(1)-----------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:46:32 -0500
From: Debra Thomson (Rhode Island College) <DThomson_at_ric.edu>
Subject: RE - Amazon Corporate Account
I have been using an Amazon corporate account for years. Their
invoicing leaves a lot to be desired. When books arrive, they arrive
with a packing slip that does not reference an invoice number. This
results in items being entered into our acquisitions system without an
invoice number to reference should you need it later. When the
statement arrives at the end of the month, it includes miniaturized
copies of the invoices, which have invoice numbers and dates, and are
itemized with title and price. However, if this statement is not paid
in a timely manner, Amazon will suspend your account and cancel any open
orders. Since we do not have a credit card, I will continue to use the
corporate account;we just had to learn to work around its limitations.
Debra Thomson
Rhode Island College Library
600 Mt. Pleasant Ave.
Providence, RI 02908
Phone 401-456-9651 * Fax 401-456-2715 * Email dthomson_at_ric.edu
(2)------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:06:14 -0500
From: Gail Layton (Bay County PL) <GLayton_at_nwrls.lib.fl.us>
Subject: RE- Amazon Corporate Account
I know when you order from the marketplace it cannot be with the
corporate account. Only credit card accounts.
Gail Layton Technical Services
Northwest Regional Library System
Bay County Public Library
25 West Government Street
Panama City, FL 32401
850 872 7500 x 25 Fax 850 872 7504 www.nwrls.com
(3)----------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:47:16 -0500
From: Judy Osier (Neenah PL) <Osier_at_neenahlibrary.org>
Subject: RE- Amazon Corporate Account
We've been using the Amazon corporate credit account for about three
years and it's been very useful and very helpful. Each monthly statement
includes a sheet divided into quarters with each individual shipment
occupying one of the quarters. Each one is a replica of the invoice
summary that comes with the order, including title, price, shipping (or
free shipping). We OK them as if they were individual invoices.
The neat thing is, if you can save up your orders until you have a
certain dollar amount you can get free shipping and that's what we
usually try to do. It takes a little longer, but it's been worth it.
The irritating thing is that you can't use the corporate account with
the Amazon sellers. Once in a while they used to call me to ask how I
liked the corporate account and if I had any questions and I used to ask
when or if they were going to let the corporate account be used for the
sellers and they said they were thinking about it, but I haven't heard
anything lately.
Hope this helps.
Judith M. Osier
Assistant Librarian
Neenah Public Library
240 E. Wisconsin Avenue
PO Box 569
Neenah, WI 54957-0569
920-886-6308
(4)-----------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:16:53 -0500
From: Alan Schut (Dominican U. of CA) <ASchut_at_dominican.edu>
Subject: RE- Amazon Corporate Account
The Library of Dominican University of California has used an Amazon
corporate account for some years now and it has worked well enough.
Each monthly invoice is itemized indicating a portion of the title,
ISBN, item cost, and shipping. Promotional credits, when earned, are
also cited. I can't say the invoices are well formatted (e.g., titles
are not usually complete, probably in order to save paper), but they
serve their purpose adequately. It has been my experience that customer
support is somewhat lax, so I'm not surprised at your comment about
their response to your inquiry. As they have expanded to sell
everything but the kitchen sink (and they may sell that, too, and I've
simply not yet noticed) and have become an icon of e-commerce, I think
they've become complacent. This being said, you might try them for a
period and see if they serve your needs.
Good luck,
Alan
Alan Schut
Director of Collections and Cataloging
Archbishop Alemany Library
Dominican University of California
50 Acacia Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94901-2298
Telephone: 415-458-3703
FAX: 415-459-2309
Email: schut_at_dominican.edu
(5)----------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:02:19 -0500
From: Tracy Leroy (Sno-Isle Libraries)<TLeroy_at_sno-isle.org>
Subject: RE- Amazon Corporate Account
We have maintained a Corporate Account for about 3 years now. The
monthly statement is indeed itemized. For the most part, we have been
pleased. I will never order another multi-part item from them, as that
was a nightmare when not all parts were received. If you've not
experienced errors using your credit card, you should be ok.
Tracy LeRoy, Acquisitions Manager
Sno-Isle Libraries
voice: 360-651-7072
fax 360-651-7151
(6)----------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:13:46 -0500
From: Audrey Lynne Wilson (WA State U.)<awilson_at_wsu.edu>
Subject: RE- Amazon Corporate Account
We have had a positive experience using the Amazon corporate account.
