Quote:
Originally Posted by mXb
Sharkus.
OK I understand the dificulties and probably it's a dead duck but, maybe I'm being paranoid, I sometimes get the impression that some posts seem designed to steer a thread away from or damp down complaints against a problem with a Kobo ereader.
Anyway since you as an employee have had your say maybe I as a customer can have mine.
I also used to have a technical "customer facing" (as it was called ) job.
Some customers were impossible, wanting technology to be 100% reliable, this is something you have to deal with. Luckily others were reasonable, its "swings and roundabouts".
As a customer let me ask you this. If we keep having problems with our Kobo ereader what should we do:
A. Report each one immediately to Kobo cust services.
B: Discuss them on this Forum.
C: Live with each one in the hope that Kobo will fix them sometime in the future.
D: Check this Forum, find out which brand of ereader gives the least hassle and buy one of them.
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While I am not currently in customer care, my previous pre-Kobo job was as a senior support engineer / technical manager for a software development company, did that for about 13 years, and so that could explain why I do like to help others out, and I can understand the swings and roundabouts one experiences when dealing with customers.
I would also like to point out, that as mentioned above, I am NOT in customer care. I am on this forum because I want to be here, there is no job requirement for me to be here. I am not always on here, I pop by now and then. If I happen to reply to someone to help them out then it is because I personally wish to do so, again, no job requirement for me to do so. In other words, I don't have to be here, I don't have to reply to anything, it's a purely personal choice.
Anyway, back to your questions:
A = Yes, without a shadow of a doubt you should report an issue to us. If we don't know about it, we cannot fix it. If we do know about it we might already have a fix for it.
B = Yes. I am not against reasoned discussion of issues people have. I think I have made it clear it's the sniping / thread hijacking that I don't like and that tends to be of the negative persuasion, hence the existence of this thread. But yes, discuss problems on here, again, it could be seen by someone who puts it in front of the right person to get it fixed. It's also a good indicator of how many people have the problem. It could be isolated to some very specific things, or very widespread.
C = Yes, and No. You should have to live with issues in the hope they will be fixed. I'd like to think that A and / or B would aid in getting any issues fixed so that C isn't a long period of time.
Another factor is that even if we are aware of a problem, getting it fixed could take some time. This could be because it takes a while to nail down the exact steps to reproduce the issue, or for the devs to find and fix it. You then have to see how severe the issue actually is, and wether it is something that needs a hotfix, or if it can wait to the next scheduled release.
Speaking on iOS, we also have to factor in review times for the App Store, which are typically 10 - 14 days, so even if we fixed a problem today, which is unlikely, we still have to QA the changes and ensure they don't cause any other issues, and that could take a day or two, you won't see the updated app for 10 - 14 days (there could be exceptions if we say it's a critical fix, sometimes Apple will fast-track a release), there's nothing we can do about that delay, it's all in Apple's hands.
Other platforms, for example Android, may not have the problem of dealing with the App Store approval process, so after QA sign off there is typically a shorter period before you see the updated app.
D = Yes, but then I'm sure all readers have their unique quirks. It's all down to personal choice as to which reader you get. I will say that I'm not going to pressure anyone into getting a Kobo.