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"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 2)


nathanm

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Well, I received a notice from Amazon.ca 2 days ago, saying that my book shipped. I was so happy to see the DHL courier walking from his van to my house, until I saw that he was carrying a small box under his arm. The box had only Vol 6, the Kitchen Manual in it. No Vols 1-5! Arghh!

I called Amazon.ca and they surmised that the two parts ship separately. I haven't gotten that sense from reading previous posts. Anyone else have this problem?

Sounds like bullcrap. The whole thing should be packaged together in an acrylic box.

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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The KM doesn't fit in the acrylic box, but it has a special little throne in the cardboard box inside the cardboard box within which the entire package has been packed. At least, that's how the first round went out.

I stand corrected then...maybe it's not much bullcrap.

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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FedEx is killing me... it's "out for delivery", I hear a truck, look outside and it's FedEx. YAAAAAYYY!!!

Guy walks up with a teeny tiny box, it's only then I notice it's FedEx ground, and he's bringing me a completely inconsequential item that I forgot I even ordered. I think I'm going to implode.

With my luck, I'll get ten other deliveries today, each from someone I *think* is bringing me MC, and by the time it really does come I'll be a total nervous wreck.

And on another note, I had not one but TWO dreams last night that FedEx dunked my books in water & snow & mud and they showed up completely ruined.

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wow, already the stuff of nightmares! Hopefully it'll arrive all ok!

As for the kitchen manual separate, that is really really strange and makes no sense. The whole thing comes from China packed in one box, as far as I can tell. At least the box has a big sticker on the side about what's in it (and how much it costs, not so great if you get it delivered while at work....) and once you start unpacking you get the kitchen manual.

I can only imagine that maybe somebody dropped a couple boxes and Amazon (or the shipper) is trying to salvage a manual here, a set of books there? Otherwise I don't understand this at all.

Maybe it has to do with customs, that they unpack it? As it is, it's like ordering a TV and getting the remote in a separate shipment, I'd call them again to find out. The way I got mine, if you unpack the kitchen manual the rest of the books will have room to bounce around in the box, and the inner box that holds the books is not good enough for shipping IMO, as it's missing all the protective packaging. Very strange.

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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For those of you frustrated by waiting for the UPS man to walk up your front door, here's something to make you feel better. As a follow-up to my previous post, I had ordered my copy of MC in October 2010 from Amazon.ca. It was "shipped" to me and arrived today-- just Volume 6. No rest of the set. Amazon.ca Customer Service has no idea why. They have no other books to send out. I now have to wait for a July ship date for the replacement.AARGHHH!

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sorry cookman that this hapened to you! That really makes no sense! What price did they charge you? that volume isn't even available all by itself, not does it make any sense to sell it separate! How would they come up with a price?

You can't even get at it, without opening the factory packaging, which is intended as shipping box to your door. I'd get on their case some more.

Edited by OliverB (log)

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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For those of you frustrated by waiting for the UPS man to walk up your front door, here's something to make you feel better. As a follow-up to my previous post, I had ordered my copy of MC in October 2010 from Amazon.ca. It was "shipped" to me and arrived today-- just Volume 6. No rest of the set. Amazon.ca Customer Service has no idea why. They have no other books to send out. I now have to wait for a July ship date for the replacement.AARGHHH!

I'd insist on a significant discount and start the bidding at a $75 amazon gift card available now, to be followed by a complete set when the supply catches up.

Edited by AaronM (log)
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I missed that throne. How does it look like?

You can see it in the photo set uptopic.

Thanks, Chris. I didn't miss it then, simply thought it was a very good packaging to prevent damages on the long journey home --mine, I mean-- but not a permanent case. I was surprised too that it didn't fit in the acrylic box, until "well, the kitchen manual should probably be in the kitchen" occurred to me. I'd rather it'd come with a "proper" and permanent case but I concede that it's a very minor flaw, at least to me.

Edited by pedro (log)

PedroEspinosa (aka pedro)

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I've missed the Amazon.ca DHL delivery the past two days, but the tracking page lists the total weight as 3.3 lbs. I'm guessing that's pretty close to the weight of the kitchen manual. Something isn't right here.

