Sony Reader available at Sony Webstore

[Greg G]

Originally Posted by CCDMan

So that is why it takes over a week when simple express mail would only take 2-3 days? I think the "maximize postal discounts" is the part that motivates them.....

You would think for a $350 purchase they would be willing to ship without taking advantage of people - even if the product is brand new and in demand. To charge $112 for 2-day shipping is a slap in the face. Now that the free shipping "special" is over it is only $18 for 2-day shipping. I would have gladly paid that on Wednesday and had my reader today but if I had waited for them to "fix" the shipping cost then I would have 2-day shipping in December...

Oh well, the good news is that my reader has left the sorting center too!

Date Time Description Location
September 28, 2006 8:00 AM Sortation Center Departure LOS ANGELES, CA
September 27, 2006 9:20 AM Sortation Center Arrival LOS ANGELES, CA
September 27, 2006 12:00 AM Pickup LONG BEACH, CA

[cfc]

I called up both the Sony store and the Borders store in Tyson's Corner, VA. Neither of them had any idea when they would have it in. So when I noticed the express shipping was only $18.00, I decided I might as well order online.

Estimated ship date is 11/02/2006.

I am hopeful that this is the worst case shipping date, since when the first people ordered theirs it was stating that it would ship on or before October 31st.

I've already started downloading some books from Manybooks and Baen.

I also emailed Fictionwise and asked if they were going to offer their multiformat books in a compatible format for the Sony Reader. They stated that they were investigating it.

I'd love to get this by my birthday in a couple weeks

Carl

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by cfc

I also emailed Fictionwise and asked if they were going to offer their multiformat books in a compatible format for the Sony Reader. They stated that they were investigating it.

Nice one, cfc! That would be excellent.

[scotty1024]

Originally Posted by Greg

To charge $112 for 2-day shipping is a slap in the face. Now that the free shipping "special" is over it is only $18 for 2-day shipping. I would have gladly paid that on Wednesday and had my reader today but if I had waited for them to "fix" the shipping cost then I would have 2-day shipping in December...

Well I forked over the $112 on 9/26 and got a ship date of 9/28, which slipped to 9/29 and now it has slipped to "unknown".

Color me very angry.

[Kosst Amojan]

Originally Posted by cfc

I called up both the Sony store and the Borders store in Tyson's Corner, VA. Neither of them had any idea when they would have it in. So when I noticed the express shipping was only $18.00, I decided I might as well order online.

We're lucky enough to have two Sony Store's in our area and they're both useless. My b-day is in early November so I'll just order online and get an early gift for myself. I'll prob get the charger in store though.

[Frogsmasha]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Well I forked over the $112 on 9/26 and got a ship date of 9/28, which slipped to 9/29 and now it has slipped to "unknown".

Color me very angry.

Whoa.. I think I might get my Reader tomorrow, and I didn't pay for the shipping. You should see if you can get some money back. That's a bit messed up

[Slava]

It's moving and getting closer

Latest update on shipping
>September 30, 2006 2:51 AM Sortation Center Arrival MARTINSBURG, WV

It's still with FedEx, and for MA destinations, they should bring it to Northborough, MA. After that, USPS will handle it.

[Crono]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Well I forked over the $112 on 9/26 and got a ship date of 9/28, which slipped to 9/29 and now it has slipped to "unknown".

Color me very angry.

Hello all,

Long time lurker first time poster here. I received the email notification on the Reader on Tues night after I got home from work and went here to register and let everyone know. Should have known everyone here would know about it.

I have a similar experience with Scotty. I placed an order on that night 9/26 and got a ship date of 9/29. I checked Saturday morning and to my dismay the date has changed to unknown.

I would have been fine if I was informed from the beginning of the order process that they were out and gave me a later ship date date - but to give me a date of 9/29 and say "Oops" and leave me hanging with no idea of when I will receive the my product is ridiculous.

Ah well. To those that will receive your orders, do enjoy and post some impressions. I would love to read them.




-C


*edit - double quoted

[Greg G]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Well I forked over the $112 on 9/26 and got a ship date of 9/28, which slipped to 9/29 and now it has slipped to "unknown".

Color me very angry.

That is just wrong. It's bad enough to make you pay six times the real rate for shippng but then to not get it to you in 2 days demands action. You should call them up and keep asking for managers until they fix it!

Originally Posted by Slava

It's moving and getting closer

Latest update on shipping
>September 30, 2006 2:51 AM Sortation Center Arrival MARTINSBURG, WV

It's still with FedEx, and for MA destinations, they should bring it to Northborough, MA. After that, USPS will handle it.

Nice homework! Mine has arrived in MARTINSBURG, WV as well. I guess it will go to Edison, NJ or Philadelphia, PA and then USPS will take over. This is some mighty funky shipping. I found the web site you got the picture from and love the description of their service:

"Combining our superior package expeditor service with the USPS' broad domestic coverage results in less handling and lower cost for less time-sensitive goods."

I would argue the logic of Sony considering the rollout of their readers to be "less time-sensitive goods". Those of us clicking the status link every 5mins might disagree

[CCDMan]

>September 30, 2006 2:51 AM Sortation Center Arrival MARTINSBURG, WV

Yeah, mine now shows Kent, WA (Seattle Area). Typical to send it almost as far north of us as where it came from south of us.

Damn hub systems may be cost effective but they sure do waste time and energy. The most ridiculous example I have seen is the USPO, who had branches in both of two towns (I used to live in one) that are appx. 5 miles apart. If you mailed something from one town to the other, it was trucked 2 1/2 hours to the sorting center and 2 1/2 hours back!

[Gantrioch]

I just called SonyStyle.Com and verified a few things.

It's made in Japan. That, for me at least, more than justifies whatever price Sony has for the Reader. I'm a "made in Japan" fanatic, especially in regards to electronics, haha :-).

The initial stock of 200 Readers totally sold out.

There are currently more than 1000 delayed orders while they wait for new units to be shipped from Japan.

I'm really happy that the Reader seems to be popular :-).

[CCDMan]

The initial stock of 200 Readers totally sold out.

Only 200 initial stock for an item that the company has been hyping for 8 months?! Either that number was analy extracted by the CS rep or Sony is even dumber than we thought....

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by Gantrioch

The initial stock of 200 Readers totally sold out.

There are currently more than 1000 delayed orders while they wait for new units to be shipped from Japan.

I'm really happy that the Reader seems to be popular :-).

Wow, just 200 Readers? That means, like, uhm, 95% of all Readers must have gone to MobileReaders Sony should rename it to the Sony MobileReader.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by CCDMan

Only 200 initial stock for an item that the company has been hyping for 8 months?!

I think that's probably the initial stock that SonyStyle had for their direct orders, and doesn't include what they have slated for retail sales.

We know that SonyStyle is flat at the moment, but the Sony Stores are starting to get them in (San Francisco, for instance) and they aren't sold out yet.

[cfc]

They had about 6 left at the Sony Store at Tyson's Corner Virginia this afternoon out of an initial stock of 12. When I got home I tried calling up to cancel my online order and got a message saying that I need to call up during normal business hours. I'll give them a call on Monday.

Like many people say, you have to see it in person to really appreciate it. Maybe they decided it was more important to actually display it at their stores.