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Fun with second hand books?
May. 19th, 2020 08:41 pmEarly in April a shipment I had been awaiting for some time from Betterworldbooks arrived, with what I expected to be the Oxford World's Classics translation of the Decameron. I got vol 2 of an Italian edition, instead. First such stuff-up I've had from Betterworld, I got a refund, and I've found an online version of the Decameron meanwhile.
Today, spurred by the discovery that ch 1 of my phd is weak due to massively missing that the back end of the Romance of the Rose is not just grumpy, it's a satire (look, in my defence, the number of things I firmly believe are satire - starting with Andreas Cappelanus' De Amore - and my supervisor doesn't, it was inevitable one day I'd miss one), I followed up on an alibris delivery that never arrived from the us.
Me, to bookseller (via alibris): this is probably a COVID delay, but can I check that it hasn't been returned to you?
Bookseller: it was delivered to the address you provided on x date. Here's the tracking details. Talk to your local USPS office if you didn't get it.
Tracking details: delivered to Folcroft, Pennsylvania.
Me: o_0
Anyway, after sending a 'i do not live in Pennsylvania and have never shipped anything to Pennsylvania please check again' email, i looked at the invoice again and the invoice said 'will ship to Alibris UK before it ships to you.' So, I thought, it was supposed to go to the UK, THEN me. That might explain the delay, two separate mailings to be delayed.
I remarked to twitter that IF alibris have a fulfilment centre in Pennsylvania that might explain a lot. Their social media manager popped up and confirmed this was the case (only, amusingly, they said it was their 'fright shipping service'), so I guess when it says 'Alibris UK' it doesn't mean actually IN the UK.
I have sent a second email to the bookseller in apology.
...
I just want my Romance of the Rose translation, since the lang barrier seems to be not helping vis 'missing the satire aspect'.
Today, spurred by the discovery that ch 1 of my phd is weak due to massively missing that the back end of the Romance of the Rose is not just grumpy, it's a satire (look, in my defence, the number of things I firmly believe are satire - starting with Andreas Cappelanus' De Amore - and my supervisor doesn't, it was inevitable one day I'd miss one), I followed up on an alibris delivery that never arrived from the us.
Me, to bookseller (via alibris): this is probably a COVID delay, but can I check that it hasn't been returned to you?
Bookseller: it was delivered to the address you provided on x date. Here's the tracking details. Talk to your local USPS office if you didn't get it.
Tracking details: delivered to Folcroft, Pennsylvania.
Me: o_0
Anyway, after sending a 'i do not live in Pennsylvania and have never shipped anything to Pennsylvania please check again' email, i looked at the invoice again and the invoice said 'will ship to Alibris UK before it ships to you.' So, I thought, it was supposed to go to the UK, THEN me. That might explain the delay, two separate mailings to be delayed.
I remarked to twitter that IF alibris have a fulfilment centre in Pennsylvania that might explain a lot. Their social media manager popped up and confirmed this was the case (only, amusingly, they said it was their 'fright shipping service'), so I guess when it says 'Alibris UK' it doesn't mean actually IN the UK.
I have sent a second email to the bookseller in apology.
...
I just want my Romance of the Rose translation, since the lang barrier seems to be not helping vis 'missing the satire aspect'.