What's up with availability?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Rakuten is CHINESE owned now? It used to be Japanese. Someone should update their wiki entry.

my mistake.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

my mistake.

Easily done, and as well-received on either side of the issue as calling a Canadian a USn, so no sweat.

[mirage]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I don't know why you're so hellbent on a US provider for a product made in China, and sold by a Canadian company who is in turn owned by a Chinese conglomerate.

Thanks for taking a stab at these questions. The only reason I prefer a US vendor is for faster shipping (which obviously didn't happen in my case since I never got the device and would have had I ordered from Kobo or Indigo, though I couldn't have known that at the time of the order), and easier, cheaper, faster returns should I need one. Otherwise, I wouldn't care. Plus, in this case, there was one other thing—that sub-$90 price that Walmart was offering when I made the order.

[jmmcg9]

Mirage,
FYI for reference: I recently ordered a Forma direct from Kobo. Order was placed on May 20, shipped on May 22, and was delivered by UPS to my home in Austin, Texas on May 29.

[mirage]

Originally Posted by jmmcg9

Mirage,
FYI for reference: I recently ordered a Forma direct from Kobo. Order was placed on May 20, shipped on May 22, and was delivered by UPS to my home in Austin, Texas on May 29.

Thanks for that. Another poster had a similar time frame.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by mirage

Thanks for taking a stab at these questions. The only reason I prefer a US vendor is for faster shipping (which obviously didn't happen in my case since I never got the device and would have had I ordered from Kobo or Indigo, though I couldn't have known that at the time of the order), and easier, cheaper, faster returns should I need one. Otherwise, I wouldn't care. Plus, in this case, there was one other thing—that sub-$90 price that Walmart was offering when I made the order.

I don't know why people are being so hard on you. There have been discussions on the forum in the past where many people in the US said they bought their Kobos from Walmart for faster delivery and ease of returns. It makes sense you would order from Walmart. I rarely shop at Walmart but I did order my Clara there last year.

With the world situation right now it's understandable that they might be out of stock, but it seems like they should be able to tell you one of the following:

a) We are temporarily out of stock. We expect to get more Kobos in stock by _______. (Then you could decide if you want to wait or request a refund)

b) Due to the Covid situation we don't know if/when we will have more Kobos in stock. Here's your refund.

c) We are no longer going to stock the device you ordered and will issue a refund.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

The world sort of caught fire this year disrupting supply chains for electronics in a major way.

Nintendo who is easily a bigger company than Kobo has struggled to get the Switch out to vendors until recently.

The problem with the Nintendo Switch is not supply. The problem is there are many people using bots to keep tabs on shops and when they are in stock, these bots buy the Switches and these people then sell them for a higher price since there is no longer any available at the regular price. I'm hoping that these jerks get stuck with too many Switches that they cannot sell.

Yes, supply is tough in some cases. We recently bought a new vacuum cleaner and only one shop had the one we wanted in stock.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem with the Nintendo Switch is not supply. The problem is there are many people using bots to keep tabs on shops and when they are in stock, these bots buy the Switches and these people then sell them for a higher price since there is no longer any available at the regular price. I'm hoping that these jerks get stuck with too many Switches that they cannot sell.

Yes, supply is tough in some cases. We recently bought a new vacuum cleaner and only one shop had the one we wanted in stock.

Jon. Why do you think people set those bots up? It’s because supply is limited, Nintendo themselves said they were having issues getting them out of the factories.

There’s also going to be significantly less demand for a specific vacuum cleaner than a video game console given the variety of both products is grossly different.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Jon. Why do you think people set those bots up? It’s because supply is limited, Nintendo themselves said they were having issues getting them out of the factories.

There’s also going to be significantly less demand for a specific vacuum cleaner than a video game console given the variety of both products is grossly different.

They set up those bots because they are jerks and do not give a damn. So while sales of the hardware is going well because of these damn bots, sales of the games is going to tank.

