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Old 02-10-2009, 05:27 AM   #16
Alfy
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Follow up:

Soon after I received WHSmith's answer, I sent an email back complaining about the fact I had to contact a third party. They answered today (better late than never) to tell me the culprit is... Overdrive!!!

Well, as many of you know, Overdrive has been creating quite a few problems lately. However, I really wonder at WHSmith's answer: as far as I know, Overdrive is just a carrier. If you order a flawed product at WHSmith, are you supposed to complain to the Royal Mail???
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Old 02-10-2009, 05:36 AM   #17
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The mail from WHSMith and my answer:

Thank you for your further email.

I need to clarify that to purchase an E-book our WHSmith website will forward you onto a Third Party Company. However before it does this you will see a pop up which states

"You are leaving to visit our recommended partner. Their site has a separate basket and checkout". You then clicked on "Take me to Partner site" This site is called WHSmith E-books and this is where you bought your E-book. If you would like to query this further then you can contact E-books at whsmith-ebooks@overdrive.com



I am sorry for the confusion caused.

---------------------------

I am well acquainted with the company Overdrive (which has already created quite a few problems in the eBook community, you might want to have a look at mobileread.com forums). However, Overdrive is just a carrier: they provide servers where the eBooks are hosted (and the DRM services). My billing information does not mention Overdrive, but WHSmith. Whenever I ordered a flawed product by mail, I have never been told to contact the Royal Mail for customer service!

I am really disppointed with WHSmith handling of this issue, especially considering I am not asking for reimbursement, but only for the book, when correctly edited, to be available for redownload. I understand the eBook business is quite new; however, WHSMith should have the same consideration for quality and customer services it has for its other products.
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Old 02-10-2009, 07:39 AM   #18
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If you have not done so already, I would ask WHSmith explicitly for a refund, because the goods are not "fit for purpose". As they sold it to you they should be responsible for any refunds, regardless of who provided the book.

When I had a similar complaint about an ebook supplied by Fictionwise, they refunded the price and also gave me extra credit. That is great customer service, and ensured I continued to use them.
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Old 02-23-2009, 09:53 AM   #19
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Finally, this ridiculous story reaches conclusion. I have not asked for reimbursement, I just wanted to be able to download an updates version for free. One of the most tedious moments in this correspondance was when they asked me to point out at some errors, as the "third party" (overdrive, if you'd believe it!!!) could not find any. Here is what I sent and the answer I got;

Alfy:
"
Well, by quickly browsing for the heroe’s name, I have found the following:
Heroe’s name should be “Lipwig”. It is spelled “Lipvig”, for example, on paragraphs 1, 6, 8 and 10 of page 51 and paragraph 2 of page 52. Strangely enough, it is spelled correctly on pragraph 5 of that same page. It is also spelled “Lip wig” on several occasions, for example paragraph 5 of page 202.

These are easily searched, but mispellings do not stop at the heroe’s name.

There are also some layout problems. For example, paragprah 1 page 233, a return carriage is missing in the dialogue (the last sentence comes from another character, as shown by the quotes). This problem is also recurring.

Quotes are often missing either at the start or at the end in dialogues, like for example on paragraph 3, page 236, or in paragraph 3, page 123, where the missing quote makes the sentence rather difficult to read."

WHSmith:
"I have received a response from the third party dealing with your complaint. They have advised that they are able to confirm the errors you reported. They are taking steps to have this corrected, which may include obtaining new source materials from the publisher. They will let me know once the replacement files are available so that you will be able to download the corrected title. They have asked that I pass on their apologies for any inconvenience caused. As soon as I hear from them I will contact you by e-mail, but please be aware that this may take some time.

Thank you for your patience in this matter."
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Old 02-23-2009, 09:57 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfy View Post
Finally, this ridiculous story reaches conclusion. I have not asked for reimbursement, I just wanted to be able to download an updates version for free. One of the most tedious moments in this correspondance was when they asked me to point out at some errors, as the "third party" (overdrive, if you'd believe it!!!) could not find any. Here is what I sent and the answer I got;

Alfy:
"
Well, by quickly browsing for the heroe’s name, I have found the following:
Heroe’s name should be “Lipwig”. It is spelled “Lipvig”, for example, on paragraphs 1, 6, 8 and 10 of page 51 and paragraph 2 of page 52. Strangely enough, it is spelled correctly on pragraph 5 of that same page. It is also spelled “Lip wig” on several occasions, for example paragraph 5 of page 202.

These are easily searched, but mispellings do not stop at the heroe’s name.

There are also some layout problems. For example, paragprah 1 page 233, a return carriage is missing in the dialogue (the last sentence comes from another character, as shown by the quotes). This problem is also recurring.

