Sham-a-zon

There are some times when living overseas gives you hassles that you seem unable to resolve. Case in point: my credit card balance is actually in decent standing at the moment (notice that I didn't say "good standing." I said "decent standing") so I thought I'd treat myself to some books...as many titles are often difficult to locate in the shops here, I figured I'd order a few from Amazon. I chose my titles, filled out the billing and mailing information, planned to pay an arm and a leg for shipping and handling. I figured that would be that.

What followed was a week-long series of e-mails, faxes and phone calls between me and a barrage of different Amazon customer service representatives, all of whom failed on their promise to "expedite the issue." Apparently, they can't ship to a foreign address without proof of address. OK, fine. Certainly it didn't help matters that my billing address is currently listed as my mom's place in Connecticut.

So, in order to complete my order, they needed a copy of my driver's license, a copy of my credit card (front AND back), a copy of my passport, a copy of my credit card billing statement (an online version would not suffice) and a legally notarized letter of consent. Mind you, it took about $40.00 worth of telephone calls with customer service reps just to get this across. They couldn't accept e-mail; it need to be FAXED. This required tracking down a fax machine somewhere in this city, which was easier said than done. Don't get me wrong, we're not living in the dark ages - my school, in fact, has one but I couldn't justify asking my boss to use it to order books for "pleasure reading."

Normally I wouldn't go through all of this trouble and would've cancelled the order. But eventually I got to the point where I just wanted my damn books already! Sheesh! This'll be the last time I order anything for a while, that's for sure!