Sony Reader Store $10 Certificate - Ended :(

[Marcy]

I got an email from Sony Reader Store this morning:

Thanks for helping us reach 10 Million eBook Downloads!

As of May 5, book lovers have downloaded more than 10 million ebooks from Reader™ Store.
In celebration, all accounts with an eBook purchase from Reader Store on May 5, 2010 will receive a $10 credit valid for future eBook purchases at the store.*

And it had a code that indeed gave me a $10 credit. Funny thing is I only "bought" books on 5/4 and 5/6 and they were freebies!

Still a nice gesture on their part. There's a book I've been eyeing that Sony has for $16 and amazon has for $9.99. Now I can get it. I hate buying books from amazon because you never know beforehand if they're mobi, which is okay, or topaz, which is not.

-Marcy

[koland]

It's easy to tell in the Amazon store - just download a sample to your computer first.

It's the B&N store that I hate - everything I get is in ereader format, yet others get (randomly, it seems) ereader or epub (which is what I want). There doesn't seem to be any place to set a preference and no indication anywhere of what you'll end up with.

[koland]

Ok, I take back one thing -- I just downloaded an epub from B*N. Of course, I have no idea if I'll ever get another or why I did this time (but hope it stays as a default from now on). Now, if they would just stop charging me a penny for every free book I buy.

[dreams]

I just checked my email and found the coupon also. I had downloaded the freebies, but still received the $10 coupon!

Very nice. I just added it to my account, but didn't buy anything yet (well, I did pick up a couple of new freebies).

[Shopaholic]

Me too! I downloaded freebies on the 5th and thought I wouldn't get it because I didn't 'buy' a book. I downloaded a freebie. But I got the coupon and was very happy to get it too!!

One thing though - it expires on 12/31/2010. Take note of that.

The Sony Reader gift cards don't expire but that coupon does.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

Me too! I downloaded freebies on the 5th and thought I wouldn't get it because I didn't 'buy' a book. I downloaded a freebie. But I got the coupon and was very happy to get it too!!

One thing though - it expires on 12/31/2010. Take note of that.

The Sony Reader gift cards don't expire but that coupon does.

The good thing is that the credit is used *before* gift card balances. I was worried about that, because I bought $200 in gift cards during the recent 40% off sale so had $200 of gift card money on my account. I bought a book however, and the credit was used up and a little of my gift card balance.

-Marcy

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by koland

It's easy to tell in the Amazon store - just download a sample to your computer first.

It's the B&N store that I hate - everything I get is in ereader format, yet others get (randomly, it seems) ereader or epub (which is what I want). There doesn't seem to be any place to set a preference and no indication anywhere of what you'll end up with.

Thanks! I never thought of that. I just checked on the book I wanted and it was indeed in topaz format. Why can Sony have a perfectly fine epub and amazon offers only topaz?

I love amazon for almost everything, but I really think they shot themselves in the foot in the ebook department. My first two readers were Kindles but I only ever bought 4 books from them (before discovering mobileread) because I hated the fact that the books weren't really mine and if I ever bought a different brand of reader I wouldn't be able to use them. I've bought a couple more books from them after learning how to de-DRM, but they are definitely my purchase place of last resort.

-Marcy

[John F]

Thanks a lot Sony. You reward people who buy on a particular day, but fail to reward people who buy reagulalry on other days.

I feel a class action law suit coming on...

[mbelec]

Funny, I don't remember buying anything on that date (or downloading anything that was free, either), but I received a code; it worked, too. Came in my email yesterday.