Edited by derekslager (log)
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Thanks, Chris. I didn't miss it then, simply thought it was a very good packaging to prevent damages on the long journey home --mine, I mean-- but not a permanent case.

It is that: I don't think the implication of "throne" in the above post referred to a permanent holding area, but more to the way it's packaged such that it's pretty hard to imagine a kitchen-manual-only delivery. I'll love a photo of the box the kitchen manual came in complete with the shipping label listing it at 50 lbs!

ETA: Didn't see Derek's post above. So Amazon's records should actually show they shipped a 3.3lb book even though the system knows it's supposed to weigh 50 lbs? And that didn't trip any red flags in their system? That's sort of astonishing, I'd have though that would be an important part of their supply chain management.

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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Well, I received a notice from Amazon.ca 2 days ago, saying that my book shipped. I was so happy to see the DHL courier walking from his van to my house, until I saw that he was carrying a small box under his arm. The box had only Vol 6, the Kitchen Manual in it. No Vols 1-5! Arghh!

I called Amazon.ca and they surmised that the two parts ship separately. I haven't gotten that sense from reading previous posts. Anyone else have this problem?

They do NOT ship separately. Something very bad happened - like people other than the customer opening the box. The entire set comes in ONE BOX - both the kitchen manual and the 5 hard cover volumes in the acrylic case.

If other people have this happen, please post about it and I will try to find out what is happening.

Nathan

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I also got only the kitchen manual. It's in a standard Amazon.ca box (i.e., none of the original packaging) about the size of the kitchen manual and lists both 1.09kg and 1.5kg as shipping weights. No other shipments are shown in the order and customer service doesn't know what happened (but has offered to refund or replace in 2-5 months for whatever their time estimates are worth). As for price, the full amount was charged.

Perhaps helpful in tracking down the issue:

  • Ordered: November 7
  • Shipment method selected: Priority International Courier
  • Shipped: April 5
  • Carrier: DHL
  • Destination: Washington state, USA
  • Delivered: April 6

Perhaps there's a common link?

- Sharif

Edited by Sharif (log)
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this makes no sense what so ever, none at all. How much were you charged? It's impossible to just order the manual, it does not have a price!

I'd get on their case by phone, and really quick and really hard, something very wrong is happening here. Don't let the first (or second) level dodo send you away, escalate until you reach a supervisor that can help. This is just ridiculous. I can't imagine somebody stealing the main part, but if the manual came in an Amazon smiling box, somebody really unpacked things and repackaged them. This is not right. It's actually more like ordering a TV and only getting the remote in a box....

Do update us on what's going on, but this is the craziest thing I've ever heard happening at Amazon.

So sorry for both of you, hopefully it doesn't happen to more! But Amazon should have fire breathing down some warehouse manager's back by now, this is not a case for lame excuses, not at all.

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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Just checked my shipment stataus with UPS - shows it in transit as of April 7 and weighing 47.4 pounds so looks like everything is there. Won't know for sure til I get home next week by which time I hope it is waiting at my office for me :)

Llyn Strelau

Calgary, Alberta

Canada

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Mine should be here either later today or worst case on Monday.

The DHL site I can see has no shipping weight so I called the local office who told me that my parcel was 10kg - now I'm worried!

Friday, April 08, 2011 Location Time

16 Processed at SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA 09:24

15 Clearance processing complete at SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA 09:20

14 Arrived at Sort Facility SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA 08:24

Wednesday, April 06, 2011 Location Time

13 Departed Facility in LOS ANGELES GATEWAY - USA LOS ANGELES GATEWAY, CA - USA 11:04

Let's hope it's just a clerical error.

Cheers,

Peter.

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this makes no sense what so ever, none at all. How much were you charged? It's impossible to just order the manual, it does not have a price!

I'm going waaayy out on a limb here, but I suspect returns. Someone gets a copy, opens the box and ships it back for whatever reason, in whatever way is most convenient. So it comes back (separated) and a warehouse picker sees 'Modernist Cuisine' and knows they are to get these out ASAP. So they do just that.

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