Anyone having problems buying books on Kobo?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Nightyume

You could always change your location. That should work... Don't forget you have to activate the kids option in your account section. ¿Or do you mean that even activated it doesn't work? (I haven't tried it yet as I don't have kids).

I don't see a kids option for my account. It probably isn't available in all regions.

[Nightyume]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't see a kids option for my account. It probably isn't available in all regions.

It's available for the US and I think it was available for generic regions (I THINK I saw it whdn I had my account set to Mexico).

Here is what the page looks like before setting it up...



EDIT: I just checked and the option is not available for the Mexico Location settings. If you have a kid you can always set your account to the US and then use paypal to pay if you want.

[davidfor]

@Nightyume:Thanks for the picture. That tells me a lot about the account. The questions that bring up are if you can create more than one kids account and if they can share books. Or share them with the parents account.

[paola]

Originally Posted by davidfor

@Nightyume:Thanks for the picture. That tells me a lot about the account. The questions that bring up are if you can create more than one kids account and if they can share books. Or share them with the parents account.

yes, that would be a great thing, sharing books!

[taming]

I just set up a kids account. I think if I had more than one child, I would set up one kids account so that all of them could read each other's books. The alternative is to have some of the kids (and parents) reading epubs with the drm magically removed, which if avoiding syncing confusion is important, maybe is the best bet anyway. The Kobo books meant to be read only on Kobo tablets/apps are another issue as they do not have epub versions as far as I know.

The neat part is that when the child logs in, they can only shop the kids store. No more accidental porn exposure.

[tlaine]

Originally Posted by taming

The neat part is that when the child logs in, they can only shop the kids store. No more accidental porn exposure.

That is indeed good news! Although my kid is no longer a kid and hasn't been for a long time I was thinking this must be a nightmare for parents.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

I'd like to report that I'm having problems buying books on Kobo - and my problem is that I can't stop buying books because they keep releasing unlimited multi-line 50% off coupons valid for all the books in their store! I just bought part 2 and part 3 of Hugh Howey's Silo trilogy for $2.50 each! Never change Kobo.

[Nightyume]

Okay, went on a spending spree using the 50% discount code as today was the last day (bought over twenty books) and about halfway through (or shortly before) it kept on presenting an error...

Oh well, had to switch to paypal but it will be something that will make me think twice before buying books in the future if it doesn't get fixed since they seem to give me a worse exchange rate.

But if they have another great unlimited use code...all bets are off

[FanciFreez]

Originally Posted by Plumadona

Thanks for the info. I don't want to open a PayPal account, so I guess it's goodbye Kobo. Too bad, as they were becoming my favorite source for epub.

Plumadona

Very frustrated here.. I tried buying 2 books today.. tried many times. I checked my CC status etc.. still says: try again later.. well. I must sell my Kobo Aura HD and stick with Amazon.. I think Kobo is losing a lot of business and customers because of this.. what a bunch of dummies.. they need to take some lessons from Amazon.. I do not want to use PayPal if that is my only choice.. I have bought from them many times before with the same CC I'm having trouble with.. anyone want to buy my Kobo Aura HD cheap?

[Plumadona]

Being a stubborn sort, I've continued to resubmit the ticket regarding this problem of having a valid credit card denied. After two separate e-mails that went unanswered, I went back to live chat. As usual, the poor soul who answered tried to be polite and helpful, but was totally clueless.

I again stressed that my credit card company had no problem with me; the problem was that Kobo rejected a perfectly valid card. I also mentioned that I was far from being the only customer with this problem. Again, I got the lame, "try again" routine, and again told them too many of their rejections trigger an investigation into possible fraud, freezing my card. After waiting for the chat to resume, I was told that an entity called Worldpay was holding up the works, and that I should call my bank (credit card) to check the address, giving me a ridiculously long number to pass on. Ha!

At this point, thoroughly disgusted, I told the chat person that as Kobo and / or their rep were the cause of the problem, they should solve it, especially since this is far from an isolated incident. Of course, I got yet another email later saying to try again, which, of course, failed.

Okay, I could go through Paypal as some folks here have suggested, but why should the consumer be responsible for the vendor's incompetence? I don't knock those who use Paypal to take advantage of discounts, but for myself, why encourage this type of foolishness? What is most galling is the fact that they screw up, then try to make it sound as if you're at fault (update your operating system, try another browser, check your credit card, call your bank, etc.)

I feel for all the folks here trying to buy ereaders, get them delivered, get them replaced, etc. Maybe I'm just old and cranky, but I think we all deserve far better treatment for our hard eaned money. If I have time tomorrow, I intend to send email to the top execs at Kobo (they're listed on the Kobo website). I doubt it will help, but it couldn't hurt.

