Amazon

[sheepdog 10]

A few days ago I went at least 10 rounds fighting with Amazon Books in a hopeless attempt to order a book for a friend of mine. Finding the book she wanted was easy, and finding a good price was too. The problem came when I tried to order the book. Amazon absolutly refused my real honest to goodness address. No matter how I tried to type it in I kept getting an error message that there was a problem with my address, and it gave it's own ideas of how my address should be written, none of which would get my book delivered to me. It seems that Amazon does not realize that people live out in the country and have some type of Box other than a P. O. box. My correct address contains my rural route number, and a box number. This is NOT a Post Office box, it is a rural route box. A P. O. box is something you rent when you live in town. It took a ton of digging but I fianally found a phone number for Amazon, wasn't even put on hold overly long, but the person I spoke to was nearly as stubborn as the web site. She seemed to think there was no such thing as a rural route box either. She even had the nerve to ask me if I had actually had mail delivered to this address, at which point I nearly lost what little patience I had left and said, well duh, only for the past 30 YEARS!!!Eventually she talked to someone else, and they said that the problem could only be solved by their technical department that sounding like it was way to complicated to even hope they would get fixed before the book is outdated and of no use to anyone. I asked the gal if anybody that lived in the country had ever ordered a book from them and she said she had no way to know that. Gosh, being country can sure be a problem sometimes when the world is run by ignorant fools who don't even know which end of a cow gives the milk. What you say??!!! Milk from a cow? I bet you thought it grew in those plastic jugs in the store, right?

[Ananya 0]

I myself don't have any prior experience of ordering books online but such an issue certainly hurts the very purpose of e- marketing.If a person can't order because of a sheer problem of Post box address. I think the online forms need to be scripted well keeping in view the wide range of addresses possible so as not put customers in such a problem as the very purpose of such an online websites gets tarnished if they are unable to serve a geographically remotely located customer.Hope your post will give online marketing websites some idea of such a sort of problem.

[sheepdog 10]

Yes, you would certainly think a company as large as Amazon that had been doing online sales in the length of time and the volume that I'm sure they do would have some sort of contingency plan for what ever address you might have. I am not going to have to call my local post office to see if there is a way I can fill out Amazons order form and still get the book. All in all, it's really annoying. The book isn't even for me, if it was I would of given up already on the whole idea but my friend really wants this book.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Yes, you would certainly think a company as large as Amazon that had been doing online sales in the length of time and the volume that I'm sure they do would have some sort of contingency plan for what ever address you might have. I am not going to have to call my local post office to see if there is a way I can fill out Amazons order form and still get the book. All in all, it's really annoying. The book isn't even for me, if it was I would of given up already on the whole idea but my friend really wants this book.

I live out in the middle of nowhere as well and I never had an issue with my address. I input it a long time ago though so the checks may have changed since, but the system shouldn't care how you enter your address as you can have items shipped anywhere...

[darko100 1]

Amazon is a great service , I don't know for you but I know for me.It is a huge company and owns many smaller sites. It helped me a lot in buying a lot of stuff , never books though.

[adriantc 0]

I may not be the best example, but I had some mixed experiences with Amazon customer service. On one hand I they sent me a book 3 times because the first 2 times the book had a printing error and doubled a chapter and missing another one. They didn't ask any questions (maybe they already knew of that lot) and just send a new one. But of course 3rd time was the charm. But this small issues cost almost nothing for a giant like Amazon, but for the customer is a lot and a few negative reviews will have an impact in their profit share.On the other hand I'm really upset by the way they treat international customers. For example I own 2 Amazon Kindles and I buy ebook from them. They have a price for the US and another (larger... in some cases more then 30-40% larger) for the rest of the world. Not only that, but they don't sell many book outside the US even if it's a digital format - they don't have to actually ship anything. But they are not the only ones that treat the dollars of others different from their own dollars. (as if their own "presidents" have less value here).

[sheepdog 10]

Well, amazingly enough I finally got the book for my friend. And the annoying thing is that I just went to the site the next day, did my address exactly like I had done the day before, and this time it took it. Good grief! I sure can't figure out what went wrong. And as if I hadn't had enough aggrivation ordering this stupid book, a day or 2 after I ordered it my credit card company declined the payment! Ok, I should appreciate the credit card company protecting me by not accepting unusual orders on my credit card, since a book is a far cry from the usual dog vaccine I normally order, but it meant another 30 minutes on hold with the credit card company to straighten it out. For a lousy $4 book. I often wonder why simple things can turn into such a huge ordeal.

