Jeff Bezos and Me

Back in August of 1995 I ordered my first book from Amazon.com. After placing my order I sent the following email to their customer support people:

Hi there.

I seem to have sucessfully ordered a book from you folks
and I see by the order screen that it has been shipped.
One comment, though: it would be neat if you could display
the times/dates along the various stages that happen to
the order digitally, like:

08/08/95 12:56 Dave viewed your order and found the book
08/08/95 13:06 Sandy packed and shipped your book via USPS
08/09/95 12:00 Dave billed your Mastercard for the book

…etc.

Thanks for a wonderful service.

-Peter

Later the same day, I received the following reply:

Peter,

We've received several good suggestions from customers,
but I think this is a particularly good one.  We already
have one project under way which will give a bit more 
detail on the "Your Account" screen about the status of
an order, but something more like the log file you
suggest below would, it seems to me, be an excellent
addition.

Thanks for taking the time give us this suggestion.  
Feedback from customers makes it much easier for us as 
we go about the task of prioritizing which improvements 
we should make next.

Thanks,
Jeff Bezos
Amazon.com Books

In the grander scheme of things, this is like getting a personal note from Henry Ford after ordering a Model T. I found this correspondence in an archive of my email outbox from 1994 to 1996. I’m glad I kept it.