Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
There are not always samples. (Amazon has them, but not every ebook seller does--and the samples may be in non-DRM'd formats when the actual book is Topaz.) There are not reviews of the *formatting* of ebooks, not in any coherent location.
Books received as gifts are not checked at the store. For that matter, when I go to the store to buy a book, I don't expect to need to flip through the pages to find out if the font is readable or the contents don't match the description--if it was mis-shelved in nonfic and was instead a novel, the bookstore erred in placement. Books advertised as Young Adult may contain content parents don't want their kids to have, which they don't discover until they read through them. A lot of stores object to people standing in the aisles and reading entire chapters at a time.
All that aside--books are no different from any other product. "It turns out I don't need this/already have one/don't have room for it" is all the explanation most stores need for returns; if it's in good condition, that's fine.
Ebooks should allow returns for
--bad formatting (missing punctuation, extra-wide margins, bad font/text size, OCR errors, lacks pictures included in paper version, Topaz, wrong metadata)
--file not usable with purchaser's software arrangement
--selected wrong filetype (for those that require 1 purchase per filetype)
--corrupt file
If the seller doesn't have previews, they should also allow returns for "started reading it and didn't like it." And "got this [coupon] as a gift; don't want it; exchange for different book please."
In a sane world, they'd allow "already have this in a different version/different publisher." Eventually, I think we'll see that--when enough ebook stores have open competition that customer goodwill becomes more important than the $3 profit from a single ebook.
|
Since Amazon is the company being discussed, other companies not providing a sample doesn't seem relevant to this discussion IMO. I will agree that they should tell you up front which format the ebook is in. However, since the Kindle can read it regardless of the format and you are purchasing it to use on the Kindle I don't see a problem with it. I realize that I am in the minority here, but I have no problem DRM.
While your listed reasons for being able to return ebooks may seem reasonable to some people here, I don't think that that they are.
You start off with bad formatting and include things that basically would allow every single book to be returned after reading. There is no way that a company can survive doing that. I challenge you to find a decent length book that doesn't have some sort of missing punctuation at some point. Then you can decide that you don't like the font???
I would agree that if the file is corrupt you should at the company's discretion either receive a refund or a new copy. Of course that assumes that the file was always corrupt. If it gets corrupted at a later point, then it is the same as if you had misplaced a regular pbook.