[ficbot]

I had purchased Joe Haldeman's ebook from Fictionwise awhile back and it is one of the dozen or so I have that was caught in Fictionwise's post-agency black hole where you can't download them again. I have most of these problem books in HTML and while I would like to redownload them once more now that I know a better way to liberate them, I at least have HTML versions. Somehow, Joe's book did not get backed up properly though and I lost even that much.

I wanted to check something in the book and look at it again but could not find it on my backup drive. I was disappointed to contemplate paying twice by having to buy it again elsewhere, but Fictionwise would not let me download it again. So I decided to email the author directly and see if he had an e-copy he could send me.

I took a screenshot of my computer while I was logged into Fictionwise with his book showing in my library with a download link. I then emailed this proof of purchase to him (his email address was on his website which I found after 2 seconds with Google) along with an explanation.

The next day, I got a reply but the email was blank so I wrote again and suggested one of us might be having computer difficulties but I would still really love to hear from him. I got an email back later that very day from his wife! She said he WAS having computer problems but wanted me to be taken care of so she was sending this from her own computer. She sent me an MS word document with his manuscript for the book, and also offered to send me an autographed paperback!

That is customer service, right there. No excuses, no 'sorry but there is nothing we can do about this as it's the publisher/agent/whomever's fault.' No canned form letter. Just a real author out there trying to help his customer. I will remember this.