Aura HD Bad experience ordering Kobo Aura HD

[rambling]

So I've finally decided to pull the trigger and get the Aura HD. Since I live in a country where it isn't sold I ordered it to be shipped to a package forwarder in the US, as I've done in the past with various items.

The order went through and I received the order confirmation via email, however a couple of days passed and no shipping notification. So I got on a chat with Kobo CS and was told: your order was cancelled, we have a policy of not shipping to re-routing addresses. Huh? Why not? Where is this policy written? Short story - it isn't, it's up to their "agent" processing the order. Why wasn't I notified that the order was canceled? - Kobo's reply: Sorry.

I've never come across this before, not impressed at all.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by rambling

So I've finally decided to pull the trigger and get the Aura HD. Since I live in a country where it isn't sold I ordered it to be shipped to a package forwarder in the US, as I've done in the past with various items.

The order went through and I received the order confirmation via email, however a couple of days passed and no shipping notification. So I got on a chat with Kobo CS and was told: your order was cancelled, we have a policy of not shipping to re-routing addresses. Huh? Why not? Where is this policy written? Short story - it isn't, it's up to their "agent" processing the order. Why wasn't I notified that the order was canceled? - Kobo's reply: Sorry.

I've never come across this before, not impressed at all.

That's silly.

But if you really want it, other people have successfully done it, so it might work with another company.

[Prepper]

Tell you what, order 2 of them and have them shipped to me and I'll forward one on to you.

[rambling]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

That's silly.

But if you really want it, other people have successfully done it, so it might work with another company.

I saw someone was going to order it this way but ended up using a New Zealand based forwarder. I don't live in NZ, anymore..

EDIT: I tried a few other addresses and it looks like they blocked / flagged my card or something as I'm getting Payment Authorization error no matter what address I put in. This is getting ridiculous.

[rambling]

Originally Posted by Prepper

Tell you what, order 2 of them and have them shipped to me and I'll forward one on to you.

Awesome, much appreciated! Just send me your card details in a pm and I'll be placing the order for us pronto :-)

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

That's silly.

If a company doesn't want to sell to you, maybe you shouldn't buy from them? There are a lot of reasons why they may not want to sell to you: import/export regulations may create issues for the company, the company may be unable comply with local laws, the company may be trying to protect themselves from fraud.

There are also issues from the consumer's perspective. Companies are often unwilling to honour warranties for a device purchased in another country, even if the same model is sold in the customer's country. I once saw a Canadian friend struggle to get a warranty honoured for a device purchased in the U.S. (very similar countries) and it was a hassle to get honoured even though he lived within a 15 minute drive of the U.S. border.

My advice is to wait until Kobo is willing to sell to you, or go with a company that is willing to sell to you.

[John F]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

If a company doesn't want to sell to you, maybe you shouldn't buy from them? There are a lot of reasons why they may not want to sell to you: import/export regulations may create issues for the company, the company may be unable comply with local laws, the company may be trying to protect themselves from fraud.

There are also issues from the consumer's perspective. Companies are often unwilling to honour warranties for a device purchased in another country, even if the same model is sold in the customer's country. I once saw a Canadian friend struggle to get a warranty honoured for a device purchased in the U.S. (very similar countries) and it was a hassle to get honoured even though he lived within a 15 minute drive of the U.S. border.

My advice is to wait until Kobo is willing to sell to you, or go with a company that is willing to sell to you.

All well and good. But then state that as your policy somewhere. And then, if you do need to cancel the order, have the courtesy to notify the customer.

[rambling]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

If a company doesn't want to sell to you, maybe you shouldn't buy from them? There are a lot of reasons why they may not want to sell to you: import/export regulations may create issues for the company, the company may be unable comply with local laws, the company may be trying to protect themselves from fraud.

There are also issues from the consumer's perspective. Companies are often unwilling to honour warranties for a device purchased in another country, even if the same model is sold in the customer's country. I once saw a Canadian friend struggle to get a warranty honoured for a device purchased in the U.S. (very similar countries) and it was a hassle to get honoured even though he lived within a 15 minute drive of the U.S. border.

My advice is to wait until Kobo is willing to sell to you, or go with a company that is willing to sell to you.

