A friend recommended that I read a book on India that he felt would be of great interest to me. I went online to find some reviews and was convinced that I would indeed be interested and so went online again to purchase it.
First I tried Amazon, and then two other online book sellers with no success.
I went back to the book’s reviews to find out the publisher’s name and was relieved that it was published by an organisation with a branch in Pune. With some difficulty and the help of another friend I located the telephone number of the shop and rang them up to find that they do not have it in stock either. I was further adviced to get it from Chennai where the head office was located and I went back online to find that they had a website. I could not find any way to order a copy on line but was lucky enough to find a link to send feed back to them.
In the feedback mechanism I expressed my difficulty and sent the message off. Within half an hour, I received a message from them guiding me as to how to order online and I was finally able to order online.
You would think that the story would end there. No, it does not. The seller would not accept payment via my bank and so I had to opt for a credit card payment which I never use for online purchases. I then found that they would not accept Master Cards and my Visa card is under replacement procedure so I had to use my son’s Visa card.
No, the story does not end there either. The payment portal was having some problems loading and despite a number of attempts I was unable to make payment. The next day, I tried again and failed so I used the feedback mechanism again to send a message to the seller that its payment portal was not functioning.
Finally, two days after the whole story started, I was able to order and pay for the book which now the seller informs me is on its way to me.
Do I really need to continue as to why I was frustrated?
The topic for today’s 2 on 1 post is from fellow blogger Shackman. Please do go and see what he has to say on the same topic here.
Some sellers have unbelievable walls to climb. I would have been incensed.
I do hope you get the book!
XO
WWW
They are a reputed institution and I have no doubts whatsoever that they will despatch the book. Being a Spiritual Institution manned by volunteers, there may be some inefficiencies but, they won’t cheat.
Wow – luckily I have never encountered that problem. You are more patient than I – LOL. I have been remarkably lucky with online ordering.
My response to WWW reproduced: They are a reputed institution and I have no doubts whatsoever that they will despatch the book. Being a Spiritual Institution manned by volunteers, there may be some inefficiencies but, they won’t cheat.
🙂 Don’t count your eggs yet, Ramana. I can foresee two scenarios: The book gets lost on its way (or they are sending you the wrong title). The book arrives and, on reading, you don’t think it worth the effort after all (dare say the latter unlikely – but you never know).
It’s funny, isn’t it, how so many frustrations later make a good story in the telling.
Good luck,
U
I will get the book albeit later than had I ordered from say Amazon. The synchronicity of the incident coming just at the right time for the story is what is remarkable. Your second paragraph refers.
That sounds like an incredibly frustrating chain of events. Glad you finally managed to order the book! My own frustration is that I’ve contacted three people about repairing part of my garden fence and all three have let me down by not turning up as promised. If they don’t want to do the job, why not just say so and save me a lot of aggravation?
The kind of problem that you have had with repairing your fence simply will not happen here. Competition is severe and time is valuable for these artisans. My daughter in love recently rearranged the whole garden and I was amazed at the professionalism shown by the garden architect and workmen who relaid the paving stones and dug up the edges for replanting.
how odd that they would make a person jump through such hoops to buy their product. in this case just a simple book!
I wonder if it’s part of what is happening all over the world? when I read Nick’s comment and the one of a friend yesterday who has waited for the air conditioning people to simply finish the job they started weeks ago… and haven’t returned … it made me wonder.
did the term “oh just blow it off” ever leave our American shores? a whole generation of people when they didn’t want to do something just shrugged and said “oh just blow it off.” meaning they would then forget about messing with it. whatever “it” was. it seems they own companies and businesses now and they are still just “blowing it off!”
The publishers are an institution of monks and their online activities are managed by volunteers. They are simply inefficient and other worldly but, they will eventually deliver.
It sounds like a wonderful group. Worth having to be patient.
yes. I finally get the picture of whom you’re dealing with!
and they just seriously don’t function on everyone else’s “time line.”
isn’t it funny… overlooking the details… I immediately put the westernized world’s spin on it!
I like CM’s response too. 🙂
I’m not frustrated exactly on a phone conversation I had – when I said “send me whatever colours you have in stock…” and the person replied “we haven’t got them all so will have to order more” – that after I had ascertained at the website that only a few of the 24 colours were out of stock!
oh, well these art colours and the other things I ordered are under the credit$ I have to spend anyway – so I guess waiting for the full colour range isn’t too serious… although I was looking forward to the extra large size black paper for making some other cards…
Close enough! You are more resilient or perhaps more used to such shenanigans.