Kobo store - do they not understand how books work?

[Witty Username]

Things that are really annoying about the Kobo store.

1. Email that says, "You bought Book1, Book2 and Book3 so we recommend this omnibus edition with all three books that you already own!"

2. Email follow-up to me having the temerity to use the preview feature. "We hope you enjoyed your free preview." And a link to buy the book. If I'd wanted it, I would have either bought it or added it to my wishlist. I DETEST the subtle hint that I owe you something 'your free preview'.

I'm extremely reluctant to browse the Kobo store now - but they probably don't care.

Rant over.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Witty Username

1. Email that says, "You bought Book1, Book2 and Book3 so we recommend this omnibus edition with all three books that you already own!"

Yes, that is stupid. SkyNET isn't quite ready to take over yet.

2. Email follow-up to me having the temerity to use the preview feature. "We hope you enjoyed your free preview." And a link to buy the book. If I'd wanted it, I would have either bought it or added it to my wishlist. I DETEST the subtle hint that I owe you something 'your free preview'.

I dunno. It seems like good business to me. I think you are reading too much into a simple sentence. Amazon regularly nags me about stuff looked at once, weeks ago.

One thing that is worse in my opinion is Amazon's 'We just found a deal we think you'll love!' messages. Invariably, they are for books about cowboy billionaires romancing a BBW werewolf (sorry, wolf-shifter) and other sorts of books I have never looked at.

Here's an idea: Instead of making terrible recommendations, send me notifications when items on my list go on sale.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I dunno. It seems like good business to me. I think you are reading too much into a simple sentence. Amazon regularly nags me about stuff looked at once, weeks ago.

One thing that is worse in my opinion is Amazon's 'We just found a deal we think you'll love!' messages. Invariably, they are for books about cowboy billionaires romancing a BBW werewolf (sorry, wolf-shifter) and other sorts of books I have never looked at.

Here's an idea: Instead of making terrible recommendations, send me notifications when items on my list go on sale.

My recent favourite from Amazon was one of their endless you might be interested in purchasing emails. This for an item that I looked at once and purchased. This email arrived at the same time as emails asking me for a review and to rate my purchase.

As for Amazon's ability to suggest books? They are generally good for a laugh. Since you recently purchased Babel-17, we have these alien shifters lusting after Earth girls "science fiction" that you will be interested in.

[RobertJSawyer]

1. Algorithms suck everywhere. So an algorithm said you bought books by author X and here's one with a different ISBN by the same author? I, for one, don't fear our robot overlords.

2. I preview and buy a lot of books from the Canadian Kobo store. I've never once received a follow-up prodding me to buy the book.

[Alastair_S]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

I, for one, don't fear our robot overlords.

I just hope that you never have to send back a damaged copy of "Kim" and receive back a copy of "Kidnapped" instead.

[Rid]

Or the email recommends book 3 etc in a series you have never bought or previewed before....

[Witty Username]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

2. I preview and buy a lot of books from the Canadian Kobo store. I've never once received a follow-up prodding me to buy the book.

That's interesting, the marketing emails must vary by country. Maybe at the end of a preview there could be a choice? 1. Buy now/add to cart 2. Add book to wishlist 3. No thanks, not interested.

That would be more useful IMHO.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Witty Username

That's interesting, the marketing emails must vary by country. Maybe at the end of a preview there could be a choice? 1. Buy now/add to cart 2. Add book to wishlist 3. No thanks, not interested.

That would be more useful IMHO.

Have you set your email preference in account settings to “No thanks”?

It might mean you don’t get emails you want, or it might not eliminate follow-up emails at that. But if the irritant is sufficient, it could be worth a try.

I’m in the camp that doesn’t find Kobo promotional emails any worse or more poorly targeted than those of Amazon. I think that those who are paying to promote their books on the belief that Amazon (or Kobo) is actually targetting likely customers have put a down payment on Brooklyn Bridge.

[4691mls]

I learned that if I DNF an Overdrive library book and return it early because I didn't like it, soon thereafter Kobo will try to sell me the book so I can finish reading it. I have better luck marking them finished. I still occasionally get an email trying to sell me the next book by the author, but it seems like those emails are fewer than the "buy it and finish it" emails I used to get.

Too bad when you finish a book there's no option to click "I hated this, please don't recommend anything else by this author"

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Too bad when you finish a book there's no option to click "I hated this, please don't recommend anything else by this author"

If you rate the book on their website, would that help?

[leftright]

I really detest shopping for books in series at Kobo, firstly its difficult to arrive at a page where all the books of the same series is listed.

The books in the series are listed randomly, which makes for endless scrolling when purchasing.

One has to purchase the books a book at a time, add to cart then return to listed page, hunt for the next book in series, add to cart, etc. very annoying.

There is no method for buying all the books in the series in one go, so in a series list of 25 one has to individually add every book to the cart and browse back to the main listing.

When browsing a series it doesn't display if one has this book in one's collection already.

Does anyone in Kobo buy or browse books in a series ?, obviously not.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by leftright

I really detest shopping for books in series at Kobo, firstly its difficult to arrive at a page where all the books of the same series is listed.

The books in the series are listed randomly, which makes for endless scrolling when purchasing.

One has to purchase the books a book at a time, add to cart then return to listed page, hunt for the next book in series, add to cart, etc. very annoying.

There is no method for buying all the books in the series in one go, so in a series list of 25 one has to individually add every book to the cart and browse back to the main listing.

When browsing a series it doesn't display if one has this book in one's collection already.

Does anyone in Kobo buy or browse books in a series ?, obviously not.

I've quite often bought/browsed books in a series. I select the series from the search drop down. For instance, I type in Ring of Fire and select Ring of Fire (Eric Flint) from the options. Either oldest to newest or newest to oldest for the sort seems to sort mostly into series order. This is not completely accurate since there are books in that series that did not have Eric Flint as one of the authors.

If I select a book, it will show that I already own that book if I purchased it from Kobo.

[BookCat]

Where series are concerned, I look at Fantastic Fiction, copy the list and paste this into notepad, which is then saved in a folder called ebook misc. When the next book in the series is needed I just look at the list.

[ZodWallop]

Why not just put series info directly on your Kobo?

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Why not just put series info directly on your Kobo?

As yet I don't have a Kobo, but I put the info on my laptop because that's where I do my shopping. I don't have wifi.