The post office and my Kindle

I don't know if I mentioned it on here, but my Kindle (the second one I got) is defective. This makes 2 for 2. Very bad, Amazon. The initial one I bought had to be returned because it wouldn't turn on after being switched off. I'd only had it for a month or so. So Amazon immediately rushed me a new one and I sent back the old one courtesy of them. Now I hadn't used the second one that much since I was trying to read my paperbacks before heading off to Brazil. I read maybe 2 or 3 books on it. You can imagine how unhappy I was when I discovered that both were defective.

I brought it my Kindle to Brazil in my carry-on and everything was fine - or so I thought. Once the plane landed in Brasilia I tried to turn it on. Not only would it not come on, but white lines appeared across the image of Jane Austen, the author, which was the screen saver and it progressively got worse to the point where instead of looking like Jane was in jail, it looked like she was on the other side of a mosquitoe net. Not cool. So I used my MagicJack (you HAVE to get one if you go abroad) to make a free call to Amazon. Since the second Kindle was also under manufacture warranty, they said they'd give me a new one for free AND reimburse me for the postage I'd have to pay since I'm out of the country (that I'll believe when I see it).

I asked Amazon to mail my new (the third one mind you) to my mom's address and I'll later decide the best way for her to send it to me. Suggestions? If my neighbor's mom comes to visit from Texas next month then she offered to bring it; that way my mom will just have to mail it to TX and then it'll be almost free for me to get it. Otherwise my mom will send it to me. But I still had to return the defective Kindle to Amazon. I was e-mailed the return UPS label (again, courtesy of Amazon) which I obviously can't use from here. But I went to the post office today with the label so that I'd have the address and I mailed it to Amazon for only (about) $22, and that's priority mail. It's supposed to arrive in 10-15 days so please cross your fingers. I don't want to be charged for it.

I'm relieved that my trip to the post office, or correio, was a success. A couple walked in right before us but because he didn't grab the ticket to be attended to, and I did, I got to go before him. I guess it paid to follow the rules. The woman at the counter was nice and helpful and let me take my time filling everything out. She explained everything to me and I was able to use my credit card from the States. I was a bit worried there'd be a problem using it in Brazil. All in all, today was a good day as far as running errands and going shopping. I finally found hangers for less than a fortunate and Havaiana flip-flops for R$8.50 instead of R$12 or more.