Problems Common to All Kobos

[Nicktheviking]

Hi All,
I recently bought a Kobo here in Australia from Borders. Unfortunately I did this before reading the posts on this forum and now find that my Kobo has many of the problems outlined in the various posts here.

Despite numerous emails to Borders and Kobo, I have found there is no way of getting pointful support from either as all I have received to date are auto replies.

One of the Borders store managers has suggested I swap my Kobo for a replacement but it seems all Kobos are suffering from the same problems namely, no red light during or after charging, sync deletes all bookmarks, epubs from non-Borders/Kobo sources can't have their font changed, battery life is way under the stated 8,000 page turns etc.

I am guessing any replacement I receive is going to be from the same batch and therefore have the same problems and as such there is no point in making a swap and I am better off waiting to see if firmware and software updates solve the problems. Would this be a fair assessment of the situation?

I do like the Kobo and as it is the only ereader in Aussie with a 6 inch screen around $199 I don't really want to take it back for a refund as I would be back to square 1 looking at $400 readers.

Thanks
Nick

[Zac]

Sorry Nick that your unit is defective. Mine is working exceptionally well. I even used Calibre software to convert a book in mobi format to epub and that worked well. No font problems...well actually the first time yes until a new version of Calibre was made available which included the Kobo setups.

Every function on my Kobo works. I had a defective sleeve from Chapters.ca that I returned but that is about it.

I hope you can get a good unit.

[artificial]

The Kobo does have it's quirks, but thankfully many of them are software/firmware related, can be fixed, and have workarounds in the meantime. Unless you have really bad battery life problems, I would wait for the next firmware/software upgrades before writing your Kobo off as faulty.

Charging/red light: I would say don't rely on the red light to indicate whether your unit is charged. Mine comes on after 30 mins charging. I've checked, and the battery is NOT fully charged when the red light comes on. Leave your unit charging for the full 3+ hours. When you boot after unplugging the device from your computer check the battery status in the Kobo Reader menu. If it is at 100% you should be good to go.

8000 page turns: This is just marketing hype. You would only ever get that many page turns in an ideal scenario, if you turned the page continuously until the battery ran out. Remember also that any activity that uses the Kobo Reader's processor will drain the battery. This would include loading books, changing the font size, navigating chapters, browsing your library, or loading books to the Reader. By my estimation I got between 1200 and 1500 page turns on my first charge. On my current charge I'm actually counting so I know for sure how many page turns I get per charge.

Font size in epubs: There are easy fixes for this. My favourite is to use the Font Fixer software kindly created by a mobileread forum member. I just point it at my Kobo, and zap all my epubs. Takes about 10 seconds. (Windows only). Also, I would be very surprised if this isn't fixed in the first firmware upgrade.

[neilmarr]

Good to have your company, Nick. Here's hoping you can get over the teething trouble. Best wishes. Neil

[Stinger]

We have some pretty helpful people here in the Kobo corner of MR, I'm sure we can help him get past the teething trouble

Like Artificial said. Most of the small kinks with the Kobo have been discussed here at length, and MOST have pretty simple and easy workarounds or explanations. Also like Artificial mentioned, most of these things are fixable via future firmware updates... and for now, at least IMHO (since the workarounds for these things is trivial to me), the Kobo is still very much functional and I've been thoroughly enjoying it as my first eInk device.

Feel free to ask for help with specifics Nick

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by artificial

8000 page turns: This is just marketing hype. You would only ever get that many page turns in an ideal scenario, if you turned the page continuously until the battery ran out. Remember also that any activity that uses the Kobo Reader's processor will drain the battery. This would include loading books, changing the font size, navigating chapters, browsing your library, or loading books to the Reader. By my estimation I got between 1200 and 1500 page turns on my first charge. On my current charge I'm actually counting so I know for sure how many page turns I get per charge.

Loading books would be an exception, yes--but since changing the font size, navigating chapters, and browsing the library all refresh the screen, they count as page turns too.

