MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Further chapters in the saga of bad ebook formatting

Joques · 05-23-2015, 02:58 AM

Purple Lady, maybe Amazon does that, but back when I first bought this series, that did not happen. I contacted the vendor (now defunct booksonboard.com), I contacted the publisher. Neither were the slightest bit interested in either fixing the books or issuing any refund. I even tried to contact Stephen Donaldson directly to inform him of the situation. I don't know if I got through, but I do know that later on he lamented the state of his ebooks on his personal blog.

Apple are just as bad. I don't know if any of you tried downloading the omnibus edition of Clive Barker's Books of Blood from the iTunes book store? Just appalling, appalling state of text.

Here's the email that I sent to Apple support that time:
Hello! I recently purchased the "Books of Blood Omnibus" by Clive Barker on the iBooks store in iTunes. This text is hopelessly corrupt; as in just the 4 page introduction by Ramsey Campbell I found 6 bad typoes (apparently -> apparendy; is a -> a is; strength -> strenth; think -> tiiink; month's -> mondis'; and the real kicker is this one: deathless -> deaüüess), indicating to me that the text was not proofread after it had been OCR-ed. This version of the text is not fit for reading, and as I suspect that proofreading an entire text is beyond the scope of Apple customer service, I would like to cancel the purchase. Thank you in advance.

Here's their reply:
Dear Joakim, Your request for a refund was carefully considered. However, according to the iTunes Store Terms of Sale, all purchases made on the iTunes Store are final. This policy matches Apple's refund policies and provides protection for copyrighted materials.

These are the kinds of corporations we are dealing with. I swear, if it weren't possible to remove DRM in order to correct the publishers' mistakes, I would have given up on ereading a long time ago.

05-23-2015, 02:58 AM	#12
Joques Addict Posts: 294 Karma: 107414 Join Date: May 2013 Device: Kobo Glo	Purple Lady, maybe Amazon does that, but back when I first bought this series, that did not happen. I contacted the vendor (now defunct booksonboard.com), I contacted the publisher. Neither were the slightest bit interested in either fixing the books or issuing any refund. I even tried to contact Stephen Donaldson directly to inform him of the situation. I don't know if I got through, but I do know that later on he lamented the state of his ebooks on his personal blog. Apple are just as bad. I don't know if any of you tried downloading the omnibus edition of Clive Barker's Books of Blood from the iTunes book store? Just appalling, appalling state of text. Here's the email that I sent to Apple support that time: Hello! I recently purchased the "Books of Blood Omnibus" by Clive Barker on the iBooks store in iTunes. This text is hopelessly corrupt; as in just the 4 page introduction by Ramsey Campbell I found 6 bad typoes (apparently -> apparendy; is a -> a is; strength -> strenth; think -> tiiink; month's -> mondis'; and the real kicker is this one: deathless -> deaüüess), indicating to me that the text was not proofread after it had been OCR-ed. This version of the text is not fit for reading, and as I suspect that proofreading an entire text is beyond the scope of Apple customer service, I would like to cancel the purchase. Thank you in advance. Here's their reply: Dear Joakim, Your request for a refund was carefully considered. However, according to the iTunes Store Terms of Sale, all purchases made on the iTunes Store are final. This policy matches Apple's refund policies and provides protection for copyrighted materials. These are the kinds of corporations we are dealing with. I swear, if it weren't possible to remove DRM in order to correct the publishers' mistakes, I would have given up on ereading a long time ago.