Not being able to easily get a vacuum cleaner shows how supply is limited to mostly what the stores have in stock.

[mirage]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I don't know why people are being so hard on you. There have been discussions on the forum in the past where many people in the US said they bought their Kobos from Walmart for faster delivery and ease of returns. It makes sense you would order from Walmart. I rarely shop at Walmart but I did order my Clara there last year.

With the world situation right now it's understandable that they might be out of stock, but it seems like they should be able to tell you one of the following:

a) We are temporarily out of stock. We expect to get more Kobos in stock by _______. (Then you could decide if you want to wait or request a refund)

b) Due to the Covid situation we don't know if/when we will have more Kobos in stock. Here's your refund.

c) We are no longer going to stock the device you ordered and will issue a refund.

Thanks for the kind words on this. What you outline is how I see it.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by mirage

Thanks for the kind words on this. What you outline is how I see it.

For the record I do think Walmart should do this they’re the ones selling you the product. My issue was the tone of the original post and blaming Kobo CS for not giving you details of interactions with Walmart.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

The world sort of caught fire this year disrupting supply chains for electronics in a major way.

Nintendo who is easily a bigger company than Kobo has struggled to get the Switch out to vendors until recently.

Switches are still not out (unless you want to be "scalped" on price). Apparently people set up "bots" to buy every one in the supply chain, then they jack up the price (often doubling the normal price) and sell them on sites like Walmart and Amazon. The only reason I know all this is because my son wanted to buy one (right at the beginning of the lockdowns) and they still haven't showed up the regular sites. (He got lucky, for some reason our local Fred Meyer's got six of them in a couple months ago and there happened to be three left when I went into the store, so I picked one up for him. They haven't shown up since.) I've kept myself on the B&H product notification list just so I can see when these things actually come back at normal price. So far, every two weeks I get a "we haven't forgotten you but they're not here yet" message.

(EDIT: Just checked B&H, they now show Switches back-ordered until November 16th, so this shows how badly the supply chain was damaged. I'm guessing Kobo is in th same position.)

In the news section there's an article linked quoting someone at Kobo on the need to diversify vendors so not all manufacturing is from one region. So they're definitely having troubles getting the Kobos manufactured. Still, if Walmart sold the Kobo Clara, they should give more information than the one word, "Delayed." That's horrible customer service.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by mirage

But what Kobo CS could do is tell me if they're shipping more Clara HDs to Walmart and more or less, when. With a lot of products that might be too much to ask for, but in this case, Kobo sells their products through exactly one company in this giant country, Walmart. So it shouldn't be a stretch for them to provide their CS people with information about future availability in the US. No, they can't tell me what Walmart will do with the items once they get them, if they do get them, but they can tell me whether or not they're going to ship more of them to Walmart. I can see where they might choose to avoid providing that info via their CS, but it's a conscious choice.

I agree with you. This whole Walmart/Rakuten Kobo "partnership" seems to be strained. It seems like Walmart is usually the last to get in new stock. When Kobo has sales or introduces a new product. Walmart often delays the Kobo sale on their site (and then, often, keeps it going past the time Kobo returns to the normal price). It's like they're not on the same page. What's weird is that Walmart is the "go to" login for Kobo Books in the U.S. (like they're the official Kobo source in this country) but there doesn't seem to be any coordination between the two. I expected better when this partnership was announced. Maybe Kobo is simply selling more eReaders than they expected and Walmart is a big part of that – I guess that could be the positive spin.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

For the record I do think Walmart should do this they’re the ones selling you the product. My issue was the tone of the original post and blaming Kobo CS for not giving you details of interactions with Walmart.

I've got a feeling Walmart simply doesn't know when they'll get Kobo stock. So I wouldn't completely absolve Kobo in this.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I've got a feeling Walmart simply doesn't know when they'll get Kobo stock. So I wouldn't completely absolve Kobo in this.

Possibly but this is dealing with Kobo CS not the upper branches of the company