[artificial]

Originally Posted by ATimson

Loading books would be an exception, yes--but since changing the font size, navigating chapters, and browsing the library all refresh the screen, they count as page turns too.

I wasn't thinking so much of screen refreshes, rather that those functions all drain the battery.

Loading a book and processing new content can take several seconds, during which time your Reader's processor is chugging away, updating its database and so on, all of which drains the battery.

Less battery = less page turns

[Nicktheviking]

Thanks for all the replies. I have read about (and experimented with many of the work arounds which exist on this very useful forum). I guess I was a bit naive to expect that the reader would work as advertised, especially at this price point but what annoys me is that neither company appears to have any interest in replying to my support requests. To some extent I can understand why Kobo are not replying as they are no doubt overwhelmed by support requests but, IMHO, Borders have no excuse at all. For those of you not in Australia, customer service problems like this are a common and increasing problem here. Anyway rant over ;-)

[juiceless]

Originally Posted by Nicktheviking

Thanks for all the replies. I have read about (and experimented with many of the work arounds which exist on this very useful forum). I guess I was a bit naive to expect that the reader would work as advertised, especially at this price point but what annoys me is that neither company appears to have any interest in replying to my support requests. To some extent I can understand why Kobo are not replying as they are no doubt overwhelmed by support requests but, IMHO, Borders have no excuse at all. For those of you not in Australia, customer service problems like this are a common and increasing problem here. Anyway rant over ;-)

I suggest picking up the phone and calling them. Passively waiting for an email to be answered seems like a recipe for annoyance.

[mlstein]

Originally Posted by Nicktheviking

For those of you not in Australia, customer service problems like this are a common and increasing problem here.

Not just in Australia, mate!

[roguefan99]

Originally Posted by juiceless

I suggest picking up the phone and calling them. Passively waiting for an email to be answered seems like a recipe for annoyance.

LOL, tried that on Tuesday when I was trying to find out what was happening with my order. "We are busy right now, please leave a message, or hold". I decided to hold (big mistake) just phone silence and no answer.

My suggestion is if you have a problem then let the world know about it on Borders forums (oh wait thats fairly hidden too, found it in the FAQs) http://bordersau.zendesk.com/forums I think I'll be posting all my problems with the "Borders Desktop Application" there, but I'm guessing I will get form replies (or ingored).

Oh I have gotten responses through their emails in 24 hours, one was a "form" reply (as demonstrated by someone else who got it on whirlpool) but the other seemed targetted to me as it had correct information in it.

[Nicktheviking]

Lol, I did call Borders and the helpful lady suggested I bring the reader in so they could swap the battery for me. After I explained that the battery was sealed inside the unit she started to get really confused. Product training is also a problem here in Australia.

As for calling Kobo, they are based in Canada so it would involve an international call in the middle of the night etc. In any case the problems seem to to be common to most Kobos and there are no real fixes at this point. Australia has no stock left so there is no way to swap the unit so I have started looking for a new reader, perhaps a Poketbook 360. Cheers Nick

[dfarrell]

Hi Nick,

Sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with your Kobo eReader. Kobo does offer 24/7 support for our customers in Australia. Our toll free number is 180-006-4011. Our Customer Care agents can definitely assist you in troubleshooting the concerns you are experiencing with the eReader.

Regards,
David

[mamasue]

Product training is also a problem here in Australia

it most certainly is!!! Thanks to MR my knowledge about my Kobo was far greater than most of the Borders staff I spoke with

Australia has no stock left

Borders in Melbourne Central still had plenty a week or so ago - but they are v1.0
Ask to speak with Andy - a very helpful Manager there.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by dfarrell

Hi Nick,

Sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with your Kobo eReader. Kobo does offer 24/7 support for our customers in Australia. Our toll free number is 180-006-4011. Our Customer Care agents can definitely assist you in troubleshooting the concerns you are experiencing with the eReader.

Regards,
David

Could not agree more with that. Although a little slow initially, Kobo customer support delivered the SD card for me to upgrade my Kobo's firmware via Fedex.