11-10-2012, 07:21 PM | #1 |
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Thinking of buying my first Kobo product, need advice.
Hi guys, i've been looking at all the lit ereaders and i have recently decided to stick to epub, so that kind of leaves out Amazon's PW. I've previously owned a Kindle 3 and 4, but own neither now. I guess my questions are:
As always, thanks for any and all help! Last edited by Big McLargeHuge; 11-10-2012 at 07:39 PM. |
11-10-2012, 09:27 PM | #2 | ||||||
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11-10-2012, 11:37 PM | #3 | |
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I mean ereader. Amazon's return policy let's you return something and you can give the reason on the drop down list "no longer wanted". All they do is subtract shipping costs. Best Buy does the same thing with open electronics. I don't expect to return books or anything like that of course (unless they're unreadable due to errors or formatting issues), but Amazon also lets you return Kindle books within 7 days from the "Manage my Kindle" section, without even having to talk to anyone. |
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11-10-2012, 11:58 PM | #4 |
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I love the Kobo Glo and have had no problems with it so far.
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11-11-2012, 12:14 AM | #5 |
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I bought my Kobo Mini at Walmart and they have a 14 day no questions asked return policy which is pretty standard in Canada although many store will take returns after that.
As to Kobo I have no idea about longer term service but buying with a credit card gives you a two year warrenty. Walmart wanted $40 for an extended 3 year warrenty which seems excessive for a $79 device. Amazons customer service for the kindle can't be beat IMO, but I would think Kobo would do pretty well. They are getting a lot of good press with the Glo and Mini, so why ruin it with crappy customer service. I do love the Kobo Mini and most people seem to be very happy with the Glo. They aren't perfect, but seem (my opinion only) slightly better than most. Helen |
11-11-2012, 01:06 AM | #6 | |||||
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As others have said, your mileage may vary but my experience with them has been great. They have successfully resolved every issue I've had, and usually relatively quickly. My partner and several other people I know all have Kobos as well, and either haven't had any problems or have seen all their problems resolved.
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Return policy is retailer-based, warranty policy is usually manufacturer-based and that's a different question. Quote:
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- Kobo easily has the very best e-reading devices on the market where I live (Canada) - Kobo has one of the largest e-book stores going - Kobo regularly offers generous discount codes for non-agency books (and lots more books are going to be non-agency shortly) - I like spirited underdogs (though Kobo's no longer the underdog where I live, they still are globally) - I disagree with the business practices of one of Kobo's major competitors (Amazon) And while this reason didn't contribute to my decision, because I found out about it afterward, had I known in advance it would have factored in: - the texture of the Kobo Glo screen has a texture that's got a touch of resistance to it and feels more like sliding your finger across paper. Quote:
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11-11-2012, 01:11 AM | #7 |
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Ah. Gotcha. Can't say I know a lot about "no-ask" return policies. I will say that I love my Touch enough that I doubt you'd have any reason to return a Glo.
I wish I could justify getting a Glo for myself (I would love the better tech stats and the by-all-accounts really good lighting) but my Touch works great and I just can't do it. As for returning books that have problems: While Kobo doesn't have the convenience of that Amazon website feature you mentioned, I have had problems with two ebooks purchased from Kobo. Both times Kobo Customer Service were very helpful. |
11-11-2012, 01:13 AM | #8 |
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Ottdmk, Can you sell your touch on Craigslist and that would offset some of the cost of a Glo? I just sold my Kindle there.
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11-11-2012, 01:17 AM | #9 | |
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-Until now I haven't had any problems,I could change the fonts/spacing in every e-book I had.Badly formatted epubs that caused the reader to misfunction were a problem for every ereader I had(3 so far),so I don't think it is a big problem or that uncommon. -The light,the prize,the availability in my country and the fact that it isn't an Kindle. -It has an infrared screen. I can't realy compare it with the capasitive screen because my last reader that had one was the Orizon.Orizon is very slow due to prossesor(so every time I have to wait or tap twice) so I can't say with certainty which is better.So far the Glo screen is responsive and I faced few to none problems. |
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11-11-2012, 09:21 AM | #10 |
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I haven't had any problems with Kobo customer support.
My Glo sporadically froze when I put a microSD card with about 800 books into it, but without the card it's been fine. The page turns fail about one time in five. In spite of that, I prefer my Glo to the two Paperwhites I returned, because the screen is so much cleaner. |
11-11-2012, 09:58 AM | #11 | |
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Helen |
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11-11-2012, 10:01 AM | #12 | |
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11-11-2012, 12:50 PM | #13 | |
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11-11-2012, 01:22 PM | #14 | |||||
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As a final note, I will say that the whole file format debate is a red herring and should have no impact on your decision. The only thing that matters is DRM, and you already hinted your willingness to work around that. Books bought from Kobo or B&N work just fine on my Kindle Touch after using Calibre to convert to AWZ3 (Kindle format 8), which is very much the same thing as Epub3 (that is, HTML5 formatted files in a container with a few meta-data files to define structure.) |
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11-11-2012, 01:24 PM | #15 |
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I am one of the ones having crashes, but I haven't seen any other reports of people having problems like I'm having. I think I just got a bad unit. I love the device itself and feel sure that these problems will not be present after I exchange it for another unit.
(And the the point that people only post about their problems: That's probably true in my case. I don't think I ever posted to say how easy and trouble-free my Sony PRS-T1 has been. It runs like a diesel, but without the smell!) I found my Glo by going to the American Booksellers Association web site and locating a member store in my area. I checked that store's site (Park Road Books in Charlotte, NC) and called to confirm they had the device in stock. Courtney |
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