Thread: WHSmith problems with purchased eBooks
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Old 09-30-2010, 05:02 AM   #3
pdurrant
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Posts: 74,066
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Oasis
Quote:
Originally Posted by TreeHugger View Post
Hello Everyone!
I have just joined because I need some help. As I can see there are quite a few experienced eBookers on the forum.

I own a Sony PRS-300 Reader which I'm very happy with, and I have been buying approximately 15 books from WHSmith which are on the reader. Recently I have been having problems with my computer which were sorted by wiping the C drive and then re-installing everything. The only problem is that I now can no longer read the books I bought from WHSmith. While they still show as being on the reader, when I click on the book, it shows as 'Protected Page' and I cannot get into the book. I can also not download the books again as the WHSmith system seems to think that I now have a new computer.

I have contaced WHSmith's dedicated eBook service team who simply said that there was nothing they could do about it. I now have £80 worth of books on my reader which I can no longer read.

Incidentally, I had some Waterstones eBooks on this reader as well, and when I contacted them about the same problem, they refunded me the money for these books so that I can buy them again, but WHSmith won't budge.

Any suggestions what I can do? I would be really grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.
It sounds like you never registered an Adobe ID. In which case, your books were linked to the particular installation on your computer, instead of to something you could reproduce (i.e. the id/password combination of an Adobe ID).

Since your computer has been wiped, you no longer have the codes needed to read the books, and because of that, you cannot now remove the DRM either. (Unless you have a backup of your old computer data somewhere?)

It seems to me that WH Smith are being a bit foolish in customer service and reputation terms. But I don't think there's anything you can do except avoid them in the future and tell other people about your experience.

Oh - and make sure you register an Adobe ID now, and I'd also advise stripping the DRM, just in case. After all, there's no guarantee that Adobe will continue to provide DRM servers in the future.
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