[k_nitin_r 8]

I have tried Amazon a couple of times to order books online, and they were able to deliver to an address all the way in Dubai, though the shipping costs did make up about half the order value. If they did have more storage locations worldwide, they could perhaps ship from someplace else and reduce the shipping costs.I didn't really have a problem with a system that required information that I did not have. If it asks you for a P.O.Box, you may be able to enter a rural route number in the same field and hope that the books do get delivered and give them a call if it does not. The expedited shipping options do help because the shipping is through a courier service such as FedEx and they make a best effort to deliver to the extent that they will even make a phone call to deliver the package to the location where you are at a time of your convenience, though at times they do insist that the delivery has to be made at the location specified by the consignee. They are flexible on time and can deliver it during any of their office hours and even have the option of having you collect it from their despatch center instead if you prefer. The problem usually comes up when they insist on delivering the package to the address specified on the package and your office hours match their office hours so you would not be able to stay home to pick up the package and sign the receipt. I guess the kind of delivery is dependent on the service because some consignments are required to be delivered at a specific location.Recently, I've also noticed that some courier services require a photograph of the person who received the package using a camera mounted on a hand-held PDA. It is probably something that they would use when handling documents or objects of a high value to prove that they actually did manage to deliver the package to the specified person, though they would have no way to determine that the person being photographed is actually the same person who is supposed to receive the package.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Well, amazingly enough I finally got the book for my friend. And the annoying thing is that I just went to the site the next day, did my address exactly like I had done the day before, and this time it took it. Good grief! I sure can't figure out what went wrong. And as if I hadn't had enough aggrivation ordering this stupid book, a day or 2 after I ordered it my credit card company declined the payment! Ok, I should appreciate the credit card company protecting me by not accepting unusual orders on my credit card, since a book is a far cry from the usual dog vaccine I normally order, but it meant another 30 minutes on hold with the credit card company to straighten it out. For a lousy $4 book. I often wonder why simple things can turn into such a huge ordeal.

Sounds like you've had some bad luck all-around! And the credit card situation, while it's annoying, is there for your benefit. I got annoyed on a trip I went on because I tried to use my credit card for something and I was told it was declined. Called my credit card company and they said they blocked the account since it was being used across the country from where I live. I was able to unblock it within a couple minutes. And while it was annoying, it was also relaxing to know they had me protected automatically.

[adriantc 0]

Well, amazingly enough I finally got the book for my friend. And the annoying thing is that I just went to the site the next day, did my address exactly like I had done the day before, and this time it took it. Good grief! I sure can't figure out what went wrong. And as if I hadn't had enough aggrivation ordering this stupid book, a day or 2 after I ordered it my credit card company declined the payment! Ok, I should appreciate the credit card company protecting me by not accepting unusual orders on my credit card, since a book is a far cry from the usual dog vaccine I normally order, but it meant another 30 minutes on hold with the credit card company to straighten it out. For a lousy $4 book. I often wonder why simple things can turn into such a huge ordeal.

Glad you have finally managed to get the book you wanted. Maybe they have changed something in the script of their website to accept
an address like yours. When it comes to their profit, I'm sure Amazon is very efficient. And I am sure you are not the only one with this kind of issue.

How is that your credit card company declined the payment? Did you actually pay on credit? I don't live in the US, but I never had a transaction blocked by the credit card company. And I do buy a huge lot on eBay and Amazon. Or maybe that is exactly why the transaction was unusual...

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Glad you have finally managed to get the book you wanted. Maybe they have changed something in the script of their website to acceptan address like yours. When it comes to their profit, I'm sure Amazon is very efficient. And I am sure you are not the only one with this kind of issue.

How is that your credit card company declined the payment? Did you actually pay on credit? I don't live in the US, but I never had a transaction blocked by the credit card company. And I do buy a huge lot on eBay and Amazon. Or maybe that is exactly why the transaction was unusual...

They usually declare anything as unusual if it's out of the norm. Ex. if you're always buying stuff in one area and then magically a charge comes up from someplace very far from your norm. This also happens when you don't spend much and then do a major purchase, or other things. Basically the system tries to pick up on anything abnormal (at least is my understanding).

[sheepdog 10]

In an effort to control fraud, many credit card companies now decline charges to your credit card that are "different" than you would normally use. They do track and record every purchase you make, so they are well aware of your shopping habits. So if you are usually near your home paying for gas at your local gas station, if a charge is suddenly made on your card a sate or two away, that would send up a red flag in a hurry. In my case, I normally only use the card to occasionally purchase gas, and frequently to order dog vaccine, so that is a pretty far cry from a book.

[adriantc 0]

In an effort to control fraud, many credit card companies now decline charges to your credit card that are "different" than you would normally use. They do track and record every purchase you make, so they are well aware of your shopping habits. So if you are usually near your home paying for gas at your local gas station, if a charge is suddenly made on your card a sate or two away, that would send up a red flag in a hurry. In my case, I normally only use the card to occasionally purchase gas, and frequently to order dog vaccine, so that is a pretty far cry from a book.

I guess it's better safe then sorry. I've had problems with the credit card companies from my own country because I've had a few cases of a payment getting processed twice. But they were very fast to fix their mistake... Of course it wasn't because they are extremly polite, but because keeping money locked may lead to a head-spinning court case so I guess this is not one of those cases when they just delay everything.

PS: A more personal question... Are you a vet or the vaccines are for your own dog (maybe the one from the avatar?)