Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller
I've bought a collection of eBooks (3 titles bundled into a single eBook) from Umberto Eco for € 38 via Kobo.
The cover is crippled. You only see about half of the author's name, the rest is missing entirely. I've added a snapshot.
It may not be a biggy to many of you. But personally, I buy my eBooks (instead of illegally downloading them for free) mainly to avoid such in-aesthetics/flaws. And I'm really annoyed, if the quality of legally bought titles (and € 38 for 3 eBooks isn't a bargain price) is that low.
I've asked Kobo to fix it or give me a refund, directly after downloading the book for the very first time.
Their response (after 9 days when sending a reminder):
"...You are correct...
...the publisher has provided us with a file that does not show the entire cover...
When you purchased the book...it also shows that the cover was not complete...
Unfortunately, Kobo cannot provide a refund unless there is something wrong with the eBook...
So while it may not be aesthetically pleasing to look at the content is fine..."
Honestly, I find this ridiculous and certainly won't purchase from Kobo anymore (so far, I've bought about 180 eBooks in 10 months from them).
In my opinion, a crippled cover definitely means "there is something wrong with the eBook".
And in my opinion, it should be up to me (the buyer, not the vendor) to decide, whether quality is acceptable or not.
It's true: When buying the book, the description page did show the very same crippled cover.
But I simply didn't expect to get the same in the eBook. I've thought it a download error in the website.
And I find the argument "...yeah, it's bad but you should have seen it coming..." not very clever and valid or comforting.
I have to say: The more I shop from various vendors, the more I love Amazon. I only returned an eBook once with them (lots of formatting errors). But then it simply was "money back, no questions asked". In addition, Amazon has been speedy in their response (it took Kobo 9 days to come back to me only after a second reminder mail) and friendly ("we're very sorry about OUR mistake")...
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Was this problem on a Kobo eReader device (Reader, Wifi Reader, Touch, or Vox), or was it in one of the apps, if so, what platform.
Being more specific here, was it the iOS app, if so, what iOS version were you using, and what Kobo app version were you using?
Quote:
Originally Posted by frostschutz
I also have an Umberto Eco book by Kobo, except I got it for free (it was a promo for new customers in Germany). The book pretty much scared me away from Kobo though. Embedded fonts, tons of convoluted CSS files, which not only resulted in a huge file but also compatibility problems with some eReaders (like not being able to change font size, or outright crashes).
Although I prefer to buy ebooks in EPUB format whenever possible, if this book was a representative example of what Kobo EPUBs look like, then thanks but no thanks.
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Same questions as above to you.
The reason I'm asking, and I can only answer from an iOS app viewpoint, is that there is a "Publisher Style" option in the Kobo app (pretty sure it's in v5.4.1), so you can use that as opposed to Kobo applying the font type and size, also, there is a "Kobo Styling" option, which can be disabled, which turns of any CSS we may be applying to the book. This may allow it to render correctly.