E: The service is Amazon

My studies have commenced for the fall semester. «Religion in the Media Age» (2006) is a book hard to get at the libraries, but relevant for my thesis. I therefore ordered it from Amazon.co.uk on advice from my supervisor.

It’s been raining a bit in Oslo lately, and as the cardboard package was fairly wet when I picked it up from the mailbox Saturday. Not wrapped in plastic or anything else, the top half of the book's back (a few centimeters forward) was all wet. After drying the book, it was no problems turning the pages. I felt entitled to notify the seller though, but stressed I could manage without a replaced book and did not care to and did not have time to return the book for an exchanged copy.

Below I have cited the relevant paragraphs of the reply e-mail. This is what I call service:


Dear Customer

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk.

Firstly, please allow me to apologise for the issues you have
experienced with this item.

I have placed a new order #026-9311434-0650049 for "Religion in the
Media Age (Media, Religion and Culture S.)", and it will be
dispatched as soon as possible to the same address.

There will of course be no additional charge for the replacement
order. When sending a replacement for a damaged or defective item, it
is our policy to request that you must return the original item to
Amazon.co.uk within 30 days.

However, as the cost of returning the package is in this case
prohibitively expensive, we ask that you keep the original item with
our compliments. Perhaps you would like to donate it to a charity in
your area if you feel it would be appropriate to do so.

We will notify you by e-mail at the time the new order is sent out to
confirm the date, contents and method of delivery.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk.

Warmest regards

[NAME REMOVED],
Customer Service
Amazon.co.uk

I think the extra copy will be relevant for a fellow master student who also writes about religion in her media studies thesis.