Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

Originally Posted by icenova96

Would be better if the codes would just work, but the fix was speedy.

Their customer service fixes ARE fast. I rang about a Price Match request that was delayed, within 24 hours, they'd credited my account with the Price Match guarantee twice. It worked too, because I promptly spent the unexpected bonus

[bgalbrecht]

I wonder what's up with price matching at Kobo. They used to do it fairly quickly, but several times in the past month, it's taken a week or more, and once I had to send them a screenshot (not the first time, but it's been rare). I also had a 40% or 50% off coupon code fail recently, and when I talked to customer service, they immediately gave me a refund so that I could buy my book.

Also, my VIP expired a couple of days ago, and even though they sent me an email suggesting that I can use 4000 points to get a new membership, it's only giving me the option of spending $10 for one. Has anyone been else been able to buy a year's VIP membership with points in the last month or two after letting it lapse?

[Amaryllis]

Mine is due to lapse one day soon, and I am hoping to use points to renew it.
Last year though, I remember that I couldn't renew with points until about a week after my membership expired.

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by Amaryllis

Mine is due to lapse one day soon, and I am hoping to use points to renew it.
Last year though, I remember that I couldn't renew with points until about a week after my membership expired.

I just did that. Click on super points then explore VIP membership and you can exchange your 4000 points for the VIP. Cheaper than $10 for sure!

[apesmom]

It's not much, but since codes are pretty scarce these days . . .
WELCOME20 is good for 20%. It's an old code but I just used it on my years old account and it worked. I'm sure I must have used it before.

[Hemmi]

I couldn't get it to work for me. My birthday was a week ago and none of the birthday codes would work for me either and I didn't get an email at all this year.

[artig]

Kobo recently sent me a 50% code (4MQH79) which didn't work on any of the books I tried it on. It's now expired. Today they sent me something that could potentially be useful - a top-up of points sufficient for a VIP upgrade. I've never been a VIP, or looked into the advantages, but presumably it is worthwhile, even for someone who may only buy about 5 to 10 books from Kobo in a year? Almost exclusively non-fiction.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by artig

Kobo recently sent me a 50% code (4MQH79) which didn't work on any of the books I tried it on. It's now expired. Today they sent me something that could potentially be useful - a top-up of points sufficient for a VIP upgrade. I've never been a VIP, or looked into the advantages, but presumably it is worthwhile, even for someone who may only buy about 5 to 10 books from Kobo in a year? Almost exclusively non-fiction.

Since you're in New Zealand, I'm not sure. In the US, if you can buy a book with points, typically from a smaller press not affiliated with the big 5 publishers (Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Hatchette, Random House/Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins), then if you're in the VIP program, you'll get a 10% discount, and for every book you buy, regardless of whether it's discounted, you'll get double VIP points. A VIP member also gets one free book from limited selection (100-200 books), and the choices are usually fiction mostly romance or mysteries. You could get the VIP upgrade, turn off the automatic renewal, and then decide later whether it's useful to you. If you don't get a free book from the VIP list because nothing interests you, and none of the books you want to buy can be bought with points, then it won't be worth renewing.

Also, it wasn't clear why the coupon didn't work. In the US, the coupon only works on books that can be bought with points (i.e., can be discounted), but sometimes the coupon doesn't work anyway. If it's the latter, contact Kobo customer service, and they'll work it out so you get the discount anyway.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by artig

Kobo recently sent me a 50% code (4MQH79) which didn't work on any of the books I tried it on. It's now expired. Today they sent me something that could potentially be useful - a top-up of points sufficient for a VIP upgrade. I've never been a VIP, or looked into the advantages, but presumably it is worthwhile, even for someone who may only buy about 5 to 10 books from Kobo in a year? Almost exclusively non-fiction.

Unless they are fairly expensive books I don't think it would be worth getting VIP membership for just 5-10 books per year.

The points are potentially worth about $2.50 per 1000 points, provided you use them wisely, so if you spend $400 + GST per year then it is worth getting VIP membership for the extra points alone.

If you spend less than that then you need to be able to make use of the 10% VIP discount and other features to make VIP worthwhile, and whether you can do that dpends a lot on the type of books you buy and who the publishers are.

I only buy fiction so I don't know much about the situation with non-fiction pricing, but in New Zealand some big publishers are discountable but price differently at different retailers. E.g. Penguin Random House fiction books are discountable in New Zealand, but their prices are usually lower at Apple than at Kobo, so a 10% VIP discount is not useful, you are better of just using Kobo's price match to get 10% off the Apple price, and you don't need to be a VIP to use price match.

[artig]

Thanks for the advice, bgalbrecht and GeoffR. I used the points for a VIP membership, and turned off automatic update. But I couldn't find a single one of the freebies that was of any interest. However, getting 10% off some of the books I would have purchased anyway are a bonus. Hopefully the list of freebies changes now and then so there may be one that's worthwhile within the next year or so.

[lkmiller]

Yes, the list of freebies does change.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Yes, the list of freebies does change.

Plus you now have the whole year of your membership to choose which VIP freebie book you want. (As opposed to when the program first started and you only had a limited time to pick).

[ExpatVietnam]

Originally Posted by apesmom

It's not much, but since codes are pretty scarce these days . . .
WELCOME20 is good for 20%. It's an old code but I just used it on my years old account and it worked. I'm sure I must have used it before.

Ha! Totally forgot this code existed, tried it today and it actually worked even though I have absolutely used it some time in the past 10 years.

Thanks for the reminder. Now I have to go through all the codes that this thread has on page 1 to see if any of them will re-work.

[zelda.owns.link]

Save on Boxed Sets

Ends March 25th

[peachiekene]

A long shot, but I'm looking for a 75+% coupon, if someone has one they aren't going to use.

Nevermind: The book I was looking at drastically reduced in price and now I can get it free with the kobo points!