Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by bookmarked

@BuyMore, @Fbone and @Terisa de morgan: Do you remember if the books you had problems with were recent Smashwords books?

I'm thinking there may be a problem with recent books from Smashwords. Maybe the actual book isn't getting loaded into Kobo's system or something.

Yes, it was a very recent book (I purchased it the same day it appeared) and it was from a small publisher through Smashwords. They gave a strange answer (the book is good and bad ), and they told me they were going to try to repair it but, in the end, they gave me the refund.

[Susan A]

Originally Posted by bookmarked

@Susan A: Were any of the books from Smashwords?

One of the books I bought was a recent (December 2014) Smashwords book. It shows in my purchase history, the book's page on Kobo shows "View in Library", but it's not listed in my library. I did not do anything tricky like multi-tabbing or trying to use a coupon on multiple accounts. The book does not show up in Kobo Desktop.

A few other people have recently had similar problems:
cromag 11546 & 11561 (his was a Smashwords book)

BuyMore 11548
Fbone 11618
Terisa de morgan 11619

@BuyMore, @Fbone and @Terisa de morgan: Do you remember if the books you had problems with were recent Smashwords books?

I'm thinking there may be a problem with recent books from Smashwords. Maybe the actual book isn't getting loaded into Kobo's system or something.

I haven't contacted Kobo yet because I'm pretty sure that their solution will be to just issue a refund rather than trying to figure out what's wrong.

Yes, all 4 books were Jan 2015 Smashwords books. Looks like that could be the problem.

At first I was concerned that it was a multiple tab problem, but I used multiple tabs so many times before and after the problems, that I ruled that out.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by bookmarked

@BuyMore, @Fbone and @Terisa de morgan: Do you remember if the books you had problems with were recent Smashwords books?

I'm thinking there may be a problem with recent books from Smashwords. Maybe the actual book isn't getting loaded into Kobo's system or something.

I don't know if mine was uploaded from Smashwords. It was self published DRM free. I contacted the author and he told me he has sold quite a few copies in the last few months. So any change with Kobo must be recent. He was going to look into it.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I wonder if it could have something to do with the coupons being used double so something goes wonky with the transaction. Then again, there are a lot of other things that seem to go wrong with the various epub types so it's really hard to say.

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

I agree. I had one book that didn't show up in my purchased books. The coupon I used was one posted here. My theory: maybe two of us added a book using the same coupon, which showed as still being valid because neither had finished our transaction before the other had added the promo code.
But the 2nd one who finished the transaction (me in that case), had it "work" in that they got the receipt email, but it didn't show up in the library.

In my case, I phoned them and they added said book to my purchased list. ...They could see I'd bought it, even that I'd used a chapters gift card and didn't even suggest a refund. So in my case, it worked out. I became suspicious when someone on here had the same issue while consciously using their own coupon twice by using multi tabs and entering it twice before finishing the transaction. ..that made me think that situation caused the issue.

No, because as Susan A was told the 'link' (or lack of) was the issue, which means that the ebook wasn't uploaded (and therefore can't be downloaded).

And it appears to be publisher related (Smashwords and perhaps others).

Susan A: I have read comments about kepubs and I just don't understand what they are. One of the missing books is Red Dirt Heart 4 by NR Walker. It says EPUB2 -DRM free. But I have other books that state EPUB2 DRM free that I didn't have problems with. Customer service stated, via email, that the "link" is broken. Even though I tell them I want the book, not a refund, they gave me a refund. They did not replace my coupon.

[BuyMore]

Originally Posted by bookmarked

@BuyMore, @Fbone and @Terisa de morgan: Do you remember if the books you had problems with were recent Smashwords books?

I'm thinking there may be a problem with recent books from Smashwords. Maybe the actual book isn't getting loaded into Kobo's system or something.

I haven't contacted Kobo yet because I'm pretty sure that their solution will be to just issue a refund rather than trying to figure out what's wrong.

