Back in the day, every Amazon order felt like a celebration: I’d hit “buy” before noon, and the very next day at exactly 3 p.m., the intercom would buzz. “Mr. Jim, UPS here—a package for you.” I’d gotten to the point where I’d ask the delivery guy about his wife and the baby. That’s how often he showed up. I didn’t mind dropping an extra 25-30€ on expedited shipping.This year, late November, I decided—for the first time in years—to order with standard, free shipping. I never imagined that one little click would turn into a journey of anxiety, phone calls to the Greek postal service, an AI reading me the exact same thing I was already seeing on my screen, and a package that got “stuck” for 4 days in Athens.

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If you’d like to help me out, I can send you the original scripts of each episode straight to your inbox for free a few hours before they go live, in exchange for your email address: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://jmks.co/support⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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🔗 LINKS

🎦 Podcast episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JJ28FJiV0bE

🎙️ Podcasting Challenges as a Non-Native Speaker: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://jimmakos.com/podcasting/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

🧠 TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:23 How I Ended Up Knowing My UPS Driver Personally
• 02:31 After Years, I Finally Chose Standard Shipping on Amazon
• 03:41 I Felt a Small “Defeat” Clicking the Standard Shipping Button on Amazon
• 06:30 A Fake “Failed Delivery” Cost Me 4 Days (and a Bit of Sleep)
• 07:38 The Courier’s AI Was Absolutely No Help
• 08:59 Get the episode's transcript in your inbox
• 09:21 Will I Ever Pay 25-30€ for Fast Shipping Again?

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🎙 ABOUT THE PODCAST

Letters from Greece is my podcast, the audiobook version of my newsletter.

Thank you for listening,

Jim