Buy from Kobo in the US?

[issybird]

My own take: if the price difference is trivial, order from Walmart, because it'll make a return for something that's defective out of the box much easier. There's also the holiday return window factor, which should kick in soon.

With a significant price difference because of currency, order from Chapters. This might be more or less appealing in terms of how willing you are to put up with perceived flaws. In any case, it'll be far faster than Kobo.

Bottom line: there's no reason at all to order from Kobo.

[Cootey]

I completely agree with ratinox and issybird. To describe dealing with Kobo is slow is to malign the word “slow”. My KA1 was purchased through Kobo. It took two weeks to arrive. When I ran into problems and needed to make a return, it was a nightmare—not just in dealing with Kobo but in the time waiting for a replacement. The tracking ID only follows the device to New York. At that point it is packaged onto donkeys or some other pack animal with smaller legs, and slowly moved into Canada with no tracking ID that they share with you.

In comparison, I bought my daughter a Clara on Walmart.com and picked it up at a store less than two days later. When we discovered it was defective, I went back to Walmart and exchanged it for a new one. When it had battery issues six months later, I had to deal with Kobo, and it took weeks to get a replacement.

Kobo has always done right by me, so I’m not complaining, but if you’re looking for speed or a need for an exchange due to a defect, they are not the best place to make your purchase.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[MGlitch]

For what it’s worth Kobo was quick with the Forma I just ordered.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

For what it’s worth Kobo was quick with the Forma I just ordered.

I would be very happy to hear that this is a new trend for them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

For what it’s worth Kobo was quick with the Forma I just ordered.

Quick?

Order processing turnaround for Kobo was over 24 hours. That's from the time I clicked the button to the time PayPay were charged. Ground shipping was held a day at customs, then another 3 days for delivery. That much was relatively quick because I live near two major UPS distribution centers.

Order processing turnaround for Walmart was less than 30 minutes. Shipping was 2 days with in-store pickup.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by ratinox

Quick?

Order processing turnaround for Kobo was over 24 hours. That's from the time I clicked the button to the time PayPay were charged. Ground shipping was held a day at customs, then another 3 days for delivery. That much was relatively quick because I live near two major UPS distribution centers.

Order processing turnaround for Walmart was less than 30 minutes. Shipping was 2 days with in-store pickup.

What a shock a larger company within the US got an item to one of its stores faster than a smaller company in another country got an item to your door.

It’s almost as if Walmart had some sort of massive infrastructure for facilitating shipments to their stores.

I ordered on the 21, 7 days later using ground shipping I had my Forma. Two of those days being the weekend which I hardly hold against Kobo since it’s UPSs call on how they handle weekends.

[4691mls]

I'm old enough to remember the good ol' days when you would order from a catalog by mail with a check enclosed, wait for your order to get to the company, they would then process your payment and ship your order, NOT overnight....

If it takes a company 24 hours to process my order this just doesn't seem like a big deal to me (unless they stated that they have same-day service). Some companies are not open 24/7 so if you order on an evening, weekend or holiday there is additional time involved (I have no idea if this is the case with Kobo).

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

What a shock a larger company within the US got an item to one of its stores faster than a smaller company in another country got an item to your door.

This does not explain the 24+ hours needed for processing the initial order in the first place. This does not explain the two days my initial RMA took to process before getting the return labels. This does not explain Kobo shipping the WRONG DEVICE as a replacement. This does not explain the week (29 Aug to 4 Sep) and multiple emails and telephone calls to Kobo to get a second set of RMA labels to return the incorrect unit they sent me. This does not explain the four days (9 Sep to 12 Sep) and multiple emails and telephone calls that the second return was stuck in their shipping department without being processed. This does not explain the additional 3 days of emails and telephone calls for getting the third unit shpped. This does not explain the ground shipping used by Kobo's shipping department after I made it very and repeatedly clear to customer support managers via email and telephone that if it was not overnight expedited I would be demanding a refund. This does not explain the two days it took Kobo's shipping department to "find" this unit after UPS confirmed return receipt after I instructed UPS to reject delivery and return to sender.

[MGlitch]

How does Kobo being a smaller company not explain the majority of that.

