I ordered two copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Amazon.com back in February. I ordered the "regular" edition, and a copy of the Deluxe Edition. Since this is the last book, I wanted the Deluxe Edition as a keepsake. Since I ordered so early, I was guaranteed release-day delivery on Saturday, July 21st. Like everyone else, I anxiously awaited the delivery of the mail on Saturday. The mail was delivered around 3:15 p.m. on Saturday. This is when I found out that only one of my two books had been delivered. My copy of the Deluxe Edition arrived, but I did not get the "regular" copy. I went into the living room and told my folks that only one book came in, and mom went out to catch the mail truck as it went by. The mail carrier told my mom that he only had the one package for me and hopefully my other package would be delivered Monday. I don't intend to open the copy of the Deluxe Edition, but rather, I'm going to keep that as a collector's item. So, I had no book to read on Saturday night.

Needless to say, I was royally upset. I was supposed to be guaranteed release-day delivery since I ordered back in February, and according to the tracking information on Amazon.com, *BOTH* copies of the book arrived at a postal facility in Durham, NC at 12:04 p.m. on Friday, July 20th. Durham is only about 45 minutes away from me, and I don't understand why I didn't get both copies of the book, when they both arrived at the same postal facility at the same time and should have gone out and been delivered at the same time.  I pre-ordered all of the other books and never had a problem.

Later in the evening, I went to the "Help" area of  Amazon.com.  The first thing I saw on the Help page was a message stating that Amazon.com had made special arrangement with postal carriers to deliver the books up until 7:00 p.m. in the person's local time zone. I looked at the clock on my computer screen...It was 6:39 p.m. my time as I was reading that message and I still had not received my other copy of the book. I searched through Amazon's Help area to find a way to contact them and got in touch with them by phone. By the time I actually got to speak with someone, it was 6:55 p.m.

The customer service rep looked at my order and refunded my money for the cost of the regular book. Since I had been guaranteed release-day delivery and one copy of the book did not arrive, I get that copy for free. She said that hopefully the other copy would arrive on Monday. She even wanted to know if I had read the book yet, and I told her that I did not intend to open the copy of the Deluxe Edition...I bought it as a collector's item.

I do hope that I get the other copy in today's mail. Amazon.com has done everything that they can to make sure that a customer is happy. This is actually the first problem I've ever had with an order from Amazon, and I've been buying from them for about nine years. The rep I spoke with even told me to call them back in the event that my other book doesn't arrive today. I hope it will. I am looking forward to reading it, but, if the other copy doesn't come in, I'll have to order another copy, which will take a few days to get here, and it will be a few days more before I can begin reading the book.

I am trying so hard to stay away from anything that reveals what happens in the last book. I don't want the experience of discovering that on my own to be ruined for me. I'd like to experience the story as it unfolds. J.K. Rowling is such a great writer, it truly is a joy to read her work.  I don't want to know what happens before I read about it myself. If you've already read the book and you're on my friends list, and you want to write a post about the book, please put the post under an LJ-cut so that you don't ruin the experience for me and anyone else who has not yet had a chance to read the book.

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UPDATE: The book arrived on Monday around 3:30 p.m. I'm ten chapters into it and really enjoying it.