Rant: The Kobo website is disgustingly horrible. But their prices are good.

Cyberman tM · 02-21-2014, 06:17 PM

Seriously, as much as I like buying books from Kobo (they're cheap and there's almost always a coupon available), I loathe the website.

It's one of the typical "try to guess what the user REALLY wants and don't offer any chance of him getting anything else, and blink all the time" websites.

Half the time I can't log in (or it logs me in when I click but doesn't say so), and the other half I'm having troubles finding the book I'm looking for.

Either it's not found (although it was there a minute before) or the website, being smart(ass) realizes I'm from Austria, and FORCES the language to german. Including the search results, of course.
After all, it's unheard of that someone might want to read a book in a foreign language!
And yes, I tried to change that setting. The filter option doesn't even always offer english.

Sometimes I seriously wonder how they manage to make money - more than once I was trying to show someone the website and it didn't work.

I'm not ruling out that my browser is partially at fault as well, but I do think that a good website should at least offer minimal function even if not everything works perfectly.
(I.e. don't rely on javascript doing all the work.)

Ah, finally managed to get the search result I wanted. All I had to do was select german language (the only one available - after I search for "The last colony") and then alter the language in the URL.
Easy to do if you know what you're looking for. If I hadn't, Kobo would have lost another sale...

rollei · 04-13-2014, 03:47 PM

I like their coupons, that is the reason why I stopped buying Kindle books. Their website can be improved, particularly the search and filtering functions.

Gazella · 04-14-2014, 07:57 AM

I don't find Kobo books cheap at all. And I try to avoid them as much as I can because of their service. The coupons are useless to me as I've never found a book I want that is couponable. I much prefer getting my ebooks from Amazon. I find their prices a lot reasonable. I have found out that Kobo books (at least the ones I check) are always $3 or $4 more expensive than Kindle books.

02-21-2014, 06:17 PM	#1
Cyberman tM Evangelist Posts: 439 Karma: 2248782 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Austria Device: Inkbook Prime; Icarus Illumina;ImcoV6l;EB600;Kobo	Rant: The Kobo website is disgustingly horrible. But their prices are good. Seriously, as much as I like buying books from Kobo (they're cheap and there's almost always a coupon available), I loathe the website. It's one of the typical "try to guess what the user REALLY wants and don't offer any chance of him getting anything else, and blink all the time" websites. Half the time I can't log in (or it logs me in when I click but doesn't say so), and the other half I'm having troubles finding the book I'm looking for. Either it's not found (although it was there a minute before) or the website, being smart(ass) realizes I'm from Austria, and FORCES the language to german. Including the search results, of course. After all, it's unheard of that someone might want to read a book in a foreign language! And yes, I tried to change that setting. The filter option doesn't even always offer english. Sometimes I seriously wonder how they manage to make money - more than once I was trying to show someone the website and it didn't work. I'm not ruling out that my browser is partially at fault as well, but I do think that a good website should at least offer minimal function even if not everything works perfectly. (I.e. don't rely on javascript doing all the work.) Ah, finally managed to get the search result I wanted. All I had to do was select german language (the only one available - after I search for "The last colony") and then alter the language in the URL. Easy to do if you know what you're looking for. If I hadn't, Kobo would have lost another sale...

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04-13-2014, 03:47 PM	#2
rollei Addict Posts: 219 Karma: 1000210 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: Kobo	I like their coupons, that is the reason why I stopped buying Kindle books. Their website can be improved, particularly the search and filtering functions.

04-14-2014, 07:57 AM	#3
Gazella Wizard Posts: 1,705 Karma: 4619474 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kindle Scribe, Kindle Paperwhite	I don't find Kobo books cheap at all. And I try to avoid them as much as I can because of their service. The coupons are useless to me as I've never found a book I want that is couponable. I much prefer getting my ebooks from Amazon. I find their prices a lot reasonable. I have found out that Kobo books (at least the ones I check) are always $3 or $4 more expensive than Kindle books.