04-25-2010, 05:50 AM | #1 |
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Smashwords - Excellent Service
Last week I bought several ebooks from Smashwords (Fembot Chronicles plus several others by D. B. Story - Sci-Fi/R rated Romance).
One of them had all the text in the body of the ebook in red. On my Black and White ECOReader this showed as very pale grey and was impossible to read with my old eyes. I contacted Smashwords through their contacts link and explained the problem. In a very short time, just several hours, I was contacted by email from a gentleman by the name of Mark ( I assume one of the bosses) stating he would contact the publishers for a new copy. He sent me another email shortly after saying a new copy was available. I downloaded the new copy but it was still corrupted. I again emailed Mark and he said he would again look into it for me. Eventually after Mark had contacted the publishers and the author was also contacted, a whole new version was reformatted by the author and uploaded. Finally after the 5th version was available, everything was working perfectly. This whole episode happened within 48hrs from first problem to a complete whole new version. I congratulate Smashwords and Mark for their fantastic support of a little customer like myself who needed help. All my ebook purchases in future will be from Smashwords where possible as my first port of call. Last edited by teemac; 04-25-2010 at 05:55 AM. |
04-25-2010, 05:59 AM | #2 | |
YODA's Uglier Twin
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Quote:
Well thats a great story, Congratulations to Smashwords that really is great Customer Service, Glad they got it sorted for you Support Smashwords Folks thier supporting us |
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04-25-2010, 11:02 AM | #3 |
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Smashwords is brilliant. I think Mark is doing a huge service to readers and writers and I really hope the site takes off. He's a Class A fellow.
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04-26-2010, 03:46 AM | #4 |
neilmarr
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Mark, by the way, Teemac, is Mark Coker, founder and CEO of Smashwords. He's always very hands-on and quick to fix any problems to keep the customer satisfied. An old fashioned, plain dealer, which is refreshing these days. Cheers. Neil
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04-26-2010, 04:25 AM | #5 |
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04-26-2010, 05:43 AM | #6 |
neilmarr
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Latest stats, David, show that Smashwords has nearly half a BILLION words on offer, and Mark Coker predicts topping the billion mark this year. I think it's safe to say that Mark's idea and his site have already taken off. Cheers. Neil
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04-28-2010, 02:57 AM | #7 |
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That's great to hear, Teemac. I've always found Smashwords' service excellent - I remember one evening I sent a query at about 10 pm Los Gatos time, and had a reply five minutes later!
Mark actually quoted your experience, by the way (not naming you - they're careful to protect the privacy of their customers), in a recent update, warning authors of this issue with red text. Last edited by Shayne Parkinson; 04-28-2010 at 03:00 AM. |
04-28-2010, 03:25 AM | #8 |
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This Mark guy you spoke too, I assume is the Mark of Smashwords, and yes he is very helpfull. I love smashwords, and it has some great independant authors on there, I even put some of my stuff on there for free.
I am however loathed to put any stuff on there to sell. This is no fault of smashwords, who are brilliant (Ill say it again BRILLIANT), but the IRS in america is causing us Non-US Authors to jump through so many hoops to sell our stuff there. |
04-28-2010, 04:50 AM | #9 |
neilmarr
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The IRS hoop holders are a pain, MJ. Mind you, we've found that their demands are by no means limited to SW authors and publishers. Many important new US ebook retail outlets are demanding the same fiddly paperwork from smaller houses without an 'official' US base. We're going through the motions because of that -- I'll tell you about the accountancy and legal fees this involves when the nightmare ends and we wake up to the bills. This professional help is necessary because, although our team shares several languages, fluent gobbledygook ain't one of 'em. Good luck. Neil
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04-28-2010, 07:49 AM | #10 |
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This story is so good to know. I know I'll spread the word. Yay Smashwords!
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