February 9th, 2004
107651370020349791
The big yellow website
This entry is just about as impersonal as I can get, but I had to extoll the virtues of my near-perfect relationship with an (dare I say it?) ecommerce pioneer. Amazon rocks. That’s all there is to it. I’ll go on about it a little more though.
I’ve been an Amazon customer since I first overcame my skepticism of PI security on the internet and bought my first CD online in the good `ol days of 1999. Since then I have purchased thirty-eight individual items consisting of two DVDs, one VHS, four CDs, two video games, one controller, an MP3 player, smart media cartridge, 16 books, a cell phone with AT&T plan, and planet-eating robot for my best friend… in all together easily over a thousand dollars.
Brandon jumped on the boat before I did, but I think I preach about it more, due in part to the fact I got a stainless steel coffee tumbler [with great philosophers' quotes] from CEO Jeff Bezos for Christmas 2000. Aside from that, they still maintain the best customer experience I’ve encountered at _any_ retailer, digital or physical. Every time I’ve had a question about an order, I have received a cordial and informative reply in less than eight hours. I have never had an order late, damaged, or inaccurate, and I continue to receive items ahead of when I expect them.
e.g.: Lost in Translation and A Life Less Ordinary were both released on DVD last Tuesday (US time). I ordered said items along with the Lost… soundtrack sometime early Sunday morning, February 1st. The order shipped Monday morning, slated to arrive (via my standard/slowest shipping option) between the 17th and 25th. I got the package this morning, one week after ordering, six days after the product release. Very nice. I noticed the items came from an Amazon distributor in Frankfurt. I could almost smell the bratwurst on the box of my (US hardware encoded) media. So much for region export restrictions, and expecting to be treated like anything less than the most important customer in the world.
