Digital ink vs paper - your current thoughts

[Bouncy Castle]

Harumph.

[pip]

[Bouncy Castle]

[Seimimac]

I got the Kindle Keypad for my birthday in 2010, and it was fantastic! I bought loads of books from Amazon, and searched for free downloads everywhere. I had built up quite a collection, and one night my friend texted to say I should call down as he had something for me - a few books for the Kindle.

More than a few, actually. Over 12,500 e-books! All of the Discworld novels up to that point, all Tolkien, a lot of the old Target Dr. Who books, Douglas Adams...the list went on and on. I was in heaven!

I soon had more than 500 books on my Kindle. Then, one night, when Mrs. Seimimac was out with her friends, I sat down with a glass of wine and switched my Kindle on. The screen was covered in electronic ink! I could see text, but it was streaky, and looked as if the e-ink had run all over the face! I was horrified. I went straight to the Kindle site to see what could be done. There, I read dozens of reviews and comments from people who had had similar experiences. In almost all of them, they praised Kindle Customer Services on how promptly they had sent out a replacement Kindle, no quibbles, no extra cost.

So, I phoned. I got this guy, who asked me all the 'Did you drop it? Did you get it wet? Did you accidentally set it on fire, run over it in the car, then hammer nails through it?' questions. I answered no to all, and was astounded to hear him say that he was very sorry, but the warranty had expired and there was nothing he could do.

I said that the warranty was only up by 2 weeks, and was there anything he could do. He went away, and when he returned, he said that, as I was obviously a good customer, they would replace it with the same model, if I paid £40. I said I wasn't happy with that, as it had been a gift, I hadn't actually broken or damaged it, and the warranty was only just up. He wouldn't back down. I said I would think about it.

The next day, I phoned back and spoke to someone else. They went away and came back with the same offer. I was still unhappy, so they said I could e-mail their bosses, which I did. I got a reply a week or two later, offering the same deal. I wrote back, saying this was very unfair. They wrote back to me, basically saying 'Sorry, but we won't budge.'

I left it for about a month, then wrote again, saying Mrs. Seimimac would prefer to pay the £40, rather than go through all this and me still be without my Kindle. I asked them to send them the details of how she should go about ordering the new device. I also asked, as the Kindle touch was now the same price as my original Kindle had been, would they consider giving me an upgrade?

They wrote back, saying that the model I owned was no longer being produced, therefore they couldn't replace it. I was gutted. However, they continued, in light of how long this had taken to resolve, and how good a customer I had been, they were authourised to deposit in my Amazon account the price of a Kindle Touch! They apologised for the delay and inconvenience

It arrived 2 weeks ago, and I'm slowly building up my collection again

[Who's Wee Dug]

Bit of a bummer that, I take it you had not backed up what was on it.

[Tonyblack]

That sounds like a nightmare, Seimi. And it sounds to me like a fault in design if other people have had the same problem. Maybe that's why they don't make it any more.

[Bouncy Castle]

Oh god. I've got a Kindle with the full keypad.

[pip]

No comment

[Bouncy Castle]

[pip]

Hey i'm still waiting on my bookshelf. I've to get my giggles somehow

[Bouncy Castle]

If you had a Kindle, you wouldn't need a bookshelf!

[ runs ]

[MerlinPowered]

If you had a Kindle, you wouldn't need a bookshelf!

[ runs ]

[pip]

If you had a Kindle, you wouldn't need a bookshelf!

[ runs ]

A booksherlf looks a lot nicer than a kindle

[raisindot]

I got the Kindle Keypad for my birthday in 2010, and it was fantastic! I bought loads of books from Amazon, and searched for free downloads everywhere. I had built up quite a collection, and one night my friend texted to say I should call down as he had something for me - a few books for the Kindle.

More than a few, actually. Over 12,500 e-books! All of the Discworld novels up to that point, all Tolkien, a lot of the old Target Dr. Who books, Douglas Adams...the list went on and on. I was in heaven!

Maybe the royalty gods were enacting divine copyright retribution...

[Bouncy Castle]

booksherlf

What's one of those, then?