MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Did the Kindle 3 change your opinion about Kindle/Amazon?

JeremyR · 09-30-2010, 12:22 AM

Well, I was only looking for an e-reader. I don't care about wifi or a web browser.

I guess the Kindle 3 is okay, but it's somewhat soured me on Amazon where I've likely spent thousands over the years. I don't consider a form email telling me to call customer service to be very good customer support. Especially considering its their own product.

(I had problems with massive slowdown in sunlight with firmware 3.01. This was fixed in 3.02, but it would have been nice to get a reply from Amazon besides that form letter about calling CS support. 3 times they sent it. That's all they ever sent when I tried to communicate with them. Why an online company doesn't provide customer service only is beyond me).

Hardware wise, I hadn't seen any other e-reader, so I perhaps was expecting too much. But the contrast is not so great. I was expecting at least it to be like newsprint (black on off white). But it's black on light grey.

I posted about my problem with the cat hair getting stuck between the frame and the screen. That's annoying and seems like a result of poor build quality to leave a gap between that.

Beyond a few minor issues (like the mp3 player skipping a lot while playing a file and the slow page turns backwards and the lousy 5-way controller), there is also the book selection. It's not nearly as good as I hoped. Almost all the classics on Amazon.com itself are so poorly formatted that they are unreadable. (That's how I found this place). I don't see how a company that touts a big free library can find this acceptable.

Beyond that, if you buy books in Kindle compatible format from other companies, you're getting a poorly formatted product as well. You basically need to download the epub version and convert. And actually in both cases (from Fictionwise and Baen) I had to load the epub in Sigil, edit it to make it decent, then convert. This isn't amazon's fault exactly, but constantly having to convert a file to see what it looks like does add an extra layer of frustration.

Part of me thinks that perhaps e-books just aren't ready for prime-time yet. I think I probably should have waited another year to buy an e-reader, and then probably should have gone with something more like the Kobo.

But live and learn.

09-30-2010, 12:22 AM	#4
JeremyR Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 2458402 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: St. Louis Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+	Well, I was only looking for an e-reader. I don't care about wifi or a web browser. I guess the Kindle 3 is okay, but it's somewhat soured me on Amazon where I've likely spent thousands over the years. I don't consider a form email telling me to call customer service to be very good customer support. Especially considering its their own product. (I had problems with massive slowdown in sunlight with firmware 3.01. This was fixed in 3.02, but it would have been nice to get a reply from Amazon besides that form letter about calling CS support. 3 times they sent it. That's all they ever sent when I tried to communicate with them. Why an online company doesn't provide customer service only is beyond me). Hardware wise, I hadn't seen any other e-reader, so I perhaps was expecting too much. But the contrast is not so great. I was expecting at least it to be like newsprint (black on off white). But it's black on light grey. I posted about my problem with the cat hair getting stuck between the frame and the screen. That's annoying and seems like a result of poor build quality to leave a gap between that. Beyond a few minor issues (like the mp3 player skipping a lot while playing a file and the slow page turns backwards and the lousy 5-way controller), there is also the book selection. It's not nearly as good as I hoped. Almost all the classics on Amazon.com itself are so poorly formatted that they are unreadable. (That's how I found this place). I don't see how a company that touts a big free library can find this acceptable. Beyond that, if you buy books in Kindle compatible format from other companies, you're getting a poorly formatted product as well. You basically need to download the epub version and convert. And actually in both cases (from Fictionwise and Baen) I had to load the epub in Sigil, edit it to make it decent, then convert. This isn't amazon's fault exactly, but constantly having to convert a file to see what it looks like does add an extra layer of frustration. Part of me thinks that perhaps e-books just aren't ready for prime-time yet. I think I probably should have waited another year to buy an e-reader, and then probably should have gone with something more like the Kobo. But live and learn.