A few weeks ago the screen on my Kindle Fire died. I have absolutely no idea how or why as I'd had it for about 6.5 months with not one glitch. I'd been reading the night before and the next night when I picked it up again... nothing but a few coloured lines lying horizontally across the screen. I was away so when I got back the next evening I got online to check out trouble shooting and screen issues in Amazon's support section. I rebooted a few times - nada.
Then, I used their 'chat' option to type-talk directly to a support person. I told her what I'd tried and she replied with (paraphrased), "No problem. We'll replace your unit at no charge; just return your unit to us within 30-days".
There was one catch.
They would only ship to the US (not even the UK). So, that evening I made contact with my friend Sandy in Atlanta and she said she'd gladly receive the unit the post it on to me.
I got back on the chat support, spoke to another person and gave her Sandy's address. The first support person has logged our conversation so it really was just a matter of handing over Sandy's address. This was Sunday night. My new unit arrived at Sandy's place on the Tuesday.
It must have been just over two weeks after I'd first made contact with Amazon that I got an automated reminder saying they had not yet received my faulty unit and that I need to be sure to send it or else they will bill me for the replacement unit.
This time I sent them an email through the Amazon website to say that I'd sent it on X date and that this was the tracking number and that I'd taken a photograph of the registered slip with tracking and could email it to them. I had phoned tracking here and it was confirmed that the unit had left South Africa; our post office said they would be able to track it on their side once it landed in the US. It essentially had been there for two weeks when I tried to locate it.
I got an apologetic email back within a few hours saying that I shouldn't have received that message (I think the person thought I'd got a message saying I was being billed there and then) and that they realised that I'd sent it ("Must be lost in the post") and that they'd made a note on my account that I wasn't to be billed for the replacement unit! How's that!
I did reply to reaffirm the tracking number etc.
Sandy sent me the tracking number for the replacement unit she'd posted on to me. The USPS system showed that it has left the US almost two weeks ago. I phoned our post office track and trace and they had no trace of it. The woman said it would take 10 to 14 working days. Surely if it has left the US and landed in SA it should be traceable, at least to a postal depot? I wasn't totally worried yet but we all know the SA postal system... sometimes fantastic and sometimes stuff gets nicked.
That afternoon I found a slip in my post box saying it was at my local post office (and yet it could not be traced).
I'm delighted to have my Kindle back as I was halfway through a book and an audio book. The brilliant thing about Amazon is that my books (and audio books on Audible.com) are all on my Cloud so all I have to do is re-download them to the unit.
I am soooooo super impressed with Amazon.
Plus special thanks to my friend Sandy for receiving and sending it on to me.
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