Glowlight 3 warranty service

[apastuszak]

My wife picked up her Glowlight 3 from her end table last night, and the screen was broken. Has a crosshair in it about a half inch wide run vertically and horizontally that's just dead white. And there's a line across the bottom of the screen showing the "swipe right to unlock" image that won't refresh.

The first thought was impact damage to the screen, but it was just sitting there in the same position it was in when she put it down in the morning, with the cover closed. And the screen doesn't have a scratch or scuff on it anywhere.

Since she's only had the unit since August, I called BN warranty service. I wouldn't have bothered if she had dropped it or there was any sign it had suffered some damage, such as an object was lying on the floor next it that may have fallen on it and bounced away.

I explain the situation to the woman with the heavy accent on the phone and they agreed to send me a new unit. In the middle of taking my credit card number to secure the "ship new unit first" service, the woman tells me if a technician determines that the unit is functioning properly and the only issue is the screen, then they will charge me full price for a new unit. The Barnes and Noble nook warranty does not cover the screen under any circumstances.

Well, I kind of FLIPPED OUT at that point. I told her to check the account and see the 6 different nooks listed on the account and asked her if I might buy 6 new Kobos and use the Kobo store for all my purchases going forward?

She then tells me they can offer me a refurbished nook for $89 if it turns out to be the screen.

Which led me to go through another tirade with her.

Then she offered to grant me a "one time exception" to have the unit replaced under warranty.

I get that e-Ink screens are fragile. But to have a warranty that doesn't cover them at all seems kind of insane.

I also own a Kindle, and once had a similar issue, with me using it in the morning, then grabbing it in the evening and the screen having vertical lines going down the screen. Amazon tech support didn't even hesitate. They swapped it out with a new one under warranty without batting an eye.

Can e-Ink screens just "break" with no impact to them? I've had monitors get funky lines on the screen and get dead pixels that I have had to get rid of. But I know little to nothing if e-Ink displays can just "go bad" over time.

[robko]

Two STRAIGHT lines would make one suspect a bad controller, but if there is any curve/bend/angle at all then it's a broken substrate. IMHO most of the time broken substrates are caused by twisting of the device (and unless the cover of your device won't bend at all, it won't prevent this) rather than direct impact. Often it may not break it at the time but stress it enough that over time is cracks (seems to happen overnight a lot which would make me think temperature differences causing expansion/contraction of it help cause the final failure). The fact that you've had this happen before would lead me to believe this is probably a broken substrate (likely due to this) rather than a device issue. Amazon is big enough that they'll do a replacement even when it's "user damage" just for PR purposes from what I see.

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

Then she offered to grant me a "one time exception" to have the unit replaced under warranty.

Take it!

What a shame that we have to get angry before they offer decent customer service.

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by robko

Two STRAIGHT lines would make one suspect a bad controller, but if there is any curve/bend/angle at all then it's a broken substrate. IMHO most of the time broken substrates are caused by twisting of the device (and unless the cover of your device won't bend at all, it won't prevent this) rather than direct impact. Often it may not break it at the time but stress it enough that over time is cracks (seems to happen overnight a lot which would make me think temperature differences causing expansion/contraction of it help cause the final failure). The fact that you've had this happen before would lead me to believe this is probably a broken substrate (likely due to this) rather than a device issue. Amazon is big enough that they'll do a replacement even when it's "user damage" just for PR purposes from what I see.

My real gripe is that the screen isn't covered at all, for any reason. If I broke the screen, that's fine. I can accept that. But i would hate to think there was a screen problem that WAS NOT my fault, and that the warranty won'rt cover it.

[apastuszak]

Here is the what it looks like for the curious:

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Take it!

What a shame that we have to get angry before they offer decent customer service.

I took it. But I told them, if they decide they need to charge me for anything, I'm sending it back and buying a Kobo.

[Calenorn]

I see the cover uses elastic in the four corners. Was the reader frequently take out of the cover? I'm thinking that if the screen was broken by slightly bending the reader, perhaps that occurred when trying to insert or remove the reader from the elastic corners. Maybe a different cover would reduce that risk.

[apastuszak]

The reader never comes out of the cover. It's been in there since August 17th, the day I gave it to my wife.

[robko]

That's a broken substrate. You can tell by the angled and slightly curved part at the top of the vertical stripe.