[Lordvic]

Yes, Another of these.

I"m a kobo fan. I love supporting the local company, and I LOVE my Wi-Fi reader. I've recommended it to several people, who have all bought them and love them. I love the design and the social direction they're going, and the fact they're not afraid to go head to head with the big boys (BN and Amazon). In fact, their global perspective is winning them huge favours since the Amazon and B&N devices are for the most part, not easily available outside America

But here's my problem. Maybe they've gone to big too fast, But the technical support stinks. It's terrible. The more and more I look around, read, and research, the more and more I see a glaring omission in their business. There is great strides taken by them to sell and improve the quality of their software and device, But there is little growth in their support to match the sales.

As i mentioned elsewhere, My Kobo died. Like many, I suffered the screen issue. The device is completely unusable. This itself doesn't bother me so much. I'm a techno junky and have been in IT support for most of my adult life and i realize that technology is fickle and sensitive with failures

But being in support, dealing with downtime, dealing with customers and understanding their frustration, I'm finding the way kobo deals with tickets to be extremely lacking. I submitted a ticket almost immediately via Email. I immediately received a response in the form of an automated reply message. There was no acknowledgement that some living person has read it. Right away, this didn't impress me. Not getting a live person for first response feels cheap and makes me feel like the issue isn't important.

Then I read the message.
"Your question has been received and you can anticipate a response within 24-48 hours."

Wait a second. my device is broken. I cannot use something i paid for due to a possible manufacturing issue, and you're telling me I wont even get a live response from a human being to acknowledge the issue in up to 2 full days? Hello? My device is broken now. If you're backlogged 2+ days in technical support issues, you have a problem. Either too many devices are faulty, or your staff is completely incapable of handling the workload.

I have now hit nearly 48 hours later. I have emailed again with no response. I have posted on their facebook support page, no response. I haven't called yet cause I'm sitting in the office and can't make a call just yet. But this for a company who wants to go head to head with Amazon, isn't winning them any favours.

Now with the release of the VOX, i hesitate to buy. I was gung ho at first. the device itself looks absolutely fantastic. But why would I buy a device from Kobo, when I'm not even sure I'll get timely response if something happens?

I loved my Kobo, I wish it still worked right now. I read 3-5 hours a day, 2 of which i'm trapped on the GO Train to and from work everyday, but I can't help but feel like Kobo itself just doesn't care enough.

TLDR version: I just ranted about customer service taking days to respond to initial tickets and perhaps Kobo's tech support is severely understaff (hey, hire me, i'd be more than happy to work Kobo!)