Also you can instruct them all you like about shipping they’re going to use what they have to ship it regardless. You are not a special snowflake. You don’t get special treatment. No matter how much you thrash and wail at some low level Kobo CS employee.

Also as my comment was strictly limited to buying not returning the majority of your reply isn’t relevant.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

How does Kobo being a smaller company not explain the majority of that.

The size of a company has no bearing on the performance of its internal processes and its responsiveness to customers.

Also you can instruct them all you like about shipping they’re going to use what they have to ship it regardless. You are not a special snowflake. You don’t get special treatment. No matter how much you thrash and wail at some low level Kobo CS employee.

I wasn't wailing at low level wage slaves. I was informing their managers and the person who is ostensibly responsible for handling processing problems that after going on a month of dealing with repeated incompetence and negligence I was angry about the whole thing and they had one last chance to make things if not right then at least not more wrong.

Kobo ultimately went with more wrong.

Also as my comment was strictly limited to buying not returning the majority of your reply isn’t relevant.

Returning defective merchandise is (may be) part of the experience as a whole.

[MGlitch]

1) the size of a company absolutely affects those things

2) anyone you spoke to on the phone, via email, or chat is a low level employee. The manager is still bound by the same constraints and no amount of you wishing or demanding otherwise will change this.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

1) the size of a company absolutely affects those things

If your reasoning is correct then a larger company with more bureaucracy should be slower and less responsive to customers than the smaller company with less bureaucracy and overhead. Yet my experience and the experiences of others with Kobo is exactly the opposite.

NB: I'm not including UPS or customs in these unreasonable delays. UPS times have been on the whole better than average. All of my complaints are about Kobo themselves.

2) anyone you spoke to on the phone, via email, or chat is a low level employee. The manager is still bound by the same constraints and no amount of you wishing or demanding otherwise will change this.

Incorrect. Anyone in a customer service managerial role by definition has some leeway in bending the rules because unhappy customers are bad for business.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by ratinox

If your reasoning is correct then a larger company with more bureaucracy should be slower and less responsive to customers than the smaller company with less bureaucracy and overhead. Yet my experience and the experiences of others with Kobo is exactly the opposite.

NB: I'm not including UPS or customs in these unreasonable delays. UPS times have been on the whole better than average. All of my complaints are about Kobo themselves.

Except a larger company has more employees to do the same thing. But yes do ignore that, I'm sure Kobo has the same number of employees as Amazon in every department.

Except the whole customs thing, which is out of Kobos control entirely. And again the CS reps you speak to have only so much power.

Incorrect. Anyone in a customer service managerial role by definition has some leeway in bending the rules because unhappy customers are bad for business.

Yes "some*, but they are still bound by the same strictures as the non managerial staff is. If there's no overnight shipping available to them through their system it doesn't matter if a manager tells the computer "listen I am a manager" the computer still doesn't have overnight shipping.

And they are still low level staff.

So again, you can whine, and thrash, and complain all you like to these people, they very likely aren't empowered to change anything. Is that a bad thing? Probably. But that's how it is.

I'll grant Amazon generally handles this better, they throw gift cards at you like they're going out of style. But it's always Amazon gift cards so you're just going to spend back to them anyway.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Except a larger company has more employees to do the same thing. But yes do ignore that, I'm sure Kobo has the same number of employees as Amazon in every department.

Except the whole customs thing, which is out of Kobos control entirely. And again the CS reps you speak to have only so much power.

Okay, you asked for it:

I am finishing up a terrible Customer "Care" experience with Kobo and I figured I would write this up as an example of a worst case scenario should anyone ever need to RMA a Kobo device.

I ordered a Kobo Forma 32GB on 8 August 2019.

Within a few days of receipt I discovered it was defective. It would freeze up for no apparent reason and require a hard power off/on to get it working again. No rhyme or reason and neither my Aura HD nor Aura One behave this way, and I found no reports of similar behavior on recent firmware, so this was clearly atypical. After several attempts at self trouble shooting I contacted Kobo Customer Care.

The first person I dealt with there had me try several hard resets and when they did not resolve the problem agreed to RMA the device. I made a point of identifying the Kobo Forma 32GB as the model being replaced. This was 18 August.

On 29 August I received a Kobo Forma 8GB.

