Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

[Josieb1]

I find without the contests I just don't buy from Kobo. They send emails with sales and discounts but only on their selection of books which are not what I want. If they are cheaper than Amazon then I will buy but that's few and far between.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I'd guess that's the majority of Kobo buyers too.

One guy at work doesn't care about prices, except if it's a price he's willing to pay when he goes to purchase. He doesn't care if it's $2, $5 or $10 cheaper on Amazon and says it's not worth the time to compare prices, not to mention convert if he were to buy from Amazon.

I let my Luzme wishlist do the comparison shopping for me. But for what I read, it's often the same price everywhere.

[BearMountainBooks]

Penny's failed because of high prices. I shopped there when they had "everyday low prices." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? They were twice the price of the other stores in the mall! They wouldn't match REGULAR prices never mind sale prices! My mom used to shop there and I did on occasions (with coupons). WHen they pulled that stunt we both went in a few times and let me tell you: STICKER SHOCK. And I don't mean by a couple of dollars. The same blanket at Macy's was DOUBLE the price a Penny's.

As for Kobo, I think, like any retailer, they have the discounts, sales and trivia to gain AWARENESS. Most of those things are probably done at a loss for awareness. It's the same reason we indies do "free" days. Those are a loss for the vast majority of us. Sure, some get enough reads that it means lots of sales of subsequent titles, but for most of us, it's a boost with a very slow gain of fans. The vast majority of people who grab free books don't read most of them. They aren't even opened.

Kobo has done a lot of awareness ads in the last two or three years and now they probably have a very good idea of which customers they want to keep. Whether they can do that remains to be seen...

Geoff, I think the discounts with HarperCollins are going away. Yours is not the first mention of it on forums.

[tempest@de]

For me buying at kobo was only because off the coupons, without them I prefer to shop elsewhere, I don’t like the format of having only the books in the list discountable, so far never bought any from those lists.
I hate the search option at kobo, they don’t have a wish list, and I like to buy epubs and kobo doesn’t show the file type clearly, sure you can look and see where the book can be read but I think it should be easier than that, also I had problems with some books (links that didn’t work or books without download links) and to solve them had to go through customer service and it takes a lot of patience to deal with them, oddly or not I never had a problem with any link for download or any book bought elsewhere.
Unless they bring back some good coupons (which I don’t think will happen) they won’t see much of my business, I still have credit in my account and have been waiting for a new contest or even a 50% coupon to spend it.

[Pierre Menard]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Yes, and they also have a painless process after the sale for getting updates to books when publishers fix things in them. Kobo, not so much.

This was it for me--I stopped buying from Kobo at any price once I realized that, unlike everywhere else I've bought ebooks, Kobo wasn't giving me updated versions.

Publishers rush to get things out--"Let's crowdsource the proofreading, and worry about fixing the finer details of formatting later on!" Most of my books have gone through at least one revision between the time I first download them and when I get around to reading them. Sometimes the differences are substantial. I noticed a while ago that, unlike most, Kobo books were always the exact same size when I redownloaded them. Which I was pretty sure was a problem, but I didn't want to think about it too much then.

Until I bought an image-heavy book that had none of the images in it. With no warning on the product page, all the images were replaced with a text box that said they hadn't secured the rights to the image. Even the chapter art had that. It was a real waste of money, so I was really happy later on when I saw someone else's copy that had the images now. And sure enough, the sample on Kobo's site was showing images (not a new edition, the same one linked to my purchase). But when I redownloaded, I got the same worthless image-free copy.

It doesn't matter how much you discount. If I'm not getting the proper product, it's not worth it at any price.

[cromag]

Of course, it doesn't help when I get an email from Kobo with a headline like this:

Archie Comics: Buy and 4 for $9.99

[issybird]

Originally Posted by cromag

Of course, it doesn't help when I get an email from Kobo with a headline like this:

In fairness to Kobo, I'm way ahead in terms of our transactions. But they do need to step up their game if I'm to pay "normal" prices to shop there. Unfortunately, from the Kobo aspect, I've benefited so mightily from their coupon madnesses that I can hold out for a long, long time.

