Lost the Kobo help centre

[Mohan-V-Allied]

Hi,

Wonder if anyone knows what is happening at Kobo help centre. As am trying to get in touch with them. There is a help page but no links. Can find no way to contact them.

My issues are a recent update.
1. When syncing to upload my new ebooks, that is all I want. Do not want a new update unless I choose to have it. They give you no choice but to accept it.
2. Little glitches with the new update, ebooks loaded from other sources than Kobo have the problems. The annotations disappear, ebook opens the wrong place and contents don't work. There are other minor isuses.
3. Kobo ebooks where loaded as EPUB but after the last update these have been converted to KEPUB. Which means these can only be read on Kobo, unless an app is downloaded to the computer. The reason for choosing Kobe was that they had plain EPUBs.

If anyone can let me know how to get in touch with there help centre much appreciated.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Mohan-V-Allied

Hi,

Wonder if anyone knows what is happening at Kobo help centre. As am trying to get in touch with them. There is a help page but no links. Can find no way to contact them.

Every now and then some makes this statement. But, it has always baffled me. When ever I visit the store, there is a "Feedback" link on the right-hand side of the screen. That gives several options including a link to "Customer care". Then there is "Help" at the top right, with a customer care link at the bottom of that page.

My issues are a recent update.
1. When syncing to upload my new ebooks, that is all I want. Do not want a new update unless I choose to have it. They give you no choice but to accept it.

Correct. You have no option but to accept it. And there never has been an option. There is a patch to avoid the download or add a prompt when it happens.

2. Little glitches with the new update, ebooks loaded from other sources than Kobo have the problems. The annotations disappear, ebook opens the wrong place and contents don't work. There are other minor isuses.

Sounds like a problem discussed in the thread for firmware version 4.15.12920. Hopefully there will be a fix in the near future. It is a problem triggered by the way the ToC in the books are constructed. This can also be fixed.

3. Kobo ebooks where loaded as EPUB but after the last update these have been converted to KEPUB. Which means these can only be read on Kobo, unless an app is downloaded to the computer. The reason for choosing Kobe was that they had plain EPUBs.

Nothing has changed in how books are downloaded from the Kobo store during my history of using Kobo. The devices have always downloaded kepubs. The desktop application has also always downloaded kepubs. If you want the epub version, you need to download the book from your library on the Kobo store. These will be epubs, with or without DRM depending on the book. Of course, a kepub is basically an epub with some specific styles and spans added. Unless they have DRM, they can be opened by any epub reader.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Every now and then some makes this statement. But, it has always baffled me. When ever I visit the store, there is a "Feedback" link on the right-hand side of the screen. That gives several options including a link to "Customer care". Then there is "Help" at the top right, with a customer care link at the bottom of that page.

This might depend on locality or browser, but the help button at the top right of the Kobo homepage seems to have changed recently, when I click on it there are no longer any contact links for chat / email / phone that I can see. (Edit: Looking again, there is a contact button at the very bottom of the help page, it used to be at the top.)

The feedback tab still works, but it is blocked by some ad blockers.

[Mohan-V-Allied]

Thanks for your reply, am living in the UK. All the links just go back to the help page or the 'Submit a request' link has been removed. The button at the bottom also just returns you to the same page.

Thanks for your time and help.

[Mohan-V-Allied]

Don't think Kobo want a help page anymore.

Have visited the Kobo Help page; there are a couple of links on the page which just loop back to the same page. There is a ‘Submit a request’ but the link has been disabled. Have used this link in the past. On the store page there is a help link; upper right but it goes to the help page which back where I started.
The page ‘My Books’ – Support for books you’ve purchased or downloaded, also has it’s links removed.
In regards, to the downloading of EPUB and KEPUB’s. Had a download of an ebook which was transferred to the computer and was partially read there. When the update was performed found that ebook had been converted to KEPUB. Checked the file type aganst each other.
Thanks for your help and support.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Mohan-V-Allied

Thanks for your reply, am living in the UK. All the links just go back to the help page or the 'Submit a request' link has been removed. The button at the bottom also just returns you to the same page.

Here, the "Submit a request" page has "What is the issue about?" and under it a drop-down. Clicking on any of the items in the drop-down shows several suggestions and a "Contact Us" button. Clicking that goes to a page with choices of "Chat With Us" and "Call Us". I have used the chat a few times to sort out problems. The "Call Us" is a little strange as it gives a problem submission form rather than phone numbers. Maybe when that is filled in it will give the contact details.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Mohan-V-Allied

The page ‘My Books’ – Support for books you’ve purchased or downloaded, also has it’s links removed.

Do you mean there are no download links when you click the menu item next to the books in the library? Have you done something to turn of Javascript or popups or something?

In regards, to the downloading of EPUB and KEPUB’s. Had a download of an ebook which was transferred to the computer and was partially read there. When the update was performed found that ebook had been converted to KEPUB. Checked the file type aganst each other.

Downloaded how? On the device? The Kobo desktop application? As I said above, downloads to the device or the Kobo desktop application have always been kepubs. And how are you comparing file types? Neither use an extension, so you can't be comparing that.

Or from the store library before whatever has happened to remove the link? These will be epubs. And they will have an extension.

[Mohan-V-Allied]

Sorry for not getting in touch earlier but was hoping for something from Kobo in regards to the problems but not much joy.

Firstly, in regards to the help page – the links either don’t work or just loop around. This was on Internet Explorer. After your suggestion about the settings (they were at the correct settings) decided to try FireFox. Had the same problem with the links, BUT near the bottom there was a picture of an owl and a contact link. Tried this and it worked. This opened a help page, with three options for contacting the Help Centre.

Stated the problems and received a stock answer.

I am sorry to hear that you are having issues with your books to help
and solve the issue please follow the steps bellow if you have any more questions
just reply to this email and ill be more than happy to get you the best resolution:

1. Launch Adobe Digital Editions.
2. Delete the file from Adobe Digital Editions as well as from My Digital Edition (under My Documents)

3. Make sure that the date and time on your eReader is correct.
4. De-authorize your computer:

In total there were 21 steps. No joy, and in following emails they ignored most of the issues and just repeated these steps.

In regards, to the downloading of EPUB/KEPUB.
These were either downloaded onto a flash drive then onto the computer or wirelessly onto the ereader.

All the ebooks were downloaded as EPUB, this is shown in Internet Explorer, via the file extension. As back-up the ebooks are downloaded onto the computer. After the last download noticed that the ebooks were showing up without a file extension and in the column for – Type – it was listed as FILE and not EPUB.

Checked the details on the ereader and all the ebooks were shown as FILE. Even ones downloaded before. As a check downloaded one ebook with was had download before. The old version on the computer was EPUB and new version was KEPUB.

Kobo sent this message:

The reason why the books are only downloading in KEPUB is because that is the only
format they books are available now and to that there is not much we can do
and to the book mars and the rest of the issues that you are having might be due to the age of your device you have to keep in mind that the Kobo Touch is one of
our oldest devices and is having issues keeping up with the current software
because of the age of the hardware of the device.

Not anywhere else to go with this.

Thanks for your help.