Sinabro

A request that I sent to Amazon came back with a response. While their response time was fairly quick, I am actually distressed to see that it seems to have been answered by a person—it sounded like an automated system’s answer. Well, Amazon went down a notch in my esteem of it … although, that’s probably still higher than a lot of other places. Anyways. Here’s the anonymized/redacted version of the e-mail.

Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:03:56 -0800 (PST)
From: "Amazon.com Customer Service"
To: "novakyu@xxxxxxxxx"
Subject: Your Amazon.com Inquiry

Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com. 

I'm very sorry, but I was unable to determine the exact item name
from the content of your e-mail message. 

Please click the following link to write back to us with the exact
name of the item or the ASIN, so that we will able to assist you
better in this regard. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html

When we receive an email from you using the form above, we will
assist you as soon as possible.

Please be assured that all of us here are working very hard to
provide a thorough, personal reply to each of our customers as
quickly as possible.

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for shopping at
Amazon.com.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

If yes, click here: 

http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If not, click here: 

http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail. 

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help
section of our web site.

Best regards,

XxxxxxxxxXXxx X.
Amazon.com Customer Service

http://www.amazon.com

==============================
Check your order and more: http://www.amazon.com/your-account

> Date: Wed Jan 23 03:01:03 UTC 2008
> Subject: Other Services
> From: novakyu@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> ---------------
> 01/22/08 19:01:03
> Your Name:Andrzej Novak
> Comments:To Whom It May Concern:
>
> I am currently in the market for a good AMD notebook to replace
> my old and failing one. As I have had pleasant experience with
> Amazon in the past, both in buying new and old books and
> electronics, I was very interested in purchasing my future notebook
> from Amazon, and indeed, I found a great selection of good AMD
> notebooks.
>
> However, I must ask: Do you offer any notebooks without Windows
> bundled? As a Debian GNU/Linux user, I have no intention of using
> Windows or paying for it in the first place. I did see two notebooks
> listed under "Unix", but it looked like one was mislabeled (it
> clearly said on the product page that Windows was bundled with it),
> and the other was somewhat ambiguous (it says it's "Unix platform",
> but these days, everything runs GNU/Linux---I would like to know for
> sure that it will not come with Windows).
>
> Given that other large retailers/manufacturer as Dell and Lenovo
> are starting to offer notebooks with GNU/Linux installed, does
> Amazon have any plans for offering notebooks with GNU/Linux, or, for
> a compromise, does not include Windows or the so-called "Microsoft
> tax" in the price?
>
> As I hope my new notebook will last me longer than my old one (it
> will have lasted 3 years by the time I replace it), I am giving a
> lot of thought to its purchase, and if you could let me know if
> Amazon might offer notebooks without Windows bundled (and on which
> models, etc.) in near future (in a few months is "near" enough for
> me), I would very much appreciate it.
>
> Thank you,
> ---------------