Quote:
Originally Posted by calvin-c
According to FW's customer service (not that I believe them, but it's what they say) FW had no notice that the books were being pulled. Since they don't store the books themselves in all cases (IIRC they do store eReader & multiformat on their own servers) your ability to download them is dependent not only on FW's services but also on the services of the company from which the download actually comes. Per FW's customer service, that company (or companies) simply stopped honoring download requests with no warning or explanation given.
Assuming that's true, then it's not FW's fault. That doesn't mean they shouldn't refund your money-they should, but it's still not their fault. Hopefully they'll provide more information about the nefarious companies that are defrauding FW's customers, but probably not. Particularly since they seem to have worked out most of the problems. Sad-if they were more publicly active about pursuing these scoundrels they might have kept me as a customer. As it is, I have about 2 1/2 years left on my club membership, assuming FW lasts that long, I'll be out of there when that ends. And once my micropay is gone (down from $200 to $35 over the past 2 weeks, so it won't be long) I won't be a very active customer even while I'm still a member. So basically, they lost me.
As the retailer, it's my opinion that FW should represent the customers to the 'hidden' suppliers on whom the customers are actually dependent. They should *not* be cooperating with those suppliers to the detriment of the customers. Assuming they don't want to 'get involved' they should at least publish the names & contact info so the customers can complain directly.
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Oh, I don't blame FW. I think they had every right to expect the publishers would keep access for books their customers had already paid for. It's the publishers and/or their distributers that I blame. Yanking access to already paid for books is just not cool.
That's why I made my journey to the darknet. If the publisher can't honor a contract -- and I feel that my paying for a book is a contract for them to provide it -- then I feel no guilt about turning to an alternate source for the book.
I'll be sad if this nonsense destroys FW. It is my second-favorite place to get ebooks, after Baen. And their selection is (or at least was) much wider than Baen.
-Marcy