I didn't ask for any special warranty, guarantee or support. I take full responsibility for all these issues once the item is received at the US delivery address I chose to ship it to.

And all the issues you mentioned apply also when you ship the device to your home or office address and then travel with your device overseas or relocate to another country. Surely you don't mean to say you must leave all devices you own back in the US in order to avoid regulations/issues/local laws/warranty limitations etc.

But yes, dealing with Kobo isn't making me particularly fond of how this company treats its customers.

[Ken Maltby]

For most companies, you don't have to deal with an aggravating, dysfunctional, or
abusive company operation - until you have a problem with what you have purchased.
Up till then they all appear to be eager to make your purchase as trouble free as
possible, Except Kobo, it appears. Their use of or choice of "Agents", and showing no
effort to exert any control or supervision over the performance of their agents, abdicating
their responsibilities to enforce their contracts with the agents, all goes to putting them
in a bad light, for all of us.

Having great specs on a good enough device may get them sales, especially from those
who are primarily interested in the device's technical ability to perform, but allowing the
customer to gain a negative impression of your company during the purchase process is
about as dumb as it gets.

Luck;
Ken

[Prepper]

Originally Posted by rambling

Awesome, much appreciated! Just send me your card details in a pm and I'll be placing the order for us pronto :-)

So even if you manage to get one of these, how are you going to buy books for it? Do they sell the books to offshore accounts? Or will you just side-load content that you have "acquired" from other sources?

[rambling]

Originally Posted by Prepper

Do they sell the books to offshore accounts?

Yes, and I already bought a few.

Alas just 1 copy for myself.

Originally Posted by rambling

I didn't ask for any special warranty, guarantee or support. I take full responsibility for all these issues once the item is received at the US delivery address I chose to ship it to.

And all the issues you mentioned apply also when you ship the device to your home or office address and then travel with your device overseas or relocate to another country. Surely you don't mean to say you must leave all devices you own back in the US in order to avoid regulations/issues/local laws/warranty limitations etc.

But yes, dealing with Kobo isn't making me particularly fond of how this company treats its customers.

While I agree with John F's comment about posting their policy and notifying customers about cancelled orders, I think you're being a bit unreasonable on your points.

Take the "responsibility" comment. It sounds like you've done this sort of thing before, understand the consequences, and are willing to accept the consequences. The thing is, Kobo doesn't want to pay their staff/contractor to take the time to listen to everyone's story. They most certainly don't want to give their staff/contractor to use their own discretion. At best, Kobo is going to get bad PR from not honouring the warranty that a customer thought they had (because certain people are going to claim that they had a warranty even if the warranty said that it was only valid in the country of purchase). At worse, Kobo will have legal wranglings in a foreign nation because someone is inevitably going to argue that according to consumer protection legislation in their country, such and such must be done.

As for travelling with your devices, people have brought this sort of thing up before. Regulations for the transport of goods do appear to be inconsistent and probably are inconsistent. Yet inconsistencies in the law doesn't allow Kobo to knowingly break the law. If Kobo cancelled an order because they knew it was going to a company that forwards packages, it could be argued that they were aware of the potential for export. (As for the consistency of regulations, there may be a number of factors at play here. Governments may have exemptions for individuals, but not businesses. Branch A of the government may have no desire to implement the policies of branch B of the government. It may be okay to have a device in a country, but not to leave it in the country.)

Anyway, enough of that. I agree that Kobo should be communicating better with their customers. I also think that Kobo's hands may be tied here until they get the approval to export their product to your country.

[rambling]

Foreign nations? Government branches? Are we still talking eReaders here? :-) I think you are making a big deal out of something quite trivial. Millions of customers and thousands of companies buy and ship via package forwarders. I'm fairly certain this will be sorted soon as well and the transaction will go through.

[Prepper]

Ordered my Aura HD this morning. Got the confirmation email right away and my card has already been charged. Can't wait to get it! Also ordered the sleep cover from Chapters.Indigo (at half the cost that Kobo itself was charging for it).

[stoney77]

Prepper: I've had my Aura for about 3 weeks and have been trying to get a sleep cover for it with no luck. I checked with the Chapters.Indigo web site and it says they're sold out (same as the Kobo web site). Can you please tell me exactly where you found it? Thanks much.