Hello New Zealand!
I realize that this post is pretty old, but I just wanted to put in my 2 cents.
I'm from Nova Scotia, Canada. It's now January of 2012, and Kobo
STILL has the same problems with upgrades/setups.
The third trip to Future Shop to exchange the defective reader was a bust, as we were told by a manager that they'd had so many returns, there were no more Vox's left in the province, and this was only 8 days after Christmas!
We stubbornly decided to give the product a third try, but had to wait another 5 days for the new stock to arrive.
With fingers crossed and bated breath, we charged the reader, but have been staring at that old familiar screen ("tablet upgrade error") for the last 24 hours.
We've tried 5 different wi-fi's, three of them T3's. We've reset our wi-fi, firewall, and Administrative accounts on the computer.
Kobo customer service, and their tier 2 team have been no help whatsoever. 
Our final, and disgusted, determination of this product and the company? It SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!
It's really depressing to think that not only has this company let down its North American customers, but that it disappointed its international customers first.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the store, for the 5th time, to return this expensive piece of garbage
, and then to Coles Books...at least you don't have to wait 2 and a half weeks to update a paperback!
Joyce