A few days ago, I was trying to download a CD from Amie Street called "Syn" by Original Syn. Since I was pretty much the first person downloading it, it was free (like all "new" music on the site). It's a pretty cool business model that I'm pretty sure I've talked about before.
Well, the site said that I had downloaded / bought the album already when I said "buy." That was a bit weird, but it was okay by me, because they log what you buy, and you get to download it as often as you want once it's locked in (and for me, the price they locked it at was "free," so I didn't really care if I had to go through my account and download it there). However, when I got there, they said I hadn't bought it, and could not download it.
That was pretty annoying - even if it was free, I still wanted my music. I went, and emailed Tech Services about the issue, knowing full well that usually when you email a site, they never reply (honestly, I've done it a few times). Instead, they usually just ignore you, so I was just venting.
Anyways, once I sent the email, I tried again one more time, just for kicks, and it actually downloaded the album! I chalked up the whole thing to database lag, and forgot about the whole thing.
Today, I finally went through my email (my Amie Street account is under a fake name using a secondary email address, to avoid spam), and I found this email:
[Login Name],
Thanks for getting in touch and I apologize for the problem you encountered downloading your purchased music from Original Syn.
Given that it sounds like you might have simply encountered a graphical bug with which button was being displayed for you, my first recommendation for you to re-download your music from your downloads page found within your Account tab at http://amiestreet.com/downloads . From there you can click the 'Download' button next to your music and you will be presented with the Open/Save dialogue box by your browser, from which you should choose 'Save' and select 'OK'. Keep in mind that when you first go to this page the 'Only show songs I haven't downloaded yet' box will be checked off and you'll have to uncheck it to view all of your music.
Please make sure that you are not using a download accelerator, however, as this will prevent you from downloading anything from our website.
I really appreciate you taking the time to write us and I put some extra RECs in your account as a small thank you for your patience. You can REC any song you've purchased and earn money for more music if the song you recommend goes up in price. Please let me know if there's anything else I can help you with or if you've got any suggestions for Amie Street.
Regards,
Ian Whalen
Amie Street Support
http://amiestreet.com/user/IanWhalen
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For those that don't know, RECs are pretty much currency on Amie Street - you can use them to recommend songs, and the recommendations earn you cash towards other music purchases. Essentially, they tried to resolve my problem (unnecessary), and were pretty quick about it. They also ended up giving me free money, in a way. Though... if you read it carefully, it seems he ignored my original email, because the advice he gives is what I originally tried, anyways.
I was pretty surprised by it, and sent them a thank you letter. Forgot to change to my fake name, but since the only mail I've ever gotten from them is this letter (no spam, whatsoever), I think it's probably okay. They've converted me from curious bystander to loyalist who recommends their website to friends (at least for the short while while the email is fresh in my mind). And they even get a full blog post.
I'm not sure how many other companies send emails like this to their complainers, and even less who would actually give me something for complaining, but it's restored a lot of faith in me about the online service industry, which I've always been cynical about.
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