Help! Mysterious Broken Screen!!

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If your Gen3's screen just breaks and it's not your fault and you report it and Bookeen decide to charge you to fix it, would would you do?

Probably I would eat the cost as a lesson learned, and say goodbye to Bookeen forever. Make sure all my Mobi books have DRM removed, and buy a Kindle.

And I would make sure that others knew how I was treated.

[HarryT]

How exactly was Ortep "treated"? His screen broke - that's very unfortunate, I agree. However, we don't know WHY it broke and we are in no position to say what the ultimate cause was. Perhaps it was a manufacturing fault. Perhaps it got knocked a month ago and there was a "latent" crack waiting to happen. We just don't know, do we? All you can "tell everyone" are the facts, and that the replacement was handled rather quickly. I don't see that you can point to Bookeen and say for a fact that they've done anything "wrong". What the end "result" of the operation was is that Ortep now has a new 512MB Gen3 at a pretty reasonably upgrade price. Whether or not he wanted to upgrade is a different question, of course.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

How exactly was Ortep "treated"? His screen broke - that's very unfortunate, I agree. However, we don't know WHY it broke and we are in no position to say what the ultimate cause was. Perhaps it was a manufacturing fault. Perhaps it got knocked a month ago and there was a "latent" crack waiting to happen. We just don't know, do we? All you can "tell everyone" are the facts, and that the replacement was handled rather quickly. I don't see that you can point to Bookeen and say for a fact that they've done anything "wrong". What the end "result" of the operation was is that Ortep now has a new 512MB Gen3 at a pretty reasonably upgrade price. Whether or not he wanted to upgrade is a different question, of course.

He claimed that the use was not abnormal and they refused to fix it.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by tompe

He claimed that the use was not abnormal and they refused to fix it.

See, that's the problem. In situations like this, it comes down to "he said - she said". And I imagine they'd fix it as long as he paid. Which, I agree, sucks. It sucked when I had to pay to have the screen fixed. My personal feeling is that if the device drops less than four feet, while in the case, onto a padded floor - such as carpet - the screen should not break. Same with being pressed between two books or whatever. Now if a person drops it under less ideal conditions (no case, higher distance) I could see it being a "user-caused" problem; I'd also accept it being user-caused if someone let it get kicked in the display or slammed it - even accidentally - against a hard corner.

But it is so hard to prove one way or another.

And if Netronix isn't willing to absorb the costs, neither will Bookeen. That's life.

Which leads to a customer choosing between shelling out more than $300 for a new unit from any of the manufacturers or shelling out $160 for a replacement display.

Derek

[JSWolf]

Otep said he was using the gen3 at the time and saw it break without doing anything untoward to it. That to me seems like enough of a reason for a warranty repair.

Granted, if you know you did something like dropping it and then later on the screen broke, we can say that might have done it. But if you have not done anything overly rough with it and you actually see if break in your hands, then I'd say that is a cause to look into things to see if there may be a manufacturing defect. Maybe the case needs to be redesigned. Not the case around the Gen3, but the case around the screen.

[JSWolf]

Derek, In a case like this, I know it is "he said, she said" type of thing. But this could actually cost them more then the ampunt of just doing a warranty repair. People looking to buy a reader will see the story here and decide not to get a Gen3 based on people claiming to have screens break for no apparent reason. But in This case, it's knowing that even if the screen breaks and you know for sure it's not your fault, it does seem that you'll have to pay to get it fixed. I can see where people may then turn to another company to et a reader such as Sony, Amazon, Hanlain, etc.

Remember, MobileRead is quite popular and people do read what's written and if they see something like Bookeen making you pay to get it fixed when it's not your fault, goodbye sales.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

See, that's the problem. In situations like this, it comes down to "he said - she said".

Yes. But without reasonable "proof" -- or at least high probability -- that it was indeed the customer that created the problem, the benefit of the doubt needs to go to the customer. At least for a company that I am willing to continue doing business with.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

See, that's the problem. In situations like this, it comes down to "he said - she said".

My experience in situations like this is just go with what she said. You might be right but you're never going to win.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Barcey

My experience in situations like this is just go with what she said. You might be right but you're never going to win.

The problem is this. Bookeen, for whatever reason, has chosen to go the "It is the customer's fault" route. Thus, unless we wish to abandon our money already spent on the Cybook Gen3, we must pay.

Now would the default-is-the-customer-broke-it method cause me to buy a Cybook Gen4? Hmmm... Tough question. There would have to be *MAJOR* feature improvements - well beyond what the other suppliers may offer - to entice me to buy again from Bookeen. After all, I *have* two Gen3s, a PRS-500 and an EB-100. I'm not so sure I want to be stuck in the "I got an orphan" cycle if there's not major improvements.

