March 22

The other day I bought at amazon.com an electric scooter, which cost me about 250 dollars. Without a reliable means of transportation, I have felt it so convenient to commute between the campus and the place where I live. It is true that I can hitch a ride once in a while because Wayne and the landlord have cars, but it is not a good strategy to bother them all the time; besides I find it hard to be ready the moment they are ready to depart. Therefore, I did have high expectations for this scooter, always imagining how nice it would be to get to the campus within 30 minutes with this tool of transportation.

  Yet, now it is there and I find it so heavy. In fact, it weighed about 60 pounds,which means that it will be hard for me to bring it back to China next year.

So I contacted amazon agent requesting a return. To my disappointment and confusion, the agent said that, being hardazous, this product was not eligible for return! Hazardous? Then why the hell did you sell it to me? If it is ineligible for return then how can it be eligible for selling? Besides, I was indeed informed that I would be allowed to return when necessary. Yet the agent insisted that the scooter was improper for return although he or she could not present to me any sound reasons except for some federal regulations which I had never heard of.

  In the middle of the communication, however, to my huge surprise and joy, the agent told me that he could give me a refund of 50% of the money I spent and that I could still keep the scooter to myself! What? I just could not believe my ears!....

   But this is not the end of the story. Later on I contacted again anther agent to talk about the refund and the promise that amazon did make before I bought this scooter. Then, again, to my huge surprise and joy, the agent told me that  i would get a full refund AND still keep this scooter!!! Incredible. Amazing. And ..stupid, right? It is like I almost earned 250 dollars and got the scooter for free at the same time! “Are you serious with the refund?” I asked the agent. “Yes.” came the affirmative response. I had nothing to say but thank you. I had nothing to think about but to being a loyal customer for amazon in the rest of my life. This is the first time in my whole life that I had such a consumer-centered service! This is the first time in my whole life that I had encountered such a company that values trust so much! This is the first time in my whole life that I started literally feeling the power of being a customer...