Does the Kobo Store Ever Have Sales on Ebooks?

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

...Also, remember, Kobo will price-match (actually, will beat) any Kindle deal:

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/p/pricematch-about

Yesterday, Amazon had a sale on one of the books on my wishlist ($4.99 vs $12.99). Just to see what Kobo would do, I went through their price match process. I had to have actually purchased the book from Kobo first, so I bit the bullet and did so. I sent them the info and the link to Amazon's book listing. This morning, they got back to me and said they were disallowing it because the price was the same. I checked Amazon's page and, sure enough, the price was back up to the list price of $12.99. I told them that at the time I bought the book (yesterday) Amazon's price was cheaper, but I fully expect them to continue to deny the claim. And, of course, there's no way to track Amazon's price history on their Kindle books to prove the difference.

Also, in reading Kobo's terms at:

https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/artic...atch-Guarantee

I see:

The competitor's eBook or audiobook must be identical to the one purchased from Kobo, including the same ISBN.

Since Amazon doesn't even sell epubs, and my understanding is that each type of the same ebook has to have its own ISBN, I doubt a Kindle book on Amazon would have the same ISBN as an epub on Kobo. So, it looks to me like Kobo won't price-match Amazon.

Oh well.

I really don't want to do it this way, but if Amazon has a sale on a book I want and Kobo doesn't, I guess I should just buy the Kindle version and convert it over just like I used to do.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I've picked up books on sale pretty much every week. It depends on what you are looking for. Please note that if the book you want is on sale elsewhere (Amazon, Google, B&N, etc.), Kobo will price match. I've used that fairly often especially since Kobo will match an Amazon 1 day sale price.

How does the price matching work? Do you have to buy it at full price and then send an email and they refund the difference?

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by kyrilson

How does the price matching work? Do you have to buy it at full price and then send an email and they refund the difference?

Unfortunately, you have to buy first. Their price match request form:

https://pricematchrakutenkobo.zendes...s/requests/new

has mandatory fields for their Receipt Number and Date of Kobo Purchase. My initial thought (before I ran into those fields) was to just ask first. But, once I found that I had to actually buy from them before I could ask for a price match, I figured I'd risk the price difference to see how they'd behave.

Another possibility might have been trying to go through their Chat process before-hand.

EDIT: Of course, if Amazon's sale on that book had lasted longer than one day, maybe their response would have been different. After all, they didn't mention anything about the Kindle vs epub ISBN issue.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Unfortunately, you have to buy first. Their price match request form:

https://pricematchrakutenkobo.zendes...s/requests/new

has mandatory fields for their Receipt Number and Date of Kobo Purchase. My initial thought (before I ran into those fields) was to just ask first. But, once I found that I had to actually buy from them before I could ask for a price match, I figured I'd risk the price difference to see how they'd behave.

Another possibility might have been trying to go through their Chat process before-hand.

EDIT: Of course, if Amazon's sale on that book had lasted longer than one day, maybe their response would have been different. After all, they didn't mention anything about the Kindle vs epub ISBN issue.

I have used Kobo's Price Match several times with Amazon prices as the reference, and have only had one fail. Another good source to keep an eye on for Price Match is Google Books, which does sell epubs and almost always has the exact same ISBN. I've never missed with a Price Match request against a Google Books price

[enuddleyarbl]

I just got another reply back from Kobo. They approved the price match refund. I'm both surprised and pleased. That's a nice, warm fuzzy for buying future books from Kobo. Yay!

#Uncle Robin: that's good to know about Google Books. Since I can never find the ISBN for books I buy there, I was worried about whether they'd consider them matches.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

I just got another reply back from Kobo. They approved the price match refund. I'm both surprised and pleased. That's a nice, warm fuzzy for buying future books from Kobo. Yay!

#Uncle Robin: that's good to know about Google Books. Since I can never find the ISBN for books I buy there, I was worried about whether they'd consider them matches.

I'm pleased you were successful, it demonstrates why the Price Match is a win-win - Kobo gains a satisfied customer, the customer gets store credit toward their next purchase, everyone's happy.

[DNSB]

What I've done a couple of times where the sale price was an Amazon one day sale was to supply a screenshot of the Amazon page. So far, Kobo has accepted that as proof that the books were on sale at the stated price.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

What I've done a couple of times where the sale price was an Amazon one day sale was to supply a screenshot of the Amazon page. So far, Kobo has accepted that as proof that the books were on sale at the stated price.

How do you supply a screenshot using the Kobo's price match form?

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How do you supply a screenshot using the Kobo's price match form?

That's odd. I thought there was an Attachment box at the bottom of their form where something like a screenshot could go. But, looking now, I don't see that. Maybe it appears once the required information is present?

[enuddleyarbl]

I just started up another Price Match process with Kobo (for Naomi Novik's "The Golden Enclaves" -- $13.99 on Kobo, $4.99 currently on Amazon). I was looking for that attachment box I thought existed in my above post. Nope. It doesn't exist. I didn't see it on the original form, and there was no option to add it afterwards.

Oh well. If Kobo has an issue with it, I do have the screenshot and I can add it into the ensuing email conversation.

UPDATE: Looks like I didn't have to worry. Kobo's already approved the Price Match. Yay!

[Tarana]

Also, add your wishlist to Ereaderiq.com. Even though it is linked to Amazon, about 80% of the time, by the time it shows up in your email it is on Kobo as well.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Also, add your wishlist to Ereaderiq.com. Even though it is linked to Amazon, about 80% of the time, by the time it shows up in your email it is on Kobo as well.

Yes, that was going to be my suggestion as well.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Also, add your wishlist to Ereaderiq.com. Even though it is linked to Amazon, about 80% of the time, by the time it shows up in your email it is on Kobo as well.

This. You can also check its previous price history and sent an alert only when it hits a specific price. I do this for some of my books because the publisher will sometimes only discount the book by a dollar or so and generate an alert. I'm not interested unless the book drops to $5 or less.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

I just started up another Price Match process with Kobo (for Naomi Novik's "The Golden Enclaves" -- $13.99 on Kobo, $4.99 currently on Amazon). I was looking for that attachment box I thought existed in my above post. Nope. It doesn't exist. I didn't see it on the original form, and there was no option to add it afterwards.

Oh well. If Kobo has an issue with it, I do have the screenshot and I can add it into the ensuing email conversation.

UPDATE: Looks like I didn't have to worry. Kobo's already approved the Price Match. Yay!

The Price Match is a great feature, for sure. I don't know where you are, but some of those price-watch sites mentioned in this thread are far from universally available, but Kobo's Price Match is, regardless of which Kobo Store one uses. And of course, the credit is a discount of your next purchase(s)

[christianbk]

I've done several price-matches with Kobo. I always take a screenshot of the lower price in case I need it later. I include a link to the ereaderiq.com page that shows the price having been lower the day I purchased it. I've never had a problem.