Lack of support from Kobo

[molman]

Originally Posted by marcardis

I have been trying to resolve the problem since the middle of June without success.

Yes, I have logged into Zendesk. As of this morning they told me that my query had been resolved. I pointed out that thay had done nothing and received a reply to say that it had been passed to a Tier 2 team to look at.

Marcardis

Did it indicate when it was closed?

Maybe the 1week gap (5th -> 12th June) between them asking questions and you getting back to them lead to something happening to this ticket (I know some of these systems can auto downgrade if no activity after a period of time). Don't really know, just thinking out loud. Anyway Kobo will have to work out why your ticket fell into a hole.

Also are you in the US? Did you ever think of calling them? (If not in the US fair enough).

Oh and out of curiosity have you tried the desktop application on any other computer? If so did it work as expected?

[SameerH]

The ticket was closed June 19, which is 2 weeks from the last contact. Customer care usually closes tickets where the customer hasn't responded in 2 weeks, so it seems there was a misunderstanding.

That said, the issue is not something customer care can troubleshoot and we have the dev team looking at it.

[marcardis]

Still no reply from Kobo!

Marcardis

[molman]

@marcardis: Still curious re;

Also are you in the US? Did you ever think of calling them? (If not in the US fair enough).

Oh and out of curiosity have you tried the desktop application on any other computer? If so did it work as expected?

Sameer did mention they have the dev team looking at it, so maybe they just don't have a solution for you yet?

[marcardis]

Originally Posted by molman

@marcardis: Still curious re;



Sameer did mention they have the dev team looking at it, so maybe they just don't have a solution for you yet?

Thanks for your message.

I live in France, so ringing is not an option and I not able to try the software on another pc.

I received a reply from them last night advising me to uninstall the software - download Kobo Desktop again and reinstall.

I have done this - sync still does not work and no purchased books visible.

Marcardis

[molman]

@marcardis: If it hasn't already been suggested;

Have you tried running the application as Admin? (in case there is some oddity with the application writing to disk). See: http://www.walterglenn.com/2006/12/1...windows-vista/

I believe you said you are running Windows Vista? I can't recall the firewall situation on Windows Vista but you may wish to check to ensure that there are exceptions for inbound/outbound traffic from the Kobo application?... or do you even run a 3rd party firewall (sometimes party of a security/antivirus suite like Norton). Probably shouldn't be an issue as you seemed to indicate that you could see 'some' stuff like account details in the application (can you go to the shop inside the application?), but the easiest way to test it is to turn the firewall off and see: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...wall-on-or-off

Have you tried signing up to Kobo with another username/account and purchasing one of the free books and then seeing if this syncs with your desktop application?

*curious* Also as akuerz75 asked are you running French locale for your version of Windows Vista?

Since Sameer said he was going to send your details/issue to the dev team it might be best to email him rather than posting on here.

Also shame you don't have another computer to test the application on.

[PeterT]

There actually *IS* a means to install a copy on a new machine; make use of one of the virtualization products available. For instance, install Microsoft's Virtual PC, and then on that copy of Windows install Kobo Desktop.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir...l-pc-2007.aspx

[molman]

Originally Posted by PeterT

There actually *IS* a means to install a copy on a new machine; make use of one of the virtualization products available. For instance, install Microsoft's Virtual PC, and then on that copy of Windows install Kobo Desktop.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir...l-pc-2007.aspx

Yeah I thought about said option, but someone who doesn't even have another computer around to test on doesn't strike me as the type who'd be into firing up a virtual machine. Plus ideally you'd want to have a copy of Windows Vista lying around as that's what he has on his host that is playing up.

[marcardis]

Many thanks to PeterT and Molman for your continuing advice - well beyond the call of duty!!

Yes I have tried disabling firewalls.

Yes I have a French version of Vista - do people not use French versions of Vista in Canada?!!

I am inclined to just give up on this but I have paid Kobo for books - their PC program should work.

