Quote:
Originally Posted by Genre fan
Then I have to deal with the guy telling me that I should have known (HOW was I supposed to know this???...so I can get credit (not a refund?) for the $4 plus tax that I was (over)charged yesterday....
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I've had a similar and equally frustrating experience with Kobo customer service about 2 years ago.
I've received a book with corrupted cover.
Response from customer service: "It looks the same on the website, you should have known".
In my frustration, I've started a brief thread here in mobileread. Then 2 employees of Kobo did jump in and one of them actually did solve my problem by adding the correct cover to the webstore.
Lessons learned:
- "You should have known" seems to be a well used phrase in Kobo's CS.
I find this ridiculous. Why do I "have" to know anything about their webstore? There are tons of alternatives, I don't want to bother at all (about any webstore).
- You don't get a refund, but tons of excuses. Amazon on the other hand gives you a refund "no questions asked".
- In my thread, lots of people stated, my claim would be useless and unnecessary, I simply should change the cover myself via calibre. Hey, I didn't download an illegal copy, just to avoid time wasters like that. I don't want to touch it.
- On the other hand, Kobo seems to be quite active in some threads here and some employees proactively try to solve your problems.
Over all, I'm still fine with Kobo. But in comparison to Amazon, their internal guidelines (about refunds and such) seem a bit too harsh, rigid and inflexible.
If I'd have to choose, I'd choose Amazon over Kobo in an instant - mainly because of such experiences.
That's what I really love about the experience with Amazon, and same with Apple:
If there's a problem, first of all you get an excuse.
I don't want them on their knees.
But I don't want to hear "you should have known" either.
And as their second action, your problem gets solved. Often enough, you even might get some bonus for your troubles. Clever business ethics, in my book.