Kobo Rakuten experience.

[Blue Note]

I'm curious how your shopping experience with Kobo Rakuten was, if you made one. Unfortunately, my wife's experience was very negative. After purchasing an ebook reader, after 72 hours it had not yet been shipped and, at our request for explanations, they replied that we would have to wait two more working days. I found their attitude very rude and we canceled the order. We are awaiting the refund of the sum but still no news from Rakuten. What is your experience?

[MGlitch]

When I bought the original Kobo H2O they were pretty bad. I called and asked about the status and was told to wait a few days. This was just to get a tracking number mind you. Called back a few day, I think I gave it 4, and was told the same I raised a bit of a fuss and was given an arrival estimate. I called on that day and finally got a tracking number. Obviously it hadn’t yet arrived. It did get to me in a probably not too long a time period the annoying thing was the lack of shipping information.

I seem to recall a somewhat improved situation for my Kobo aura one though it still left room for improvement.

For my Forma I forget if I preordered or not, I suspect I didn’t. Checking the order vs shipping email it was the next day. Though I ordered it a little after midnight on October 16th and it was shipped on the 17th. I don’t recall how long shipping actually took and UPS only tracks back 120 days.

I’ve just ordered a 32gb Forma as the USB port on the 8gb one I have is starting to fail. This order was placed shortly after noon EST today. It is 2pm now and I’ve only got the confirmation of an order email which was immediately sent.

So I suspect my order will ship tomorrow.

I will note that I was not fully charged for this order it’s currently in pending status which I am given to understand means Kobo has essentially put a claim in to my bank but has not redeemed that claim. I may be oversimplifying this or I may even be mistaken entirely. However as long as the charge hasn’t dinged my account I don’t really care.

Upon a little further digging in emails kobo actually sent one on the day of delivery which was the 22nd so 5 days with ground travel I’d consider this acceptable.

Ironically I also found it took kobo two days to ship a case I ordered a month later.

I’ll update when I get a shipping notification but overall I think things have improved.

The main issue seems to be that there’s some division between the various parts of Kobo.

[Blue Note]

The most puzzling thing is the fact that the various departments of Kobo Rakuten seem to have no communication between them. One says that I will be reimbursed the amount paid following the revocation of the order and another department informs me that, despite the revocation of the order, the reader has been sent. I consider it schizophrenic paranoia.

[ottdmk]

I've dealt with Kobo on several customer service matters over the years. The biggest was my relatively new Aura HD, which stopped charging. I found Customer Service quite straightforward to deal with and very helpful. I have yet to have a negative experience with them.

[MGlitch]

I just got the email from Kobo that they shipped my Forma 32gb so 54hrs later.

It's not progressed far enough along for an estimated delivery time and obviously I don't know how long it's going to take for that.

So not the greatest, which would have been same day, or second which would have been yesterday. But a far cry from the 72 hours of waiting OP did, and way better than the 120 hours they were being asked to wait in total.

[John F]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I just got the email from Kobo that they shipped my Forma 32gb so 54hrs later.

It's not progressed far enough along for an estimated delivery time and obviously I don't know how long it's going to take for that.

So not the greatest, which would have been same day, or second which would have been yesterday. But a far cry from the 72 hours of waiting OP did, and way better than the 120 hours they were being asked to wait in total.

Since it "shipped" why don't you request a tracking number?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by John F

Since it "shipped" why don't you request a tracking number?

they provide one, it's shipping via UPS, but this is what UPS says right now

Scheduled Delivery

When the shipment arrives at our facility the delivery date will be updated.

I'm guessing it'll get here on the 28th or 29th but we'll see. I'll depend on how things go at the Canadian/US border.

[MGlitch]

Another update UPS is currently claiming delivery is estimated for the 25th which I’m skeptical of since it’s ground shipping.


eta- UPS has since rescheduled it to the 28th, which is as I think I've established, hardly surprising nor is it really a negative on either Kobo's end or UPS's. The thing is being shipped on the cheap from Canada to southern NY. The 25th is Friday so any delay would push it over the weekend.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Blue Note

The most puzzling thing is the fact that the various departments of Kobo Rakuten seem to have no communication between them. One says that I will be reimbursed the amount paid following the revocation of the order and another department informs me that, despite the revocation of the order, the reader has been sent. I consider it schizophrenic paranoia.

I can lend my experience to this claim. And I add: they don't appear to care, either.