-------------Original Message-------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 2002 07:56:56 -0500
From: Yvonne Duke (State Library of NC)
<yduke_at_library.dcr.state.nc.us>
Subject: Amazon.com corporate account
Is anyone using an Amazon.com corporate account? Would you be willing to
share your experiences? I'm trying to determine if this would be something
that would work for our library. You can reply directly to me.
Thanks very much,
Yvonne Duke
Acquisitions Librarian
State Library of North Carolina
4644 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4644
yduke_at_library.dcr.state.nc.us
919.733.3683
919.733.1843 (fax)
(1)------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 07:46:54 -0500
From: "Thomson, Debra" (Rhode Island College Library)
<DThomson_at_ric.edu>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
Hi Yvonne,
I find Amazon's corporate account to be a great way to order books.
There are two problems for us. The first is the length of time it takes my
institution to pay the bill. Like most commercial vendors, if the bill is
overdue by more than 30 days, your credit is cut off. This has happened
to me twice, and it is most frustrating because I have no control over when
the college pays its bills. If the credit is cut off, outstanding orders
are
cancelled.
The other problem is that no invoices are sent with the books. The only
invoice is included in the end-of-month statement. This means that the
books sit around until the end of the month, or else I check them in
with no invoice number. One of our reasons for using Amazon is for rush
items,
so I end up checking them in without invoice numbers.
One of the nice things about Amazon is the discount, particularly on art
books. And now, with the free shipping policy, there are no shipping
charges to offset the discounts.
If your institution can pay its bills on time, you should have no
problem using Amazon's corporate credit account.
Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions.
Debi
Debra Thomson
Supervisor, Order Department
Rhode Island College Library
600 Mt. Pleasant Ave.
Providence, RI 02908
Phone 401-456-9651 * Fax 401-456-9646 * E-mail dthomson_at_ric.edu
(2)------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 09:03:20 -0500
From: Beth Horn (Bridgewater College)
<ehorn_at_bridgewater.edu>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
The only problems we had with the Amazon corporate account were solved
when our Business Office switched to processing bills twice a month. When we
were sending bills over once every month, we often received an Amazon
bill after the bills were sent for the month. When this happened, the bill
wouldn't be paid for 30 days (until the next month) and we would get
calls from Amazon. They also wouldn't send anymore of our orders until we
paid. The only thing that fixed this problem was the College changing our
billing cycle - Amazon could not seem to understand our dilemma. Otherwise,
we
are very happy with Amazon. Any specific questions can be directed to the
Acquisitions Assistant (she is the one who deals directly with them) at
ameadows_at_bridgewater.edu.
Beth Horn
Bridgewater College
Bridgewater, VA
(3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 09:17:35 -0600
From: Katharine Wall (Ouachita Parish Public Library)
<kwall_at_ouachita.lib.la.us>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
Hi. We have been using the Amazon corporate account for several months.
When they actually have the material we order, it works fine. We get
monthly billings. They send regular updates on the status of orders
(email to me). The only problems we encountered regarded items found on
their
site that turned out not to be available. I would have to say it works for
us. We are unable to make credit card purchases anymore. And it was
difficult for us to use the credit cards anyway as every purchase had to be
refused; then we had to notify our government agency, who in turn notified
the
bank to allow the charge; then we could try again to get the card to go
through. It was really a pain! So the Amazon account really helped. We
don't
use it except for items we can't find through our regular vendors and that
Amazon claims to have in stock.
Katharine
Katharine Wall (318) 327-1490 ex 3017
Head of Technical Services (318) 327-3443 FAX
Ouachita Parish Public Library Kwall_at_ouachita.lib.la.us
1800 Stubbs Avenue
Monroe, LA 71201
(4) ------------------------------------------------------ -
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 09:22:10 -0600
From: Julie Rashid (Kansas State University Libraries)
<jrashid_at_lib.ksu.edu>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
KSU Libraries has been using an amazon corporate account
since November of 2001. I'd be happy to share my experiences
with you. Warm Regards,
Julie Rashid
Acquisitions Librarian
Kansas State University Libraries
137 Hale Library
Mid-Campus Drive
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-0554 (voice)
785-532-7644 (fax)
jrashid_at_lib.ksu.edu
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 14:17:04 -0500
From: Lora T. Brueck (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
<lbrueck_at_WPI.EDU>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
I have been using the Amazon corporate account for about 6
months. It is great because of the speed of getting things and
usually videos are a lot cheaper than anywhere else. The drawback--
they save up all the invoices and send them on a statement that
may be monthly but it seems like it takes forever to come. The
statement has a cover sheet with the totals followed by a sheet or sheets
with copies of each invoice (4 to a sheet). I like to pay invoices when
things come in, and it would be a lot easier for using different funds if
each invoice were separate.
