No refund for book with crippled cover

[mgmueller]

I've bought a collection of eBooks (3 titles bundled into a single eBook) from Umberto Eco for € 38 via Kobo.
The cover is crippled. You only see about half of the author's name, the rest is missing entirely. I've added a snapshot.

It may not be a biggy to many of you. But personally, I buy my eBooks (instead of illegally downloading them for free) mainly to avoid such in-aesthetics/flaws. And I'm really annoyed, if the quality of legally bought titles (and € 38 for 3 eBooks isn't a bargain price) is that low.
I've asked Kobo to fix it or give me a refund, directly after downloading the book for the very first time.
Their response (after 9 days when sending a reminder):
"...You are correct...
...the publisher has provided us with a file that does not show the entire cover...
When you purchased the book...it also shows that the cover was not complete...
Unfortunately, Kobo cannot provide a refund unless there is something wrong with the eBook...
So while it may not be aesthetically pleasing to look at the content is fine..."

Honestly, I find this ridiculous and certainly won't purchase from Kobo anymore (so far, I've bought about 180 eBooks in 10 months from them).

In my opinion, a crippled cover definitely means "there is something wrong with the eBook".
And in my opinion, it should be up to me (the buyer, not the vendor) to decide, whether quality is acceptable or not.

It's true: When buying the book, the description page did show the very same crippled cover.
But I simply didn't expect to get the same in the eBook. I've thought it a download error in the website.
And I find the argument "...yeah, it's bad but you should have seen it coming..." not very clever and valid or comforting.

I have to say: The more I shop from various vendors, the more I love Amazon. I only returned an eBook once with them (lots of formatting errors). But then it simply was "money back, no questions asked". In addition, Amazon has been speedy in their response (it took Kobo 9 days to come back to me only after a second reminder mail) and friendly ("we're very sorry about OUR mistake")...

EDIT:
2 customer care people from Kobo joined the discussion. They fixed the cover, it's fine now.
And of course I'll keep buying from Kobo.

[Geco]

My opinion is that you should also contact the book provider together with Kobo.

[HarryT]

Don't you think that "boycotting" Kobo as a result is a case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face"? You're going to lose out more than Kobo is.

If this really bothers you, you can change the cover using Calibre.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Don't you think that "boycotting" Kobo as a result is a case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face"? You're going to lose out more than Kobo is.

If this really bothers you, you can change the cover using Calibre.

It obviously won't hurt Kobo, loosing me as a customer.
But there are endless choices of vendors. So why sticking with one bothering me? I mainly used them for my BlackBerry PlayBook anyway and can use the Kindle cloud reader on that as an alternative.

It totally bothers me.
I thought about calibre and of course this would solve the problem.
But honestly, I don't want to bother:
Maybe stripping DRM
Correcting the metadata
Sideloading the book
If I would have wanted to do that: Why buying it then? I could have the same for free (albeit illegally) by downloading from dubious sources...

[frostschutz]

I also have an Umberto Eco book by Kobo, except I got it for free (it was a promo for new customers in Germany). The book pretty much scared me away from Kobo though. Embedded fonts, tons of convoluted CSS files, which not only resulted in a huge file but also compatibility problems with some eReaders (like not being able to change font size, or outright crashes).

Although I prefer to buy ebooks in EPUB format whenever possible, if this book was a representative example of what Kobo EPUBs look like, then thanks but no thanks.

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I've bought a collection of eBooks (3 titles bundled into a single eBook) from Umberto Eco for € 38 via Kobo.
The cover is crippled. You only see about half of the author's name, the rest is missing entirely. I've added a snapshot.

It may not be a biggy to many of you. But personally, I buy my eBooks (instead of illegally downloading them for free) mainly to avoid such in-aesthetics/flaws. And I'm really annoyed, if the quality of legally bought titles (and € 38 for 3 eBooks isn't a bargain price) is that low.
I've asked Kobo to fix it or give me a refund, directly after downloading the book for the very first time.
Their response (after 9 days when sending a reminder):
"...You are correct...
...the publisher has provided us with a file that does not show the entire cover...
When you purchased the book...it also shows that the cover was not complete...
Unfortunately, Kobo cannot provide a refund unless there is something wrong with the eBook...
So while it may not be aesthetically pleasing to look at the content is fine..."

Honestly, I find this ridiculous and certainly won't purchase from Kobo anymore (so far, I've bought about 180 eBooks in 10 months from them).

In my opinion, a crippled cover definitely means "there is something wrong with the eBook".
And in my opinion, it should be up to me (the buyer, not the vendor) to decide, whether quality is acceptable or not.

It's true: When buying the book, the description page did show the very same crippled cover.
But I simply didn't expect to get the same in the eBook. I've thought it a download error in the website.
And I find the argument "...yeah, it's bad but you should have seen it coming..." not very clever and valid or comforting.

I have to say: The more I shop from various vendors, the more I love Amazon. I only returned an eBook once with them (lots of formatting errors). But then it simply was "money back, no questions asked". In addition, Amazon has been speedy in their response (it took Kobo 9 days to come back to me only after a second reminder mail) and friendly ("we're very sorry about OUR mistake")...

Was this problem on a Kobo eReader device (Reader, Wifi Reader, Touch, or Vox), or was it in one of the apps, if so, what platform.

Being more specific here, was it the iOS app, if so, what iOS version were you using, and what Kobo app version were you using?

Originally Posted by frostschutz

I also have an Umberto Eco book by Kobo, except I got it for free (it was a promo for new customers in Germany). The book pretty much scared me away from Kobo though. Embedded fonts, tons of convoluted CSS files, which not only resulted in a huge file but also compatibility problems with some eReaders (like not being able to change font size, or outright crashes).