One thing's for sure, no matter what happens, I sure as heck won't buy a Kobo ereader. I didn't think anyone could make B & N look good, but these guys are sure doing a good job right now. Anyway, sorry for the rant, and all my sympathy to the other folks all over dealing with this stuff.

Plumadona

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Plumadona

Being a stubborn sort, I've continued to resubmit the ticket regarding this problem of having a valid credit card denied. After two separate e-mails that went unanswered, I went back to live chat. As usual, the poor soul who answered tried to be polite and helpful, but was totally clueless.

I again stressed that my credit card company had no problem with me; the problem was that Kobo rejected a perfectly valid card. I also mentioned that I was far from being the only customer with this problem. Again, I got the lame, "try again" routine, and again told them too many of their rejections trigger an investigation into possible fraud, freezing my card. After waiting for the chat to resume, I was told that an entity called Worldpay was holding up the works, and that I should call my bank (credit card) to check the address, giving me a ridiculously long number to pass on. Ha!

At this point, thoroughly disgusted, I told the chat person that as Kobo and / or their rep were the cause of the problem, they should solve it, especially since this is far from an isolated incident. Of course, I got yet another email later saying to try again, which, of course, failed.

Okay, I could go through Paypal as some folks here have suggested, but why should the consumer be responsible for the vendor's incompetence? I don't knock those who use Paypal to take advantage of discounts, but for myself, why encourage this type of foolishness? What is most galling is the fact that they screw up, then try to make it sound as if you're at fault (update your operating system, try another browser, check your credit card, call your bank, etc.)

I feel for all the folks here trying to buy ereaders, get them delivered, get them replaced, etc. Maybe I'm just old and cranky, but I think we all deserve far better treatment for our hard eaned money. If I have time tomorrow, I intend to send email to the top execs at Kobo (they're listed on the Kobo website). I doubt it will help, but it couldn't hurt.

One thing's for sure, no matter what happens, I sure as heck won't buy a Kobo ereader. I didn't think anyone could make B & N look good, but these guys are sure doing a good job right now. Anyway, sorry for the rant, and all my sympathy to the other folks all over dealing with this stuff.

Plumadona

Rant away it's makes no sense why it's being rejected.
Maybe try to contact Worldpay It's worth a shot.

[moffattm]

Ah, I didn't know that Kobo used WorldPay.

I've done a little digging and found other people complaining about WorldPay rejecting credit cards.

http://support.moonfruit.com/entries...ment-processor

On this website people score WorldPay 1 out of 5, you can read many complaints about them.

And this site explains some of the sorts of errors and reasons why WorldPay might reject a credit card.

I'm a web designer and have worked on several websites that accepted credit cards. Most websites don't deal directly with credit card companies, instead they go through a credit card processing company, such as WorldPay. The processing company run various automated fraud checks before passing on your CC details to the actual credit card company (i.e. Visa). The end website (i.e. Kobo) get back a simple "Ok" or "Not Ok" message to say if the transaction went through ok or not. Very often if the transaction didn't go through then they don't get a reason why, or if they do they just get a status code that might mean something to the CC company or the processor company, but is usually meaningless to everyone else.

So I'm not that surprised if Kobo don't know why a particular transaction was rejected. And it's almost certainly not Kobo's fault for the rejection. If you're lucky enough to get a transaction number from Kobo then you might be able to chase it up with WorldPay or your credit card company. In the past when I've had problems my credit card company was able to tell me that they could see the request coming in and how they responded, which told me if the fault lay with the CC company or the processor company.

[Blossom]

My problem is I have no idea why Worldpay would decline my card. My card is not a bank card or regular credit card. It's a reloadable Credit Card by Green Dot. There are no fraudulent or security measures in place for these cards. They tell you this when you sign up. The only time they will decline an action is for insignificant funds. So I have no idea why I am suddenly being declined.

[moffattm]

Originally Posted by Blossom

My problem is I have no idea why Worldpay would decline my card. My card is not a bank card or regular credit card. It's a reloadable Credit Card by Green Dot. There are no fraudulent or security measures in place for these cards. They tell you this when you sign up. The only time they will decline an action is for insignificant funds. So I have no idea why I am suddenly being declined.

Yeah, if you Google green dot credit card declined you'll find lots of people complaining.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by moffattm

Yeah, if you Google green dot credit card declined you'll find lots of people complaining.

I've had this card a little over 2 years and never had a problem with anyone taking it but Kobo. I made 300 purchases in in about 3 days from Harlequin and they were nickle purchases. Not one problem. I use it at Amazon, Best Buy, B&N, Smashwords and Sony. No problem. Kobo is the only merchant that rejects it.

Everyone complains about Green Dot but I've never had a issue with it. Mine is through Walmart though.