It seems that hundreds of Penguin Customers would have been justified in making claims against our shipping guarantee thanks to a subtlety I was unaware of until now. I've updated the Penguin Magic Shipping Guarantee (the strongest in all of magic, if not all of eCommerce) to close the loophole.

I received the following in an interesting Private Message from Wynn:

Hi Maxwell,

Just thought I'd point something out that may seem minor but technically might be a thorn in your side later. [edited] like me will try to exploit it. Sorry, I've been trained to isolate and exploit weaknesses (legally), so I was gonna cash in off it.

I thought Penguin Magic was a huge company, but I read a post saying that you are only a few people and that you started it in your apt while in school.... well, you know the story.... so I didn't. I like small business and admire entrepreneurs. Big companies on the other hand... well, if I get one up on them.... good for me.

So let me point out a potential problem:

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We guarantee that your order will leave our warehouse the same business day. If your order is placed before 4:00pm Eastern Standard Time and doesn't ship out the same business day, you'll receive a Penguin Magic store credit in the amount of your purchase. bla.. bla.. bla... ----------------------------------------------------------------

I sent an order on 09/14/2005 16:56:00 ET. Now I noticed it didn't get shipped till the next day. I did this as a test. I was going to put in bigger orders around the same time and let the same thing happen. Then I could cash in on the offer (for lots of $$$).

How? Even though it was placed at 16:56 ET Eastern (Daylight) Time, it was only 15:56 EST (Eastern Standard Time) EST is defined as GMT -5 hrs EDT is defined as EST +1 hr

You should change your offer to say that if you put it in by 4:00pm Eastern Time.... this implies local time (daylight or standard depending which is active...) Keep in mind GMT never changes. British time does. I forget what it's called but it's another daylight time shift of an hour. Their standard time is GMT but they go to GMT +1 hr for summer. You might want to check your UK site out as well.

I know this because I used to work for a couple internet companies (Genuity/Level 3) and we had servers all over the world. I was constantly trying to keep track of timezones, (they didn't all use GMT... which was stupid). Hope this helps.

In close, I guess I should say "Kudos!" I don't know how big your company is right now, but your service is so good you had me fooled into thinking you were many times your size.

Keep up the good work!

Peace, Wynn