Episode 479: We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company

That's apparently one of the mottoes of Amazon UK. For once, I actually believe a company's claims for itself. What happened was that I sent the hard drive back after my seminar, but the lady at the post office said I'd have to pay for postage, so I did. First Class, £5.85. Went to Leamington after that to look at houses, and came back with the intention of sending an e-mail to customer services to complain, since returns are supposed to be free. That's when I realised that I was supposed to have arranged a collection by DHL, but I didn't notice this when I was printing out the label. So in a way, it was my fault for being careless. I sent an e-mail to customer services explaining what had happened, letting them know that all I wanted was to make sure that the actual refund would still come through even though I'd posted the item back by Royal Mail. Lo and behold, I came home from rehearsal to find a reply, politely informing me that the return label is intended to be valid, regardless of which carrier I use. So I'll be getting a refund on the postage, in addition to the original item's value. How awesome is that? The third-party seller who sold me The View From The Ground has also offered a full refund because I wasn't satisfied with the condition of the book as advertised. I'm considering, although it's unlikely they'll pay for postage and the book itself only cost me £0.01, so I think I'm just going to send them a polite reply letting them know that I'm not upset, just recommending that they be more stringent in their quality control. (Maybe I should change my feedback rating for them on the site?) The truly bizarre incident of the day though? Receiving a bag of bling from Topman that I didn't order, with no indication of sender or an order form. No suspicious activity on my bank account. Very bizarre, right?