Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004
From: Allison P. Mays (Millsaps College) <maysap_at_millsaps.edu>
Subject: RE: ACQNET: Use of Amazon for single-title purchases
I have a so-called library account with amazon.com, which allows me to
use purchase order numbers. Sounds great in theory but we have had big
problems with the billing. They can't seem to post our payments
correctly and after getting phone calls for days on end about it for
weeks, I have had enough and no longer buy from them. I much prefer
Barnes & Noble online; have had excellent service and they're even
really good about returns. I haven't been able to set up a billed
account, but that doesn't matter since I have a library credit card.
The only problem I had was that a box of books accidentally went to my
brother-in-law because the wrong shipping address popped up; so if you
order from B&N, it's a good idea to keep personal and business accounts
separate.
Allison
Allison P. Mays
Acquisitions Librarian
Millsaps College
1701 N. State Street
Jackson, MS 39210
601-974-1083
maysap_at_millsaps.edu
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004
From: Katharine Wall (Ouachita Parish Pub Lib) <kwall_at_oplib.org>
Subject: RE: ACQNET: Use of Amazon for single-title purchases
We have a corporate account with Amazon (since we are not permitted the
use of credit cards) and have had good experiences purchasing things we
cannot obtain from our regular vendors. We don't always get things as
they do sometimes become unavailable but overall we are pleased with
their service.
We even had a return that was handled smoothly.
Katharine
Katharine Wall (318) 327-1490 x 3017
Head of Technical Services (318) 327-3443 FAX
Ouachita Parish Public Library Kwall_at_oplib.org
1800 Stubbs Avenue
Monroe, LA 71201
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004
From: David Schoen (Niagara University) <dmddms_at_adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: ACQNET: Use of Amazon for single-title purchases
Amazon set Niagara University up with an account where we order what we
need and they bill us monthly. They don't care how few titles we order.
Billing can be a pain sometimes. If you don't get payment to them
pretty quickly, their collections department starts calling you. It is
easy to put them off, but it is annoying. Maybe that's changed, but it
was an issue for us last spring when we were ordering a lot of books.
Also, free "Supersaver" shipping seems to sometimes take longer than it
should.
Dave Schoen
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004
From: Debra Thomson (Rhode Island College) <DThomson_at_ric.edu>
Subject: RE: ACQNET: Use of Amazon for single-title purchases
Hi Heidi,
I have been using Amazon for single title purchases for an academic
library for a couple of years, and it has its plusses and minuses. I
set up a corporate account, which allows me to purchase without a credit
card. The advantages of Amazon are instant information as to the
availability of a title, quick shipping and receiving, and definitive
information as to discounts and shipping costs. And, if you're not in a
hurry, you can select free shipping on most items.
The minuses are that no invoice arrives with the shipment, customer
service is nearly non-existent (although I admit that I have seldom
needed it), and the cancellation of pending orders should your monthly
payment not arrive on time. We have had cancellations several times due
to the delays in payment that are normal in the academic environment. I
have had to ask our accounts payable office to expedite the Amazon
payments to avoid this problem.
The end-of-month statement is similar to a credit card statement, with
all of the invoices reproduced in miniature. This is the only way to
find out the invoice numbers for your shipments, as far as I can tell.
The other disadvantage to using Amazon is that it requires two steps; one
to order the book from Amazon, and the other to enter the order
information into the library's acquisitions system. For those of us
using automated acquisitions systems, this is an extra step, but it's a
small extra step.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
Debra Thomson
Library Purchasing Manager
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
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004
From: Jackie Youngblood (Fort Vancouver Regional Library)
<jyoungblood_at_fvrl.org>
Subject: RE: ACQNET: Use of Amazon for single-title purchases
We are using a corporate account with Amazon. They excel in speed of
delivery for items they have in stock. I would not call them flexible
in purchasing plans. It's basically you order what you see in their
on-line database.
Watch out for the shipping charges, especially for single volume orders.
Jackie Youngblood
Collection Development Manager
Fort Vancouver Regional Library
Operations Center Annex
600 S.E. Maritime Ave.
Building 3 Suite 190
Vancouver, WA 98661
360-759-4513
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004
From: Don Depoorter (Michigan State U) <depoort1_at_mail.lib.msu.edu>
Subject: RE: ACQNET: Use of Amazon for single-title purchases
We use amazon.com for single-title purchases and for the most part we
are satisfied. Most books are shipped within 2 weeks (if not sooner)
from the date of order. They are very good at keeping us notified by
email when there is a delay in shipping or if the item is no longer
available. We purchase books from them using our library credit card
and we also have a corporate credit account (meaning that they'll
invoice us) with them. That's where the caveat is needed. Since much
of their business is computer operated, there is an inflexibility to
negotiate late payments. We had a situation in which we ordered several
books from them but we were also behind in payments for a few other
books (Shame on us!). They gave us a deadline to pay on the late
invoices, which seemed very reasonable and told us if they didn't
receive the money by the deadline that all of our unfilled orders would
be cancelled. The problem was that since we ordered it on the credit
account they had to be paid by check. I told them that we could not cut
a check fast enough to reach them in time but I was glad to pay
immediately by credit card and get us current. I was told that since
that part of the business was computerized, they could not alter the
payment plan and accept my credit card. This result was that the check
did not reach them in time and they cancelled the orders. We then had
to reorder them from Amazon. This happened about a year ago so I don't
know if they've changed their policy at all to be more flexible. Hope
this helps.
Donald A. Depoorter
Michigan State University
Libraries - Monograph Acquisitions
100 Library
East Lansing, MI 48824-1048
Tel: (517)432-6123, x160 Fax: (517)353-8969
Email: depoort1_at_msu.edu
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Received on Fri Jan 30 2004 - 08:50:43 EST