For school next year, I decided we needed Joy Hakim's books on CD. We have loved listening to SOTW on CD on car trips short and long and I knew Hakim would be a hit. We have already read a couple of her books, but it's nice to have something to occupy one's mind while in the car.
A few months ago I asked my handy-dandy husband to join audible.com and download the books for me. No problem, he said. We purchased the disks and they sat. They gathered dust. My husband would much rather play Runescape than anything else on the computer.
I have to admit that somewhere along the line I became behind the times. I just recently figured out what an MP3 player is, and all those other "devices". I remember in the '80s people came to me with computer problems -- shees, now I am clueless. Here's a big admission that I shouldn't make: I have never, until today, made a CD on the computer. Not pictures, not books, not music, not back-up, nothing. I use my little hard floppies because I know how to do that.
How stupid is that!!! Well, I decided today was the day to get over my stupid technological phobia and get on with life. I called Thomas down, because he has no computer fear, and we logged on. Went straight to audible.com, bought our membership, and then I got stumped. Thomas got bored and was of no help and he quickly disappeared. I got to a screen that wanted me to pick my device. Well, I have no device, I just want to make CDs. It didn't give me the option I was looking for.
I decided I'd just spent $150, I needed help. I called customer service. I was fearing the worst (or maybe I should say normal). Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong in dreading customer service.
This was, hands down, the best customer service I have ever received. I felt like such a stupid dope not being able to figure out how to do this. The rep never once made me feel stupid. He answered my initial question and then volunteered: Why don't I stay on the phone with you and walk you through the entire process. Well, bust my buffers, I was shocked. We were on the phone for 23 minutes! (My phone shows the time of the call when I hang up.) He walked me through, he showed me shortcuts, he explained all kinds of things such as what to do if I have a computer crash or lose power, how many minutes a CD will hold (77) . He was personable, he laughed at my stupid jokes I made. He was wonderful!
I hung up the phone feeling like an expert. Wow. You just don't get customer service like that and I am elated and felt like sharing it with the whole world. He even emailed me after the phone call, which was a form email, but he added a nice little personal note to it. Audible.com, you rock!
What's even more exciting was hopping in the car with my newly burned CD and finding it actually worked!
I purchased the 12 credit package for $149.50. You get all the credits up front, and I wanted the whole thing on disk to start the year. I got an extra credit for joining. So now I'm off to search for three good books to download besides Joy Hakim's series. By the way, this was a heck of a lot cheaper than buying the disks online.
I love books on CD. We "car school" often and I'm overjoyed that I have added to our collection today!
2 comments:
Audible does Rock! I've been a subscriber since 2000. But do yourself a favor and get yourself an mp3 player that plays Audible. You'd be hard pressed to find one betten than an iPod Nano, but there are definately cheaper options available. Downloading directly to the mp3 player, and especially the iPod, is so much easier and faster (like immeidately) than burning all those CD's.
Then, the key is to get your MP3 player accessible in your car, either by wire, cassette adaptor, or worst case, FM transmitter.
This is something I have been thinking about doing as well. We spend quite a bit of time in the car, commuting to classes and lessons. I would love to turn those into teaching moments. My problem is that my CD player in the car will not play "burned" cds. My son is into that, and made me a cool mix of my favorites for Mother's Day. I can't even listen to it while I drive. I guess I am goign to have to do some inter-library loans for real cds, or cough up the $$ to buy them.
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