My dealing with Amazon produced the following. Edited highlights from what I believe was my 3rd order with them:
August 2000: Greetings from Amazon.com!
It has come to our attention that your order is taking longer to complete than we initially estimated. In an effort to expedite the process, we have contacted the publisher by phone, and obtained a reconfirmation that they are processing our order for "Titanic : Sinking the Myths".
We expect our order to be fulfilled shortly, and be ready for shipment to you within the next few weeks.
After that they told me:
I'm sorry we are unable to be more precise about the availability of Your order(#.......)-1 of "Titanic : Sinking the Myths". We have not found any publisher for this title. You order has been cancelled due to unavailability of the item.
After I told them they did know who the publisher was and had actually made phone contact with them:
Unfortunately, this title is currently not available. Though not officially "out of print," this book is "out of stock indefinitely" at the publisher.
When a book is out of stock indefinitely, it is in a kind of limbo. It is either out of stock and will soon go out of print, or it is out of stock and may be reprinted. Since these titles are not officially out of print, we cannot do out-of-print book searches for them.
Later:
Per your request, I forwarded your most recent e-mail to xxxx in our Special Orders Department. As you may recall, xxxx had notified you after we had experienced a delay in filling your order. She had contacted the publisher and was assured that they would be supplying us with this book so we could then ship it to you. -
I did not need to be told that as I had told Amazon that.
In fact, although we did place an order with the publisher, who told us the book was available, we have yet to receive it. Instead, we have received conflicting information, just as you have, about the availability of "Titanic: Sinking the Myths." We do not know yet what went wrong, but we are investigating this further. -
Needless to say all of the conflicting information was from Amazon.
Then in November:
I want to apologize for any misunderstanding concerning your order.
Unfortunately, this title is currently not available. Though not officially "out of print," this book is "out of stock indefinitely" at the publisher.
When a book is out of stock indefinitely, it is in a kind of limbo. It is either out of stock and will soon go out of print, or it is out of stock and may be reprinted. Since these titles are not officially out of print, we cannot do out-of-print book searches for them.
If you would like to purchase this book, I suggest that you search our catalog occasionally to see if the title has been reprinted or re-listed as an out-of-print title.
Bottom line seems to be that Titanic: Sinking the Myths is not officially "out of print"; so it remains on Amazon's list of available books. Not a very good Customer Relations decision.
Thankfully eBay came to the party and I got a copy that way 3 months ago.
Lester
