Third Time IS the Charm

Today was quite a hectic day. Although it was a day I did not have to actually go to the office and work, I did have to work from home. Phone calls needed to be made and patient charts needed to be organized and ready for tomorrow. Aside from that, I also had laundry to do and e-mails to catch up with. I have spent most of today sitting at my desk, getting up just to use the bathroom, check my laundry or prepare dinner.

So, considering I was a bit tied up, when the UPS man arrived at my door, I took a few minutes to thank him and see what "present" I had received. I opened up the mailer to find a book. Not a book I had ordered, but a book written by an author I did recognize. My first thoughts were "I won a contest-yay!". Then I flipped through the book for any clue as to what contest this was and what blog or website I won it from.

 Upon further inspection, there was no note from a publisher or author congratulating me on this "win". No personalized inscription: "To Lisa, Thanks for reading! (author's signature)".
At this point I decided to look at the return address to see just where or who this book was sent from. The return address was also one I recognized. It was a New Hampshire address for a fulfillment center used by Amazon.com for their trade-in program.

 Now for those who don't know,  Amazon has a great program where you can take your gently used books, DVDs, or certain electronic devices and "trade" them in for amazon gift cards. Amazon pays the postage, you print a mailing label from your computer and either drop it at the post office or UPS center.If the item does not meet the criteria for trade-in, if you wish, Amazon will gladly return your item to you at no cost.  It's a great program and I have earned a fair amount of gift cards myself, that I have in turn used to buy more books, DVDs and electronic devices.

Now even though I did recognize the author of this particular book, I did know I did not submit it for trade-in. I again flipped through the book and found a trade-in slip that was sent with the book.
The trade-in slip did not have my name on it, but the name and address of another woman, who happens to live in Illinois. Not quite around the corner from me.
So at this point, I realized what had happened. This woman submitted her book, it did not meet the trade-in criteria (although I have to say I don't know why because I thought it was a brand new book) and Amazon was simply fulfilling her request to have the book returned. Only problem was they didn't return it to her, but somehow to ME. But I had her name, address and the transaction ID # right in my hand, so it was obvious what needed to be done. I had to call Amazon customer service and explain the situation, have them send me a prepaid label to attach to the book and send it off to the proper recipient, right? Right? Riiiiight.

Well, in theory, it all seemed easy. I have called Amazon customer service before, and have always had a pleasant experience. I mean, you enter your phone number and THEY call YOU. Right away. I have NEVER had such easy customer service experiences with anyone else in my lifetime.

So I logged into Amazon, pulled up customer service, enter my phone number and waited for my call. In less than a minute, my phone rang and yes, it was an Amazon customer service representative, who was more than happy to help me. Or so I thought.

I explained to the rep my situation and he asked to put me on hold. Of course I would wait. No problem! And then he came back and asked me what my account number was. I explained he would not find any reference for this transaction in my account because it was not MY transaction (and I actually did check myself before calling just to see if there was any sign of an obvious error). I told him I would be happy to give him the transaction number and even the name of the other customer. He said that would be fine. After I gave gave him the number, he then politely asked me to give him the transaction number. Um, I just did. "OK, do you want it again?" I asked. "yes", he replied. I repeated it for him. He asked to put me on hold (again) and I said "sure" (again).
After remaining on hold slightly longer than the first time, I looked at the clock and realized this quite gesture of courtesy I was making was looking like it was not going to be as easy as I thought.
Now I know most people probably would have thought to themselves. "Hey, it's not my problem. Why bother, and also FREE BOOK". I however, put myself in the place of that nice (I assumed)woman in Illinois, who will get an e-mail explaining how her book did not meet their criteria and it would be returned to her. Then she would wait. And wait. and wait. Until finally calling customer service herself, asking where her book is. So, I thought a few more minutes wouldn't hurt me. Plus I could order that Mocha Loca Lactic Acid peel I love from Sircuit Skinceuticals while I was on hold. (but that's a whole separate blog post in  itself).
So after a few more minutes, my friend the rep, returned to inform me there was no information on that transaction. Oh, that's odd. But I do have the UPS tracking number while I didn't know if it would help, it certainly could not hurt, right? Right? Riiiiight.
I began reading it off to him and was disconnected. Yay.
OK, so, now most people would probably say it really wasn't worth the trouble to bother with it anymore and hey, why not just keep the book and get back to what I was doing? Oh, but not Lisa. No, I had to go and still be thinking of that lovely (I assumed)woman in Illinois.So I resubmitted my phone number and waited-ring-wow, that was fast!
The next amazon customer service rep I was greeted with was a nice girl who ,of course, asked for my name and how should could help me today. I repeated all my info, this time, explaining that the first rep couldn't find any info on the transaction but I was about to give him the UPS tracking number when we got cut off. She asked me for the transaction number again. I obliged and she put me on hold. When she returned, she informed me that (guess what?) yup-she couldn't find any info on that transaction number. SURPRISE!
Then she asked me for the woman in Illinois' e-mail address. I (politely, I SWEAR) explained that I did not know this woman and certainly did not have her e-mail address. I did, however, have her name and address and would be happy to give THAT info to her. She then asked me if I could be put on hold. I said "sure". AGAIN. This time, holding took even longer than the first time and I began to browse the book, itself. The book turns out is a little erotic novel that by page three had me thinking I really may want to keep the book (at least until I could finish it).
When the rep came back on the line, she told me she had good news! (yay) I could mail back the book and they would be happy to credit the woman for the book. (good for her). "OK, I said.Can you send me a postage label for it?" After a brief moment of silence she said "No. Because this was a trade-in item" .      Um, yeah. I said ( Politely, I SWEAR) "well, that is how the trade-in program works. Amazon covers the postage. This woman didn't pay postage to submit her book, she didn't pay to have it returned and surely you don't expect ME to pay to ship it back, do you? Especially considering it has absolutely NOTHING to do with me and I could have just kept the book and kept my mouth shut- huh, DO YOU??". (yeah, this is where the politeness started to wear off). I was met with what I only imagined was a girl with a dropped jaw on the other end of the line and dead silence. After a few seconds,I said "you know what? I think I will just keep the book. This is not even my problem and I have better things to do than waste my time when I am getting absolutely no where, thank you." and I hung up.

