Disastrous firmware upgrade for many BeBook users: no excuses from BeBook!!!

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Diogene

Not blaming a company for releasing a firmware that deletes all the books I put in the product I bought from them!?

Eh, they tell you to take a backup just because of that. If you ignore the device then you will get some problem. And if the newest firmware do not work properly than just install the old one and restore your books from the backup you did.

[SilverBullit]

Originally Posted by Diogene

Not blaming a company for releasing a firmware that deletes all the books I put in the product I bought from them!? Not blaming that company for giving us no explanation!? Not blaming that company for not apologizing!? Not blaming that company for still offering that file (and no other file) four days after it was mentioned to them in their forum?!
I have copies of those books scattered around in many directories on my hard-disks. I wasted time copying them back: they were deleted again as soon as I disconnected my BeBook from my PC!!! Many other customers are in the exact same situation.

You must be one more clone of the sheepish consumer dreamed by so many CEOs who cut the budgets they should spend on thoroughly testing the products/software they make before they get released!

Still no reason buddy to put up such a flame. Seems like you are suffering from sort of traumatic experience back in the days and now you are looking for somebody to blame.

You are way out of line here buddy with your accusations.

[Diogene]

Originally Posted by tompe

I do not know if the web page have been changed this week but

http://mybebook.com/a11/Downloads/article_info.html

says in big letters "***BEFORE YOU START:***, - BACKUP/COPY ALL CONTENT FROM YOUR BEBOOK TO YOUR PC!!, - MAKE SURE YOUR BEBOOK IS FULLY CHARGED"

I looked at that page on their site again, and I am quite sure that they just added this today.

[Diogene]

Originally Posted by SilverBullit

Still no reason buddy to put up such a flame. Seems like you are suffering from sort of traumatic experience back in the days and now you are looking for somebody to blame.

You are way out of line here buddy with your accusations.

Yeah, sure. An angry customer is a customer that should be directed to a psychiatrist and ordered to buy some pills that will help him/her be as smiling as the happy people we see in the commercials (whether that smile is justified by reality or not at all. Welcome to the World of artificial happiness! Did Welles and Orwell predict that new chemical enforcement of the right feelings?). Comedians in commercials are the role models of this perfect society. If I am not happy, the problem is with me, of course. Reminds me of the USSR. And of the USA. Well, it reminds me of the Society of the Spectacle, all simply.
In conclusion: I believe that someone who is not angry in an insane society is dead inside.

[SilverBullit]

I agree with you on one point and that is that one has the right to be angry if something goes wrong.

But what you are doing now is just not the way to do it.

Lets try something here:

-Did you send Bebook an email regarding your issues?
-Did you explained it to them? Did they offer you a solution?
-Did you tried to contact bebook at all?

[Diogene]

Originally Posted by SilverBullit

I agree with you on one point and that is that one has the right to be angry if something goes wrong.

But what you are doing now is just not the way to do it.

Lets try something here:

-Did you send Bebook an email regarding your issues?
-Did you explained it to them? Did they offer you a solution?
-Did you tried to contact bebook at all?

Thank you mister obvious! You must be a genius.

[carandol]

Originally Posted by mvoosten

If you want incompetence: buy a Irex reader.. Compared to them hanlin/BeBook can't go wrong

I agree there!

Bebook support now apologised on the forum, added a message to the download page warning people to back up and say they looking into the problem. It's taken them less than 2 working days to reply to the concerns, which seems a reasonable response time to me. But perhaps I'm old fashioned in not expecting instant 27/7 responses...

[HarryT]

Simple question - aside from deleting your content, did the firmware update actually work?

If so, then a simple warning to back up your content before applying it (which I would have thought anyone would do anyway, as a matter of course) would seem to suffice.

[Diogene]

Originally Posted by carandol

I agree there!

Bebook support now apologised on the forum, added a message to the download page warning people to back up and say they looking into the problem. It's taken them less than 2 working days to reply to the concerns, which seems a reasonable response time to me. But perhaps I'm old fashioned in not expecting instant 27/7 responses...

