MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Can egift cards be used to get around Agency pricing at Kobo?

ldolse · 03-15-2011, 08:15 PM

Answered: Yes they can! What works for sure is to buy yourself an e-Gift card, then create a new account from another country (use a proxy if required) and redeem the gift card to that account. A credit card is not required if there is sufficient store credit to make a purchase, but Kobo will ask for contact details when making the purchase, and a non-U.S. address is required.

It's not clear if there are any other specific country of origin limitations when doing this. Thus far users from Canada and Malaysia have reported success. Some books may not be available in the non U.S. catalogs. It's also unclear whether the requests must physically come from a non-U.S. location, there are some indications Kobo may only check the country the user types in rather than the physical location.

-------- Original Post --------
I live overseas, but my Kobo billing address is a U.S. address. It seems like Kobo only keeps you logged in for a short time, and it seems they must be doing some IP lookup when they offer books to users who aren't logged in.

When I go to Kobo without logging in I see lots of books (probably all of them?) that don't use Agency pricing. Discount codes seem to be allowed generally (not sure if country specific limitations come into play in some cases)

As soon as I try to actually buy one of those books by logging in so I can use my credit card the transaction fails in some way - the way it fails seems to change from week to week as they adjust their app. Apparently once they see my U.S. address they're blocking it at some level. I can only buy the book at that point buy starting over and choosing the Agency priced version which is all that shows up when I re-locate the book at that point.

I was thinking that I should be able to buy an egift card with my U.S. account, and then create a second non-U.S. account and use the egift card credit with full coupon support/normal pricing there.

Has anyone tried this? Any evidence that Kobo is doing aggressive per country geo IP lookup, or just U.S. vs. Overseas? Is there any country of origin limitation to the gift card?

03-15-2011, 08:15 PM	#1
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	Can egift cards be used to get around Agency pricing at Kobo? Answered: Yes they can! What works for sure is to buy yourself an e-Gift card, then create a new account from another country (use a proxy if required) and redeem the gift card to that account. A credit card is not required if there is sufficient store credit to make a purchase, but Kobo will ask for contact details when making the purchase, and a non-U.S. address is required. It's not clear if there are any other specific country of origin limitations when doing this. Thus far users from Canada and Malaysia have reported success. Some books may not be available in the non U.S. catalogs. It's also unclear whether the requests must physically come from a non-U.S. location, there are some indications Kobo may only check the country the user types in rather than the physical location. -------- Original Post -------- I live overseas, but my Kobo billing address is a U.S. address. It seems like Kobo only keeps you logged in for a short time, and it seems they must be doing some IP lookup when they offer books to users who aren't logged in. When I go to Kobo without logging in I see lots of books (probably all of them?) that don't use Agency pricing. Discount codes seem to be allowed generally (not sure if country specific limitations come into play in some cases) As soon as I try to actually buy one of those books by logging in so I can use my credit card the transaction fails in some way - the way it fails seems to change from week to week as they adjust their app. Apparently once they see my U.S. address they're blocking it at some level. I can only buy the book at that point buy starting over and choosing the Agency priced version which is all that shows up when I re-locate the book at that point. I was thinking that I should be able to buy an egift card with my U.S. account, and then create a second non-U.S. account and use the egift card credit with full coupon support/normal pricing there. Has anyone tried this? Any evidence that Kobo is doing aggressive per country geo IP lookup, or just U.S. vs. Overseas? Is there any country of origin limitation to the gift card? Last edited by ldolse; 03-17-2011 at 04:16 AM.