Each shipment is invoiced separately, with each title itemized. However
the marketplace items are charged to the card individually.
Audrey Wilson
Washington State University Libraries
(7)----------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:37:24 -0500
From: Katharine Wall(Ouachita Parish PL)<kwall_at_oplib.org>
Subject: RE- Amazon Corporate Account
We have been using the Amazon Corporate Account for a couple of years as our
government agency doesn't allow credit cards. The invoices are detailed with
title and price and the service is generally good. Our only issue, and it
is a minor one, is the once monthly invoices--which mean we sometimes have
to wait nearly 1 month after receiving items for the invoices to arrive.
Additionally, each shipment is invoiced separately but several individual
invoices are printed on each page so my assistant has to cut them apart into
the individual invoices in order to send them through for payment since
often they are for different accounts and on different purchase orders. (She
tried sending the entire sheet but the accounting department returned it.
They still write one check bundling lots of invoices but wouldn't accept a
bundled invoice!) We would prefer that the invoices come with the shipment.
For items we cannot seem to find anywhere else, Amazon works pretty well for
us.
Katharine
Katharine Wall, M.A.L.S.
Head of Technical Services
Ouachita Parish Public Library kwall_at_oplib.org
1800 Stubbs Avenue 318-327-1490 ext. 3017
Monroe, LA 71201 FAX: 318-327-3443
(8)----------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:11:19 -0500
From: Janice K Martin (Indiana U.) <martinj_at_indiana.edu>
Subject: RE- Amazon Corporate Account
The Amazon corporate account works well for us and is a good alternative
to using a credit card for each transaction. We have a ceiling on our
credit card account so moving items to Amazon's corporate account allows
us to use the credit card for other purposes. Note that the corporate
account does not cover all Amazon charges, ex. Out of print purchases
must still be charged to the credit card. On the corporate account, a
monthly invoice is received which itemizes each purchase at the title
and cost level.
Kay Martin,
Acquisitions/Technical Services
Indiana University Libraries
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, IN 47405-3907
812-855-1668
(9)----------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:45:12 -0500
From: Antje Mays (Winthrop Univ.) <maysa_at_winthrop.edu>
Subject: RE- Amazon Corporate Account
Several years ago, my department experimented with the
amazon.com corporate account. Our interest in it had been piqued by the
purchase-order mechanism.
We found that the monthly batching of invoices did not match the actual
shipments. Our purchasing regulations require us to pay for items with
invoice in hand, and the invoice has to match the items in hand, and
paying for books before their arrival (i.e. "on credit") is out of the
question. With the batched invoicing, we were sandwiched between the
need to pay the monthly invoice on time on one hand and on the other
hand to refrain from paying for not-yet-received items that were listed
on the batched invoices.
We have a procurement card for library acquisitions. After a couple of
corporate account tries, we switched back to ordering with the credit
card.
I do have to point out that our experience was several years ago. Amazon
may have streamlined that process to make it more library-friendly since
then.
My advice: If you really want to know how it works, try by ordering some
items on the corporate account and see how your experience shakes out.
If it doesn't meet your library's operational needs, I'd recommend
switching back to credit-card ordering.
Hope this helps
Best,
=======================================
Antje Mays
Head, Monograph & A-V Acquisitions
Ida Jane Dacus Library
Winthrop University
Rock Hill, South Carolina 29733, U.S.A.
phone: 001-803-323-2274
fax: 001-803-323-2215
email: maysa_at_winthrop.edu
http://faculty.winthrop.edu/maysa
--------Original Message:
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:52:39 -0500
From: Minnie M. Breuer (U. of Missouri-Rolla) <mbreuer_at_umr.edu>
Subject: Amazon Corporate Account
Would any acquisitions departments who are using the Amazon corporate
account please let me know whether they have had positive or negative
experiences with it. We are especially interested in knowing if the
monthly invoice is itemized with a title and cost of each item.
We order approximately 22 books and DVDs a month from Amazon.com and
Amazon Marketplace and have been paying each item individually by credit
card. We want to see if a corporate account would be more efficient for
us.
I sent an inquiry to Amazon's customer service and didn't receive an
adequate response to my questions, which is one of the reasons I am
reluctant to switch to a corporate account.
Thank you for any information you can give.
Sincerely,
Minnie Breuer/Acquisitions
Curtis Laws Wilson Library
University of Missouri-Rolla
1870 Miner Circle
Rolla MO 65409-0060
Phone 573-341-4009
Fax 573-341-4233
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Received on Sun Mar 04 2007 - 21:44:37 EST