chris mcaleenan

I love Amazon and have been using Amazon Prime since it first came out. We order from them at least once a week, if not more. 99% of the time I have a great experience. When something does go wrong and I have to call customer service, however, it’s another story all together. I understand keeping costs low, and I’m even willing to tolerate crappy service, but I sure wish I didn’t have to.

Case in point:

Me: I’m a bit confused – it appears my Amazon Prime account has been cancelled. Do you know why this happened?

Offshore Amazon Customer Service: Yes, it has been cancelled.

Me: Right, I can see that, but I’d like to place an order. What is the reason it was cancelled?

OACS: It was manually cancelled.

Me: That’s strange, I know that I didn’t cancel it. Can you please reactivate it?

OACS: You will need to reactivate it by reapplying.

Me: Why do I need to reapply? Did it expire?

OACS: Yes.

Me: Oh, alright. Well when did it expire?

OACS: August, 2009.

Me: So it didn’t expire yet. Maybe it was manually cancelled after all? I don’t mind reactivating it if it expired, but I don’t want to pay twice if it was cancelled for some other reason.

OACS: OK, sir, please hold on while I look at your account. [pause 2 minutes] Sir? It was manually cancelled.

Me: So it did not expire?

OACS: Yes. I have reactivated it.

Me: Great, thank you! How do I use Amazon Prime on the order currently in my cart?

OACS: You will need to reapply for Amazon Prime.

Me: But you just told me that my Amazon Prime is reactivated and good until August, 2009.

OACS: It is good until August.

Me: Yes, but August 2009 is 10 months away.

OACS: Sir, I need two more minutes, because I need to talk to my supervisor regarding this.

Me: OK…

OACS: OK, sir, I need you to reapply for Amazon Prime.

Me: And I won’t be charged for this?

OACS: Correct.

Me: OK, I’m on the site now, but it asks for my payment option.

OACS: Yes, please enter your payment option.

Me: But I’m afraid that if I enter my payment option you will use that payment option to charge me.

OACS: OK, sir, please hold while I speak to my supervisor.

Me: OK, sir, your Amazon Prime membership has been reactivated.

[Indeed, Amazon Prime does work now]

Me: Great, thank you.

How strange.

Julie and I went for a nice easy run out to the Red Hook Ikea and back. Our normal Saturday run is in Prospect Park, so it was nice to change things up a bit. Although I generally try to save my shins by running on asphalt, the sidewalk running on this route didn’t bother me much.

Part of our run was along the Brooklyn Greenway, which is going to be AMAZING when it’s done. Right now it’s pretty short (about half a mile), and apparently they are working weekends to finish. We learned this by running through freshly laid asphalt and narrowly avoiding an upcoming steamroller.

I also had another opportunity to try out my new Garmin 405. So far I love it, although there are a few features that annoy me. That said, being able to chart my runs (and bike rides) on Google Maps rocks:

Later that night we made goat cheese ravioli from scratch (took four hours, but it worked out well), along with homemade garlic bread. We also found a bottle of wine from Stellenbosch, South Africa, one of the areas we toured on our honeymoon. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.