The book I bought is self-published but isn't published on Smashwords. Those of us who purchased the book at Kobo in the first few hours after it's freshly released had the same problem; the amount was paid but the book didn't show up in the library. The link to the book in the purchase history also led to an error page. So, I suppose it's a problem on Kobo's end.

After emailing them, I soon found the title with the "Download ePub" button appear in my library. I just downloaded the file and added it to my Calibre. The link in the title still leads to an error page, though. But as long as I can download the file, it doesn't really bother me.

[KalicoKat]

I too have had problems with recent Smashwords titles at Kobo. One purchase not showing up in my library and one I just tried to "add preview to library" that resulted in an error message. I have contacted Kobo, the author of the purchase and the publisher of the attempted preview. I will post if I hear anything besides just a refund. I had experienced the same error when trying to "add preview to library" of the purchased book but I bought it anyway. (I had a coupon code.) :-) I would suggest if you can't add a preview, don't buy it, until they get this fixed.

[dki]

Not sure if somebody else can use it, but maybe. It's 90% off on selected list, and I am not in need of any reading material right now. I am in need of more time to read what I already accumulated.

Promocode: Z22Y9L
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/Lis...=Responsys_CRM

dki

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by KalicoKat

I too have had problems with recent Smashwords titles at Kobo. One purchase not showing up in my library and one I just tried to "add preview to library" that resulted in an error message. I have contacted Kobo, the author of the purchase and the publisher of the attempted preview. I will post if I hear anything besides just a refund. I had experienced the same error when trying to "add preview to library" of the purchased book but I bought it anyway. (I had a coupon code.) :-) I would suggest if you can't add a preview, don't buy it, until they get this fixed.

That sounds like a good commonsense approach.

[sufue]

Originally Posted by dki

Not sure if somebody else can use it, but maybe. It's 90% off on selected list, and I am not in need of any reading material right now. I am in need of more time to read what I already accumulated.

Promocode: Z22Y9L
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/Lis...=Responsys_CRM

dki

I don't know exactly how this code came to you, but I just got one of the "we miss you" ones in my email, for 50% off, based on an account I don't use often.

It also says it's good only on a select list, but when I just now checked it (without completing the purchase) on a couponable book not on the list, it worked. I don't have many Kobo books to buy right now, since I was lucky enough to get one 65% coupon in the last contest, and multi-tabbed that for use on several books, but I will probably come up with a few more later tonight since even a 50% coupon is pretty good on Kobo right now.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that it can sometimes be worth it to check and see if Kobo really means it when they indicate "off this list" - sometimes it's true, and sometimes not.

[Lynx-lynx]

For info, a new version of obok has been released and I've started a thread in the General section which gives the link details:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=255759

Note: no questions here please.

[bookmarked]

Originally Posted by KalicoKat

I too have had problems with recent Smashwords titles at Kobo. One purchase not showing up in my library and one I just tried to "add preview to library" that resulted in an error message. I have contacted Kobo, the author of the purchase and the publisher of the attempted preview. I will post if I hear anything besides just a refund. I had experienced the same error when trying to "add preview to library" of the purchased book but I bought it anyway. (I had a coupon code.) :-) I would suggest if you can't add a preview, don't buy it, until they get this fixed.

I encountered the same error when I tried to add a preview and like you, I had a coupon so I went ahead and bought the book anyway with the same result.

I had been wondering what the best approach might be to get Kobo and Smashwords to recognize the problem and resolve it. It sounds like you've covered everything I thought to try. Please let us know what they all say. Thanks.

[Susan A]

Does anyone know the time zone for contacting KOBO customer serivce? The 9am - 9pm hours they have listed is not really all that helpful.

Thanks

[Uschiekid]

ET, standard or otherwise seems likely to me. At least within north america.

[lryder71]

I've been trying since 9am eastern and all I get is 1 ring and then a fast busy.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by lryder71

I've been trying since 9am eastern and all I get is 1 ring and then a fast busy.

I think the fast busy signal denotes something other than busy. Google it?