Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

[macdonaldm21]

Hi everyone, finally, after 4 days I received the $10 credit... no one at kobo responded to my email inquiry (no shocker there), so hopefully everyone else who hasn't received it will soon, even if it takes twice as long as they said...

[Mura35]

I am still waiting for that 90% coupon from March for signing up a friend... I would not count on Kobo sending $10 credit to everyone who qualifies.

[jimars]

I sent an email to Kobo about the broken contest, and they just responded with a 50% code (fair enough as they fixed the contest). Since they were kind enough to give me this, which will probably be good for a while, I'll pass along some codes that will probably expire in the next few days.

55% RXEYU9 X23U6W

[Hemmi]

They responded to my complaint about the contest not working and asked for a screenshot of what was happening in order to assist me. At least the contest started working again before it was over since customer service is useless.

[JudiL]

I got my $10 today as well

[AnemicOak]

Some 25-35% codes...

Spoiler:

25
H49Q6S
XWMQM6
PTJN33
JLFSLR
7BGXTM


30
CWRTVY
SPP54U
A6Y26A
DGJNQJ
FZGHN9
5UWYEN
6A2DWX
XAP3E3
FXM4R4


35
BUS2X6

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Mura35

I am still waiting for that 90% coupon from March for signing up a friend... I would not count on Kobo sending $10 credit to everyone who qualifies.

I sent Kobo an email asking when to expect it, and they replied with a 90% off coupon.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I sent Kobo an email asking when to expect it, and they replied with a 90% off coupon.

Just check that the 90% coupon is active because the recent one they gave me wasn't and I had to contact Cust Care to get a replacement.

[Mura35]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I sent Kobo an email asking when to expect it, and they replied with a 90% off coupon.

I sent Kobo emal twice and still waiting for that response. But - whatever, I do love the coupons, but I am not greedy, most of the books I buy are under eight bucks anyway. Still, slow CS is always a drag (ha-ha, just noticed the pun) no matter what the issue

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Mura35

I sent Kobo emal twice and still waiting for that response. But - whatever, I do love the coupons, but I am not greedy, most of the books I buy are under eight bucks anyway. Still, slow CS is always a drag (ha-ha, just noticed the pun) no matter what the issue

In all honesty, I think their CS is about standard. I deal with a lot of companies because I make my own shampoo. The standard reply from any of them takes 3 to 5 days. At least one company sometimes just misses emails completely or can take 2 weeks. And these are questions that could bring them business. One company has a newsletter signup--that doesn't work. I've emailed CS about it and posted on FB. Apparently there is no interest in fixing it. I have much the same problem with fabric companies--2 to 5 days for a response to a question, sometimes no response. The last time I sent a CS request to Amazon (granted, the publishing arm) it took 7 emails and over a week to straighten out a problem on their end). I'm always thrilled when I at LEAST get an email letting me know someone is looking into a problem or is going to try to answer my questions.

Maybe companies are just hiring less CS agents because it seems like in the last year or so, CS just about anywhere is rather poor.

[Mura35]

With a heavy heart (I prefer NOT to deal with Amazon for different reasons) I have to admit that Amazon CS is outstanding.

And so Kobo's used to be. For some reason, in the last year or so, it went downhill. This is not the first time I am waiting for their reply for weeks. But it's not an urgent issue, so whatever. A few months back, tho, I was missing books from my library while I could see them in my purchase history. I did get my missing books back after about 2 months of silence and when I got them, they were DRM PDFs. True story

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Mura35

With a heavy heart (I prefer NOT to deal with Amazon for different reasons) I have to admit that Amazon CS is outstanding.

And so Kobo's used to be. For some reason, in the last year or so, it went downhill. This is not the first time I am waiting for their reply for weeks. But it's not an urgent issue, so whatever. A few months back, tho, I was missing books from my library while I could see them in my purchase history. I did get my missing books back after about 2 months of silence and when I got them, they were DRM PDFs. True story

I don't deal with Amazon CS (haven't in a while anyway) but their other CS has declined in the past year. OTOH I haven't had any issues with the publishing arm CS at Kobo! Sometimes you just have to be prepared for a long stakeout!!!

