A brief note about how companies should do business. While on a call this afternoon my UPS shipment arrived. A couple of cable/remote releases for the Nikon were to be inside. Unfortunately when I opened the box only one of the two items were inside. Checking the manifest it showed both should have been there. "Oh great," I said dreading the afternoon of phone calls that was about to come. Would they send an inspector to the house for this ten-dollar item, I wondered? How many hours would it take. I punched the numbers in and dreaded what would become of my day. Here's what happened then:

Amazon call center: Can I get your email or order ID?
Me: Sure... and gave her my email address.
Amazon call center: How may I help you today?
Me: Well I just got my box that was to have two items but it has just one was in the box.
Amazon call center: I'm sorry about that which item was missing?
Me: It was the wireless remote the ML-L3. I even took the box apart to make sure.
Amazon call center: OK. I can do two things I can either refund the item or send you a replacement.
Me: I'd like a replacement.

Now at this point I'm pretty happy but still a little sad. I'd ordered the remote in time to have it for the fireworks this Friday and now knew that wasn't going to happen. Would I have to wait for a new one to be manufactured and then shipped via snail?

Amazon call center: OK. I'm going to get that shipped to you today and I'm going to upgrade the shipping to the next level.... one moment... This will ship today and will be next-day shipping. Let me send you the email now.

Sure enough within moments my email box had this message:

Thank you for contacting us at Amazon.com. I'm sorry for the problem you experienced with this shipment.

I've placed a new order for the item at no charge. Here are the details of the new order:
[...]

In all the many times I've ordered from Amazon I've had two orders that went awry. One previous time it was a gift that didn't arrive. In both cases, however, the customer service has just been first rate. With customer service like this and soaring gas prices it makes more and more sense to use some good shops like this.