Technology, Travel and Everything ElseBecky’s Kobo Experience
Becky got her new Wireless Kobo (Wi-Fi, not 3G) back in November and has had more than a few problems with it.
Initially, we’d had problems getting it to charge (it didn’t like charging off of a wall-brick; It has a Mini-USB port for charging), so we charged it off her laptop. We got it connected to the wireless, set her up a Borders account (which is how the Kobo manages purchased eBooks) and purchased a book she’d been wanting to read.
Then the fun started; She took the reader with her to work one evening, to read at lunch, and said that it “looked frozen”. It turned out that the battery was totally dead. It should be noted that the Kobo generally sleeps with the screen on as eInk doesn’t use power when it’s not changing. To that end, it’s hard to tell “Crashed” from “Dead Battery”.
So Becky checked in at the local Borders (around December 15th) and talked with a manager of some sort. Their first question is “Did you buy our extended warranty?” On the surface, this seems really brazen on Borders’ part. Why should a customer need an extra insurance policy to double-protect a 25-day-old product that carries a 12-month warranty? The secret is in the ownership. We talked to a different manager a week later and he explained that Borders “owns” the extended-warranty business but that Kobo, a totally separate company, owns the reader business and its associated Manufacturer’s warranty. He recommended that we contact Kobo directly to facilitate an RMA, but to talk to him if they couldn’t take care of us.
When we got home, we got on the Kobo website (not Borders’) and called up their customer service. The woman we talked to was convinced that this was a hardware issue and was surprised that the store hadn’t just replaced the reader outright, being less than 30 days old. She opened a ticket and said we’d hear back for an RMA. Within a few days, we’d heard nothing. Becky called back and they “expedited the ticket”, and said we’d near back within 24-48 hours. We still haven’t, though we’re now up against the holiday weekend.
More to come.
did the problem ever get solved. Now that Borders is out of business, we purchased the extended warranty, but cannot contact the insurance provider to replace the damaged Kobo
It actually did; Borders ended up replacing it, somehow.(post was here). We didn’t pay for the warranty, so I can’t say for sure, but typically things like that are underwritten and handled by GE Capital or someone… Check the pamphlet?