[John F]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

In all honesty, I think their CS is about standard. I deal with a lot of companies because I make my own shampoo. The standard reply from any of them takes 3 to 5 days. At least one company sometimes just misses emails completely or can take 2 weeks. And these are questions that could bring them business. One company has a newsletter signup--that doesn't work. I've emailed CS about it and posted on FB. Apparently there is no interest in fixing it. I have much the same problem with fabric companies--2 to 5 days for a response to a question, sometimes no response. The last time I sent a CS request to Amazon (granted, the publishing arm) it took 7 emails and over a week to straighten out a problem on their end). I'm always thrilled when I at LEAST get an email letting me know someone is looking into a problem or is going to try to answer my questions.

Maybe companies are just hiring less CS agents because it seems like in the last year or so, CS just about anywhere is rather poor.

Aren't you comparing apples and oranges? Most of the complaints are from consumer to business (kobo) cs, while you are talking about business to business?

[koland]

Originally Posted by John F

Aren't you comparing apples and oranges? Most of the complaints are from consumer to business (kobo) cs, while you are talking about business to business?

More importantly, a tech/digital only company versus what is likely little bigger than a mom-and-pop crafts supply store. Even large distributors in the brick-and-mortar stores often have non-existent CS outside regular business hours and consider a several day turn-around standard.

When I had to call a food store's CS, their standard reply took a week or more (since I has having to check on allergens, long before the current allergen labeling lawsy, that was unacceptable; I wasn't going to purchase and wait a week to see if we could use it, so we switched to a different store that had that info in a database and could tell you while you were in the store, making purchase decisions).

With Kobo, email support is abysmally slow (and often seems not to read what you write). Phone support has limited hours and I seem to only get French speaking reps, which has proven to cause a pretty big language barrier issue. Often I have to just hang up and try again later. For whatever reason, people report that unofficial support via social media or forums works better than their defined support avenues.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by koland

More importantly, a tech/digital only company versus what is likely little bigger than a mom-and-pop crafts supply store. Even large distributors in the brick-and-mortar stores often have non-existent CS outside regular business hours and consider a several day turn-around standard.

When I had to call a food store's CS, their standard reply took a week or more (since I has having to check on allergens, long before the current allergen labeling lawsy, that was unacceptable; I wasn't going to purchase and wait a week to see if we could use it, so we switched to a different store that had that info in a database and could tell you while you were in the store, making purchase decisions).

With Kobo, email support is abysmally slow (and often seems not to read what you write). Phone support has limited hours and I seem to only get French speaking reps, which has proven to cause a pretty big language barrier issue. Often I have to just hang up and try again later. For whatever reason, people report that unofficial support via social media or forums works better than their defined support avenues.

Re: Amazon/Kobo reader support versus publisher support:

It's all the same to me. I'm a customer of both Amazon/Kobo when I use them as a retail shop. If I have a question or a quality issue, it's customer service to me. I can see you putting them in different categories, but when you use both services a lot, it all blends in.

Re: shampoo suppliers: I am not talking about small arts/crafts when I talk about buying shampoo supplies. Some of these places are quite large businesses and supply drums of materials as well as smaller amounts.
One is a wholesaler and they have some of the worst support. The smallest companies I use generally have better support, although Bramble Berry is not small and they have the best support by a huge, huge margin. They aren't really in the shampoo business however (they specialize in soap) so I buy a small amount of related supplies from them.

I think the point I was trying to make is that many, many companies out there have terrible CS and Kobo is no different. They excel in some areas and aren't so great in others. I'm just THRILLED they actually have coupons and am grateful to be able to get some of the books at a discount. It may not be flawless, but it beats the alternative of having no coupons. When it comes to disappearing books, I agree, that is a different story. You paid for the product, you need to be able to access it at all times without having to squeeze through a phone line and shake the person on the other end.