MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Waterstones eBook store

jaffab · 09-09-2008, 04:03 AM

Hi All,

Has anybody else tried to use the Waterstones eBook store yet? Apart from being REALLY expensive (compared to say buying a book in the USA or another on-line store), its really hard to find anything. I have just dropped Waterstones the following email (copied to Sony)....

Dear Waterstones (and Sony),

My Wife and I have just purchased two Sony PRS-505S ebook readers. We are very happy with these products – excellent technology.

What lets them down is the Waterstones eBook web site, which fails to work, is hard to use, and frankly is not fit for purpose. This lack of thought or preparation by Waterstones badly lets down the Sony product, and reflects badly on Sony.

Take for instance the only way to find an eBook – the search option (http://www.waterstones.com/waterston...ancedSearch.do). You enter a search criteria, select a format of eBook and the returned list are hundreds of paperbacks and hardbacks – no eBooks are listed.

The alternative method is to Browse. So you select the “eBooks” on the browse menu, and from there, you are given 25 subjects. Ok, so that’s not so bad, but if you select the section of say “Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror”, you have to page through the 271 books to see what you want. This needs to be sub-divided, or to sort by title, or search on site, or author, or really anything to make it useful.

I know its really early days for eBooks in the UK, but you have known this was coming, and it only takes a programmer a couple of days to put a decent filter/search system together. At least, get the advanced search system working.

At the moment, I am doing what everybody else (on the forums) is doing, which is to purchase my eBooks from the states (there are many, many ways to do this and overcome the UK restrictions that the web sites try to detect).

09-09-2008, 04:03 AM	#1
jaffab Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 70 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: Sony PR505	Waterstones eBook store - what a mess Hi All, Has anybody else tried to use the Waterstones eBook store yet? Apart from being REALLY expensive (compared to say buying a book in the USA or another on-line store), its really hard to find anything. I have just dropped Waterstones the following email (copied to Sony).... Dear Waterstones (and Sony), My Wife and I have just purchased two Sony PRS-505S ebook readers. We are very happy with these products – excellent technology. What lets them down is the Waterstones eBook web site, which fails to work, is hard to use, and frankly is not fit for purpose. This lack of thought or preparation by Waterstones badly lets down the Sony product, and reflects badly on Sony. Take for instance the only way to find an eBook – the search option (http://www.waterstones.com/waterston...ancedSearch.do). You enter a search criteria, select a format of eBook and the returned list are hundreds of paperbacks and hardbacks – no eBooks are listed. The alternative method is to Browse. So you select the “eBooks” on the browse menu, and from there, you are given 25 subjects. Ok, so that’s not so bad, but if you select the section of say “Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror”, you have to page through the 271 books to see what you want. This needs to be sub-divided, or to sort by title, or search on site, or author, or really anything to make it useful. I know its really early days for eBooks in the UK, but you have known this was coming, and it only takes a programmer a couple of days to put a decent filter/search system together. At least, get the advanced search system working. At the moment, I am doing what everybody else (on the forums) is doing, which is to purchase my eBooks from the states (there are many, many ways to do this and overcome the UK restrictions that the web sites try to detect).