Why is Amazon.com doing this?
 

Well, I want to share my experience with all LQ members.

A few months ago I ordered (actually my mom ordered: she's got the credit card) two books from Amazon.com. Everything went smoothly during the ordering. There were no warnings about not being able to ship or anything.

Well, three weeks passed and not a whimper. Then my mom got an e-mail from Amazon.com saying that there would be a delay in processing the order and would she please confirm whether to cancel the order or go ahead.

Well, since those books I ordered were not available in India, my mom confirmed the order. Another month passed by without no sound. Then came the bombshell. My mom gets another e-mail from Amazon.com saying that since she didn't confirm the order in the time period, they had automatically cancelled the order!

Now that's a real shocker coming from a world-famous online store. I can understand if Amazon.com had said while ordering that they couldn't deliver the goods. Now nearly two-and-a-half months after ordering and confirming the order, they have cancelled it.

This is the last time I'm going to buy anything online. If somebody with a reputation like Amazon.com can do this to me, I wonder what will be the case of other online stores.

Certainly I live in India. I cannot do a thing about it. If they couldn't deliver to India, they could have said so in the beginning.

I'm sure that had this happened to anybody in the US they would have sued. Now all I can do is write to all you people to share my experience. This was my first and certainly my last attempt at buying anything online.

Greetings Harishankar
floppy here

I have bought software online, no problems,
(without creditcard ) from a site here in Australia
and they do carry a small range of books
try
www.lankum.com

another site is
www.elx.com.au
though I havent bought from this site
but they have a bigger range of books

However after your experience
e-mail them first to see if they can ship to India and make sure you check the exchange rates for India / Australia and of course postage and any other taxes etc
you dont want any nasty shocks
They will probably only deal with a credit-card however since you live in India

let us know how you get on

good luck
live long and prosper
floppywhopper

It just sounds like the oder was not confirmed and they cancelled it. I doubt that a lawsuit would be brought against them for this, It would surely be a waste of time and the plaintiff would lose. Did Amazon say that they could not deliver to india after your mom placed the order?

I'm not seriously contemplating a lawsuit. I just mentioned that many Americans would have thought of that.

To answer your question BajaNick, I am sure that my mother did confirm the order. And usually, I have noticed that when Amazon cannot ship, they say so immediately before I can place the order. I tried that one before.

Well, they could have been quicker in replying. Here I was waiting eagerly for over a month and nothing but disappointment in the end.

If I could have got those books at my local bookstore, I would never have placed that order anyway.

sorry that you had this problem, ive had no problems with amazon, i live in the states though. i wonder why they couldnt ship to you? i doubt that amazon, regardless of the size of their business, would turn down money...

if you know someone where they ship to, have them buy and ship it to you maybe?

Maybe try another online bookstore. I am sure theres more than just amazon and probably one with a distributor closer to you.

A lot of friends and relatives recommended Amazon.com because it's the most famous and they vouched for the reliability.

I still think that it's a weird scenario though why this happened. Probably they had a server error or something and they couldn't get the confirmation in time.

Mega big sites always treat "third world"/remote countries like crap. I live in SthAm, and they don't deliver. We get a friend to take the shipment, hold it until any (ANY) person who we remotly know and has suitcase space can get it down. The school here trys to get textbooks in, but the company insists on shipping from Colombia, which sticks them in aduana (customs) for ages because the US will withhold aid if they don't look for drugs in any thing that looks 'suspicius'.

My sugestion? find out were they do ship to, and get a friend in that country.

titanium_geek

I get a lot of software from elx. They are pretty good and quick, tho I haven't got any books, just disks. I suppose they delivery overseas...

Note to all the worlds peoples: Not everyone in the US is as lawsuit happy as the SCO and the like. In fact most of the U.S. supports tort reform, and hates trial lawyers with a passion.

Amazon did the exact same thing to me last year, so I bought the items from Barns and Nobles. Problem solved.