Had Bookeen handled the broken displays issue better, I think I'd find it easier to stick with the Cybooks. In the next generation of devices, that is.

Derek

[Barcey]

I expect any company to reject a warranty claim on a product with broken glass and to first assume it's accidental breakage. They expect customers with a legitimate claim to escalate.

I have to disagree with you because if I accidently drop a product and it stops working I don't consider it a warranty claim I consider it accidental breakage. I don't expect a product to survive a drop of x feet especially when it contains glass.

In Ortep's case though I would be raising hell.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

Yes. But without reasonable "proof" -- or at least high probability -- that it was indeed the customer that created the problem, the benefit of the doubt needs to go to the customer. At least for a company that I am willing to continue doing business with.

Can you elaborate on how you would "prove" that it was the customer's fault? That seems like an impossible goal to me. All that any company can reasonably do is look at the evidence and act on the balance of probabilities. How can the cause of a breakage ultimately be "proven" one way or the other?

Sony and Amazon are large companies who can afford to take a loss on the sale of eBook readers. For Bookeen, it's their sole product. If they were to start automatically giving out a free replacement to anyone who broke their screen the end result is easily predictable - they'd go out of business.

Sony, by all accounts, are just a hard-nosed about screen repair as Bookeen. Broken screen = a chargable repair. And they WON'T repair at all unless you are one of the tiny minority of people who live in the USA!

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Can you elaborate on how you would "prove" that it was the customer's fault? That seems like an impossible goal to me. All that any company can reasonably do is look at the evidence and act on the balance of probabilities. How can the cause of a breakage ultimately be "proven" one way or the other?

Harry, that is pretty much my point. It generally cannot be proven -- and if the balance of probabilities are not quite high that the customer indeed caused the problem, then the benefit of the doubt should go to the customer.

I know that not all companies act in that way, but some indeed do, and those are the ones I remain loyal to. One of the reasons I didn't consider a Sony PRS-505 was my past experience with their U.S. service group.

Just my opinion, of course. If I dropped or sat on my Cybook, I obviously would expect to pay for a new screen. If I had a problem similar to Ortep's, however, and Bookeen treated me the same way, I would treat the broken Cybook as a sunk cost and purchase a Kindle.

All that said, I remain happy with my Gen3 and am not fretting over things that might never happen. But listening to others' experiences with their service from Bookeen (and those who have models from other companies) definitely will play a role in deciding where my money will go when it is time to purchase a newer model.

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by HarryT

All you can "tell everyone" are the facts, and that the replacement was handled rather quickly. I don't see that you can point to Bookeen and say for a fact that they've done anything "wrong". What the end "result" of the operation was is that Ortep now has a new 512MB Gen3 at a pretty reasonably upgrade price. Whether or not he wanted to upgrade is a different question, of course.

The only thing I can say is that I'm happy with the new Cybook. But I'm certainly NOT happy with the way the warranty was handled. I've seen pictures of completely cracked screens. I can imagine that would lead to a question of who is to blame. But in the case of my screen it was not very clear. It was split in exactly 4 equal parts with straight lines (Try to do that with a piece of anything) And even Bookeen said it looked like a controller failure when the saw the picture. When they received the reader they told me it was a crack. I didn't see it. People here didn't see it. Bookeen didn't see it until the had it and I couldn't protest anymore. I could pay of throw it away.

Even if it was a genuine crack, the smart thing to do for Bookeen was to handle this case as warranty while telling me it probably was a crack. That would have gained goodwill. Now it gained them a lot of bad publicity.

As I said before, I'm happy with the upgrade and the fast response. But it is only an upgrade for people with a 64k model like me. For the rest it is simply a new reader.

Originally Posted by bwaldron

If I had a problem similar to Ortep's, however, and Bookeen treated me the same way, I would treat the broken Cybook as a sunk cost and purchase a Kindle.

Kindle is not available outside the US and the same holds true for Sony. If you live outside the US (95% of the world population) You cannot buy them in a way that will give you any warranty at all.

But you can be sure that when I'm in the market for a new reader warranty handling will be a major point. And Bookeen will be low on my list.

[rixte]

I've already decided to go with a Kindle rather than having my screen replaced. This is in part because it took over a week for Bookeen to even respond to my email, which just doesn't make it worth the time involved. That plus between shipping and handling for both parts would push the replacement up to 200 dollars which just doesn't make it worth it.

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by rixte

I've already decided to go with a Kindle rather than having my screen replaced. This is in part because it took over a week for Bookeen to even respond to my email, which just doesn't make it worth the time involved. That plus between shipping and handling for both parts would push the replacement up to 200 dollars which just doesn't make it worth it.

And THIS is why Bookeen will go out of business, not because they have to replace 5 or 10 or 15 ereaders, but because the very bad publicity they get by not doing so.