I would have acted much faster. I would have removed that shitty firmware much sooner...they still did not remove it! That simply does not make any sense.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Diogene

The latest firmware upgrade had a simple but disastrous consequence for many BeBook owners: all the books we had in the internal memory were deleted!
After 4 days of users accumulating testimonies of the same thing happening, not a word of excuse, not a single explanation, nothing!!!
Some companies like Bookeen are updating their firmwares too rarely, others do it often but do not have the proper security procedures to offer safe firmware upgrades.
I feel like a guinea pig, the owner of a beta product. Are consumers more and more treated with utter contempt? Are companies cutting costs too much and by doing so test their products too little before releasing/selling them? I think so, if I analyze many of my purchases from the past years.

Dear Everybody:

I think Diogene did a service just by posting what happened to him. If nothing else, we learn that backing up the internal memory is critical.

I cannot comment on Bookeen or their firmware; but I can say that I (representing the Astak EZ Reader line) am now more aware because of Diogene. I do know in Astak's case that we test all firmware updates from Jinke here on our own EZ Readers before we post the update to our website.

ALSO... please keep in mind that the biggest potential problem that manufacturers like Astak have with warranty is that people send in devices and do NOT first back-up their internal memory or send the unit back with the inserted SD card. We just started selling the EZ Reader but PLEASE back-up your internal memory onto an SD card and always remove your existing SD card before sending in for warranty work. I surmize that if and when we start see a few returns it is going to be damned hard to replace a unit with a new one and remember to pack your card back with it and we certainly cannot duplicate your internal memory.

Anyway, I am sorry that you had that problem, Diogene... but it is good that you mentioned it to others!

Robert B

[Diogene]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Simple question - aside from deleting your content, did the firmware update actually work?

If so, then a simple warning to back up your content before applying it (which I would have thought anyone would do anyway, as a matter of course) would seem to suffice.

It is worse than you think: the firmware renders the built-in memory totally unusable. Transferring files back to it does not work: they disappear immediately!!!

[HarryT]

Oh, I see! Thanks for the clarification.

[carandol]

Originally Posted by Diogene

I would have acted much faster. I would have removed that shitty firmware much sooner...they still did not remove it! That simply does not make any sense.

Maybe they have the weekend off. Maybe they hoped they could fix the problem and come forward with an apology *and* a fix, but then found it harder than they first thought, and decided to come forward with the apology first. Several people had posted about the problem over the weekend, so it wasn't as though no-one knew about it.

As for removing it, I can see why they didn't -- it worked perfectly for many including me, and my Mobipocket reader looks all the better for it, so I'm glad I downloaded it. It seems to have worked perfectly for some people, for others it worked fine but deleted their files, and in a couple of cases, the internal memory needed a re-format. The last, I suspect, is not specific to this upgrade, but is the sort of thing that occasionally happens with any firmware upgrade; it happened to me with my iRex iLiad the first time I upgraded it.

[kaas]

Originally Posted by Diogene

Reminds me of the USSR. And of the USA.

strange, I come from the USSR and can not remember getting continous upgrades for any product after having purchased it. we were glad if we got anything at all.
the way you act does remind me of a spoiled child or rather of somebody who sticks his cat/dog/hamster/baby into the microwave and afterwards sues the manufacturer because they did not prohibit that in the manual...
please do use common sense and try not to be offensive to people who try to help you.

regards,
kaas

[Diogene]

Originally Posted by kaas

strange, I come from the USSR and can not remember getting continous upgrades for any product after having purchased it. we were glad if we got anything at all.
the way you act does remind me of a spoiled child or rather of somebody who sticks his cat/dog/hamster/baby into the microwave and afterwards sues the manufacturer because they did not prohibit that in the manual...
please do use common sense and try not to be offensive to people who try to help you.

regards,
kaas

Apparently people did not learn to think precisely in the USSR. The less freedom you have, the harder it is to learn how to think, of course.
I am not blaming you.