[Fbone]

Kobo sent me another 90% promo code that is invalid.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Kobo sent me another 90% promo code that is invalid.

Re the last used 90% off code that kobo sent me (Jan 2016), when I complained to Cust service they traced back the particular code's usage to aroun the middle of last year. Therefore, they said, I would not receive a replacement!

When I agreed that the code had indeed been used and that's why I shouldn't have been sent it again they basically said stiff!

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Re the last used 90% off code that kobo sent me (Jan 2016), when I complained to Cust service they traced back the particular code's usage to aroun the middle of last year. Therefore, they said, I would not receive a replacement!

When I agreed that the code had indeed been used and that's why I shouldn't have been sent it again they basically said stiff!

So basically "we screwed up, but it's your fault"?

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Manabi

So basically "we screwed up, but it's your fault"?

Yep! I told them to stop sending me codes, I can't be bothered with the hassle!!

[Fbone]

It's ok. I didn't have anything to use the code on anyway.

[ferrywoman]

I like Kobo because their exchange rate for my local currency is me-friendly, they accept Paypal, the files are in ePUB format (luckily never experienced the PDFs), the coupons are rad (when they work), and VIP is fantastic for the odd indies and self-pubs.

But the horror stories are true and happen all too often. Over the past year, I've cut back on purchases significantly, partly because I just can't be bothered to deal with their CS when they screw up. It's like my time spent on Kobo is 70% trying to deal with and waiting for them to fix a problem.

Anyway, here's a 40%: EGBNF

[Amaryllis]

I tend to stick pretty much exclusively with Kobo, but I am a bargain hunter at the same time. I bought my first kobo before kindles were available in this country, and by the time kindles were available, I had enough invested in my kobo library that I didn't really want to switch. Nor did I really want to have multiple ereaders with different libraries. And while I could probably go online and find help somewhere about doing all the converting and all of that, at this point I don't want to go through all the hassle it would require. At the same time, I am not willing to pay nearly double the price on kobo than one would pay for the same ebook on amazon. I'd shop in those buy 2 get 1 free sales if they'd actually have any books in the incredibly short lists they do that I wanted or would read. I appear to be one of the fortunate ones who has had very few occasions where I have had to contact CS, and for the most part, they have been quite helpful. I didn't always get the response or result I wanted, but the agent I dealt with was at least helpful and pleasant. Including today. I posted a few days ago about my price match guarantee test. Kobo has of course, denied it. Despite the book being 16.19 on kobo, and 9.99 on amazon, and me paying full price for it at kobo (no coupon) - Kobo has decided that they do not need to give me a price-match reimbursement because "The price I paid through kobo was less than the competitor's price." Ummmmmm........ No. I used their little chat now button in the email, and have just chatted with a cs service representative who has agreed with me that they have made a mistake as has escalated it back up to the price match guarantee people to be fixed. He/She was very pleasant, but now lets see how long it takes for them to resolve this one....... There are several similar books, so if they decide in my favour, I may pick them up.
All of that said, their website really does need improvement in so many ways. And they really do need to talk to the publishers and do a better job of getting books available. I've had several occasions in the last few months where a book was available in paperback format at major retailers, and in ebook format on amazon on release day, but not available on kobo until several days later.

[disconnected]

I wonder if Kobo is doing well with the VIP program. I joined because the program was discountable at the time and the free book selection had a book I wanted so joining was basically free. All things being equal, Amazon was always my default, but since joining the program I usually buy from Kobo if the VIP price isn't higher than Amazon's price.

I really miss the discounts though, especially the insane unlimited 90% ones. After a few slow months, Open Road is releasing at least 40 books this month that I'd like to have.