This was posted in a Canadian forum by a Kobo employee, so take it for it's worth. Kobo seems to be changing their service policies. I know of Canadians too that have now been told to cover their own shipping (from a week or two ago).
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I work for Kobo in one of their contact centers, and this new policy regarding returns is pretty lame. We had training on it coming into effect last week and it started up on the 14th (September).
Kobo is now considering the screen problem almost everyone has a "cosmetic" issue rather than a "manufacturing" issue... which is what it clearly is. I process about 5-10 RMA requests a day and almost all of them are due to screen problems.
The biggest changes are the fact that you now have to ship the device back at your own cost (no matter where you reside in the world) and that if your device is not considered to be covered under the limited warranty, they will charge you 59.95 USD to have a refurbished device sent to you...
If you have a Kobo Wifi or older, you should really read the warranty before you consider mailing the device back; if you are going to end up with a refurbished one anyways you may as well just buy one from bestbuy/futureshop for the same price roughly but without the wait time.
If you are looking at purchasing a Kobo Touch however, there is a extended warranty plan available for the device, and when you connect it to your computer and the Kobo desktop you will get an option asking if you would like to purchase it. If I recall correctly it is around $30-40 and it will cover your device from anything for 2 full years.
And I mean anything. We were told in training that it is covered against acts of god, your dog chewing down on the thing... even if you decided to put the device in the microwave... we would replace it for you.
I don't see this new policy lasting very long... it is similar to what we had in place when the devices first launched and we got many complaints. We then became really lienent with our RMA's (I did one for a guy who melted his!) but Kobo has started to lose too much money by replacing all of these devices which is why they have changed the policy back to what it used to be.
If you have a screen issue (looks like an etch a-sketch or lines through it) that you should probably just write to the president of the company or file a complaint with the BBB before you even contact Kobo... the fact that this is considered cosmetic blows my mind now...
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