If you have a question about the Autumn Sale, or anything else for that matter, you might find it’s already been answered in our FAQ.
It’s worth a read anyway, if only for the sparkling prose.
But these days, I ALWAYS read the FAQ, as it gives you a good idea who you’re doing business with.
There’s a particular online shop I once bought things from, which promises delivery within 48 hours!!
When my excitement turned to impatience, then frustration, I read every word of their FAQ several times over, only to discover that the clock did NOT start ticking away the 48 hours!! at the moment I completed my order, which in my naivety was what I had expected.
Nor was it from the instant the payment was cleared through their system.
It wasn’t even from the time they processed the order.
Or from the day it eventually left their warehouse, dragging a skein of cobwebs behind it.
No indeed sir!
The FAQ informed me that I could expect my item within 48 hours!! of the package being delivered to their partner courier’s warehouse.
THEY would then arrange delivery within two days, ‘working days’ mind you, not actual days.
So if it’s Friday when we receive your dusty package from the online retailer, then you should (fingers crossed) get it on Tuesday, or perhaps bright and early on Wednesday…
In the end the whole process, from initial order to final delivery, took about a week, which was disappointing.
If they’d said so in the first place, a week really would have been fine with me.
I’m not an impatient person.
Amazon does it much better – today’s the 5th of October, right? Then your widget will be with you between Monday 8th and Wednesday 11th, so help us God.
And it invariably is.
That said, I never shop with Amazon because it’s said that the countries that I owe some loyalty to as a citizen and resident (Britain and Italy) receive little from them in terms of tax revenues, compared to the enormous value of their online sales.
Whereas Amazon’s competitors, such as independent book shops (and every other type of shop these days), are stuck paying local taxes, company taxes and the works.
(Since you ask, the company that runs this website is based in England and pays taxes annually at the full rate. You can check – it’s all online.)
Beh, anyway, read the FAQ.
Ours, and if you’re wise, that of any other company you buy things from.
But what if your question is not answered in the FAQ?
Then email it.
Here I sit, at my kitchen table, just waiting for somone to ask me something I don’t know.
“This lady wants to know if our easy readers are suitable for giraffes – are they?”
“Dunno, I’ll check with the author. But tell her she’ll need a very long stick to mount her iPad on…”
This week someone asked me if it was OK to cancel an online lesson at short notice, whether she could take online lessons even though she lives in a different time zone, and whether our teachers work on Saturdays.
The answers are: you should give reasonable notice, say 24 hours / yes / they might, but I don’t guarantee it. Teachers want weekends too.
And someone else (this is a common one and it IS in the FAQ) wanted to pay by credit card, not Paypal, Amazon or via bank transfer.
“I want to pay by CREDIT CARD! Why won’t your system let me???”
Choose the Paypal option, is the short answer.
They process card payments on our behalf.
But resist their siren calls to log in. Once you do, the game is over.
As long as you stay out of their clutches, you should be able to pay by card.
And if you don’t see an option to pay by card without logging in to Paypal?
Read the FAQ, into which I have condensed my many years of experience buying and selling stuff online.
A domani.
Ready to Save 20% on Ebooks and Online Lessons?
If you’re ready to save 20% on the online Italian lessons, self-study workbooks, Italian easy readers and Italian-English parallel texts you’ll need betweeen now and the next sale (at New Year), head right over to our online shop!
- Coupon code autumn_sale_2018_minus_20% will get you 20% off the prices you see there
- Spend as little or as much as you want – the coupon will save you money on our cheapest ebook, as it will on a bumper pack (or packs) of online lessons
- Use the coupon as often as you wish before Sunday night, when the sale ends
- The coupon code even works on items which are already discounted, such as ebook bulk-buys
- Payment options include Amazon, Paypal (which is supposed to process card payments on our behalf) and bank transfer (if you have a UK bank account – otherwise it’s expensive, so not a good choice…)
Pick out materials for your level from the catalog page.
Or browse our shop.