Now, even more frustrated than I was before and having lost all sense of politeness, I decide to try one more time. (Yes, I must have also lost my mind). I again entered my phone number and-ring- picked up the phone. When the nice (I assumed) man on the other end asked for my name,I not only gave it to him, but I explained that this was my third (and final) attempt to resolve a conflict that was not even my conflict to begin with. I explained (once again back to politeness, I SWEAR) what had happened. I explained how neither of the earlier bozos  reps was able to find any information about this transaction from the number or name of the other  victim  customer. I told him how I know most people would not even bother to go through the effort to call once, let alone three times about this. I told him I was a bit (OK, very) frustrated and could he PLEASE just tell me what I should do with the book? He actually did turn out to be very understanding and explained that he was going to do his best to see what we could do. He told me he would possibly have to place me on hold at some point and was I OK with that? I said yes, and I again gave him all the information I possibly could about the sweet ( I assumed) woman in Illinois. He then said he was not going to bother checking the transaction number if the 2 other bozos  reps didn't have any success with it. After a few moments, he did have to put me on hold, for a while. He came back at one point to ask if I was "still with him" and apologize for the delay.
I then decided now that I spent money on that Lactic Acid Peel, I deserved it and should not feel guilty about spending the money. I also decided it was time to start preparing dinner. What can I say? I'm a great multitasker.
My new friend did come back and this time he DID have good news. He again apologized to me for all the trouble I had to endure and even for a problem that didn't really have anything to do with me. He said people like me are rare and hard to come by (I SWEAR HE SAID THAT). He said that I would be happy to know that they were able to locate the information on the other victim  customer and that because the value of the trade-in wasn't actually worth bothering with more postage, they were going to go ahead and just give the other customer the Gift Card after all and I could just donate or throw away (or keep) the book.
I said how nice that was of them to credit the beautiful (I assumed) woman in Illinois and I was glad a solution was reached. He also told me because of my trouble kind gesture he was going to give me a promotional credit of $10.00 to my amazon account. I thanked him and really started to feel bad about all the mean things I was thinking about the 2 previous bozos reps I had dealt with. I also felt really glad I had gone to all the trouble effort to do this because not only was I being rewarded, but the gifted (I assumed) woman in Illinois was now going to get the gift card instead of having her book returned. I not only benefited myself, but I helped a person out. If it were not for me, she wouldn't be getting that gift card. I am a hero! I felt the whole entire thing was worth it after all because it ended in a win-win situation (even for rep # 3 because I gave him a glowing report of my experience of him handling the situation in the survey I took after).
So my lesson for the day is: when you think that something is not worth your time and trouble  effort because it doesn't directly affect you, stop and take a moment to ask yourself-will it REALLY be that much trouble? Will it REALLY put me out that much? Because it just may not and you just may feel good about it all afterwards.
Happy Reading!
Lisa