One factor in my decision to switch from Kindle to Kobo was the less restrictive ecosystem. Yet today, I experienced the exact opposite.

I have been wanting to buy some Italian crime novels in Italian, in both ebook and audiobook, so that I can listen along as I read, to improve my grasp of Italian. Getting the first commissario Bordelli audiobook from Audible was not too difficult, but getting an ebook copy seemed impossible. After finding it on their Italy site, I contacted Kobo first and asked if there was any way to buy it from my NZ account. "no, sorry".

So then I tried the same at Amazon. The rep sent me a link to the Italian copy, and when I told him that clicking it brought up "this title is currently unavailable for purchase", he did some off-screen fiddling, and hey presto! Or rather "allora!" - I'm not a fan of Amazon, but this was customer service done right, and scored them a whopping $7.89US that Kobo missed out on.