Mmmm. Free CD.

Thanks to Warren for The Musketeer!

Fly II

Nice and dire.

Remains of the Day?

But it's not on the shelf - and I can't recall what the CD sounds like ... maybe Ginny owns it. Ditto Howard's End.
update 20021003 It was mis-filed. Insanity not really averted at all, though. Nice to know that I wasn't crazy after all and only went mad trying to figure out where it was.

I May Have Ordered a CD; We'll See

Honestly, what are some people thinking? This "system," which is suitable for a warehouse operation in Bizarro world, has resulted in a failure rate of about 14%. Eesh. The following is my response to Amazon, which really should vet these third party policies more closely.

Hello -

The forwarded message that follows was sent as part of a transaction with a Marketplace seller. Although I may be sympathetic to their obvious shortcomings, I can't help but feel that I should worry about the safety of my order.

The inventory system described is amateurish at best. If I had been in control of the ordering of this pre-order, it's very doubtful that I would have chosen to do business with them, based on the feedback in their record.

Almost all of the negative feedback can be traced directly to their inventory practices. And isn't the Amazon name all about effective inventory management? Should Amazon be associated with a seller with this kind of haphazard system?

If I can't be assured that an item I have paid for is actually available, I don't want the non-seller to benefit (even in the form of a cancelled order) from my inconvenience. If a means to prevent this kind of seller from gaining my business without my explicit approval cannot be put in place, I will have to decline to use the pre-order system at all.

Best regards,
Kyle Beatty

------ start forwarded message ------
From: "Music Recyclery"
To: recycle@musicrecyclery.com
Subject: Thank you for your Marketplace order
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 17:22:45 -0500

Save Money - Shop at The Music Recyclery
Hello and thank you from The Music Recyclery!

This message is to confirm an order placed through Amazon.Com's Marketplace. In order to provide you with the widest selection of used CD's and more on the web, we upload the inventory from all of our ten stores 3 times a week. When you place an order, we start tracking down the items at the stores they're located at.
**Shipping usually happens the day after an order is pulled. We ship by US Media Mail. Usually this takes 4-14 business days, but sometimes can take up to 21 business days. We are sorry but we cannot guarantee an exact time of arrival.

Sometimes, because of the way this system works, an item will not be available. It could have been sold or misfiled or in transit from our distribution center, and we were unable to remove the listing in time. We will attempt to locate the missing item until the next day, when we will issue an immediate refund through Amazon payments. Please remember that this message is only a confirmation that your order has been received by us and it is being processed. This does not mean that the order has been canceled in any way. Thank you for your understanding!

We hope you are happy with what you found and would love for you to visit our zShop Storefronts at . If nothing shows up at one storefront, try the other. We move back and forth to keep our inventory constantly available while updating it as frequently as possible. You can find a huge searchable bank of thousands of titles. We deal in used CD’s, video games from all systems, VHS tapes, DVD's, and laser discs, all at incredibly low prices and with a 100% guarantee. Please stop by and check us out.
Once again, thank you very much for your order. We hope to be hearing from you again soon.

------ end forwarded message ------

Ordered a CD

Amazon pre-order actually worked! Found a cheap copy of Fly II (But see here.)

CDs Returned

I seem to be suffering from some kind of John Williams centered curse. American Journey showed up scratched and had to be returned and Williams on Williams: Classic Spielberg went missing in the mail. And then I listened to the last track of A.I. Which, if there was a God, would have gone missing or been scratched.

Found a Database That Doesn't Suck

OrangeCD catalogs CDs well. Hooray! This is about the fourth program of its type I've tried and it's the only one that didn't make me want to tear out my computer's heart with a spoon.

CDs Purchased Used

Found Sum of All Fears (Goldsmith) and Minority Report (Williams) used already. I like both scores. The premise of SoaF actually pisses me off. Perhaps it comes off as being in better taste when viewed. Terror pornography. Ick.