[bmacaskill]

This is odd enough that I have to tell someone about it.

Reading a thread here on how difficult it is for Canadians to get a replacement Kindle (as it turns out, it's not!) because of a crack in the plastic bezel surrounding the screen, I decided to check my original K3.

Guess what! I saw a hairline crack in the bezel, right off the lower right-hand side of the screen (not on the screen, but in the plastic bezel), running in a complete diagonal for one-half an inch. It didn't look too serious, but because I was concerned for the longevity of my K3, I called Amazon.

The replacement process was easy and fair. Now, because I'm Canadian, they charged me for a new K3, immediately refunded me for a K3 (i.e. no net cost to me), and told me to ship the old one back to them when the replacement arrived, and to write on the shipping box what I'd paid for shipping and insurance (so that they might refund me that amount as well).

Fair enough, I thought.

That was Monday evening. When I came home Wednesday, the replacement was waiting for me. Guess what? *Exactly* the same crack in the same place!

I called again, and to make a long story short, I'm being shipped a second replacement (I was also offered a "partial refund or credit" if I wished to keep one of them, but I didn't pursue it and didn't get details because I want one undamaged K3). Of course, now I'm packing up and shipping two Kindles to Amazon (at my own temporary expense), but hopefully it'll work out.

I'll let everyone know what happens, but I can't help but wonder if the "diagonal crack emanating from the bottom right-hand of the bezel" isn't some sort of endemic flaw...

I sure hope my third K3 is flawless. It's an amazing device and I've sold several friends on it.

Brian.

P.S. If you haven't checked out Calibre, you're missing out on half your ereader. One month of using ereaders and I sent the author $50 -- it's that good!