No, no, books from Marketplace vendors are also a problem. The problem is the setup of the Marketplace system; see my above post for details.
I never had any problems with Amazon until I moved to Shalu in Taichung.
My packages always got lost there. Amazon quit replacing my orders and just refunded me the money and gave up after the 3rd time.
I’ve also used Amazon with no issues (never the Marketplace, though).
Thanks for the tip on B&N being cheaper, I’ll check them next time.
Last time I went to Page One, they had cut their selection of English books severely, the whole store had shrunk to about half the original size. Is it still that way? I’m not sure if they were remodeling or permanently downsizing. I don’t get over that way very often these days.
Yea, thanks for the B&N tip. I wouldn’t have thought of them. Will have to check them out.
[quote=“craya”]I never had any problems with Amazon until I moved to Shalu in Taichung.
My packages always got lost there. Amazon quit replacing my orders and just refunded me the money and gave up after the 3rd time.[/quote]
You don’t have mail delivered to your home, do you? I’ve never tried that once in Taiwan. Too much spam, possibility of loss, theft, etc. Instead, I’ve always used a PO box, but for Amazon.com I do one better – have them deliver to my office. It’s great. I receive it first day, don’t need to bother going to the PO, and have something to read at work in the afternoon. 
I think so.
I’ve had mail delivered to my home for a decade, no problems. But sometimes it results in a card saying please pick it up at the P.O., which I find inconvenient, and my colleagues suggested having packages sent to the office instead, so I always do that now.
I use a P.O. Box, because it is easier for my folks and friends to write to, and even when filling international forms it works a lot better. It is really cheap: 300 a year. However, I also get the “pick this up at teh counter form” if the package is too big.
Anyone else notice how their “track your orders” function no longer seems to work?
The last few times I placed an order with them I tried to check on the shipping status but it responded, “no orders found” and gave a list of possible reasons, none of them satisfactory. I simply purchased books from them, from their warehouse, not from some 3d party, and I’d like to know when I’ll get them. Apparently they’re too big and successful now and can no longer provide the basic customer service they used to routinely provide. Too bad. 
I recommend getting a Kindle and buying ebooks. Much cheaper, much faster. If you read a lot, the price of the Kindle can pay for itself in saved shipping costs quite quickly.
Yes, it has stopped working ever since they updated their web page some time back.
Can you pencil notes in the margins? (Seriously, I don’t know whether Kindles let you add notes.)
Yes, you can add bookmarks, notes and highlights. The keyboard is not great, but it’s usable.
I always figured if you got books from the Amazon they would smell like a swamp and be infected with leeches.
That’s only if the books have been inspected by Taiwan Customs.
[quote=“TheGingerMan”]That’s only if the books have been inspected by Taiwan Customs.[/quote]From my experience and others, Customs will not open a box from Amazon even if put in another package. They do have a nasty habit of inspecting every package I get in Changhua. :s
Well someday you’ll order something from the Amazon and when you open the box, there won’t be books inside, just a giant man-eating Anaconda.
You’re lucky. I’ve had them open numerous Amazon packages, even damaging a few. They stopped, though, after I went once in person to pick up my goods and give them a fine verbal thrashing for attempting to apply the wrong duty rates along with with the wrong tariff classification. I tore into them pretty well for not even knowing the basics of their profession. I mean, the tariff numbers were on the damn packing slip! : 
Not sure if my name is now red-flagged, but they left my packages alone after that.
There’s a thread on ordering a Kindle and books for it from Amazon over here:
Amazon Kindle in Taiwan. I’ll split off relevant posts.
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Anyone else notice how their “track your orders” function no longer seems to work?
The last few times I placed an order with them I tried to check on the shipping status but it responded, “no orders found” and gave a list of possible reasons, none of them satisfactory. I simply purchased books from them, from their warehouse, not from some 3d party, and I’d like to know when I’ll get them. Apparently they’re too big and successful now and can no longer provide the basic customer service they used to routinely provide. Too bad. [/quote]
It’s working okay for me. At the moment it’s saying one shipment due to go out on the 9th and another book on pre-order due to ship at the end of July. I’ll check again as soon as the current shipment goes out and see what it says. This is just using standard shipping.
[quote=“cfimages”][quote=“Mother Theresa”]Anyone else notice how their “track your orders” function no longer seems to work?
The last few times I placed an order with them I tried to check on the shipping status but it responded, “no orders found” and gave a list of possible reasons, none of them satisfactory. I simply purchased books from them, from their warehouse, not from some 3d party, and I’d like to know when I’ll get them. Apparently they’re too big and successful now and can no longer provide the basic customer service they used to routinely provide. Too bad. [/quote]
It’s working okay for me. At the moment it’s saying one shipment due to go out on the 9th and another book on pre-order due to ship at the end of July. I’ll check again as soon as the current shipment goes out and see what it says. This is just using standard shipping.[/quote]
Shit. So I tried to send them an email just now to confirm. Finally navigated their system of answers till I reached what appeared to be the correct email address to write to, typed my question, tried to send it, but they won’t let me send it because I don’t have an order number in my email message. THAT’S THE DAMNED PROBLEM! I don’t have an order number, so I can’t contact them to find out if I have an order number. Damn. I suspect when I placed my order it didn’t register in their system. :fume:
If you look at Your Account -->Order History: View Open Orders,it may say “no orders found”, but if you look carefully just above those words you should see a scroll-down bar option to examine past orders (Show: select different orders to view); mine shows 10 years’ worth. If it’s not in that list, then the order never registered, in which case just take a screen cap as evidence (in case this results in a double order) and then order it again. If you get two, then you can contact Cust. Serv., explain the problem, and they should credit you for the duplicate.
In any event you could borrow another order number for the purpose of getting through to Cust. Serv., but they’d probably tell you the same thing.