Tuesday, I order three things from Amazon, and they hadn't shipped -- even though they were marked as in stock. So, I email Amazon for a what's up:

> Date: Tue Mar 07 18:41:24 UTC 2006
> Subject; Where's My Stuff?
> To: int-primary__4r4t4y@amazon.com
> From: lincoln@vitaluna.net
> ---------------
> 03/07/06 10:37:43
> NAME: Lincoln Dunn
> ORDER ID: 104-1560901-0102303
>
> COMMENTS: If these items are on-hand, why is the estimated
>shipping date two weeks from now? Please advise.

And, the same day, I get this back from them:

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Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.

I cannot express to you how sorry I am for the promises made
regarding the delivery of your order which were not kept and for the
frustration and disappointment this situation must have caused for
you.

Our goal is to provide the highest level of customer service
possible and I sincerely apologize that our service did not meet
that standard in this case.

We are very sorry for the delay in completing your order.

I've learned that the shipment of your order has been delayed by a
system error. To help compensate you for this unexpected change, I
have upgraded the method of shipment for this order to Next Day
Domestic. There is of course no additional charge for this.

We expect your order to be shipped on March 07,2006. The Estimated
Delivery Date of your order is March 09,2006.

I hope you'll understand that we do our best to ensure that all of
our customer orders leave our fulfillment centers as close as
possible to the availability and shipping estimates listed on our
web site.

I know this must have shattered your faith in Amazon, but if i may
say so, this is not a typical Amazon.com experience and for us the
customer comes first. Disappointing you in such a way not only
makes us hang our heads in failure but also spurs us on to work
harder to ensure such an error never happens again.

I hope you give us another chance to regain your faith and prove our
commitment.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

Best regards,

Srikanth
Amazon.com Customer Service
http://www.amazon.com
---------------------------------------------------

A lesson in offshoring your customer support, without clarifying appropriate response language...

Reddy, our Indian programmer, is hiding his face in his office. He says he's embarrassed that one of his fellow countrymen would even write something like this. Meh -- I told him I'm embarrassed that my fellow Canadians put Stephen Harper in 24 Sussex.