I immediately opened a new case with Kobo explaining what happened. The second person I dealt with got the data entry right: RMA Kobo Forma, ship Kobo Forma 32GB. This was 29 August.

On 4 September I called Kobo. I still had not received shipping labels and a number of emails to Kobo requesting status updates were ignored. I was given an excuse about a "system error" but I did finally receive the new shipping labels late on 4 September and shipped the device the next day. Device was delivered to Kobo 9 September.

On 11 September in the morning (about 9:30am Eastern time) I called Kobo again. The return was stuck at "Return Received" and my emails requesting status updates were again ignored. At this point I was very specific with the support advisor: overnight ship it today (Wednesday, 11 Sep) so I would have it by Thursday or I would request a refund.

On 12 September (today) in the morning (about 8:30am) I called Kobo yet again because there was no update on the processing. I immediately escalated to a manager and reiterated what I had reported to the support advisor yesterday. He said he would look into it. I spoke again with this manager again at around 3:30pm. He told me that the warehouse was aware and would ship "today or tomorrow". I informed him that was not good enough. I looked up UPS options: Toronto to my residence has 8:30am delivery. I informed him of this and reiterated a modified requirement: deliver it by 8:30am Friday or give me my money back.

Early 13 September Kobo confirmed shipping... via UPS Ground with an estimated delivery date of Tuesday, 17 September.

Written request for a refund has been made.

Requests for confirmation of receipt made morning of 13 September (incorrect From address used by mistake) and afternoon of 13 September (correct From address). Second request included the following:

Please confirm receipt of my refund request.

If I do not receive written confirmation from you by the end of business on Monday, 16 September, 2019, I will ask my credit card company to initiate a chargeback.

Late 14 September I received acknowledgement of my refund request along with the initial processing for the refund. Uncertain at this time if things will go properly since the 13 September shipment will not be received by me but returned directly to sender.

16 September first USP delivery fails. UPS instructed to return package to sender.

16 September I received a followup from Kobo because they had not heard from me and "we want to make sure that all issues are fully resolved." Probably an automated message. I replied that no, all issues were not fully resolved, that shipping was in progress, that I had not received a third return label but did not need one because second unit was already being returned to sender.

16 September I received an apology for not receiving the third return label. Someone or several someones at Kobo are clearly not reading or not comprehending.

19 September, 10:19AM Eastern time UPS delivers returned package to Kobo. Request made for Kobo to acknowledge receipt and initiate refund process. 10:40AM Kobo support notified of return, first request for acknowledgement and refund processing made.

20 September, 9:00AM Eastern time made second request for acknowledgement and return. Response from Kobo at approximately 10:00AM indicated that they see the return in tracking and will issue the refund once the warehouse confirms device processing.

23 September, 10:30AM Eastern PayPal confirmed refund from Kobo (US) Inc.

None of this is related to the number of employees Kobo has in the customer "care" section unless they are so severely understaffed that they can't support their customer base and if this is the case it's all the more reason to avoid Kobo.

[MGlitch]

Look I don’t know how many ways I need to spell this out to you.

You whining and demanding kobo ship things to you in a certain way isn’t going to get anything done. The “I’ll look into it” is not an agreement to do anything you’ve asked it’s how CS get irate customers off the phone without being rude. You can basically consider it “Nothing is going to change, but you’re being too childish to understand that”.

Barring shipping times your whole ordeal took a rather short amount, I’m subtracting two weeks for shipping the original to kobo them shipping the wrong one and so on which doesn’t account for the fact that ground shipping doesn’t do squat on weekends, my Forma literally sat in the same UPS facility from some time on Friday until Monday for example. So if anything 2 weeks is being generous to you. The reason I’m not counting the shipping times is because there’s nothing Kobo can do while the devices are in transit.

This knocks the turn around down to September 9th (obviously I’m not disputing that it wasn’t until the 23rd this is just for reference of time without shipping). Your initial date mentioned is August 29th for when you got the 8gb so I’ll estimate you sent your defective one in on August 16th please feel free to provide an actual date if you want.

So three weeks of various things within both yours, and I’ll grant more Kobos sides to do. Of course those three weeks are broken up into different time segments and have other customers issues between them because despite how you think Kobo should treat you they likely handle things on a first in for each step.