Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

[Billingsgate]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Beware of using ADE 4 because you could possibly get hardened DRM. Stick with 2.0 if you want to be able to "Alf."

Good point. Though our buddy Alf did his job fine on the one book. Nevertheless, an ADE downgrade is probably in order. Adobe still offers the official installer for it.

Sorry to take this thread off-topic. Back to coupons...

[Fbone]

Here are a few "we miss you" codes.

50%
Y5WXVX
ABKZ4E
8JSSB9
YV3EL6

[Pierre Menard]

Kobo sent me a coupon for my birthday. It was 20%. That's a bit like getting socks and underwear for your birthday. Except less useful.

Meanwhile they keep sending me emails with romance titles specially selected just for me, despite my purchase and browsing history being exactly the opposite, and despite me constantly marking everything like that "not interested" on my profile. Often it's the *exact same ones* that I've marked as "not interested" (sometimes multiple times) that they send, under the heading "based on ebooks you've liked."

I can really feel the close personal sense of caring from Kobo.

[murg]

Originally Posted by Pierre Menard

Kobo sent me a coupon for my birthday. It was 20%. That's a bit like getting socks and underwear for your birthday. Except less useful.

...

I can really feel the close personal sense of caring from Kobo.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Pierre Menard

Kobo sent me a coupon for my birthday. It was 20%. That's a bit like getting socks and underwear for your birthday. Except less useful.

A 20% coupon is better than nothing, which is what I got from all the other ebook retailers on my birthday.

[Pierre Menard]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

A 20% coupon is better than nothing, which is what I got from all the other ebook retailers on my birthday.

Not when their prices are inflated more than 20% over other ebook retailers.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Pierre Menard

Not when their prices are inflated more than 20% over other ebook retailers.

I just bought Kjell Eriksson's Open Grave:

Amazon price: $NZ 8.87
Kobo price: $NZ 8.09
Google price: $NZ 7.49
Kobo price with 20% discount: $NZ 6.47

So a 20% discount code saves me $1, better than a kick in the pants. That is pretty typical of the prices where I am: if the book is discountable then it is usually cheaper at Kobo, and if it is not discountable then it is usually the same price everywhere.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

A 20% coupon is better than nothing, which is what I got from all the other ebook retailers on my birthday.

Originally Posted by Pierre Menard

Not when their prices are inflated more than 20% over other ebook retailers.

My problem with Kobo hasn't been with the prices, but with the number of problems I have getting books to download and such. The question I keep asking myself is how many % it's worth to have to deal with customer support.

In a funny coincidence, I've needed support from Barnes & Noble, Google and Amazon each exactly once, but I've literally lost track of the number of conversations I've had with Kobo over one thing or another. It was usually worth it to me when I was consistently getting 50% or better. It's not for 20%.

[BearMountainBooks]

It really can depend on where you are buying and what you are buying. Much of the time, I do find books cheaper on Kobo if the discount works. Now and then though, the book is 4 dollars higher for no reason at all (The Fix by Keith Nixon has been outrageously priced at Kobo, but went way down on Amazon).

[Amaryllis]

Originally Posted by Pierre Menard

Kobo sent me a coupon for my birthday. It was 20%. That's a bit like getting socks and underwear for your birthday. Except less useful.

Meanwhile they keep sending me emails with romance titles specially selected just for me, despite my purchase and browsing history being exactly the opposite, and despite me constantly marking everything like that "not interested" on my profile. Often it's the *exact same ones* that I've marked as "not interested" (sometimes multiple times) that they send, under the heading "based on ebooks you've liked."

I can really feel the close personal sense of caring from Kobo.

Oh, I have complained about the "specially selected titles" that appear for me too. I quite often get suggestions for books I have already bought - from Kobo themselves. Four out of 5 suggestions one day I had already bought.

I'd take the 20% coupon code they send me for my birthday if it would actually work. The last 2 years, the code they've sent hasn't worked. I didn't bother complaining, since there was a contest on and I got better codes that way anyway.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by Amaryllis

I quite often get suggestions for books I have already bought - from Kobo themselves. Four out of 5 suggestions one day I had already bought.

B&N does that to me all the time: "We see you've bought series book 1. We thought you might like series book 2." Argh! You've already sold me that one!

Yet another reason Amazon dominates because they get this stuff right.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Amaryllis

I quite often get suggestions for books I have already bought - from Kobo themselves. Four out of 5 suggestions one day I had already bought.

I think part of this is that Kobo doesn't handle updated books well. Instead of seeing that it's a corrected/updated version and updating customer libraries, they treat it as a new publication - but then they delist the old version. That's how I almost wound up buying the same book from them twice... because the new version's page didn't say anything about my purchase of the old version, which is/was still in my library.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I think part of this is that Kobo doesn't handle updated books well. Instead of seeing that it's a corrected/updated version and updating customer libraries, they treat it as a new publication - but then they delist the old version. That's how I almost wound up buying the same book from them twice... because the new version's page didn't say anything about my purchase of the old version, which is/was still in my library.

NO, the answer is CLEARLY that they use brownies and elves to code this stuff. Look, I've nothing against the little people, but they've a wicked sense of humor and they are competitive. They are constantly sabotaging the other side. The elves want to rule supreme in their little Kobo programming world so they keep stealing lines of code from the brownies. The brownies make sure the elves have soured milk for breakfast. I'm sure kobo is doing the best it can to keep the coding wars to a minimum, but meanwhile, we end up with recommendations like, "Keep your Socks Clean while Dating Your Favorite Erotica Dinosaur." Then when we click on such a title, we wonder why it isn't real!

I told them to hire contractors, but they went and hired a samurai thinking that would quiet things. The brownies promptly invited a Chinese dragon to the fold, which has kept the samurai nicely busy, but left the brownies and the elves to their private squabbles.

What can you do???

[Pierre Menard]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

NO, the answer is CLEARLY that they use brownies and elves to code this stuff.

Finally, an explanation that makes sense to me!

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I think part of this is that Kobo doesn't handle updated books well.

BTW, all other frustrations aside, THIS is actually the #1 reason I avoid buying from Kobo. With B&N, if there's problem with a book or they do a revision with maps or illustrations or whatever that are at a resolution you can actually see (a very common experience), you just redownload and you've got the good version. With Kobo, at least in my experience so far, if you have a screwed up copy you have a screwed up copy forever.

[murg]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

NO, the answer is CLEARLY that they use brownies and elves to code this stuff.

Actually, it's Leprechauns.

Kobo has some Irish mob doing their websites now.