelihood, lost revenue.
As a side note, I will also be contacting the publisher to express my dissatisfaction with their part in all this.
Regards,
Russell Thackston
Very Unhappy Customer