Kobo's incredible bad service

[barebones]

I pre-ordered your Kobo Vox on October 23, 2011 and on December 4th, 2011 Purolator delivered the unit to my home. Upon examination the next day it was discovered the screen was shattered.

I subsequently went to the effort of finding Kobo's support phone number, no easy task, they don't really want anyone to find it and was put on hold for 27 minutes only to have their representative NIKA tell me it was not their problem and I should contact Purolator. I contacted Purolator and it took them 6 days to report to me that as Kobo was the shipper they and only they can make a claim.

I emailed their support department on November 6th, 2011 and after 10 days received no response. I entered a second and third request, silence from them.

When support email arrived 15 days later their note asked me what the error code on the shattered screen was and asked to take a picture of a broken black screen. Are their people mentally deficient? Error code on a destroyed screen, or perhaps try taking a picture of the reflection on a shiny, shattered screen.

What part of the "Kobo was delivered with a shattered screen" is so hard for them to understand. Even worse, it is a month later and I still don't have my product, but they sure have my money even when I specifically requested a refund instead.

Considering their trade is selling reading materials to the public, perhaps they might consider a book for their staff, "Reading English for Dummies."
This is ongoing but I think people should know what and who they are going to be dealing with when they decide to buy over the internet.

I will post the result, but I am not hopeful.

Peace

[LauraPony]

You should head on over to get getsatisfaction.com/kobo. As far as I can figure out, it is staffed by Tier 2 Kobo associates and people have had great results bringing their customer service issues there. If you have an incident number, include it in your post.

[taming]

Originally Posted by barebones

I pre-ordered your Kobo Vox on October 23, 2011 and on December 4th, 2011 Purolator delivered the unit to my home. Upon examination the next day it was discovered the screen was shattered.

Thank you for ordering my Kobo Vox for me. What a shame it arrived damaged. Oh---were you under the impression that when you are writing on MobileRead you are writing to Kobo? Laura is right about going to getsatisfaction.com/kobo.

I am having a bt of trouble understanding your timeline. Today is December 5. You said the box arrived December 4 and you waited a day to open it. I assume you meant November.

Have you disputed the charge with your credit card company?

The box must have been horribly mangled if the screen within the rather sturdy packaging was shattered in shipping. I am surprised Purolator delivered it that way and even more surprised you waited a day to open something that must surely have looked damaged. Of course, maybe I put it in the box broken.

PS: Next time you are looking for Kobo support, scroll to the bottom of any page on the website and click on "get help" . The phone number will magically appear. If you prefer not to scroll, google, ummm, Kobo support or Kobo contact numbers, or Kobo help.

PPS: No one here will defend poor service, and we all know that Kobo's recent service has been ghastly. It's just amazing to me that you wrote such a confused note (November, December) with a few things that were just plain silly (Kobo hiding the phone number, really?). Your other choice would have been to ask folks here for some help.

[KoboJW]

Hi Barebones,
Sorry to hear about your first experience with Kobo. We certainly aim to be better than that. As has been mentioned, our Customer Care is a little overwhelmed these days, and though we are working to improve it dramatically, it is no excuse.

I will forward this thread internally, and hopefully someone can get back to you with a more satisfactory response.

Thanks for you patience,

James

[pokee]

If you have a Chapters nearby, try to exchange it there. That's what I would do...