Quotes are often missing either at the start or at the end in dialogues, like for example on paragraph 3, page 236, or in paragraph 3, page 123, where the missing quote makes the sentence rather difficult to read."

WHSmith:
"I have received a response from the third party dealing with your complaint. They have advised that they are able to confirm the errors you reported. They are taking steps to have this corrected, which may include obtaining new source materials from the publisher. They will let me know once the replacement files are available so that you will be able to download the corrected title. They have asked that I pass on their apologies for any inconvenience caused. As soon as I hear from them I will contact you by e-mail, but please be aware that this may take some time.

Thank you for your patience in this matter."

Gulp ....
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Old 02-23-2009, 10:08 AM   #21
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well they certainly made it difficult for you didn't they ? and i really don't understand why overdrive would have anything to do with repairing this error other than to distribute the corrected file once it was available, but at least it does sound like you (eventually...) get what you paid for. so that is good news. i'm glad you were tenacious in this story and insisted until they paid attention to you ! thank you for telling us all the details. it's good to know that sometimes writing to the publisher will have the effect you want, even if it takes a while.
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Old 02-23-2009, 10:18 AM   #22
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I wonder if the same errors are in all formats, or if it is just ePub?

Jon, will you please add the link to your Discworld reading order, or maybe copy it to a thread of its own? It has been very valuable to me. In fact, I copied it to Word and keep it on my 505 all the time. That way, I always know which book is next.
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Old 02-23-2009, 10:41 AM   #23
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and i really don't understand why overdrive would have anything to do with repairing this error other than to distribute the corrected file once it was available,
I suspect OverDrive is acting as a conduct between WH and the actual provider of the file, and this is why they say that you should be patient.
Every step bring some more delay.

Anyway, you did well to persist on this one.
Let's hope they pay more attention next time somebody sends them feedback on this.
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Old 02-23-2009, 11:06 AM   #24
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I suspect OverDrive is acting as a conduct between WH and the actual provider of the file, and this is why they say that you should be patient.
Every step bring some more delay.

Anyway, you did well to persist on this one.
Let's hope they pay more attention next time somebody sends them feedback on this.

tut to self, I read "conduit" ....
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Old 02-23-2009, 11:13 AM   #25
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I suspect OverDrive is acting as a conduct between WH and the actual provider of the file, and this is why they say that you should be patient.
I don't know how it all works for sure but I know some publishers, like Hatchette send only one format to their distros and it's the distros job to make the other formats. So if it's a problem with only the one format it may be the distros issue to fix.
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Old 02-23-2009, 11:18 AM   #26
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I have the MS Reader edition of Going Postal and I've just searched it and have not found any incorrect instances of Lipvig or Lip wig. So I would have to say that the ePub is a totally new copy of the eBook and not taken from the existing MS Reader version.
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Old 02-23-2009, 11:21 AM   #27
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I have the MS Reader edition of Going Postal and I've just searched it and have not found any incorrect instances of Lipvig or Lip wig. So I would have to say that the ePub is a totally new copy of the eBook and not taken from the existing MS Reader version.
Do you know if your LIT came from OverDrive (Content Serve) or from Lightning Source (Ingram) or ebooks.com? If they're each producing their own final files and yours didn't come from OD, maybe it's OD's source that's messed up.
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Old 02-23-2009, 03:13 PM   #28
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I have the MS Reader edition of Going Postal and I've just searched it and have not found any incorrect instances of Lipvig or Lip wig. So I would have to say that the ePub is a totally new copy of the eBook and not taken from the existing MS Reader version.
I'm certain they're from different sources, as I assume you have (as I have) purchased the US edition in LIT format whereas WHSmith is selling the UK edition. A shame about the UK editions -- the US editions of Pratchett's books are some of the best-formatted e-book's I've seen.
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Old 08-12-2009, 08:30 PM   #29
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I unbury this thread as there have been some news:
6 months after the original complaint, WHSmith contacted me to tell me Overdrive still had not received a reviewed copy from the editor. As such, they now propose to reimburse the original purchase.

While on one hand I'm fairly happy I get my money back, I can't help but wonder at an editor who is not capable of providing a clean copy of one of their works... Also, as far as I've seen this morning on the WHSmith ebook site, no Terry Pratchett novel was for sale. Again, happy WHSmith does not try to sell bad copies, wondering at the lost in sales for them...
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Old 08-12-2009, 09:17 PM   #30
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I bought "Going Postal" in ePub from BoB and it's fine. I haven't read it all yet, but I spotchecked after seeing your post and it looks lovely so far.

Perhaps you can get WHSmith to give you a refund and then buy it from BoB's UK storefront?
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