a replacement Kindle

The screen died on my 8-month old Kindle last week.  I called Amazon.com customer service at 4 AM (I am often awake during the middle of the night) and got a replacement ordered in about 5 minutes. 

The replacement Kindle arrived yesterday.  Transferred my books over from the dead Kindle to the new Kindle using my PC mouse & USB connector in a couple of minutes.  Boxed up the old Kindle, printed off the free shipping RMA label, taped that on the box and will drop it off at the Post Office tomorrow. 

The entire process could not have been easier.  All told, that is less time than driving the 15 minutes to Fry’s in Renton much, less having to wait in line for at least 15 more minutes and then talk with the returns clerk—during regular business hours which can entail some nasty 405 traffic depending on the time & idiots needing to play crash-test dummies.

Amazon provides a level of customer service that most businesses can only fantasize about.  Combined with lower prices and deliver right to my front door, you know they are kicking the sales & customer loyalty crap out of most B&M stores.  The B&M stores do have instant gratification of going to the store, looking at what they have and then buying items right now.  Even so, B&M stores will have to greatly improve their customer service skills to compete.   While Fry’s is still a pain to return items to, they are orders of magnitude improved from what they used to be like just 5 years ago.

I am grateful for the awesome prices and customer service from Amazon along with the immense price & customer service quality competition they put on the rest of the shopping/sales eco-system.