My continuing nightmare with Amazon - Lightning Source
Recently I updated you on my continuing frustrations in trying to get Amazon to display the cover art of my self-published book, in my post "Does Amazon discriminate against self-published books?"
Well I finally heard back from Amazon, who claims that my distributor, Lightning Source / Ingram Book Co., deleted my cover art from Amazon's product page. Whether this was an accident or just plain stupidity isn't clear:
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:20:23 -0800
From: "Amazon.com Advantage Member Services"
Subject: Your Amazon.com Advantage Inquiry
X-Originating-IP: [207.171.160.40]
To: steve_delivers@verizon.net
Bounces-to: RealTimeEmail+CS-CUSTOMER_REPLY-yqjeIS9dMB@bounces.amazon.com
X-AMAZON-TRACK: notification
X-AMAZON-MAIL-RELAY-TYPE: notification
Greetings from Amazon.com.
As the page you created was overwritten by the merchant supplying the
book to us. Unfortunately, this is why the image was removed. They
would need to submit an image so that we can insert the image on to
the detail page for the item. ...
Best regards,
Brian
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage
I don't participate in Amazon Advantage, but hey, who's quibbling? At least we've discovered the problem, and it will be a simple matter to correct things, right?
No, it's not that simple. See, I was expecting Lightning Source would be able to help me pretty quickly. After all, you'd think a company with the name "Lightning Source" would be pretty quick. But I've found out that the name has an ironic meaning, at least when it comes to them working with their real customers, author/publishers.
I forwarded Amazon's message to my Lightning Source account rep, adding my explanation that the cover image now being displayed for my book is a low-resolution Amazon "customer image" that doesn't show up in search results.
So, after a few days of waiting, here was the reply from my Lightning Source rep:
"Steve,
I see that the cover is now up on Amazon.
Thanks!
So it's hard to know whether my Lightning Source rep doesn't understand the issues, or just isn't paying attention. In any case, I can't wait much longer for the first-line employees at Amazon/Lightning Source to pull their heads out of their asses by themselves. I'm trying to sell a book, and can't afford to be continually cut off at the knees by my "partners." A nastygram to the management at both companies seems to be in order. I'll keep you posted.
Well I finally heard back from Amazon, who claims that my distributor, Lightning Source / Ingram Book Co., deleted my cover art from Amazon's product page. Whether this was an accident or just plain stupidity isn't clear:
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:20:23 -0800
From: "Amazon.com Advantage Member Services"
Subject: Your Amazon.com Advantage Inquiry
X-Originating-IP: [207.171.160.40]
To: steve_delivers@verizon.net
Bounces-to: RealTimeEmail+CS-CUSTOMER_REPLY-yqjeIS9dMB@bounces.amazon.com
X-AMAZON-TRACK: notification
X-AMAZON-MAIL-RELAY-TYPE: notification
Greetings from Amazon.com.
As the page you created was overwritten by the merchant supplying the
book to us. Unfortunately, this is why the image was removed. They
would need to submit an image so that we can insert the image on to
the detail page for the item. ...
Best regards,
Brian
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage
I don't participate in Amazon Advantage, but hey, who's quibbling? At least we've discovered the problem, and it will be a simple matter to correct things, right?
No, it's not that simple. See, I was expecting Lightning Source would be able to help me pretty quickly. After all, you'd think a company with the name "Lightning Source" would be pretty quick. But I've found out that the name has an ironic meaning, at least when it comes to them working with their real customers, author/publishers.
I forwarded Amazon's message to my Lightning Source account rep, adding my explanation that the cover image now being displayed for my book is a low-resolution Amazon "customer image" that doesn't show up in search results.
So, after a few days of waiting, here was the reply from my Lightning Source rep:
"Steve,
I see that the cover is now up on Amazon.
Thanks!
So it's hard to know whether my Lightning Source rep doesn't understand the issues, or just isn't paying attention. In any case, I can't wait much longer for the first-line employees at Amazon/Lightning Source to pull their heads out of their asses by themselves. I'm trying to sell a book, and can't afford to be continually cut off at the knees by my "partners." A nastygram to the management at both companies seems to be in order. I'll keep you posted.
posted by Steve Weber at 12/13/2005
3 comments
links to this post
3 Comments:
Hi
When I searced Amazon 14th of December from Australia your cover was there.
www.paulniederer.com
The biggest problem with Amazon is their lack of customer service. It is nearly impossible to figure out how to send them an email. When I have done that in the past the issue often is ignored.
I have had issues as a buyer/customer and with deliveries not being done as promised as per my 'Amazon Prime' membership.
There are also issues when they contract with other companies to sell stuff on their site. It is very hard to tell if the item is being sold to us from Amazon or some third party. The delivery times and dates that these items are shipped out are very slow compared to Amazon's usual book selling service. Also the estimated dates that are given when the item is purchased are not always true. It is very frustrating.
The thing that would make Amazon the BEST company would be if they had more humans doing customer service work and dealing with problems with orders.
I'm also having a problem with no cover image showing for my new title on Amazon.com, although Barnes & Noble has had things up and online for a week without trouble. I am concerned that some of the difficulties between Amazon/Lightning Source may be because Amazon acquired Booksurge as their own POD bookmaker earlier in 2005.
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