You’ve got to hand it to Amazon. They know how to treat a customer. The other day, the DVD I ordered showed as “delivered” to my mailbox, but it wasn’t there. I have no doubt that the post office delivered it. Somewhere. They always deliver mail. Somewhere. Sometimes, we get the mail for everyone on the street. The mail deliverer apparently feels one house or another — we are all the same, aren’t we? Initially, when it was one or two items, we whatever it was to the recipient and they were glad to see it.
After a while, the volume increased and we became more selective. We didn’t bother to deliver obvious junk mail. Who needs more junk mail? Eventually we began getting mail for everyone on the street, plus stuff from people whose names and addresses no one could not possibly mistake for us. We gave up. Now, we take it all back to the post office. It is their job to sort and deliver mail.
Packages are not their strong suit. Actually, delivering mail isn’t their strong suit, in any form. Considering mail is their entire purpose on earth, it’s a sad commentary of how low USPS has fallen. Nowadays, many small packages disappear. Most of the things I order come from Amazon, so the vanishing stuff are DVDs, books, and other small items. Amazon never makes a fuss about it. They just give me my money back, though today I would have preferred the DVD. They didn’t have another. I hope whoever kept it likes classic movies. Harvey is a good one, and hard to come by.
Today’s notification from Amazon was a welcome reminder that I wrote a book, and that sometimes, someone buys a copy. I have set the price as low as Amazon allows, so a single sale isn’t big bucks. This time, after alerting me earlier in the month that I was going to receive a direct deposit (but they wouldn’t tell me how much), today they actually deposited the money.
Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. It’s a royalty payment. I sold a book. Kindle version.
Someone, somewhere (in this case, I actually know who because she told me) is reading my book. It won’t make me rich, but it does make me happy. And if someone would return the DVD of Harvey, that would renew my faith in humankind.
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Categories: Author, Books, Humor
DOUBLE WIDE by GRETCHEN ARCHER 
EARLY RISER – A NEW NOVEL BY JASPER FFORDE – Marilyn Armstrong 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I used to often buy things from the USA but not any more because the shipping cost is just ridiculous. As a previous commenter said Australia Post is also talking about cutting back on mail delivery. I hope that doesn’t happen because around our way there are a lot of of people who are not very computer literate or able to afford the internet so getting important letters via electronic mail wouldn’t be practical especially if they are forms that need to be filled in and returned. Our carrier only delivers parcels that will fit in the mail box, the rest we have to pick up from the post office. However anything sent by courier is delivered by a local guy who knows our dog by name :).
I downloaded your book a few weeks ago too. Had to read it on the computer as I don’t have a Kindle as yet but I enjoyed it. You must have made at least $5 from sales in the past few months. Don’t let the fame go to your head will you 🙂
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The decline of our postal services is a serious loss for us all. It was the pride and joy of government services. now it’s an embarrassment. There will be repercussions down the road. We will have lots of time for regrets.
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I’m always happy when someone buys my book. I think, like most authors, I somehow never get most of the royalties. Especially the ones from overseas just seem to … vanish? Never make the database? It’s so little money, it’s not worth searching them out. I may have lost a few dollars, but I would give the book away for free for the pleasure of having it read. I have priced it as low as Amazon allows to avoid making it beyond the means of people like me. When I wrote it, I had a reason. Several, actually. One was to point out that child molesters get away with it more often than not … and that no matter how badly life has treated you, your best — maybe only — defense is to move on. Because by clinging to your anger and your self-image as a victim you hurt only yourself. If all that rage wasn’t turned inward and would in some way punish those who hurt you, there would be a point to it … but that’s not how it works. And that’s why I hoped some people would read it. Because that one single lesson of letting go and moving on took me 50 years to learn. Maybe I can help a few people skip a few miserable decades.
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I am hoping like hell that the stuff should delivered to you in time. I got it parceled 9 days before, forgot to intimate you about it. I was out of touch for two days due to power surge. I will try to find out the slip and send you the details. As regards your book….many more checks/deposits to you. Keep inspiring 🙂
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Deliveries from overseas can take a VERY long time. It’s dealing with customs and border and stuff. Delivery within the country is another issue … but I’ve had packages from Asia take months to get here. So let us hope it eventually arrives!!
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Wow, a whole $1.05! Try not to spend it all in one place….
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I can almost buy a lottery ticket!
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They used to have a blind person sort the mail in our town. I’m not joking. Since he retired the mail service is actually very good and I very, very rarely lose anything or have the wrong thing delivered. Of course i have P.O. box so it’s a little easier, I rely on the people in the post office, not the people driving the cars.
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Maybe that’s the problem. In the back room, they are hiring the handicapped, carefully selecting them for unsuitability to the job they were hired to do. There must be a reason why it’s so awful.
When we got home from the doctor a couple of hours ago, all our missing packages had been dropped in a pile in the middle of the driveway. It was a miracle we didn’t run over them. I hate to admit it, but if they don’t stop shipping everything by USPS, I’m going to have to buy stuff elsewhere. Crappy delivery I can get anywhere.
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Maybe that’s what they are doing. At the end of his career they only let the guy work the counter. He had a huge magnify glass to read address and still sometimes got them wrong. It’s really too bad they’re so awful there because the post is so convenient, at least for me.
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It ought to be convenient. The post office is just around the corner and in theory, this should be the best service available. But instead, it’s the worst. Privatization strikes again.
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Canada Post wants to do away with door-to-door mail delivery; which sounds like McDonald’s getting out of the hamburger business. They want to set up area mail boxes where you would go to collect your mail. As for junk mail, my carrier loves it, says its about the only thing that keeps him in work!
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I think the problem is that the USPS has already done away with door to door service. They just forgot to tell us.
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The mail service in Australia doesn’t sound as bad as that. But they are talking about the possibility of getting rid of snail mail altogether. The price goes up trying to put people off.
Sorry about your parcel, but great that your book is selling!
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Effectively, they have gotten rid of snail mail. It’s not official, but no one wants to use USPS. Sending a letter from one part of town to another, can take as much as two weeks — if it gets there at all. Not surprising that no one wants to use it. They keep complaining about how they are losing money. Maybe there’s a connection between terrible service and people not using the service. But hey, what do I know?
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I got the Kindle version too. Just started reading it.
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Thank you for buying it and a really hope you enjoy it 🙂
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I have your book on my virtual bookshelf. Someday, when I really get old, I hope to read it. Maybe that $1.05 check royalty was from my purchase over a year ago. Who knows?
When I lived in a 2nd floor apartment I used to hate the brown UPS truck lumbering by my apartment house headed for the complex’s office. I knew he had my package but he never even attempted to deliver it to me. He didn’t even leave the stupid sticker on my door that he tried. I knew the USPS mail truck driver, Leroy. He’d stop by my apartment to borrow my phone when his cell phone died. We used to chat a bit. At least I always got my snail mail. Even the great Amazon lost stuff on occasion. They always make good on it but it’s the hassle of tcalling them on my nickel to get it taken care of that gripes me.
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Well, whatever problems we have had with UPS are nothing compared to the USPS. There was a time when we got our mail. Like, 15 years ago, when we first moved in.
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