I found out this morning that a good friend of mine from work unexpectedly passed away yesterday.
And people wonder why I hate the holidays.
My aunt died on Christmas day. Shit.
Sorry for your loss (and you, too, Sigma), but isn’t that kind of a non sequitur?
Amazon. Amazon, Amazon, Amazon.
I appreciate that you’re doing your best to make things right with regards to your Kindle 3 cover that is actually breaking the fucking Kindle. But would it kill you to not have whatever combination of incompetent staff and shitty systems that’s caused me to now have wasted my time on three (3) calls and three (3) emails as I attempt to get the whole fucking mess solved?
Call #1: I explain that I’ve discovered that I’m one of the people who has had my cover short out my Kindle, causing resets and freezes. CS rep approves my return and tells me I should have an email shortly with a return label. All good, right?
Well, no. I check my email and find that I’ve been sent something that’s no more than an address printout–I’m going to be responsible for postage myself. And I won’t get the refund for possibly weeks. Um, *that *ain’t right. I’m not returning a sweater I changed my mind about: this is a product created by Amazon that has a serious design flaw.
Call #2: I explain to the new CS rep that I was sent a label that would require me to pay shipping, which I am not going to do. He is very confused by the whole thing. I have him stay on the line while I go to print out the label and email so I can read him the details… and I come back to a dialtone.
Call #3: Soooo I call back again. This time I get a rep who really has his shit together. He says that he really has no clue what on earth the first rep was trying to do–they don’t even want the cover back, since it’s clearly one of the flawed ones. He says that not only will he immediately issue me a full refund on the cover–he’s also going to be getting me a $25 promotional credit applied to my account so that I can get one of the with-a-light covers as a replacement at no additional cost to me. Great! With that all sorted, I hang up happy.
I go check my account… No credit yet. No problem, I figure, it probably just hasn’t processed yet. The email confirmation of the refund shows up. Hrm… still no extra $25. Check again this morning… Still not there. And yes, I’m going the whole way through to the checkout, which is where it should be displayed. But it’s not there.
Email #1: I explain that the promotional credit isn’t showing up and ask if I should be looking for it in an email or if it should have already been replied.
Email reply #1: I’m told that the credit was indeed applied and that it won’t show up under my account but will show up at the checkout. Erm, no, moron, I already told you that’s where I was looking.
Email #2: I explain explicitly what I’m seeing at the checkout and provide screenshots so they can see I’m not a moron.
Email #2 reply: Apologizes for the problem and explains that they discovered an error with the promotion which they’ve now fixed. So I try to check out again… and find that only part of the promised $25 is showing up. And not even an even number–it’s $13 and change short of what it should be.
Email #3: Explain again in detail what I’m seeing this time, what the promotional credit total is, and what it should be. Maybe *this time *they’ll get it right? … Maybe?
:headdesk: :headdesk: :headdesk: :headdesk: :headdesk:
Aaaargh, that does suck.
Here’s the only thing I would have done differently with the phone calls (and have since learned to do with ANY customer service person) is immediately ask for their name and their direct extension. If they don’t have an extension, ask for their full name. That way if you call back you can either 1) use their direct extension or 2) say that you spoke with ____ and would like to be transferred to them.
Hope you get the $25, dude. Wish you had guy #3’s name and extension :(.
Honestly the whole thing would have been solved by now if I weren’t at work and could afford to just sit on the phone until the whole thing was fixed. Which is what I’d have liked to have done–but instead, I’m stuck with chain-emailing.
I’m not worried about getting the $25–nobody at Amazon is questioning that. It’s just a question of how many tries it’s going to take for the whole fucking system to work like it should have yesterday.
At my old workplace, one of the research librarians discussed buying a car with his wife for weeks on end every day for hours. Ah, the good old days.
Really sucks. I’ve never had an Amazon problem, either. In my mind they’re still the golden retailer.
I’ve always had very good luck with them, and I greatly appreciate the lengths they’re going to in order to make this right (e.g., upgrading me to the more expensive cover instead of just refunding the old one). I just wish they’d get it right the first time. Or second… or third… :smack:
Cats and dog, I’m going to start duct-taping your assholes shut if you don’t STOP THE FARTING. is it just more noticeable because of the house being closed up more in winter? Good god, I need oxygen.
