I've seen reports about the new Nook E-Reader, and while it has some nice features, I'll be sticking with the Kindle after yesterday's experience with Amazon's customer service.
In a moment of inattention, I stepped on my Kindle (first generation). At first, it seemed fine, but when I tried to go to the home screen, part of the screen stayed on the "sleep" image. Nothing I tried made a difference. I checked some Kindle forums and found there is a guy who will repair broken screens for about $180. I also saw that Amazon sometimes replaces broken Kindles for varying prices (from free to $199). Since I know a refurbished Kindle 1 is $149, I figured that was the worst case, and I contacted Amazon.
I received an e-mail reply within a few hours (I sent my message late on a Saturday night), and they asked me to call to discuss the problem. I used the call button on Amazon's site, and they called me immediately. The representative was VERY nice - she was sympathetic to my sadness at breaking my Kindle, and she spent quite a while with me, looking at various options. If my Kindle had been under warranty (it wasn't), they would have replaced it free of charge, even though I freely admitted I'd broken it. Since it was out of warranty, they offered $100 off a new one (she said it was new, although I didn't know they still had new first-gen Kindles). For a Kindle 1, that was $99. Sold. They also shipped it to me overnight at no charge.
She offered me a refurbished Kindle 2 for $219 (their regular price), and she tried to get $100 off that (now THAT would have been a deal I couldn't pass up!), but after asking, she came back and said they could only do that if I'd broken a Kindle 2.
So I continue to be a Kindle fan. I'm glad the e-book reader market is exploding because competition forces all the companies to improve their devices, but I'll be sticking with Amazon for the foreseeable future.
Edited by LisaG (10/26/09 11:19 AM)
Post Extras:
Jacob_Spindel
Moderator and writer
Reged: 11/21/05
Posts: 1036
I have also had good experiences dealing with Amazon. There aren't many brands I can say that about!
My strategy to avoid stepping on a Kindle has been to not own a Kindle.
-------------------- Chief iPod Correspondent
Senior Time Waster
Extreme Moderator
Moderate Extremist
Captain of the Planet Express
Assistant Jedi Librarian
--------------------
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
