Clara HD out of stock at Kobo's US store!

[Calenorn]

As of 13 June 1830 Eastern time.

Sale announcement can still be read on the page: "Kobo Clara HD for $99.99 is valid from June 12, 2020 through June 18, 2020 at 11:59PM EST on purchases made through us.kobobooks.com. Offer valid in the United States only."

Is this the end of the line for Clara? Sure glad I got my second reader while I could!

[mirage]

I ordered one the other day at the sale price. I've gotten confirmation of the order with an order number, but no shipping info so far. I hope this isn't as much of a vaporware thing as my $89.96 order from Walmart US was. I was figuring that since it's the weekend, that I might see shipping info by Monday if they're not understaffed to the point where orders take awhile to fulfill.

[Calenorn]

I purchased mine directly from the Kobo store into the US. No problem, either time.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by mirage

I ordered one the other day at the sale price. I've gotten confirmation of the order with an order number, but no shipping info so far. I hope this isn't as much of a vaporware thing as my $89.96 order from Walmart US was. I was figuring that since it's the weekend, that I might see shipping info by Monday if they're not understaffed to the point where orders take awhile to fulfill.

Kobo has been notoriously bad with sending shipping information in the past. However if they confirmed your order you’re pretty safe in terms of getting your Clara.

I’ll also note kobo have gotten better about shipping information in recent years. If you hear nothing by Friday call them or use the online chat feature. DO NOT EMAIL them. You’ll spend far longer waiting for an actual human to reply and then be forced to rely on emails as a back and forth.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Is this the end of the line for Clara? Sure glad I got my second reader while I could!

I suspect the scarcity of the Clara has more to do with Kobo's supply problems (mentioned in News) than a new Clara replacement.

I think the Nia will be a replacement for the low-end Aura 2.

[Calenorn]

If I were having supply problems I don't think I'd put the product on sale. None of their other readers went out of stock.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

If I were having supply problems I don't think I'd put the product on sale. None of their other readers went out of stock.

So sales would talk to operations? It has to start some time I guess.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

None of their other readers went out of stock.

Yet.

They are all out of stock at Walmart.

[mirage]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Kobo has been notoriously bad with sending shipping information in the past. However if they confirmed your order you’re pretty safe in terms of getting your Clara.

I’ll also note kobo have gotten better about shipping information in recent years. If you hear nothing by Friday call them or use the online chat feature. DO NOT EMAIL them. You’ll spend far longer waiting for an actual human to reply and then be forced to rely on emails as a back and forth.

Thanks for that input. Good to know in this comically frustrating and obsessive attempt to buy an ereader. Absurdly, I've now ordered three of them, my original Walmart vaporware bargain, a Libra H2O when I gave up on the idea of seeing the Clara and not wanting to pay full price after thinking I'd get one for less than $90, and now very unexpectedly jumping on the Clara from Kobo on sale just a couple of days after the Libra order. Since the last two are coming from Canada, I'll keep both of them, barring problems. I'll probably just cancel the Walmart order once the Kobo ordered Clara HD shows up.

Because of the pandemic (I think), the Kobo chat feature is currently a bot. What can't be answered that way is not answered at all. At least that's how it was a week ago. No phone calls right now, either. Maybe next week that'll change. I hope so if I need it. Their help account on Twitter is staffed by a real person, though, who tends to respond about 24 hours after receiving a direct message.

An odd thing about the Kobo site. The store for buying the devices is a Spotify one. Unusual for a company of this size in my experience. It's like buying a bag of coffee from one of the specialty roasters. Same software.

[Edding]

Originally Posted by mirage

Thanks for that input. Good to know in this comically frustrating and obsessive attempt to buy an ereader. Absurdly, I've now ordered three of them, my original Walmart vaporware bargain, a Libra H2O when I gave up on the idea of seeing the Clara and not wanting to pay full price after thinking I'd get one for less than $90, and now very unexpectedly jumping on the Clara from Kobo on sale just a couple of days after the Libra order. Since the last two are coming from Canada, I'll keep both of them, barring problems. I'll probably just cancel the Walmart order once the Kobo ordered Clara HD shows up.

Because of the pandemic (I think), the Kobo chat feature is currently a bot. What can't be answered that way is not answered at all. At least that's how it was a week ago. No phone calls right now, either. Maybe next week that'll change. I hope so if I need it. Their help account on Twitter is staffed by a real person, though, who tends to respond about 24 hours after receiving a direct message.

An odd thing about the Kobo site. The store for buying the devices is a Spotify one. Unusual for a company of this size in my experience. It's like buying a bag of coffee from one of the specialty roasters. Same software.

Hello, another one here waiting for the bargain to ship from Walmart. What is strange is that I bought it on the 18th, got a backorder email on the 28th and they haven't still cancelled the order, which gives a bit of hope in this shit selling operation by Walmart. I understood they cancel after 10 days.

The more modest bargain in the official website of kobo is now soldout wow

[ps67]

Clara is on sale here on Kobo site, there may be a warehouse here in Europe that is stocked with it.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

None of their other readers went out of stock.

Not quite. The 32GB Forma had been out of stock for a while, and it just came in stock back late last week. To which I promptly added it to my cart and am awaiting delivery on Wednesday.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by mirage

...in this comically frustrating and obsessive attempt to buy an ereader.

Ironically, one benefit to the Kobo/Walmart partnership is better customer service. Kobo puts out a fine reader, but their customer service... When Walmart is a step up, you have a problem.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Ironically, one benefit to the Kobo/Walmart partnership is better customer service. Kobo puts out a fine reader, but their customer service... When Walmart is a step up, you have a problem.

The irony is that Walmart wasn't able to provide good customer support to them, if you recall they weren't able to get shipping information out of Walmart even a week+ out from the order date.

[mirage]

Does Walmart have exclusive rights to sell Kobo readers in the US? I'm not counting third party vendors on the Walmart website, eBay, or Amazon. Could BH Photo Video, Best Buy, independent bookstores, Target, Costco, whomever, sell them if they wanted to? Even Kobo itself doesn't seem to have a US warehouse.