Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I have a £6.02 credit balance, every time I go to buy a book it doesn't matter what the book costs, it's always less than the credit balance, the amount shows in the final checkout page as £6.02. Has this happened to anyone else? Basically I can't buy a book from Kobo right now

I hope you have been able to sort out whatever was going wrong. I got some credit from a price match yesterday so I checked, but it seems to be working okay for me. Attached the payment summary I see on the final checkout page when buying a $4.85 ebook with $7.27 store credit.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I hope you have been able to sort out whatever was going wrong. I got some credit from a price match yesterday so I checked, but it seems to be working okay for me. Attached the payment summary I see on the final checkout page when buying a $4.85 ebook with $7.27 store credit.

Thank you Geoff. It seems to be an issue with just one book, everything else is okay. i'm just avoiding that book for now.

[Josieb1]

Yet again Kobo have sent me a promo code that doesn't work. As it was 90% I thought i'd contact customer care. They confirmed it doesn't work as they couldn't verify it but are unable to replace it. Its not exactly they way to win customers is it!

[GeoffR]

Something new: It seems super points can now be used to purchase Hachette and HarperCollins Random House / Penguin books in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Yet again Kobo have sent me a promo code that doesn't work. As it was 90% I thought i'd contact customer care. They confirmed it doesn't work as they couldn't verify it but are unable to replace it. Its not exactly they way to win customers is it!

What do they mean they "can't replace it"? Of course they can. Issue another 90% off code. Issue a credit to the account. ... Do something, Kobo.

I'm surprised Kobo isn't running afoul of any consumer protection laws. Kinda sounds like bait and switch.

[ATDrake]

Kobo Canada is holding their Victoria Day long weekend sale through May 22nd, with titles priced at $4.99 CAD or less (mostly in the $3-$4 range) from a mix of major and minor publishers. As usual, some books are regular publisher discounts offered at all the usual stores, but others (especially from the smaller presses) are special price-drops exclusively for the duration of the Kobo promo.

Main page, with categories: Literary Fiction, Romance, Fiction, Historical Fiction (some extra mysteries filed here), Mystery & Suspense (a lot of things whose blurbs say they were Arthur Ellis or Edgar Award finalists or winners), Contemporary Fiction, Cozy Mysteries (mostly Kensington series, from the looks of it), Science Fiction & Fantasy, Biography & Memoir, Kids & Teens, Food & Drinks, Non-Fiction (more food & drink & biography is filed under this section as well)

Highlights of the sale: a number of architecture/design books from Princeton Architectural Press (a division of Chronicle Books, apparently), some interesting-looking Australia/New Zealand interest historical and current events non-fiction titles from assorted antipodean publishers, a biography of monk Gregor Mendel whose work on inheritance formed the basis of what we know about genetics, a biography of Jane Austen from HarperCollins, an anthology of Canadian superhero stories edited by an Aurora Award finalist, IIRC, an award-winning collection of essays on race and racial identity in the US, retro-historical memoirs by a former Soviet arms designer and the wife of politically active Polish pianist and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski (Wikipedia), most of Arthur Ellis & Barry Award-finalist Canadian author Ian Hamilton's (SYKM) enjoyable Ava Lee investigative (mostly non-murder) mystery adventure series starring a Chinese-Canadian lapsed Catholic lesbian forensic accountant, and also, the assorted works of Cecile Pineda (Wikipedia) and other Latin American literary authors from Wings Press.

I especially recommend Pineda's The Love Queen of the Amazon, which is an enjoyable comedic quasi-historical novel which spoofs magical realism tropes and which Wikipedia says was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times. I've had this in an old hardcover I picked up off the remainder sale table a long time ago and really liked it, enough that I did a blind-buy of Pineda's other e-printed works (several also on sale as part of this promotion, but I haven't read them yet) when they dropped during some Kindle sale a few years ago.

[YMS_1975]

Looking to buy an eBook but none of the promo codes I've tried have worked. Anybody have any newer codes???

[cromag]

Originally Posted by YMS_1975

Looking to buy an eBook but none of the promo codes I've tried have worked. Anybody have any newer codes???

Kobo does have a history of providing unreliable codes, but are you sure the book you want is couponable?

[datcha]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Yet again Kobo have sent me a promo code that doesn't work. As it was 90% I thought i'd contact customer care. They confirmed it doesn't work as they couldn't verify it but are unable to replace it. Its not exactly they way to win customers is it!

I know that there is a list of standard coupons promo codes at the beginning of this forum. I suppose also they do not work most of the time (I did try some).

I am wondering how people get coupons sent to them. I own a Kobo reader and I buy books from Kobo. But I got a coupon only once, after they had sold me a defective product (which they also reimbursed). On what occasions do people get the promo codes usually?

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by datcha

I am wondering how people get coupons sent to them. I own a Kobo reader and I buy books from Kobo. But I got a coupon only once, after they had sold me a defective product (which they also reimbursed). On what occasions do people get the promo codes usually?

There have been some in the past that were sent in return for completing a survey, but apart from those and the 20% birthday/anniversary codes, they seem fairly random to me. Some of them say something like "We miss you" in the email, but I've had one of those arrive within a week of making a purchase.

I've never received anything as big as 90%, but then the ones I have received have always worked.

Edit: I guess you do need to have the "Yes please" box ticked under "Get info on the latest eBooks, offers, and app updates" in your account settings too.

[lkmiller]

I get the promo emails, but I've never gotten a code.

[julesy]

I get emails often for coupons for select titles but usually cannot find any books to use with. Got an email today for 35% off on select titles. Couldn't believe I actually found a book I was able to use the coupon.

TRBQGJ
Expires May 29, 2017

[Amaryllis]

Same here - I get the promo codes & sales emails, but in 6 years of buying/having a Kobo account, have never once been sent a coupon code (other than the contests they use to have - wish they'd bring those back!).

[YMS_1975]

Originally Posted by cromag

Kobo does have a history of providing unreliable codes, but are you sure the book you want is couponable?

To be honest, I'm not sure if it "is couponable". I was just just hoping to save a few bucks.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by YMS_1975

To be honest, I'm not sure if it "is couponable". I was just just hoping to save a few bucks.

Who's the publisher?