So apparently I’m retarded–they applied the full $25 and I just didn’t notice because bits of it went toward the two Kindle books I bought. In my defense, all Kindle books are purchased with one-click, so you never see the source of what’s paying for them.
“You bastards! You bastards! You… oh fuck, it’s me, isn’t it?”
Been there. Felt the embarrassment. 
I was expecting that the not-so-cashy monies would be locked in for the specific purchase of the new cover! Now I’m torn: do I get the cover-with-a-light, or do I just look at the $25 as a bonus and pick up the cover I was going to get as a replacement? I’m honestly just not sure the light is worth hauling around the extra weight all the damn time.
I mean, it IS backlit…why do you need a light?
Uh, no, it’s not. One of the main features of the Kindle is that it uses “e-ink,” which gives you a display that’s looks just like paper. No backlighting. Much easier on your eyes than what amounts to staring at a lightbulb, but it means you need an external light source to read. The only time I’d ever need a light is if I were in a car at night–on a plane or a train I’d have a light over my seat, and anywhere else (home, hotel, friend’s home, businesses) there would obviously also be lamps and lights.
From a later post, it sounds like you don’t need the light, and it doubles the weight of the cover. That doesn’t sound worth it to me.
We gave one of the teenagers a Kindle + case w/ light for her birthday some months back.
I just asked her how useful the light was and she said she uses it all the time, but she admitted that it is because she reads after dark with the lights out when she should be sleeping.
Nevertheless, the light is not heavy or complex. It is just a sort of diagonal plastic strip that pulls out, with LED at the end. There are no batteries in the case whatsoever: the light draws its power from the Kindle via the two metal latch clips that hold the Kindle in place. If you think you might ever need it (e.g. reading without disturbing SO; reading on a plane at night w/o turning on the overhead), then go ahead and get the light.
One word of advice for a person looking at Kindle covers: you might consider the kind that have some sort of corner bands to hold the Kindle to the back cover.
The problem is that the standard latching mechanism that all Kindle cases have does not allow the Kindle to rotate in page-turning fashion.
In most cases, if you try to flip the Kindle away from the back cover in a page-turning manner, you will damage the left side of your Kindle where the latch mechanism attaches.
The corner bands aren’t necessary, but they provide that added reminder of “don’t even think of putting your finger between the back cover and your Kindle!”
Yes, I’ve owned a Kindle for coming up on two years now (first a Kindle 2 and now a Kindle 3), so I’m well aware of all of these considerations. But thanks.
snicker “but thanks” 
Lest any of us get too helpful in the pit.
Somehow thought the kindle was backlit, whoops.
Well, they *are *being nice, so I’m biting my tongue on how I otherwise might have replied, because I do appreciate the consideration. (Yes, Virgina, I *do *have an internal filter, even in the Pit.)
Perhaps I have committed some sort of social faux pas in offering helpful advice rather than providing additional whining?
Hmmm… let me see if I can work something up…
Ah yes…
Amazon, in my opinion you have knocked the ball out of the park with the Kindle. I love my Kindle and would recommend one to anyone.
But could you possibly be any more isolationist and protectionist about it? There are so many cool things that could happen with your device if you expanded its usability.
For example, wouldn’t you like to sell Kindles to people who might want to buy books elsewhere from time to time? They might go to Sony or some other e-reader because your Kindle can’t read books that all other e-readers can read.
And how about actually putting a little bit of thought into having library books work in a Kindle. You know it can be done. Other devices have worked with libraries in the past, would it kill you to try to support the library model?
No, you don’t lose huge amounts of money. The library still only has as many copies of a book as they buy, and they only lend a book to one person at a time.
But noooooo… Amazon must milk every drop of profit out of this device.
And the books are slowly creeping up in cost to about par with printed materials. Books that had absolutely no publishing, distribution, and stocking costs are costing nearly as much.
Though the device is the best e-ink reader I have used, if someone else comes along and starts supporting the library model and having more openness about what the device reads, I’ll jump ship. (Nook is way too heavy; I’m still undecided on Sony. Haven’t tried others).
And why is it that only one book in three that I look for is available? There are so many free books available that it can’t simply be cost. Can’t you broaden your offerings a bit?
One of the greatest advantages of an e-book is that one can sell out-of-print books that were written forty years ago without incurring the costs of another printing run. Could you please please work on your catalog?