Above and beyond
I haven’t seen Jane Austen in a while but have become very familiar with Virginia. Woolf, that is.
Those of you who know me will be familiar with my inability to go anywhere without the full range of anti-boredom gizmos, which now includes my Kindle. So, imagine the horror of arriving at Heathrow at the start of a four week adventure and finding my Kindle had decided to behave badly.
The symptoms were odd and inconsistent but the principal problem was that after just five or ten minutes, the “Critical Battery Warning” would appear and that was that. No more reading.
I used my Hero’s Kindle to open up the help files and discovered how to reboot it, plugging it in for the eleven and a half hours to Bangkok (bless you, British Airways, for providing a power source at my feet!)
But still, it wasn’t right and from time to time it would spontaneously shut down or freeze and eventually I gave up and went to sleep.
Once on board the ship, I was able to access the Amazon site and seek help which was readily available but not that easy to access, because the advice was always “give us a ring” – and though we had some free telephone time, clearly we didn’t want to use that to listen to Vivaldi for hours on end.
Though it was frustrating, I survived the four weeks only using my Kindle whilst plugged into a power source and even then, when it “went to sleep”, it would reboot or freeze on the picture of Virginia Woolf.
Always Virginia.
Fortunately the ship had an excellent library and because so many people now use ereaders, there were plenty of books available. So I wasn’t lost for something to read.
But I missed my lovely Kindle and couldn’t wait to get it back.
As soon as I arrived home I went online and opened the Amazon Kindle Support website. Here’s what happened then:
Wednesday 5.00pm – I complete my contact details and offer a brief resume of what’s happened to my Kindle. I click “call me” and as I do, the phone rings. My hero gasps in amazement!
Wednesday 5.01pm – I speak to David, who clarifies the problem and immediately responds with the offer of a replacement. He will email me with a confirmation but in the meantime explains that a new Kindle will be sent to me “by express delivery” and that it will be with me within 24 hours. I’ll need to return my broken Kindle within 30 days and should arrange collection from home at my convenience with DHL on their website.
Wednesday 5.10pm – The email arrives with printable pre-paid return labels, details of how to contact DHL and reassurance that none of my books will be lost. A second, confirmation email arrives within minutes.
Thursday 10.30am – A courier arrives with a package – my new Kindle, registered as “Gill’s 2nd Kindle”. I load the DHL website and arrange to have the broken one collected on Friday morning and use the packaging from the replacement to pack up the original.
Thursday 11am – I receive an email containing details of how to transfer all my books to my second Kindle and within minutes have everything back, less than 24 hours from having reported a problem. I am one happy bunny.
Jane, you never looked so good.
The DHL courier arrived on Friday morning as requested and collected the broken one leaving a receipt with me. I didn’t even need to go to the Post Office.
Amazon’s Customer Service has never let me down but on this occasion, I felt that they went above and beyond their obligations to resolve the problem and for that I think they deserve recognition. I don’t normally play cheerleader but on this occasion, I’m there with a hearty “Bravo and Thank You!!
