The Swift Pace of Online Business

The people over at Amazon.com are swift.

As I had discovered earlier, ordering and downloading an e-document on Amazon is a breeze, even though I received something different from what was offered.

Well, they have sent a quick and polite promise of refund:

I've requested a refund of $6.00 to your credit card. This refund should go through within 2-3 business days and will appear as a credit on your next credit card billing statement.

(Thank you, folks!)

Have they fixed the error that led to this situation in the first place?

Not yet. As I write, the digtial edition of the book at $ 6 is still on offer: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684841479

Perils of Buying Online

On January 2, 2006 I was looking for Michael E. Porter's book "The Competitive Advantage of Nations" on Amazon.com.

Amazon described the product as:

Hardcover: 896 pages
Publisher: Free Press (June 1, 1998)
ISBN: 0684841479

Among "Other Editions" was indicated a Digital Download in pdf format for $ 6.00.

I need the book for my own dissertation and thought it would be nice to obtain a digital copy because one can search for information, bookmark for later reference, and quote the original text accurately.

The whole process of ordering and downloading the book was a breeze. But to my horror what I received instead was a 1990 article from the Harvard Business Review—bearing the same title and from the same author.

Understandably, Amazon has a "no return" policy on downloads of pdf files. Nevertheless, I've written to the folks at Amazon.com for a refund because what they provided isn’t what they offered.

As I wait for their response, two questions pop into my mind:

1. Should I actually ask for a pdf of the book that I want rather than a refund? After all, they accepted the order and charged my credit card, which makes it a contract.


2. What if I had actually ordered the paper and got the book instead?