Amazon Next Day

For John, BLUF:  Persistence pays off sometimes.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This morning, driving from Lowell, down to Hanscom Air Force Base, I was listening to WRKO (680 AM) and The Financial Exchange, with Barry Armstrong and Kim Keller.  Kim was talking about how good UPS is at delivering packages and Barry chimed in with how quickly Amazon is at delivery and how they are going to "One Hour" delivery in metropolitan areas.

Alas, after years of great service I have had an order go into a Black Hole, although it did emerge from the other side, after I played with it.

Back on 15 December I ordered two copies of Personalism, by Emmanuel Mounier.  One was a paperback for my Oldest Son and one was a Kindle version for me.  The Kindle version arrived promptly, since it is a Kindle version.  The dead tree version, which I ordered for next day delivery, to Gainesville, Virginia, popped up as to be delivered on Monday, 22 December, a week delay for a one day delivery.  Since I was hoping for parallel reading and discussion (a new approach by me), I was disappointed.  I was further disappointed in that my Son was to be enroute up here to Lowell on Saturday, the 20th, and wouldn't be home to take delivery.

My Wife suggested it was perhaps being routed through the Merryfield Sorting Center, in Virginia, which was infamous before it became involved in the Anthrax issues that arrived at the same time as the al Qaeda attacks on America on 11 September 2001.  Thus allowance was made for anticipated delays.

The other possibility is the book was in some remote distribution center and it was going to take a long time to get to the far western reaches of Prince William County, out on the edge of the sticks.

Well, my action was to go back into Amazon and change the delivery point from Gainesville, Virginia, to Lowell, Massachusetts.  Whatever it did to the Amazon delivery algorithms, the book arrived today, the 19th of December, three days earlier and just before my Oldest Son shows up for Christmas.

I was going to say "all's well that ends well", but there is no actual deception involved.

Regards  —  Cliff