Touch Touch died. Waiting to be reincarnated.

McTwain · 01-31-2013, 01:23 PM

My touch died three weeks ago. No amount of button holding/power sliding or pin hole pushing seemed to help. Yesterday, I even cracked it open to see if I could swap out the card, only to discover I had one of the early models without a MicroSD card inside. Only I could wait until July 2012 to buy one of these things and STILL get the first one off the line

I decided to call tech support today to see about getting a replacement. A very nice fellow in India answered and asked me to explain the problem. I told him about the problem and my attempts at fixing it, going so far as to use the pin hole and delete all my books to try to salvage the device. He told me he understood and would help me solve the problem by doing a factory reset. He cautioned me that doing so would delete all of my books....

I was not able to solve the problem over the phone, so I was given an incident number and asked if I would accept another color of touch from the company if they didn't have black in stock. I said I preferred black. I was told the problem would now go to Kobo's fabled TIER 2 and I should expect more information via email before the week was over. I received the first email within 45 minutes (while writing this). It just contained the basic information I had discussed on the phone.

Anyone know what else I should expect?

McTwain · 02-22-2013, 03:56 PM

I received my replacement Touch today (Friday, February 22, 2013). Thought I would let you know what to expect if you need to have yours replaced.

January 31 - Called technical support (as you read above).

February 5 - Received an email requesting me to send a picture of my Touch (!?). Couldn't figure out why they would need a picture of a dead Touch. I told everyone it was like calling your mechanic to tell him your car wouldn't start and hearing him say to email a picture of the vehicle. Then I thought it might be to make sure I actually owned a Kobo? Didn't make much sense - I had to give the serial number to get this far thru the process.

I don't own a digital camera or cell phone capable of taking a picture, so I had to get a friend to take the picture and email it to me so I could email it to Kobo. This took until February 12 (Kept forgetting to take the Kobo with me).

February 12 - Emailed picture of Kobo Touch to Kobo support.

February 15 - Received response from Kobo support. Cut & pasted below:

Quote:

Unfortunately, your Kobo eReader needs to be replaced.

An order will be created to ship you a replacement eReader right away.

Once you receive your replacement, please package your eReader and clearly include the letters "RMA" with the help ticket # ****** on the package.

Do not place any accessories in the package (eReader manuals, receipts, Gela skins, etc.). THESE ITEMS WILL NOT BE RETURNED SHOULD THEY BE INCLUDED.

An address where to ship your defective eReader will be communicated to you shortly.

Thanks,
The Kobo Team

February 21 - FedEx left note on door letting me know they had attempted to leave an International Priority (Express) package for me from Jubei City, Hsinchu, Taiwan! With the Kobo address in Canada in the "Bill To:" section. Ship date was February 20. Would have been nice to receive an email containing tracking information letting me know it was sent.

February 22 - Collected package. Opened to find what appears to be a brand new black Kobo Touch. Looks very good if refurbished. I plugged it in and set everything up. Then I realized the reason they needed a picture - it was to know if I had an ad-enabled Touch! I did, but the new one seems to not show ad's when off

The package did not contain information on where to send the old Kobo, or a return envelope. I'm going to wait until Tuesday for Kobo to get the confirmation of delivery, process the fact and email the address to send the old product. If I haven't heard from them, I'll email them to ask what they would like me to do next.

To sum up: From first contact to product in hands takes about 15 days. Not including the wasted time on my end (of course).

Good job, Kobo support

robko · 02-22-2013, 07:15 PM

Glad they got you sorted out. I suspect the reason they wanted a picture was to confirm that it wasn't a broken screen substrate (which they likely wouldn't cover). By getting you to send a picture they don't incur the cost of shipping the Kobo if need be or get into a fight with the owner over who's going to pay the cost of shipping after they decline to cover it under warranty. That's a pain in the butt for people like you without easy access to a digital camera though.

Mrs_Often · 02-23-2013, 06:43 AM

McTwain I'm glad you had such a good experience with Kobo support! Thanks for sharing. May I ask what country you're in? I'd like to know which countries are and are not given this wonderful postage. My replacement (The Netherlands) went the other way around: I had to send mine first, and pay insured postage. Not until they received my Glo did they send me a new one.

01-31-2013, 01:23 PM	#1
McTwain Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2012 Device: Kobo Touch (July 13, 2012)	Touch died. Waiting to be reincarnated. My touch died three weeks ago. No amount of button holding/power sliding or pin hole pushing seemed to help. Yesterday, I even cracked it open to see if I could swap out the card, only to discover I had one of the early models without a MicroSD card inside. Only I could wait until July 2012 to buy one of these things and STILL get the first one off the line I decided to call tech support today to see about getting a replacement. A very nice fellow in India answered and asked me to explain the problem. I told him about the problem and my attempts at fixing it, going so far as to use the pin hole and delete all my books to try to salvage the device. He told me he understood and would help me solve the problem by doing a factory reset. He cautioned me that doing so would delete all of my books.... I was not able to solve the problem over the phone, so I was given an incident number and asked if I would accept another color of touch from the company if they didn't have black in stock. I said I preferred black. I was told the problem would now go to Kobo's fabled TIER 2 and I should expect more information via email before the week was over. I received the first email within 45 minutes (while writing this). It just contained the basic information I had discussed on the phone. Anyone know what else I should expect?

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02-22-2013, 07:15 PM	#3
robko Wizard Posts: 2,454 Karma: 5469320 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kobo	Glad they got you sorted out. I suspect the reason they wanted a picture was to confirm that it wasn't a broken screen substrate (which they likely wouldn't cover). By getting you to send a picture they don't incur the cost of shipping the Kobo if need be or get into a fight with the owner over who's going to pay the cost of shipping after they decline to cover it under warranty. That's a pain in the butt for people like you without easy access to a digital camera though.

02-23-2013, 06:43 AM	#4
Mrs_Often Wizard Posts: 1,775 Karma: 2694823 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: The Netherlands Device: Kobo Touch, Glo, Clara HD	McTwain I'm glad you had such a good experience with Kobo support! Thanks for sharing. May I ask what country you're in? I'd like to know which countries are and are not given this wonderful postage. My replacement (The Netherlands) went the other way around: I had to send mine first, and pay insured postage. Not until they received my Glo did they send me a new one.

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