Aura HD For U.S. Buyers...

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by david8866

It's not about patience. I did not expect it to be shipped until May, because it was listed as pre-order.
It's about lousy customer service. It had been 10 days, my order was still not in KOBO's system. Each time I contacted them, I got an incident number, but no follow-up. When I wanted to cancel the order ( by on-line chat), my order miraculously showed up in the system; when I checked back within minutes, my order was not there again.
I called all 3 phone numbers, no, there was no order. I asked them to cancel my order whichever way they can. KOBO called me to assure me my order will be shipped within 15 days.
That was yesterday. This morning I called again to make sure my order is cancelled, there was No Order in KOBO's system.
KOBO is a lousy company, isn't it

Edit: Yesterday KOBO asked me what ereader and what color I ordered. Now I begin to see why.

My situation was identical. I also called twice regarding my cancellation. Instead, I was charged for the order. Four days later the refund was posted. I'm done with Kobo.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by tnforpaul45

Believe me when I say that impatience for a new Kobo eReader can be very uncomfortable, but I've had good experience with Kobo so far.

I would advise patience. Kobo is not nearly as large a company as Amazon, and from what I am hearing, they have been blown away at the popular interest in the Aura. Like any company, as interest grows, they will scale accordingly!

Be patient. It's worth it

It's not about patience. It's about an inept company with dreadful customer service. And they have been around long enough to learn how to fulfill customer orders. There is absolutely no excuse.

[grooks]

Just did a Web chat with CS. Same story that my order is progressing and I will receive an email when it ships. They had no response when I mentioned my credit card being charged 9 days ago and no shipping.

[leonardfrye]

Seems like I am in the same boat with everyone else. Ordered on the 17th. Got two emails right away with order and invoice numbers. Card got charged on the 19th. Since then nothing. No ship notification ... nothing. Still waiting ... trying to be patient.

[Dr. Drib]

Speculation #1:

Some Staples and Best Buy stores in North America [Canada] appear to be out of the black Aura, so I'm wondering if Kobo is having to re-order a shipment or, perhaps, "de-stocking" [my word, translated: having to remove] some of those white cases for black cases.

Speculation #2:

Anyone who ordered a unit on a date that had the number '6' in it may be experiencing 'order-freefall', [my word, translated: 'order lost in limbo-land'].



Don

[wizzard]

I am surprised at the negative experiences of so many. My wife ordered the Ivory Aura and Onyx cover on the 20th or 21st and we received them both (shipped via Fedex from Hong Kong) on the 25th.

[Rob2246]

Wizzard it seems that if you ordered a cover and ereader it ship from Hong Kong via FedEx ex. If you only ordered an ereader it shipped from Canada via postal service which even expedited is slower than FedEx. This may be why your order arrived faster and with less hassle. Better service and ordering system in Hong Kong.
I only ordered an ereader and experienced no follow up emails etc. finally got a tracking number and it is making its way to Philly

[drew2720]

I ordered both a cover and e-reader on the 16th and got confirmations/card charged....no shipping notice as of today

dr. drib...do have a 6 in my order date and wondered the same thing...except can it be lost if I have confirmation #s/card charged/address,etc. correct? Seems it stayed out of 'limbo land' long enough for them to take my money...sigh (

[Janet54]

I have been getting daily update email from the USPS and mine is now in Illinois. Hope to see here in Oklahoma by tuesday. Woo Hoo!

[david8866]

I just received an email response about my "KOBO mini", it was a substance free email. Everyone, please laugh it off with me.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I don't think people complaining are previous Glo users (at least not mostly), but people used to other readers that do a better job of utilizing their screen real estate to begin with and thinking how nice it would be if the Kobo did too.

+1. As you can see from the photo, I read with pretty large font and need to use as much screen real estate as possible. I measured the "printable area" of my 3yo kindle keyboard. It comes out to ~ 9cm x 11cm = 99cm^2. 14.2cm diagonal (5.6in). Would appreciate if someone takes the same measurement with the aura, for epub and kepub.

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by taming

This will be my last post on the subject of margins. The space on the bottom is supposed to be exactly the right size so that when the menu for font changing etc are invoked no text is covered up. The same for the top margin and other choices that come up when the menus are invoked.

Currently there is a font related bug that can create additional white space on the page at the bottom. This was an issue in an earlier firmware iteration and will no doubt be fixed post haste. In the meantime, I have chosen to use kepubs directly from kobo or epubs that are converted to kepubs via calibre. The margins we are supposed to see is what I have with these settings.

On my Aura, the top margin is perfect while reading. Then, when I call up a menu, the top menu covers a couple of lines of text. This is fine, because when I need to do something with the menu, I am not reading. But the bottom margin is very wide, and this wide margin is where the bottom menu appears. It seems that the wide bottom margin is reserved at all times for a menu. I would prefer the bottom menu to act similarly to the top menu. Give me text all the way to the bottom of the page while I am reading, and when I need to do something with the menus, go ahead and cover up a couple of lines of text at the bottom.

[grooks]

Originally Posted by david8866

I just received an email response about my "KOBO mini", it was a substance free email. Everyone, please laugh it off with me.

You definitely take the prize for the most messed up Kobo ordering experience.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by icallaci

On my Aura, the top margin is perfect while reading. Then, when I call up a menu, the top menu covers a couple of lines of text. This is fine, because when I need to do something with the menu, I am not reading. But the bottom margin is very wide, and this wide margin is where the bottom menu appears. It seems that the wide bottom margin is reserved at all times for a menu. I would prefer the bottom menu to act similarly to the top menu. Give me text all the way to the bottom of the page while I am reading, and when I need to do something with the menus, go ahead and cover up a couple of lines of text at the bottom.

There are two reasons for the space at the bottom. Firstly, it will always display the page number. Personally, I want this and from comments here, it is about even on whether people want this or not.

The other reason is for annotations and the dictionary. When you mark text, the bottom menu is displayed with options for annotations, dictionary and search. If this menu covered part of the text, then you would not be able to see the selection in that area, or change the selection to words in that area.

But, I do think Kobo could reduce the size. Reducing it by a third would worl without changing the icons used. Halving it might need different icons.

[ewphoenix123]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There are two reasons for the space at the bottom. Firstly, it will always display the page number. Personally, I want this and from comments here, it is about even on whether people want this or not.

The other reason is for annotations and the dictionary. When you mark text, the bottom menu is displayed with options for annotations, dictionary and search. If this menu covered part of the text, then you would not be able to see the selection in that area, or change the selection to words in that area.

But, I do think Kobo could reduce the size. Reducing it by a third would worl without changing the icons used. Halving it might need different icons.

Actually I think we are forgetting one reason to keep the free bottom space.
On the GLO you can turn this space black to hide the (minimal) shadowing you get from the LEDs.
I think it was even a fixed setting to have a black bar before fw 2.+
With the" widow" fix, the text goes exactly to this black bar on my GLO.
I hadn't realized it before, as I don't use the black bar.