Buondì.
It’s grey and raining where I am this morning, but at least it’s no longer November.
I can’t stand that month, and long for it to pass.
And now it has!
I expect you’ve also been bombarded with Black Friday/Cyber Monday emails over the weekend?
I won’t say I’m fed up with it – being sort of in the ecommerce sphere myself, I like to see what ‘proper’ businesses are up to.
Often it’s not anything particularly sophisticated. While online retailers seem be be excellent at getting us to buy stuff, they can be less outstanding when it comes to actually delivering the longed-for sneakers or wide-screen TV.
Talking of which, I had an ebook order come in overnight (just the one, I guess club members were spending their cash on Black Friday offers…)
Therefore, the first job this morning was to email the ebooks to the buyer, a lady in Australia (pay attention lady in Australia, this next part is for you).
Which I duly did.
But a few seconds later, the email bounced back, having travelled all the way to Australia bearing its load of Italian easy reader ebooks, only to be informed on its arrival that it was not welcome.
My heart always sinks when I read something like:
Your message wasn’t delivered to (lady in Australia) because the address couldn’t be found, or is unable to receive mail.
It means that instead of the job of sending off the customer’s order taking just a few seconds, it’s likely to take much longer, and may even drag on for days.
The first step when an email bounces back is to double check that the email address in the order looks correct (sometimes people type them carelessly), then to check to see whether there is a different email associated with the payment, i.e. the one used with Paypal or Amazon Pay. If so, I can try resending the ebooks to the alternative address, with an explanation.
If there’s no second email address, and no obvious spelling glitch, I’ll take a look in our very primitive database, searching for the email address first (nothing), then the buyer’s name (several, but none with the same surname.)
At which point I’ll log into the system that powers the club mailing list, on the assumption that the buyer is also a club member, and repeat the search for email address and name/surname.
Still nowt.
The final possibility is to compose a new email to the buyer, explaining that the first one was rejected and asking the buyer to confirm receipt and, if possible, provide an alternative email address. But this time, with NO EBOOKS attached – because sometimes it could be the weighty attachment that’s causing the problem – the recipient’s email inbox is close to its storage limit or whatever.
So I tried that, too.
Bing! The second email is back from Australia, its tongue hanging out, waiting for me to throw the ball once more.
At this point there’s nothing more I can do.
Except wait for the inevitable “You haven’t sent my ebooks!” email, and the frustrating process of attempting to reply to an email account that doesn’t want to know me…
Oh wait! Here’s an idea.
Lady in Australia, if you ordered and paid for a pack of three ebooks but haven’t yet received them, would you please get in touch?
Ideally from a different email address. Many thanks!
Now where were we?
Technology, right?
And this week’s half-price ‘Book of the Week’ offer:
“Antonino is newly-retired and is finding that, now he has as much leisure time as he could desire, his days pass rather too slowly. Depression threatens. But, with the help of his adult sons, he discovers the Internet and its potential for tracing friends from his youth and so making good one of his bitterest regrets…”
Un viaggio nel tempo is level A2/B1, so relatively easy reading, at least compared to our recent publications.
As usual, there’s a free sample chapter (.pdf) to take a look at.
Genuine, unedited customer reviews can be found here.
Un viaggio nel tempo is 50% off all this week, so £3.99 instead of the usual £7.99.
So it’s perfect for bargain-hunters, who will shortly be mourning the end of ‘Black Weekend’!
N.b. If the level is too easy, or too hard, consult our online catalog for material that might suit you better.
Così. A mercoledì, allora.
Un viaggio nel tempo | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog
And don’t forget…
… to listen to and read Saturday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news.