To cap it all I received the following daft reply from their helpdesk today::

Danielle L., Aug-31 15:20 (EDT):

"Hi Marcardis,

Your eBooks should begin downloading to the Kobo Desktop app as soon as you sign into your Kobo account on the Kobo Desktop app. If all your eBooks are already on the Kobo Desktop, no more will be able to sync to the device.

Please follow these steps in order to provide us with a ‘KOBO-LOGFILE’.

1. Launch the Kobo Desktop App.
2. Please make sure that you are signed into your Kobo account on the Desktop App.
3. Press ctrl+shift+i (or cmd+shift+i if you are on a Mac) simultaneously.
4. This will generate a report that will be saved to the desktop of your computer.
5. Please attach this file to your help ticket and submit the ticket.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
The Kobo Team"

They do not bother to read anything.

I had already told them that when I start the program no purchased books are visible and that pressing the sync button produces no result.

Given other comments on here I am very glad that I do not have any of their hardware. How much longer can they stay in business?

Marcardis

[molman]

@Marcardis: Did you also try running as admin?

Vista is installed on a rather small subset of PC's (less than 20% in US as of April of this year), and the French locale version probably much less.



Your issue is obviously not the norm, and it can be hard to work out what might be amiss when so many individual variables come into it potentially specific to you computer.

Originally Posted by marcardis

I am inclined to just give up on this but I have paid Kobo for books - their PC program should work.

Luckily you do have the option of using ADE to download your books. Whilst a little more manual than just syncing you can get access to all your purchases. Additionally I believe you did indicate that it was working fine of your Smartphone (Android?).

Originally Posted by marcardis

To cap it all I received the following daft reply from their helpdesk today::<snip>....They do not bother to read anything.

Unfortunately they do seem to be running off scripts. Who knows how this is setup, or even if it is outsourced, but unfortunately this style of response is becoming an increasing norm for companies. I will just restate that you might get a better resolution posting your issue on GetSatisfaction, and following up with Sameer. More Kobo employees there (GetSatisfaction), and it allows anyone else with said issues to rally around / makes the issue more visible.

Originally Posted by marcardis

Given other comments on here I am very glad that I do not have any of their hardware. How much longer can they stay in business?

I don't think that is entirely fair. I know that I must be starting to come off as a fanboy repeating this in so many threads, but I and my wife (2x Kobo Touch’s), Kobo App on two iPhones and the Desktop software on PC have had not issues at all. None of the hardware errors people have experience, all the software working as expected. The people who will gravitate to these forums are often people like you who are having issues, so the reported problems whilst very real for those experiencing them may not be a good representation of the quality of Kobo's products or services (as I’m sure there are many people happily using Kobo’s solutions). For me, being my first eInk reader I've been very happy with my Kobo Touch and associated services.

[SameerH]

This issue may indeed be due to the OS locale being French. We are issuing a fix in an upcoming build. I will try and get marcardis a preview of that build to see if that fixes the issue.

[molman]

Originally Posted by SameerH

This issue may indeed be due to the OS locale being French. We are issuing a fix in an upcoming build. I will try and get marcardis a preview of that build to see if that fixes the issue.

Any ETA for marcardis?

[TedJ]

Originally Posted by SameerH

This issue may indeed be due to the OS locale being French.

This doesn't surprise me... an associate of mine handles the Windows port of Handbrake and he's forever tracking down bugs related to locale incompatibilities. I don't know if this is an issue with .NET or something more widespread under the various releases of Windows.

[molman]

@Sameer is the new desktop version available for general download? marcardis might want to give the latest version a whirl to see if it fix things.

Asawi reported it resolving a similar issue here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...4&postcount=17

@TedJ: I think the Kobo Desktop is a Qt application, with a dash of SQLite if I'm not mistaken. I find it interesting that regional versions (of Windows) cause such grief, though I know from experience (in a former life) when we did a rollout in Japan we had no end of issues.

The Handbrake windows port isn't .NET is it? Your associate does a fine service, love Handbrake.

[SameerH]

@molman I sent him a build last night. Everyone is also free to also download the latest desktop app from http://www.kobo.com/desktop