Hopping through the Blogosphere one day, I came across a giveaway, David Powers King’s 500th follower giveaway. After reading his post, I knew I just had to enter. A one in ten chance of winning the book of your choice? Too good to miss.
So, I popped onto Amazon and found my book of choice within moments: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. I soon had my entry comment typed up and published. Now to wait and see what happened. Not that I’d win. That would be too good to be true.
Less than a week later I found, much to my great surprise and joy that I had actually won my book. The link to my ebook arrived a day later. Now all I had to do was download the book and start reading. Or so I thought.
This title is not available to readers from Australia the automated Amazon message told me the moment I clicked on the ‘download’ button.
What? How could an ebook not be available around the world? However, there it was. I’d chosen a book I couldn’t read. Oh well, I’d have to change it for a gift card and pick something else instead.
That’s when I made an important discovery. You actually need to have an Amazon account attached to your email to get a gift card. Well, maybe I could get it sent to Mum’s account.
Many complex emails later, the Amazon customer service people finally told me I couldn’t change the order. Only the giver could. Which meant asking for David’s help.
Oh why had I entered the giveaway in the first place? Why hadn’t I asked for help when choosing my book? Maybe I could just forget the whole matter.
Instead of forgetting the matter however, I typed up an extremely apologetic email to David in which almost every second word was ‘sorry’, and asked for his help in the matter.
Instead of sounding annoyed, David was very helpful and exchanged the book at once. Oh how thankful I was when his email appeared in my inbox telling me that the deed was done.
Now, no thanks to me at all and many thanks to David Powers King, I have an Amazon gift card waiting for me to pick a different book. This time however, I think I’ll get someone to help me choose my book. I’m sure to make another mess on my own.
Have you ever had my problems when entering a giveaway? And does anyone know how to tell if a book’s available in
That's the best prize ever:) Amazon always messes us Aussies around. It's really annoying!! I've tried, but I don't think there's a way to know if what you want is available over here - you always just find out when you place the order (which is pretty dumb lol).
ReplyDeleteI wish there was a way to find out, or an Australian Amazon, or something to help us. Does the transaction still go through, or can't you buy the book?
ReplyDeleteNo problem, Imogen. The process was quite easy from the purchaser's side. Sorry it wasn't as smooth a deal as we both would prefer. But, that's in the past. Happy reading. :)
ReplyDeleteDavid, you were a lot more patient than I would have been. Thanks for your help. I'm getting Mum to help me get my new book. She might be able to work Amazon out better than I can!
ReplyDeleteI think you can put an order through if they don't deliver to Australia, but you have to choose your country/state from a list (and Aussie won't be on the list), so you can only ship to some place you don't live. Which makes no sense lol.
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