a Problem with a Kobo book purchase

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by crich70

If it's been that bad for as long as you say I wonder how they manage to have any customer base left. I mean people get tired of having to jump through hoops to get the books that they've paid for or filling out a form to get either store credit or reimbursement of their money.

I wonder how they have a profitable customer base left. I only buy from Kobo if there's a large enough price break to risk a kepub-only book or having to deal with customer service. Otherwise I use Barnes & Noble or ebooks.com, neither of which has ever caused me a problem. I've bought a lot of books from Kobo, but I'd be surprised if I paid more than cost overall.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

I wonder how they have a profitable customer base left. I only buy from Kobo if there's a large enough price break to risk a kepub-only book or having to deal with customer service.

This! I would buy nothing from them if not for their codes. Sometimes it seems they go out of their way to inconvenience their customers

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Kobo does lots of unexplained things.

The format thing has been a problem for lots of people ever since they launched the new web site.

I fell into that trap for the first time today. Bought a book and wanted to download the epub, just to discover that it is kepub only. Yes, I know that if it shows up as being available on Blackberry, then it is an epub, yet I didn't check this time as I never had the problem before.
Kobo is a shop, not some pirate site, a user shouldn't have to worry about falling into a trap. I have written an angry email and demanded a refund. As their customer service has always been reasonable I don't expect this to be an issue.

Unfortunately - apart from Amazon - Kobo is the last remaining bookshop that delivers English language ebooks at reasonable prices to the Continent, ever since Amazon bought The Bookdepository and shut down their ebook shop.

[Nabeel]

These contributions show a lot of dissatisfaction with Kobo. I agree with 'Common Reader': Kobo do seem to have a potentially important strategic position as the largest 'non-Amazon'.

Is there any possibility of some sort of collective message to Kobo on behalf of the forum?

Nabeel.

[khalleron]

Yeah, I only buy from Kobo if I have at least a 40% off coupon, but their customer service is so bad, I'm leary even then.

Also looking ahead to what I'm going to do when my Sony dies - philosophically a Kobo would fit me best, but I'm afraid of dealing with CS if something goes wrong with it. It took over a month for them to finally refund a defective ebook, I shudder to think about dealing with them if I got a bad ereader.

Generally, when I buy ebooks now, it's from Google.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

...I have written an angry email and demanded a refund. As their customer service has always been reasonable I don't expect this to be an issue.

Kobo has answered and offered a full refund. I really can't complain about their CS in Germany. They only operate during normal business hours but I don't expect a book vendor to operate a 24/7 hotline.

[4691mls]

Over in the Sony forum on July 11, BobVA reported that Kobo told him they are updating their system to indicate in the store if a book is compatible with Sony readers. However, that was nearly two months ago.... in the meantime they suggested the workaround already mentioned above - checking for Blackberry in the "read this on" area

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...=241151&page=2

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Over in the Sony forum on July 11, BobVA reported that Kobo told him they are updating their system to indicate in the store if a book is compatible with Sony readers. However, that was nearly two months ago.... in the meantime they suggested the workaround already mentioned above - checking for Blackberry in the "read this on" area

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...=241151&page=2

When Kobo first changed their website a lot of people complained they couldn't see the book format and they said they would add formats. That was quite a while ago, so I don't think they are going to do it. It's a shame because there aren't a lot of epub sellers anymore.

[DiapDealer]

I admit it can be a bit of a pain in the ass to verify WHAT you're buying before you buy it, but it's second nature to me now. And I'm never going to be a "click-now-ask-questions-later" internet shopper anyway. I'm OK with a little research. So I still buy quite a few epubs from Kobo. Don't really see that changing unless they make it absolutely daunting to do so. *shrug*

[crich70]

I'm wondering which is worse at the moment B&N's removal of the download link onsite or Kobo's ability to mess up. I'm still waiting to hear from them about the pre-order book that is available elsewhere already and then I decided to buy pts 4 & the final part of Michael Stark's "The Island" which I have parts 1-3 of (via B&N). Well they were about .99 a piece and with coupon it came to $1.63 so I tried to checkout. I got an error message and a request to try again. I did. Twice. Now there are 3 charges from Kobo showing on my bank webpage for $1.63 and surprise, surprise the books aren't among my purchases at Kobo. So I get charged $4.89 ($3.26 more than I should have been) for the two books and they aren't among my purchased books to boot.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by crich70

