Two facts are deemed to be known.
- Not every product is available in every country.
- Amazon does not deliver every product to every country.
Austrians can tell you a thing or two about red letters informing you that the product you want to order can be delivered to Germany, but not to Austria. Now what has this got to do with waterproof ink?
- De Atramentis Document Ink is not available in Austria. (If anyone knows it better, please tell me immediately.)
- De Atramentis Document Ink Black is delivered to Austria by Amazon (I know it, because that’s how I got it.)
De Atramentis Document Ink comes in a variety of colours. For my trip to Antarctica I wanted a brighter somehow broken blue. No problem – I thought – there is an ink in Blue Grey. But this ink is not for Austrians. Amazon sends us De Atramentis Document Ink in Black, Blue and Dark Blue. For the colours Grey, Violet, Brown, Green, Blue Grey and Turquoise this means: Tough luck!
That’s so strange that I wrote the manufacturer. I received a friendly mail telling me, he made no restrictions to sending the ink to Austria. I have to ask Amazon directly.
After a long search I could start a chat with Amazon. Instead of an answer I got the promise that within 24 hours the responsible department will send me a mail. The mail arrived indeed. It was very long and seemed like a copy and paste version of international shipping conditions but didn’t answer my question. I started a new chat. Referring to the ink I asked only one question "Why can the product in black be delivered to Austria, while the product in blue grey can’t? The only difference is the colour." It took the lady from Amazon about 10 minutes to give me this answer: "Your question addresses internal processes and facts. Please understand that we cannot provide any further information on this subject for this reason."
I was looking for a witty concluding remark but the whole matter is so absurd – words fail me. (And believe me this doesn’t happen very often.)
