MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - FRY's Electronics Astak EZ Reader Blow-Out

mtnmedic · 07-03-2009, 09:17 PM

WOOT! Got mine ordered and it's in the store ready for me to pick up Sunday morning (I live 70 miles north of the nearest Fry's and I work a 24 hour shift tomorrow). I was in the store this morning for a couple of hours checking out the various ebook readers. I was debating over the Sony 505, Sony 700 and the JetBook, reading the reviews, etc. My big thing is to find a reader that can handle PDFs reasonably well, perhaps do PDF reflow in the future, as well as have an SD card slot, decent readable screen and handle all kinds of other formats. ALMOST got the Sony 700 but the touch screen isn't all that important to me and, even with an "open box" buy at $332, that's a tad steep. The JetBook (also "open box") at $179 was tempting. The 505 was at $256 or $265, I think.

When I came across this reader (Astak EZ Reader), there were about nine of them on the shelf at $259 each. About the same price as the 505. I looked at it and became interested. On my HTC Touch Pro phone, I looked up the reviews on it, since I knew nothing about it (I did research on the others but I still agonize in the store a bit). This is where I learned about the rebate. I got excited and took it to one of the store managers and he couldn't find any kind of rebate for it but suggested that it might be effective just for tomorrow's Fourth of July sale. Darn, I thought...because I work a 24 hour shift tomorrow. Debating on what to do, I did a little more reading in this thread and hit on a previous poster's discussion about ORDERING the reader online.

So I when I got home later on in the early afternoon, I went online and ordered it. But first I made sure I was able to download and print the mail-in rebate form (yes, the link does work!). I placed my order and off to the races! The only drawback: I pay a $20.58 (insert your own expletive here) SALES TAX here in CA. So the real price to me will be $239.

This will be my first ever ebook reader.

HOWEVER....I just now found out that the rebate is good ONLY if you purchase the thing TODAY. Meaning, the receipt has to show TODAY'S date on it. On-line ordering at Fry's for store pick-up doesn't count as a "purchase" (I was surprised to find out that they just "hold" the item for you and even if you submit a credit card it doesn't get charged until you pick the item up!). Fry's won't take my credit card number over the phone to complete the transaction so I can pick up the item and receipt Sunday and I know of nobody in Sacramento who can pick it up for me today so...I have to drive 45 minutes down there to get it with 2 hours left to go. Had I known about all of this earlier today I would've bought the one in the store when I was there ($10 more than the online cost).

Then I will come back home for the rest of the night and then I gotta go back down there to work tomorrow morning. I've been shopping at Fry's for years but this is one situation that has me steamed: 1) because they can't complete my transaction over the phone and 2) because the on-line ordering won't complete the transaction for an in-store pick-up. The latter is the most annoying and most inconvenient.

07-03-2009, 09:17 PM	#42
mtnmedic Enthusiast Posts: 48 Karma: 86 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Nevada City, CA Device: iPad 64GB WiFi + 3G, Astak EZ Reader	Good news for me...sorta... WOOT! Got mine ordered and it's in the store ready for me to pick up Sunday morning (I live 70 miles north of the nearest Fry's and I work a 24 hour shift tomorrow). I was in the store this morning for a couple of hours checking out the various ebook readers. I was debating over the Sony 505, Sony 700 and the JetBook, reading the reviews, etc. My big thing is to find a reader that can handle PDFs reasonably well, perhaps do PDF reflow in the future, as well as have an SD card slot, decent readable screen and handle all kinds of other formats. ALMOST got the Sony 700 but the touch screen isn't all that important to me and, even with an "open box" buy at $332, that's a tad steep. The JetBook (also "open box") at $179 was tempting. The 505 was at $256 or $265, I think. When I came across this reader (Astak EZ Reader), there were about nine of them on the shelf at $259 each. About the same price as the 505. I looked at it and became interested. On my HTC Touch Pro phone, I looked up the reviews on it, since I knew nothing about it (I did research on the others but I still agonize in the store a bit). This is where I learned about the rebate. I got excited and took it to one of the store managers and he couldn't find any kind of rebate for it but suggested that it might be effective just for tomorrow's Fourth of July sale. Darn, I thought...because I work a 24 hour shift tomorrow. Debating on what to do, I did a little more reading in this thread and hit on a previous poster's discussion about ORDERING the reader online. So I when I got home later on in the early afternoon, I went online and ordered it. But first I made sure I was able to download and print the mail-in rebate form (yes, the link does work!). I placed my order and off to the races! The only drawback: I pay a $20.58 (insert your own expletive here) SALES TAX here in CA. So the real price to me will be $239. This will be my first ever ebook reader. HOWEVER....I just now found out that the rebate is good ONLY if you purchase the thing TODAY. Meaning, the receipt has to show TODAY'S date on it. On-line ordering at Fry's for store pick-up doesn't count as a "purchase" (I was surprised to find out that they just "hold" the item for you and even if you submit a credit card it doesn't get charged until you pick the item up!). Fry's won't take my credit card number over the phone to complete the transaction so I can pick up the item and receipt Sunday and I know of nobody in Sacramento who can pick it up for me today so...I have to drive 45 minutes down there to get it with 2 hours left to go. Had I known about all of this earlier today I would've bought the one in the store when I was there ($10 more than the online cost). Then I will come back home for the rest of the night and then I gotta go back down there to work tomorrow morning. I've been shopping at Fry's for years but this is one situation that has me steamed: 1) because they can't complete my transaction over the phone and 2) because the on-line ordering won't complete the transaction for an in-store pick-up. The latter is the most annoying and most inconvenient.