The Joys of E-Commerce...

OK, I'm venting a little today. But sometimes in this business you don't know whether to laugh or to cry. Here's an email I received a few days ago:

Subject: Write for Cash Course

SWREG have cashed my cheque for this course over three weeks ago yet I have not received your course.

I will take legal action to recover costs if you do not deliver the course within the next 7 days.

I can't say I was delighted by this communication, but I replied as politely as I could:

Thank you for your email. I am sorry you have not received the course you ordered.

I am not sure from your message which of my courses you ordered. If it was "Quick Cash Writing" this is provided as an instant download via the Internet. If it was "Write Any Book in Under 28 Days", this is supplied on CD-ROM, which is of course sent by mail.

In any event, can I ask you to go to my publisher's customer support website at www.myhelphub.com and raise a ticket there? Please give them as much information as possible, including the correct name of the course you ordered and, if possible, your order reference number. They should then be able to trace your order and, assuming it was for "Write Any Book in Under 28 Days", let you know when the CD was dispatched. Alternatively, if your order was for Quick Cash Writing, they will be able to provide you with download details.

I am sorry I cannot give you this information myself, but I am simply the writer. All orders are processed and dispatched by my publishers, WCCL.

Thank you for your interest in my writing courses...

And that was the last I heard from this lady - until I started getting emails from people listed on the testimonials page of my publisher's sales site saying that they had received emails out of the blue from this lady asking about "the Nick Daws scam" and requesting various items of information from them.

So can I say first of all that if you have received any emails from this lady in the last day or two, I can only apologise and suggest that you disregard them. As well as my email above, she has also had a stronger message from my publishers asking her to desist from contacting people via our websites with her possibly libellous comments. As a matter of interest, my publishers have no record of receiving any order from her email address, and neither has she (as of this morning) opened a support ticket with them.

I'd just like to add that most of the (many) emails I get are friendly and positive, and I'm delighted to receive them. But there are always a few who, at the drop of a hat, start screaming "scam" rather than go through the appropriate channels. So I'd just like to conclude with a few pointers for anyone who orders my writing courses or any other software via WCCL and has a query about it...

1. With CDs, please allow up to 28 days for delivery. CDs are normally dispatched within 24 hours of orders being received, but sometimes when they are being sent internationally they get delayed at customs and such like. This is outside WCCL's control, but if you haven't received your CD after 28 days please raise a ticket at www.myhelphub.com and they will do their best to find a solution for you.

2. If you have any queries about the ordering process or when your CD was dispatched, again, please raise a ticket at www.myhelphub.com. All these matters are looked after by my publishers, WCCL, rather than me personally. As I frequently have to tell people, I'm just the writer!

3. And again, if you have any problems with the CD's copyright-protection feature (e.g. you have forgotten the email address you ordered the CD from, so cannot activate it), please raise a ticket at www.myhelphub.com and their technicians will sort it out for you. I'd really like to help, but I'm just the... Well, I'm sure you get the idea by now!

OK, vent over. Back to writing-related topics in my next post!