I am very happy with the service, it's just the billing that is a pain.
I only use it in an emergency, but in an institution that does not let us
have credit cards, it helps sometimes to have this.
Lora Brueck
Collections Management Librarian
George C. Gordon Library
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609
508/831-6039
lbrueck_at_wpi.edu
(6) ------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 14:26:40 -0500
From: Cheryl Edelen (Northern Kentucky University)
<edelen_at_NKU.EDU>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
Dear Yvonne,
Your e-mail was forwarded to me so that I could respond about
a Corporate Account with Amazon.com.
We have a Corporate account with Amazon.com, and I use it
occasionally. It is set up very much like a credit card. I select
what I want, add it to my card, select the Corporate account as
I check out, (I print what I order) and then I receive an e-mail from
Amazon.com confirming my order. We do not pay sales tax. I try
to order enough items to qualify for free shipping, or I chose the
cheapest (and slowest) method of delivery to keep the shipping
cost to a minimum. The items come with a packing slip, which I
copy and hold until I receive the monthly bill, and I match the
packing slips with the statement, and the monthly statement is sent
to the accounts payable department, and they cut and mail the check.
Just this week, I ordered a book from Amazon.com and I could
not use my corporate account to "charge" the book. I think it
was because the book was being sold by someone other that the
publisher, or regular vendor. I was able to use the credit card we
have that is paid for with funds from the materials budget, and that
worked. We have used this credit card only about 4-5 times so far,
and so far it has worked well. I cannot remember the specifics of
setting up the corporate account, but it was not difficult.Hope this
information helps, and if you have any questions, I'll be glad
to try to help.
Cheryl
Cheryl Edelen
Northern Kentucky University
Steely Library-Acquisitions Assistant
mailto:edelen_at_nku.edu
(7) -----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 08:56:02 -0500
From: Betsy Dean (Stonehill College)
<bdean_at_stonehill.edu>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
I, too, am interested in any discussion on this. We set up a
Corporate Account, but unfortunately it seems you cannot order
any used books from their Marketplace with this account, so we also
had to set up a personal account using a credit card. That makes the
paperwork on my end a little confusing . . .
Is anyone else using the Corporate Account option?
Thanks. Betsy
--
Betsy Dean
Collection Development Librarian
MacPhaidin Library
Stonehill College
320 Washington Street
Easton, MA 02357-4015
Office: 508-565-1329
FAX: 508-565-1424
bdean_at_stonehill.edu
(8) --------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 10:56:12 -0500
From: Don Depoorter (Michigan State University)
<depoort1_at_mail.lib.msu.edu>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
We have been using Amazon.com's corporate account for several
months and it's been working well for us. There are a couple of
things to be aware of however: 1) We were once over 90 days
behind in our payment to them and this created some problems for us in
the way they handled it. They first sent me some emails letting me
know if we didn't pay the past due amount by a certain date our
pending orders would be cancelled (ouch!). I then called customer service
and offered to pay the outstanding balance using our library's credit
card. I was told that since we set up our corporate credit account
to be paid by check that their system would not accept payment
by credit card. The result was that several of our pending orders
were then systematically cancelled and had to be resubmitted once
our account was current. Their customer service department
helped me resubmit the orders and it wasn't too terrible,
however, the fact that everything is automated leads to some
inflexibility on their part. The moral of the story for us is to not
fall behind in our payments to them. 2) Their invoices are not
always easy to decipher. It's not easy to explain via email the
problems reading them but they look like a credit card statement.
Not impossible to read, but not easy either. We've had no
problems returning books and their customer service seems to be
fine. It's just that inflexible automated system.........
Email me if you have any other questions.
Donald A. Depoorter
Head, Monograph Acquisitions
Michigan State University
Libraries - Monograph Acquisitions
100 Library
East Lansing, MI 48824-1048
Tel: (517)353-3987 Fax: (517)353-8969
(9) ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2002 12:50:58 -0500
From: Mrs. Evelyn Rodriguez, (Pan American Health Organization)
<rodrigue_at_paho.org>
Subject: Re - Amazon.com corporate account
Yvonne,
For the last two years, we have been working with the Amazon.com
Advantage account. We are an international organization (Pan American
Health Organization) and we publish and distribute books
(English and Spanish) for the countries in the Americas.
At the same time, we sell and distribute WHO books written in
Spanish. Our sales with them have increased in the last year. I think
that their services could work for you since they have business with
a lot of publishers and reach a variety of topics.
Evelin Rodríguez
Marketing, Publications Program
e-mail: rodrigue_at_paho.org
http://publications.paho.org
Received on Mon Dec 09 2002 - 20:04:20 EST