Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
I think the point I was trying to make is that many, many companies out there have terrible CS and Kobo is no different. They excel in some areas and aren't so great in others. I'm just THRILLED they actually have coupons and am grateful to be able to get some of the books at a discount. It may not be flawless, but it beats the alternative of having no coupons. When it comes to disappearing books, I agree, that is a different story. You paid for the product, you need to be able to access it at all times without having to squeeze through a phone line and shake the person on the other end.
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Oh, I've toured multi-million dollar companies and distributors with worse computer support than you can imagine. And they do their CS in-house, which is where the limited hours (and long return times) often come from. I think we just all expect better from a "modern" online only store that deals in digital product (the instant gratification crowd wants our books and our support NOW!).
And they are not the only bookstore that lets your books disappear. They are one of the few that tries to get them back for you (if you paid for them), in fact. Amazon stands alone in guaranteeing that the book stays in your library until YOU delete it (and I'm surprised the publishers keep agreeing to it, but it's now a given that if you want in the Amazon store, you must agree to that provision; in other stores, the publisher can pull books off your shelves when they remove access for that store to sell the titles).
Unless Kobo has changed, though, their treatment of free titles is abysmal. If you read and delete from the app (or a device), it removed the title from your library (permanent delete, not "trash" or "archive). And their CS would tell you that you could buy it again if you wanted to read it again. Or read it the first time, if you deleted by accident. As a result, I sold off all my Kobo readers and deleted the APP from all my devices. I no longer use their software, so am insulated against loss from that front.
I have run into books that have nothing at the Kobo end behind the sales page; sometimes they fix it, sometimes they don't (as you say, at least they do refunds, even if it is weeks later).
In the meantime, they keep making choices that make it more difficult to shop there - you can't buy gift cards online and I can't get most of my credit cards to work there, since the purchase gets flagged as out of country (that and the small amounts both raise fraud alert flags on the accounts, often getting the account completely frozen until I call in and fix them).