Finally...

After waiting for two months plus, my DIESEL XXX book finally arrived . Yay! but now without its trials and tribulations.

On 2nd Jan, I wrote to Amazon again about my predicament:

Dear Amazon,
I would like to alert you that I have still not recieved my order for the above item.

My account has indicated that the order has shipped on 21 Nov 2008 and that the delivery should be by 15 Dec 2008. On 16 Dec 2008, I have written to Amazon.com asking for the tracking information number and the customer representative replied that the tracking tracking information on the Deutsche Post web site appears incomplete. She advised me to be patient and wait until 31 Dec 2008 for the order to arrive, and also mentioned that Amazon.com will take full responsibility should any item become lost or damaged while being delivered, and that Amazon.com are more than happy to replace these items at a cost to yourselves.

As it is now 2 Jan 2009 and I still havent received my order plus the fact that the tracking information is not available, I have to reasonable conclude that my order is indeed lost. As such, I would like to take up upon the customer representative assurance that Amazon.com will take full responsibility and would appreciate greatly if Amazon.com would despatch a replacement for my order(using priority courier shipping)free of charge.

To be fair, I have always enjoyed quality service from Amazon.com throughout the years as a loyal customer and I sincerely believe that this is a one-off unfortunate incident. I hope that Amazon.com would respond favourably to my request for a replacement as promised and look forward to continue shopping with Amazon.com in the near future.

Thank you

 

Just a few hours later, they replied...

Hello from Amazon.com.
I'm sorry--it appears that your shipment was lost in transit. I've placed a new order and well ship it to the same address as soon as possible.
Here are the order details:

Order Number: 102-0348662-5449859
Shipping speed: Priority International Courier
Estimated Delivery Date: January 7, 2009 - January 9, 2009

To ensure that your order is delivered quickly and isn't held up by customs clearance procedures, we create a replacement order with charges when an international order is lost, damaged, or incorrect. The charge for this order is $130.48. Were also refunding the same amount $130.48 to your original order. Both the charge and refund will be applied to the credit card used on the original order, and the refund should be processed within the next 2-3 business days.

Again, I apologize for this situation. I've added some more information below that might help you.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

 

With that email, my replacement order was shipped, and with tracking information, I was able to track its movements across half the globe. It appears that my book travelled far, from Amazon HQ all the way up to Alaska, then Taiwan before arriving in Malaysia:

This the book safely in my hands, I would like to express grateful how impressed I am with Amazon for keeping their promise and upholding quality customer service :)  Malaysian companies have much to learn if we aspire to compete internationally...