So I’m Never Pre-ordering a Book on Amazon Again

On Monday I posted about how freaking excited I was over an Amazon delivery notice I received on my phone. I don’t pre-order books very often, if ever, because I’m a library and used book fiend. However, when it comes to a sequel to the unparalleled The Handmaid’s Tale, you go all out.

Getting the notice on Monday night that it was shipping out to my house was so exciting. I’ve never had book mail like this before! I checked my phone multiple times throughout the day like a total nerd yesterday, following my package. I actually stood waiting by the window when I was alerted I was the next stop.

The Amazon app lets you watch the driver’s progress so when I saw he was on my street, I was at peak anticipation. By this point I could see him in his van, but he only got out for a minute before getting back in and driving off.

I watched his progress for an hour, the app still saying I was the next stop despite the fact he was going everywhere in my town except my house. What was this guy playing at?! Finally, over an hour later, I get an alert that my package was damaged and my order was cancelled.

I’m sorry, what?! You aren’t even going to replace it, you’re just going to toy with my emotions for hours then say “ok bye!” Yeah, I wasn’t impressed. When I tried to re-order it, it wasn’t at the pre-order reduced price anymore so that combined with the delay was a hard NOPE.

I tried calling Amazon but they hung up on me three times without calling back so by the time I got someone to actually talk to me, I was not a happy bunny. The advisor just kept rudely saying it wasn’t Amazon’s fault. Okay…it’s not mine either, but now I have to pay more for my order and y’all hung up on me a bunch of times- those parts of my complaint sound like an Amazon issue to me. Eventually her manager offered to send me a new copy at the discounted price but to be honest after the way the advisor had treated me, I didn’t want to risk going through this again. My husband works in the city so he is going to pick me up a copy today on his lunch break and I trust him a lot more than Amazon right now.

Considering an Amazon delivery driver let himself right into my home a few weeks ago, I’m seriously starting to wonder why I even keep Prime at this point. Ever since they started outsourcing their drivers a couple years ago it’s been non-stop issues, although walking through my house was certainly a whole new level of hideous service.

Amazon and the book industry is a blog post in itself, but I live in a small town in the sticks with no bookstores and I mostly work from home. So it was either pre-order the book or wait till the weekend when I could go into the city. With it being The Testaments, I decided to splurge and pre-order because this is pretty much the literary event of the year afterall. I got myself really hyped up for this delivery so disappointment doesn’t even begin to cover it.

To add insult to injury, I had cranked up the hot tub planning to spend my evening devouring the book in chlorinated bliss, but even the hot tub element was a no-go because as soon as I got off the phone with Amazon it started to rain. I blame Amazon for that, too.

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Have you bought The Testaments? Where do you usually buy books from? Any Amazon horror stories? Let me know in the comments!