Remember how I was all tormented about the second edition of The Baby Name Wizard only being available when the first edition was sold out? Today Laura Wattenberg announced on her blog that Amazon.com has agreed to sell only the second edition! I’ve already ordered mine; now I have to go camp out by the mailbox.
Edit 07-10-2009: NEVER MIND! Three people have already contacted me to let me know that their copy arrived from Amazon.com and it was the ORIGINAL edition. And that’s just the ones that arrived by cheetah: I ordered mine with 2-day shipping before I wrote this post, and it’s not due to arrive until Monday. I’ll let you know what I get, and please continue to leave comments in the comment section if you get the wrong thing. I’ve found Amazon.com to be very good with returns, though of course this is still an ENORMOUS DISAPPOINTMENT. I’m going to go look at The Baby Name Wizard’s post about Amazon.com shipping the new edition and see if other people are reporting similar results.
Wait, how do you know? The page says it was published in 2005. Are you psychic somehow and just KNOW it’s the second edition? Or am I missing a huge blinking banner on the page somewhere that says that?
What Jess said. Is there a secret we aren’t in on?
For those of you wondering, Laura Wattenberg confirms this on her blog.
Oh! Yes! I should have said! I saw it on The Baby Name Wizard blog! I’ll add that to the post. I got caught up in the excitement!
Don’t believe the hype! I ordered this book from amazon.com after reading this post, and amazon sent me the first edition.
:(
Tree- ACK! Amazon is really good about returns. Did you do overnight shipping? I did 2-day before I wrote this post, and it’s not arriving until Monday.
I ordered it and received the old edition as well.
Jen- This is TERRIBLE! What is going ON? I ordered mine with 2-day shipping but it won’t arrive until Monday. I’ll let you know what I get.
I ordered a copy immediately after reading Laura’s okay on ordering the revised edition from Amazon, but passed on both the 1-day (I think it was) delivery if I applied for Amazon Prime and the higher shipping cost of 2-day delivery (I’m pretty tight…). I’ve received an email that my copy will arrive on Tues. and was pretty happy about that until we started hearing on BNW blog that Amazon did not send out the revised edition on the 8th. On the 7th, the day the book was supposed to be available, I ordered it through a local (but some distance from my home) B&N, explaining very carefully to the clerk about the duplicate ISBN numbers and making it clear, I hope, which edition I want. I’ve just received an email that the book is in and am going to drive to that B&N this morning, with some trepidation, hoping it’s the right edition. I will be most happily surprised if it is…
I got mine yesterday (it was the old one) and spent a long time on the phone with an Amazon rep explaining about Laura’s website assuring us that the new edition would be sent through Amazon. She allowed me to return it with no shipping charge. Such a disappointment!!!
Katie
Where did you find Amazon’s phone number? I’m sure I’ll have to call them when the one they’re sending me arrives Tuesday. This morning when I went to a local B&N to pick up the copy I’d ordered from them this past Tues. (explaining very carefully to the clerk about the same ISBN numbers and wanting the revised edition only) turned out to be the original BNW too. This clerk DID find the 7/2009 version in HER computer, but I decided not to order it from them. I’m about to give up!
Patricia: Google “Amazon customer service number”, and you’ll find a number of websites (not, interestingly, amazon.com itself) that list numbers you can call. Amazon does have customer service numbers but is notorious for doing its best to hide them.
Try these numbers, but if they don’t work, try Google for something more current:
Phone toll-free in the US and Canada: (800) 201-7575 or (866) 216-1072
Phone from outside the US and Canada: (206) 346-2992 or (206)-266-2992
Another direct line: (206) 266-2335
You can also contact them online if, like me, you hate telephones. They have an online contact form. I forget where, but I haven’t had trouble finding it by clicking obvious words like “help” or “customer service” or “contact.”
I took a minute and looked, and I found this contact page, which has options for email and phone, as well as for having THEM call YOU, if it’s in any way hard to find a toll-free number.
The phone number is listed as 1-866-216-1072 for U.S. customers, but I’d just have them call me. They already have my phone number anyway.
Thanks for the Amazon contact info. I expect I’ll be calling them tomorrow after my order arrives.
Mine arrived today and it’s the old edition. Oh POOHSTICKS.
I would like to take back my claim that Amazon is good with returns. They always have been for me, in the past. But this time they told me that _I_ ordered the wrong edition and so _I_ would have to pay return shipping and then reorder the correct edition—which they linked to, and it was a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BOOK by a completely different author. I see they have also changed their photo and excerpt to be of the first edition, but I feel like an idiot saying so in my email to them (“It WAS the second edition, I SWEAR! Someone must have CHANGED it!”). I’m really angry, but I will get this resolved.
ARGH. I got the WRONG ONE too. BAD! FURY! ANGST!
OK, I just called Amazon and the guy was incredibly nice. First he said it was probably just a fluke and he was going to re-input the order for me, and then I told him about the blog and how other people were having the same problem, and he said he was going to personally go and check and make sure they only had the correct copy of the book. I told him that he can tell whether it’s the new version or not based on whether there’s a pink/red circle in the upper lefthand corner of the cover saying that it’s revised, because that’s what the picture on the BNW website shows, and mine doesn’t have that.
So, apparently, this guy is going to check, and also send me an email with instructions on how to return my current book for free and get the new version instead. We’ll see if this works. I will keep you posted!
I got a reply to my second email to Amazon, and they’re letting me return the books on their dime—but they’re still saying that I misunderstood their listing. It seems like Amazon has NO IDEA of any agreement with the publisher. Even after what must be TONS of complaints/returns, they’re still not saying they’ll send the right one, and they’ve changed the picture on their listing, as if to say, “Who, us? We never said anything about a second edition!”
I printed out TBNW’s blog announcement and included it with the return. And now I guess I just have to….wait. Until they really DO have an agreement with the publisher, or until I find it in a bookstore. SO FRUSTRATED.
Just purchased 2 copies of BNW2 at a local B&N, after calling them to see if they had received any copies of the revised edition. I also had very good luck getting Amazon to send me a label to return the original BNW they sent me, with Amazon paying return postage. I called the number Swistle provided above.
I hope everyone else can get their hands on the new edition soon.
OK, I did NOT get an email with instructions, but I DID get an email saying “my order” has shipped, my order being a copy of TBNW for zero dollars. We will see if a) it’s the right edition, and b) this means that I don’t have to return the original book.
I just got my replacement book in the mail, and it’s the original edition again. At this point I am stuck. What do you think my chances are of returning both original editions to a bricks and mortar bookstore in exchange for one copy of the revised edition?
Jess- OMG, did your HEAD EXPLODE?? I looked at Target the other day, but they only had the first edition. I’m going to see if I can go to Barnes & Noble this weekend.