Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Readers > Kobo Reader

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 12-03-2011, 08:28 AM   #1
taming
Trying for calm & polite
taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
taming's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,012
Karma: 9455193
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Mostly in Canada
Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura
Kobo VP Mark Stevens blogs about customer service

http://blog.kobobooks.com/an-update-...+International

Quote:
In order to keep pace with our rapid growth and to provide a more global support model across many products, countries and languages, we recently made a number of changes to our customer support infrastructure. We expect that these changes, when complete will allow us to serve more readers, with a higher quality of service around the world.

The transition to our new platform has caused challenges for some of our customers resulting in longer phone wait times, and delayed email responses. We have been working diligently to identify the problems and resolve them to reach the level of service our customers expect. As a result, we expect to see significant improvement in response times within the next week.

While the world of eReading is a rapidly changing one, ultimately our goal is to make it easy for you to get your questions answered quickly and to take technology out of the equation so you can focus on your reading enjoyment.

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Sincerely,
Mark Stevens
VP Customer Care
vpcc@kobo.com
taming is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-03-2011, 08:41 AM   #2
PeterT
Grand Sorcerer
PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.PeterT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
PeterT's Avatar
 
Posts: 12,119
Karma: 73448614
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Toronto
Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS
And see this too http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397189,00.asp

Quote:
Kobo also apologized to customers, saying that it had made recent changes to its customer support infrastructure that had not gone as planned. Kobo was recently purchased for $315 million in cash by Japanese publisher and Buy.com owner Rakuten.

The transition to our new platform has caused challenges for some of our customers resulting in longer phone wait times, and delayed email responses," said Mark Stevens, vice president of customer care, wrote in a letter to customers. "We have been working diligently to identify the problems and resolve them to reach the level of service our customers expect. As a result, we expect to see significant improvement in response times within the next week."
PeterT is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 12-03-2011, 10:16 AM   #3
Geeky
Enthusiast
Geeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdomGeeky is an endless font of wit and wisdom
 
Posts: 37
Karma: 117728
Join Date: Oct 2011
Device: none
I will take him at his word, as I now need to get support from Kobo (good timing, if any). My Touch froze two days ago and persistently refuses to respond to a reset or a factory restore.
I started with an enquiry at getsatisfaction.com/kobo to learn if I should contact my local support (german) or the international/canadian support (place of purchase).
I'm looking forward to contact their new, improved customer support.

Last edited by Geeky; 12-03-2011 at 10:28 AM.
Geeky is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-03-2011, 10:52 AM   #4
robko
Wizard
robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.robko ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 2,454
Karma: 5469320
Join Date: Jul 2010
Device: Kobo
It will be interesting to see. The wait times seem to have gotten ridiculously long recently from what I've read (especially on phone where you used to get virtually straight through), but beyond Tier 1 answering the phone right away the issue of extremely long waits/no contact for problems Tier 1 couldn't handle isn't new. I'm hoping they are putting some resources into bumping up Tier 2 and beyond service. It's good to see they are acknowledging some of the issues, but when it took pretty much a week to get any acknowledgement that lots of users were unable to sync books (and postings on GetSatisfaction that this seemed to be a new issue that they were unaware of for most of that week), the issue is deeper than just getting a reasonable front end phone centre working properly.
I really hope they get it all sorted out, because I love my Kobo's and I want to see them around long term and the customer service issues are bad enough that it has to be hurting them no matter how good the device is.
robko is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-03-2011, 02:18 PM   #5
Ninjalawyer
Guru
Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Ninjalawyer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Ninjalawyer's Avatar
 
Posts: 826
Karma: 18573626
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Canada
Device: Kobo Touch, Nexus 7 (2013)
Calling Kobo's support centre from North America makes the cause of the problem obvious - they sub-contracted their front line customer support staff to the cheapest provider in India that they could, and got what they paid for.

On the two occasions I had to call their support line, I encountered long hold times, terrible call quality, broken hold music and customer support staff that referred to me as "Brad" and "Jon", neither of which are my name.
Ninjalawyer is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 12-03-2011, 02:54 PM   #6
taming
Trying for calm & polite
taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.taming ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
taming's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,012
Karma: 9455193
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Mostly in Canada
Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura
They recently started using a tier one help desk in St. Lucia (which is not in India, btw). I would not assume that customer support is lousy because it is there, rather I would assume customer support is lousy because everyone working there is just out of training on Kobo products and, most likely, they are still not up to full staffing.

Kobo knows that the support has been rotten, so telling horror stories is (from my POV) somewhat off topic. The news is that we have now been told that the company is acknowledging it and, more importantly, that they expect big changes to happen soon.

Last edited by taming; 12-03-2011 at 02:56 PM.
taming is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-03-2011, 07:47 PM   #7
Lordvic
Connoisseur
Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.
 
Posts: 85
Karma: 19104
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Toronto / Ontario
Device: Blackberry Playbook
too late for me. i've awaked away from Kobo because of their support.
They're going to have to offer me some FAnTASTIC discount or deal to ever win me back
Lordvic is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2011, 11:42 AM   #8
Lordvic
Connoisseur
Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.Lordvic has met Morla.
 
Posts: 85
Karma: 19104
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Toronto / Ontario
Device: Blackberry Playbook
Funny story.
I emailed the VP on the the blog post this week. I got no response from him (not unexpected, he's busy and customer complaints aren't really his department)

however, I suddenly got an email today. one of those automated responses saying my ticket (from a month ago) is still open waiting my approval. and "thank you for letting us be of serviec to you".

The email contained nothing but the exact copy and paste of the existing response i got the first time. I mail them my device, and they would fix it out of warranty for 69.99. So um? thanks for re-opening my ticket to tell m exactly the same issue which had me walk away from kobo in the first place!

Still not sending it to you (despite the fact i have since ripped it apart anyways lol)
Lordvic is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
What are Kobo Customer Service Tickets? radarguy Kobo Reader 6 10-27-2011 09:39 PM
Kobo = Very poor customer service! Skydog Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) 29 08-17-2011 02:53 PM
Frustrated with Kobo Customer Service Tier 2 lmvale Kobo Reader 10 07-27-2011 10:49 AM
Bad customer service experience with Kobo unicorn1 General Discussions 117 04-19-2011 10:59 PM
Not happy with Kobo Customer Service tiniree General Discussions 13 09-21-2010 09:38 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:31 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.