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Old 01-31-2012, 09:27 PM   #1
MacEachaidh
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Posts: 745
Karma: 578294
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura HD
Well, it's the end of my journey down the iRiver

My original Story has given up the ghost, sadly.

The screen stopped working. It's 19 months old, still within its original 3-year warranty, so I sent it off for repairs. The repair company has come back to me to say it's "obviously" user-caused damage - they claim the screen is "cracked", but it certainly bloody wasn't when I sent it to them!! - and so I have to pay for the repair.

They want three hundred and ninety-nine dollars just to replace the screen, a figure that simply made me gasp. No better: if I want the unit returned to me, I have to pay $120 to cover their repair technician's time in assessing it. If I don't pay the money, I don't get the device back.

As far as I can see, this is simply extortion and theft. I sent it off in good faith, under a warranty that I had already paid for. It's their assessment that this is non-warrantable damage, but from comments their staffer made when he called me yesterday afternoon I strongly suspect that this is simply the tack they've decided will lead them to the maximum profit for the minimal effort on their part. (Oh, and if I pay for the screen to be replaced, I get only a 30-day limited warranty on it. For $399 I get only a 30-day warranty?!! Plus the rest of my warranty period, which I had paid for, disappears down the tubes.)

So, the best of a bad range of options is to buy a new device. The problem for me is that I don't like the new iRiver models - too small, too dinky, too limited in capabilities and performance - plus the people who distribute and support iRiver products here in Australia have shown themselves to be pirates who by their pricing seem to think they're onto a captive market that they can simply milk dry. I don't want a Kindle (lack of epub support is the main Kindle-killer for me) and I don't really want to be herded into the cattle-pens of companies like Sony, but it's looking like I don't have much of an alternative. I'll check out the Kobo Touch too, I think.

End of my sad tale.
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