Although I prefer to buy ebooks in EPUB format whenever possible, if this book was a representative example of what Kobo EPUBs look like, then thanks but no thanks.

Same questions as above to you.


The reason I'm asking, and I can only answer from an iOS app viewpoint, is that there is a "Publisher Style" option in the Kobo app (pretty sure it's in v5.4.1), so you can use that as opposed to Kobo applying the font type and size, also, there is a "Kobo Styling" option, which can be disabled, which turns of any CSS we may be applying to the book. This may allow it to render correctly.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

Was this problem on a Kobo eReader device (Reader, Wifi Reader, Touch, or Vox), or was it in one of the apps, if so, what platform.

Being more specific here, was it the iOS app, if so, what iOS version were you using, and what Kobo app version were you using?

It's on all platforms: iOS, Android, PC, Kobo reader.
But of course you only see this after having it downloaded, not before buying it.
And their (Kobo's) customer service confirmed: The publisher has delivered "a file that does not show the entire cover".

I totally understand: It's the publisher, not Kobo.
Still:
a.) I'd expect some QA from Kobo.
b.) Amazon, not being publisher and in the same (albeit probably stronger) position than Kobo, does refund without questions asked (at least in my experience so far).
c.) I really don't like the argument "you can read it, so what's your problem, all is fine". To me -maybe I'm overcritical- a cover is the first thing I see in my library in thumbnail mode. And a corrupted cover certainly IS a quality issue.
And btw: Would I have the 3 Umberto Eco books separately, instead of bundled in a single book, I'd have 3 corrupted covers and even would have difficulties to recognize the respective books.

[Sharkus]

I should point out, I do work for Kobo (QA on the iOS team), so any comments made are purely my own and not those of my employer.

I assume you mean QA of the content before it's live? If so then yes, that could be done, but I have a feeling there are a lot of books added to our catalog on daily basis, and so there would be a lot of effort required to check every book

I'm 50 / 50 with you on what you were told about being able to read the book. You can access the content of the book, which is the main thing. However, it is somewhat akin to getting a new hardback book and the dusk jacket being ripped.

Out of interest, on iOS, if you open the book to the very first page, which should in theory be the cover image, if it does show the image, then a) is it the cover image, and b) does it display correctly, or is it corrupted like the image displayed in the Library shelf?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

I assume you mean QA of the content before it's live?

I guess, checking the entire content and maybe even proofreading it, would be overkill. But in this case, a simple download test would have shown the flaw.
Simply thumbing through the book and checking for obvious formatting or graphics issues already might solve 50% of the problems.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

Out of interest, on iOS, if you open the book to the very first page, which should in theory be the cover image, if it does show the image, then a) is it the cover image, and b) does it display correctly, or is it corrupted like the image displayed in the Library shelf?

On iOS, the first page might be identical with the cover. It's hard to tell, as I only see maybe 20% of the original cover = half of the author's name. But it could be identical.
Anyway: The first page within the book on iOS shows a correct graphic, which would be okay as a cover graphic.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

I'm 50 / 50 with you on what you were told about being able to read the book. You can access the content of the book, which is the main thing. However, it is somewhat akin to getting a new hardback book and the dusk jacket being ripped.

"...somewhat akin to getting a new hardback and the dusk jacket being ripped..."
Perfect analogy.
Having slept over it, I partly regret my harsh tone in the statements above.
So far, I've been a fan of Kobo and even bought 2 touch readers: One for side loaded content, one for the original Kobo content.

And I understand, lots of buyers wouldn't bother at all.
But to me, eBooks are kind of collector's items, similar to hardcover books.
I don't just read them. I enjoy them. And I keep them, even after having read them.
Sometimes I even scroll through my libraries in thumbnail mode and check, what titles I've read in the last 10 months or so.
Similar to my bookshelf: Some readers probably just throw their paper books in a bag and dispose of them after having read them. I treat my paper books very carefully, they all look like being new and I keep them in my bookshelfs.

[lessthanyouthink]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

"...somewhat akin to getting a new hardback and the dusk jacket being ripped..."
Perfect analogy.
Having slept over it, I partly regret my harsh tone in the statements above.
So far, I've been a fan of Kobo and even bought 2 touch readers: One for side loaded content, one for the original Kobo content.

And I understand, lots of buyers wouldn't bother at all.
But to me, eBooks are kind of collector's items, similar to hardcover books.
I don't just read them. I enjoy them. And I keep them, even after having read them.
Sometimes I even scroll through my libraries in thumbnail mode and check, what titles I've read in the last 10 months or so.
Similar to my bookshelf: Some readers probably just through their books an a bag and dispose of them after having read them. I treat my paper books very carefully, they all look like being new

Hi mgmueller, I also work at Kobo and am going to try to see if anything can be done about the images. What's the exact title of the collection you purchased? I think I've found 5 Umberto Eco titles with broken covers.

edit: and for the record, I agree with your thoughts on browsing through your shelves and treating paper books carefully :0)

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by lessthanyouthink

Hi mgmueller, I also work at Kobo and am going to try to see if anything can be done about the images. What's the exact title of the collection you purchased? I think I've found 5 Umberto Eco titles with broken covers.

Hi,
sounds great, thanks a lot.
The book collection is:
Die historischen Romane
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Die-h...R9g/page1.html

[lessthanyouthink]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Hi,
sounds great, thanks a lot.
The book collection is:
Die historischen Romane
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Die-h...R9g/page1.html

I'm happy to report that the cover images have been fixed for this book, and the four others by the same author that I noticed had the same issue. It may take a bit to propagate through the system, but I'm seeing the correct images now.

I'm also not sure how our other devices/apps handle updated cover images, but our iOS app will check for new ones every two weeks. If you remove and re-add the book from your library/devices you should see the new cover appear when the book is re-added.

[afv011]

Storm in a tea cup...