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Credit card shows 3 charges.... friend gets 3 copies of the magazine. They took care of it promptly. Sent me a couple make t-shirts.
Loyal O'Reilly cusomer/ oReilly radar reader.
I had the fortune of visiting the O'Reilly offices in Sebastopol a few weeks ago (thanks Mary!), and this gracious attitude permeates the building. It may be one of the happiest, friendliest offices I've had the fortune of visiting. Plus, the Make offices are just incredibly cool - like a real-life Willy Wonka factory, with hundreds of cool half-built gadgets scattered around.
Actually I believe you aren't even legally obligated to return them, whether they pay for shipping or not. This is to prevent mail fraud (someone sending something and then invoicing for it).
Actually I believe you aren't even legally obligated to return them, whether they pay for shipping or not. This is to prevent mail fraud (someone sending something and then invoicing for it).
How is this preventing mail fraud if the OP says he inadvertently placed two order himself, not due to any fault of O'Reilly?
I've seen this with authors who work very hard to make their primary mission communication and education, without "sweating the small stuff". And I've seen it at the top, with the way Tim has run and cared about the business.
It's worked, with me. Currently, I might be better off purchasing single titles than maintaining a Safari subscription. But it's nice to have instant access when I need it. And, damn it, someone has to promote a rational, useful model for ebooks. (Purchased copies feel more like my books, rather than a DRM-choked "license" (aka timebomb). With Safari token-based downloads, that even includes titles from other publishers', e.g. Addison Wesley.)
I now find some other publishers who likewise earn my respect and support (e.g. Pragmatic). But O'Reilly was one of the first to be there, especially in commercial digital publishing on a large scale.
I had the fortune of visiting the O'Reilly offices in Sebastopol a few weeks ago (thanks Mary!), and this gracious attitude permeates the building. It may be one of the happiest, friendliest offices I've had the fortune of visiting. Plus, the Make offices are just incredibly cool - like a real-life Willy Wonka factory, with hundreds of cool half-built gadgets scattered around.
I used to work at O'Reilly and this is a perfect description!
I may be too cynical, but I bet that the authors of those books didn't get paid. They were probably marked as "destroyed" in O'Reilly's accounting system.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to work at O'Reilly and this is a perfect description!
Why "used to"? Sounds like a cool place to work
[Note, I can't say for sure that's why the above person doesn't work there anymore, but it's likely. I interviewed several times and was astounded that they wanted me to relocate to the middle of nowhere for a 3 month contract.]
As much as I share your admiration for O'Reilly, this is seems to be common practice. It's just more expensive to get the items back in inventory again than what they are actually worth. See this thread: "Microsoft suggests customer donate extra X-Box they sent him." http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3434404