I'm wondering which is worse at the moment B&N's removal of the download link onsite or Kobo's ability to mess up. I'm still waiting to hear from them about the pre-order book that is available elsewhere already and then I decided to buy pts 4 & the final part of Michael Stark's "The Island" which I have parts 1-3 of (via B&N). Well they were about .99 a piece and with coupon it came to $1.63 so I tried to checkout. I got an error message and a request to try again. I did. Twice. Now there are 3 charges from Kobo showing on my bank webpage for $1.63 and surprise, surprise the books aren't among my purchases at Kobo. So I get charged $4.89 ($3.26 more than I should have been) for the two books and they aren't among my purchased books to boot.

My experience with Kobo CS is that you WILL get your money back eventually, but it will take a couple of months and about a dozen emails before that happens.

Just ignore it if they say they're kicking the issue up to Tier 2. No one has ever heard from Tier 2, it's just a stalling ploy. Keep emailing CS every couple of days until you get a refund.

The upside is that they'll generally also give you a coupon for a free book. If they do, get a really expensive one.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by khalleron

My experience with Kobo CS is that you WILL get your money back eventually, but it will take a couple of months and about a dozen emails before that happens.

Just ignore it if they say they're kicking the issue up to Tier 2. No one has ever heard from Tier 2, it's just a stalling ploy. Keep emailing CS every couple of days until you get a refund.

The upside is that they'll generally also give you a coupon for a free book. If they do, get a really expensive one.

Oh I know they'll get back to me. It will take a few days and with the weekend round the corner it will probably be next week, but they will get back. It just irks me a bit and I felt the need to vent. Especially with what the people at B&N are doing now.

[wallflower75]

Urgh...it finally happened to me. I got hit with the inability to download a newly purchased book, which meant that yes, it was a kepub. I downloaded the Kobo Windows 8 app to my computer--now, any clue as to where I might be able to find the file, or is it impossible to be able to use Calibre to convert the book to mobi?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by wallflower75

Urgh...it finally happened to me. I got hit with the inability to download a newly purchased book, which meant that yes, it was a kepub. I downloaded the Kobo Windows 8 app to my computer--now, any clue as to where I might be able to find the file, or is it impossible to be able to use Calibre to convert the book to mobi?

I have no idea since I've only downloaded straight epub books from them. Guess I've been lucky (aside from a few that were for some odd reason in pdf and wouldn't download at all).

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by wallflower75

Urgh...it finally happened to me. I got hit with the inability to download a newly purchased book, which meant that yes, it was a kepub. I downloaded the Kobo Windows 8 app to my computer--now, any clue as to where I might be able to find the file, or is it impossible to be able to use Calibre to convert the book to mobi?

If it's the same as the Kobo Desktop application I'm using on Windows 7 (I think it is, but I'm not positive), then the path is:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Kobo\Kobo Desktop Edition\kepub

%LOCALAPPDATA% is an environment variable that works on all versions of Windows. It resolves on mine to C:\Users\Difflugia\AppData\Local and I expect it's the same on Windows 8. In any case, you can type %LOCALAPPDATA% into the "run" box and you should get a file browser window. From there you can navigate down Kobo->Kobo Desktop Edition->kepub.

In that directory, there are a bunch of files with cryptic filenames. Each one is a kepub, either DRMed or DRM-free. You can copy each file to another directory somewhere and rename it to something.epub and try opening it in Digital Editions (or your favorite epub reader). If it opens, it's DRM-free and you can load the book into Calibre. The "Modify ePub" plugin for Calibre does a good job of removing the kepub cruft.

If you don't find it (or you know already that it's DRMed), then you need "obok". Google for "Apprentice Alf" and download the "other tools" (unfortunately, there's not a Calibre plugin for Kobo DRM).