100,000+ Sony Readers sold in UK?

[CaptainIncognito]

Originally Posted by nathantw

AH! Totally different than what I thought it was.

LOL! Now I am intrigued

[Argel]

Originally Posted by stustaff

dont you mean 500?

oops

Oops indeed. I must cut down on the booze!

[nathantw]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Piece of poo?

Oh yeah!

[carandol]

As an iLiad owner, I'd happily buy ebooks from Waterstones (especially since they seem to have some I've not been able to get in Mobi format), but they only seem to sell Sony format books.

[DMcCunney]

A bit more grist for this mill:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/66...ny-reader.html
______
Dennis

[inness]

Originally Posted by Argel

According to Waterstone's staff, each store was sent four readers plus the demo model - no doubt flagship stores had more.

Well this is my first post here, although I have been reading this forum for a couple weeks now, first of all I would like to thank everybody here for sharing all their thoughts.
As to the quote above from Waterstones, I tried to buy my reader in Yeovil branch and they told me they had not had any as their branch was too small, I don't follow this as they had bookshelves in the store so could have squeezed a reader in their somewhere

Bob

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by inness

Well this is my first post here, although I have been reading this forum for a couple weeks now, first of all I would like to thank everybody here for sharing all their thoughts.
As to the quote above from Waterstones, I tried to buy my reader in Yeovil branch and they told me they had not had any as their branch was too small, I don't follow this as they had bookshelves in the store so could have squeezed a reader in their somewhere

Bob

Probably, but I suspect they simply weren't allocated any by Waterstones HQ. Did they offer an option to order one through them and have it shipped to the branch for pickup?
______
Dennis

[inness]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Probably, but I suspect they simply weren't allocated any by Waterstones HQ. Did they offer an option to order one through them and have it shipped to the branch for pickup?
______
Dennis

Hi there Dennis, they told me to try Dorchester branch which I did but did not have stock either so I got it online from Sony, paid for next day delivery and it took 4 days to arrive, I complained so they refunded me the postage.

I have to say I rather like the reader, right now I am trying to track down a dictionary for it, I don't mind paying for one, but waterstones have not got one in e format well not that I can see

Bob

[Argel]

Originally Posted by inness

I have to say I rather like the reader, right now I am trying to track down a dictionary for it, I don't mind paying for one, but waterstones have not got one in e format well not that I can see

Bob

I'm afraid the Sony doesn't have dictionary support so you're not going to find a commercial one.

[GingerTez]

Bob wrote...

Originally Posted by inness

...they told me to try Dorchester branch which I did but did not have stock either so I got it online from Sony...

I don't want to sound like a winging old git but I don't think I can avoid it....

This is a big problem all over - customer service is dead!

Yeovil branch should have atleast offered to phone Dorchester to see if they had stock to save you a trip. Waterstones lost out on £200 (plus accesories possibly?) - stupid stupid stupid!!!!!

My wife ordered a US textbook from Waterstones a few weeks ago and the staff member wasn't sure they could get it but said he would try. 5 weeks later after no contact from them I phoned up and was told

"Oh, it hasn't come in and we haven't chased it up. We would have been notified automatically by the system when it hadn't arrived within 6 weeks"

I asked for clarification and I was told that it is standard practice to NOT check on 'backordered' books for 6 weeks. In the old days (here I go!) these things would be chased up weekly. My wife ended up ordering it from Amazon instead. More lost revenue!

Similarly, I was in John Lewis a couple of months ago and I asked if they had any Nintendo DS for sale. I was told "No we don't stock them here, try our online store". I was physically there with gift vouchers I wanted to spend and they didn't even offer to order one in.

I have no sympathy for shops that winge about the internet ruining their sales when they can't offer good enough customer service to convince me to shop in store.

Sorry for the winge!

Cheers,
Terry.

[inness]

Originally Posted by Argel

I'm afraid the Sony doesn't have dictionary support so you're not going to find a commercial one.

Yes I know, but thanks for posting as some people may not have known that.
I want a dictionary for general use not for cross referencing from a book, I have a dictionary allready that I purchased from Mobipocket but of course as you know it don't work with the 505, but I use it on my palm E and my treo 680. It kind of makes your blood boil when you think that over the years I may have to keep buying dictionaries as I keep upgrading my ereaders.

Bob

[JSWolf]

Just what we need, more wildly rampant guessing.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by GingerTez

B
I have no sympathy for shops that winge about the internet ruining their sales when they can't offer good enough customer service to convince me to shop in store.

Sorry for the winge!

Cheers,
Terry.

You have my full sympathy and agreement. Service experiences and story's like this have made me shop online for about 90 % of my needs, the only exception being local stuff, or things I can't get online.

I sometimes wonder, why don't stores get it, that they can utilise their retail presence to offer something you don't often get online, personalised service. They could use it to actually differentiate them selves and appear at lest to provide some vale to offset the cost.

Unfortunately, Waterstones at times appears to be completely clueless. I've spend more then enough time in the past trying to find books, and they store staff has more often the not either been less then helpful or if helpful completely clueless. In fact I more or less stopped going to Waterstones a few years ago, when I had a borders nearby, or switched to online ordering for most of the rest.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by inness

.
I want a dictionary for general use not for cross referencing from a book, I have a dictionary allready that I purchased from Mobipocket but of course as you know it don't work with the 505, but I use it on my palm E and my treo 680. It kind of makes your blood boil when you think that over the years I may have to keep buying dictionaries as I keep upgrading my ereaders.

Bob

That's precisely why I decided some time ago to stick to devices with MobiPocket support, and why I'm now using a CyBook Gen3. I don't know what I'll be reading on in 5 years time, but I'm pretty confident that Mobi format will still be alive and well then. I'm not at all confident that Sony's BBeB format will be.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not at all confident that Sony's BBeB format will be.

I am. I'll bet you a buck (a quid if you prefer) that the format will still be there.

BOb