Lol, I did call Borders and the helpful lady suggested I bring the reader in so they could swap the battery for me. After I explained that the battery was sealed inside the unit she started to get really confused. Product training is also a problem here in Australia
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As for calling Kobo, they are based in Canada so it would involve an international call in the middle of the night etc. In any case the problems seem to to be common to most Kobos and there are no real fixes at this point. Australia has no stock left so there is no way to swap the unit so I have started looking for a new reader, perhaps a Poketbook 360. Cheers Nick