beware of books in Sony eBook Store

[jswinden]

I've got a major gripe with the Sony eBook Store--they don't poulate the information fields for books, or rather they don't seem to require the publishers to do so. I'm tired of trying to decide which version of a book I want to buy when none of them have much information available, and most simply copy each others' info. Quite often you are lucky to get more than one sentence for a description, no info at all for publisher or author, and no reviews! Amazon has the Sony eBook Store beat hands down in this category!

Also, be careful. I bought a book yesterday for $3.99 (a classic) and after it downloaded it only contained the cover photo. I complained to Sony and they agreed the book had been posted incorrectly to their store and are supposed to be sending me a coupon for $4 to cover the cost. After this ordeal, I noticed that the book I purchased was showing a size of 41KB. Had I noticed that before purchasing, I would have been suspicious. This was an honest mistake on the publisher's end, but sloppy none the less.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I've got a major gripe with the Sony eBook Store--they don't poulate the information fields for books, or rather they don't seem to require the publishers to do so. I'm tired of trying to decide which version of a book I want to buy when none of them have much information available, and most simply copy each others' info. Quite often you are lucky to get more than one sentence for a description, no info at all for publisher or author, and no reviews! Amazon has the Sony eBook Store beat hands down in this category!

Also, be careful. I bought a book yesterday for $3.99 (a classic) and after it downloaded it only contained the cover photo. I complained to Sony and they agreed the book had been posted incorrectly to their store and are supposed to be sending me a coupon for $4 to cover the cost. After this ordeal, I noticed that the book I purchased was showing a size of 41KB. Had I noticed that before purchasing, I would have been suspicious. This was an honest mistake on the publisher's end, but sloppy none the less.

So you checked the file size in the Sony Store in the book details after buying? OR did you check it on the computer? I'd have to agree with the Sony Store's organization being rather poor, but I'd have to suggest always checking any details offered, including ISBN when available, just to be sure you're getting what you want.

[jswinden]

I checked the file size on my computer after downloading it and thought I must have had a download glitch. Then I went back to the Sony eBook store and noticed that the file size listed was very small.

BTW; Sony called me today and apologized and said they were working to fix the book. They also refunded my money.

[pilotbob]

What book was it? If it was a classic it might be in the public domain and available free right here in our download ebook section.

BOb

[Hughdal]

Since we're griping about the Sony eBook store here's my complaint. The publication date is now the ebook conversion date not the actual book publication date. Couple times I've found a book by a favourite author, saw the publication date was 2009 and bought it thinking it was new. Next thing I know I've downloaded a 10 year old book I'd already read back in the days of paper books and forgot about.

Hughdal

[pdurrant]

The publication date of the ebook is the date it was converted and made available, just like a new paperback edition would have a publication date of the current year. What you want is an additional field "First published in xxxx".

Originally Posted by Hughdal

Since we're griping about the Sony eBook store here's my complaint. The publication date is now the ebook conversion date not the actual book publication date. Couple times I've found a book by a favourite author, saw the publication date was 2009 and bought it thinking it was new. Next thing I know I've downloaded a 10 year old book I'd already read back in the days of paper books and forgot about.

Hughdal

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Hughdal

Since we're griping about the Sony eBook store here's my complaint. The publication date is now the ebook conversion date not the actual book publication date. Couple times I've found a book by a favourite author, saw the publication date was 2009 and bought it thinking it was new. Next thing I know I've downloaded a 10 year old book I'd already read back in the days of paper books and forgot about.

Hughdal

Yes, I agree that is a pain. But, it is pretty common. The same thing happens for DVD releases of Movies. Many of the "new releases" are actually new to DVD and not actually new movies.

For books I usually check out http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ to see what the original publication dates are.

BOb

[jswinden]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

What book was it? If it was a classic it might be in the public domain and available free right here in our download ebook section.

BOb

It is a classic, but I don't want to name the title or publisher as the publisher normally has great books available. I'm sure it was just an honest mistake.

I'll check the public domain. BTW: There were other editions available from other publishers in the Sony eBook Store.

And since we seem to be opening some additional complaints here about the Sony eBook Store, their search engine is the worst darn search engine I've ever seen. It returns books with absolutely no connection to the search terms, and fails to find books even when you give the exact title! I think Sony needs to hire away one of the top Kindle people to run their store for them.

[easterncoyote]

Originally Posted by jswinden

BTW; Sony called me today and apologized and said they were working to fix the book. They also refunded my money.

Sounds like they did provide you with good customer service.

[JanetCinNC]

Originally Posted by jswinden

And since we seem to be opening some additional complaints here about the Sony eBook Store, their search engine is the worst darn search engine I've ever seen. It returns books with absolutely no connection to the search terms, and fails to find books even when you give the exact title! I think Sony needs to hire away one of the top Kindle people to run their store for them.

This is not exactly true. For example, I do a search for Dean Koontz. They return 63 books, but only 49 of them are by Dean Koontz. However, if you read the descriptions of these other 14 books, you will see Dean Koontz's name mentioned. The problem is that you don't have a way to restrict matches to only the author's name or some other criteria.

[jswinden]

Originally Posted by JanetCinNC

This is not exactly true. For example, I do a search for Dean Koontz. They return 63 books, but only 49 of them are by Dean Koontz. However, if you read the descriptions of these other 14 books, you will see Dean Koontz's name mentioned. The problem is that you don't have a way to restrict matches to only the author's name or some other criteria.

They need a filtering system, which was my whole point. Your example shows how useless their search engine is. Try searching for a classical author and then filtering through 1000+ hits, most of which have nothing to do with the author's works.