Feeling Amazon

Railgul could not renew one her textbooks from our library. She asked me buy one from Amazon. I did. The arrived next day. I always like their service. When I opened the book, I found that it was not the she asked. I ordered “Vector Mechanics for Engineering: Dynamics” instead of “Vector Mechanics for Engineering: Statics”. See the difference. It is just one word. Two book have exactly same cover, same authors. Just one word, and that one word is in different color, not an obvious color to my eyes. What can I do? yes, there is only one way: return for refund. I ordered the correct book and called Amazon, thinking if I can exchange to the other book, since they are same price. Usually I am very reluctant to call customer service. In July, when the travel agency bought my France tickets, they put my last name and first name in reverse order. I called United airlines for that. It took me 10 minutes to speak to a human. The machine just made me crazy.  I say “Nebraska”, the machine says “ Did you say Alaska”. Ruined my day, I can say. But ,this time, calling Amazon is different. No “Please hold, next available …..” . It is like calling my friends, instant respond. A very friendly lady answered the phone. I can see her smile on the phone. It was such a pleasant talk with her. She said I have to return this for refund, as I expected. I don’t have to pay for the shipping. ( Actually it will be deducted from the refund). I knew the process. I could have done it through their website. I was just happy because of the friendly telephone conversation. Talking to a human, who speaks plain English. I liked it. “How may I help you” maybe good. But there are better ways to start the conversation. “May I have the last 4 digits of  your social?”, “May I have your first and last name”, “What is your maternal grandmothers maiden name?” maybe ok. But how about “Are you calling from phone number xxx-xxx-xxxxx”? In any case, talking to a machine, is the worst experience.