Why @Kobo is full of it. #fail

Why @Kobo is full of it. #fail

Date: 2014.04.17 | Category: Articles, eBooks, Reading | Tags: Accountability,Airmiles,Book,Complaint,E-book,E-book reader,EPUB,Kobo,Sony,Transparency

Once upon a time, I had a Sony e-Reader, I had gotten through the Airmiles reward program. It was a great e-Reader, but I soon upgraded to a Kobo. Since then I’ve upgraded to the Kobo Aura HD.

Then it was recently announced that Sony was getting out of the e-Reader business, and that my library would be transferred over to Kobo.

Oh did I ever rejoice.

It was a very happy day, now I can sync those books with the iPad app, and the android app. I was ecstatic.

Then I got the link. The lovely link to transfer over my books. Should have been easy.

It wasn’t.

About half of my library was moved over, the rest weren’t under the explanation that Kobo didn’t sell them, and thus couldn’t put them in my library. Ok, no big deal. I already have them on my hard drive, I’ll live.

Then I uncovered the lie – some of those books were available in the Kobo library. So I submitted a ticket. In the end they can’t put those books in my library for free because… they’re the wrong format. PDF vs ePub. So because of it being PDF, I get screwed out of it being in my library, and thus have to manually load it onto my Kobo.

If the company makes a promise, they should keep it. This is just another epic fail that is making me reconsider this company.

The other factor – Kobo is challenging a Competition Bureau deal worked out with 4 publishers to end the ban on coupon codes when you buy their books. I’ve long hated that I can’t use coupon codes on Kobo, and I’m on the border… of switching to a Kindle.

So Kobo, get your act together, or you’ll lose my business, and I will stop recommending you to everyone who will listen. In fact, I’ll specially tell them to never buy or shop from Kobo.

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