Rattle & Reset

[serf]

My Kindle arrived about 11/27. Out of the box it rattled like a part was loose inside. After charging it & trying to start it the screen flashed white a couple of times & then nothing. Pushing reset many times finally got it going.

After a couple days of having to reset due to lockups every 5-15 minutes, I emailed Amazon Support on 11/29 asking for exchange. On 11/30 I got an email saying they would replace it with estimated delivery 1/2/08-1/16/08 & I could use it in the meantime, as I requested.

Lockups got even more frequent. I ended up drilling a hole in the back cover so I did not have to remove it to stick a paperclip in the reset button.

I called Kindle Support & explained situation to someone, who seemed very helpful. My input was that I think having to wait over 1 month for a functioning unit is disappointing, particularly if Amazon is continuing to sell or deliver to others in the meantime. I asked if my experience was typical; if so, I wanted a return, not an exchange. Support said my experience was not typical. It seemed that Support said that they had set some units aside for replacement, but did not have enough, but that they would try to deliver a replacement sooner than originally estimated.

While I had intended to use the unit until I received the replacement, I returned it yesterday as it became too frustrating to continually reset it.

It is surprising that Amazon/Kindle is unable to timely replace defective units. I wonder if the failure rate is higher than they expected or if they got greedy and initially shipped more than they should, knowing they would frustrate a certain percentage of buyers by delivering failed units & by inability to timely deliver replacements.

Despite the defects in my unit, the experiences of being able to almost instantly receive purchased books (& the trial NYT subscription I had just started) & reading on the Kindle were great - even better than I had expected & I miss it now.

I am posting this to see if others have had similar experiences.

[TadW]

Welcome on board, serf. Wow, this is quite an odyssey you had to go through with your Kindle. I am amazed that Amazon has set aside devices just for replacement, yet that these were not enough. It seems that there is a high fall-out rate... probably related to the E Ink screen which is known to be quite sensitive.

[catsittingstill]

Wow, that's interesting. I had heard that replacements for bad units were taking a long time to come but didn't realize that was the result of a higher failure rate than expected. That is a point I will want to keep in mind about the Kindle as I consider ordering mine.

Thank you for posting this.

[serf]

I'm not sure of the reason for the delay. Just trying to determine what the failure rate is. Thanks.

[serf]

Replacement arrived yesterday (much earlier than Amazon originally estimated) and works much better than the original unit so far. I found Support to be very helpful. Also, I am relieved that no one else has reported a similar experience. Hopefully, my experience was not common.

Yesterday, I purchased the Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (not cheap at $48, but it looked good). When it "arrived," most of it was like a pdf page that was too small to read (increasing font size did not work on it). I asked for a "return" on the Amazon website. This morning, I rec'd email from Amazon that they looked at the book, there is something wrong with it, they were providing a full refund and suggested that I check it later to see if they were able to correct the problem. Again, timely and effective Support.

[TallMomof2]

Glad Amazon came through for you!