Floating Down the Amazon, Slowly

We have received new release date information related to the order you
placed on October 19, 2010 (Order# [snipped]). The item(s) listed below
will actually ship sooner than we originally expected based on the new
release date:

Alec Soth, John Gossage "John Gossage & Alec Soth: The Auckland Project"
Previous estimated arrival date: January 05, 2012
New estimated arrival date: December 15, 2011

You know, Amazon, I wouldn’t actually be crowing about the fact that you’re shipping something “sooner than originally expected” when the new delivery estimate was 420 days after the original estimate—so much longer that you had to send yet another e-mail telling me to enter new credit card information because the old one had expired in the interim. I especially disliked the way that you dribbled out little notices over the last fourteen months telling me to wait just a little bit longer and giving a new completely made up delivery date. (The aforementioned credit card e-mail is the only reason I have any confidence that you might actually have something to ship this time. Of course, I could have canceled, but that’s really not the point here.)

Don’t get me wrong; I still like you, Amazon, but you’re no longer seem as awesome as you were a couple years ago. For the first I’m starting to wonder about your supply chain and ability to fulfill orders. The main reason I keep coming back to you is price, but a large part is also trust. When you say something is in stock and available, I believe it will ship and arrive on the dates you listed. Normally you’re pretty good, but this isn’t the first time this has happened. (Usually, it’s for limited run art books like this one.) If more of this happens, I might have to reassess my position.

Now, I just wonder how long I’ll have to wait for my PhotoQuai 2011 book to arrive. . . .

Commande n° 	[snipped]
Date d'expédition : 	16 novembre 2011
Destination : 	Natick, MA, United States
Date de livraison estimée : 	6 décembre 2011

Suivez votre colis
Date 			Heure 	Lieu	 	Détails de l'événement
22 novembre 2011 	18:04 	Croydon 	Scan de départ
22 novembre 2011 	15:44 	Croydon 	Colis reçu par le transporteur

Updated 12 December 2011 — Hey hey! Both books arrived today. Since the original post last Friday, I have since read that if you’re ordering something from Amazon.fr, Amazon.jp, etc., it’s a good idea to use the somewhat more expensive expedited shipping option. It seems that returned deliveries after selecting the normal shipping method is somewhat de rigueur, on account of the super-saver shipping company not being very good at what they do when it comes to shipping to the USA. (Despite having the book in my hands, the DHL Global Alliance tracker still says that it’s in Croydon. Ha!)