So the wifes Kindle packed in yesterday, I did the amazon call back thing. Spoke to a nice person all the way in the US of A. She suggested a few things to to try none of which worked, finally suggested leaving it on charge overnight and she would call me back at 0830.

At 0830 today she called me back asking if the problem had been resolved, alas no. After a bit a blah blah blah, she told me that as the kindle was out of warranty by a month I would be entitled to a discount on a replacement. I told her that it (broken one) was covered by SOGA and was still therefore still under warranty, fast forward an hr or so I called by a senior adviser who told me that I was indeed entitled to a free replacement and it will be sent out today.

Amazon were actually very pleasant to deal with.

B

We got a replacement for my daughters one with no argument from them when it stopped working. Very pleasant to deal with as well. Was less than a year old so didn’t need to wave SOGA at them.

The reason they are so nice of course is that the Kindle is a loss leader – they want you to have one so you keep buying stuff from them.

Not that I’m complaining though – the end result is the same 🙂

Hmm…

I cracked the screen on my original Kindle, its out of warranty – 15 months old I think.

I’ve got a new kindle touch but it would be nice to get the old one replaced.

Thinks its worth chancing my arm using SOGA?

Phone them up and ask. Replaced my brother’s one FOC when he broke it.

Here is my experience of dealing with them.

And why I want Dixons / PC world to be the next company to go under.

The reason they are so nice of course is that the Kindle is a loss leader – they want you to have one so you keep buying stuff from them.

wife just buys the free trashy books or those about £0.60

Used to buy loads of stuff on Kindle, stopped after I found about about Amazon’s tax dodging in the UK. One of several big companies that don’t receive any money from me for this reason.

By covered by SOGA I’m assuming you mean to would be “reasonable” to expect the Kindle to last longer than 12 months, rather than anything specific on time covered by SOGA.

Used to buy loads of stuff on Kindle, stopped after I found about about Amazon’s tax dodging in the UK. One of several big companies that don’t receive any money from me for this reason.

But is it right that you pay VAT on e-books but not on the real thing?

In this case I see Amazon using tax avoidance as levelling the playing field between e-books & real books.

I agree the VAT on ebooks is daft but Amazon made a big point on the website of saying ebooks are subject to VAT whilst printed books are not as a reason for the small difference in price. They did not say that it was 3% VAT payable to the Luxemburg taxman.

bruneep – did you just post this to wind me up over my Apple rant?

bruneep – did you just post this to wind me up over my Apple rant?

Not intentionally, however if it has 😆

Daughters one broke and they didn’t even ask for old one

How long does the soga cover you for btw

AIUI Under EU law, electrical goods have to have a two year warranty FoC.

Apple got in trouble over this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19788361

http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

Ah good to know thanks

Amazon are excellent (notwithstanding the tax issues).

1. New satnav broke a couple of days before a foreign holiday. Quick e-mail to Amazon (in the evening), and a new one on the way within an hour (via courier, since I had mentioned it was urgent).

2. Goods not received from an Amazon marketplace seller. Complaint to Amazon – instant refund.

Nah – not annoyed – but if I was you should be looking for a separate RANT thread on “pEOPle WDINGN ME UP abut WarRANTy CLaims$” with which I would hope to beat my existing best score of 9/10 from yesterday.

To cross post slightly – the SOGA and EU Law thing worked a treat for me… I called Apple today about my problem and the genuinely helpful man sorted me out with a “good faith” replacement as soon as I started talking statutory warranty, SOGA and EU Directives…

Only vaguely related, but… my GF had real problems with Amazon, trying to return a PS3 game bought in error (I already had it) to a ‘marketplace’ seller who turned out to be in Greece (unbeknownst to my GF).

Long story short the call centre folk were utterly useless, ballsed up the ‘claim’, then told us there was nothing they could do.

I emailed the MD of the UK business, who got in touch directly cc’ing their ‘executive assistance’ department or something, who resolved the problem virtually instantly, including refunding for the return postage (to them in the UK, they offered to return it to Greece). Was mightily impressed, but as with the OP, their initial procedures weren’t ideal.

I’ve had to contact Amazon a couple of times over orders with problems, they’ve always been excellent.

a ‘marketplace’ seller who turned out to be in Greece

I always treat marketplace sellers as basically just a random place that they do payment processing for. Is that not the case? If it is, kudos to them for sorting it at all.

Yes I agree, and I don’t use them where I can help it – but having paid Amazon, and being unable to contact the seller directly it didn’t seem unreasonable that they sort it (which they tried, they just initially failed!). Still, all worked out in the end as I said.

Found Amazon’s warranty department to be excellent when a Sony camera packed up.

heard loads of stories of kindles being replaced outside of warranty. Its in their interests as their income comes from the books. Dissatisfied owner of bust Kindle = potential customer of rival provider.

Recent experience with Amazon was interesting – their courier failed to deliver my new PC, which happened to be the last one in stock with a lead time of 2 months. Once it was established that the courier had lost it, they said they would give me a refund, plus £20 Amazon vouchers.
At this point, I suggested that as the last 2 deliveries of electronic items (by different courier companies) had both gone wrong, I wasn’t interested in the vouchers because I couldn’t be sure I’d receive the items I ordered, and I needed a PC, as my old one had actually died on me. A slightly helpless pause from the customer services woman, followed by “What would you like us to do then?”
Net result was that I got the next model up from the PC I’d ordered for the same price as I’d paid originally, plus free next day delivery – by a 3rd courier company…
It would have been better if the computer had just turned up when it should, and I hadn’t had to spend half the weekend trying to sort it out, but I’m not exactly unhappy about the end result!

Cheers for this heads up, my kindle has cracked for the second time in 18 month. Just had a quick phone call to customer services and now getting a call back within 24 hours from somebody higher up the chain.

Fingers crossed

Email from amazon, getting sent a new upgraded 3g kindle. Excellent result!

Would have preferred the new cheaper paperwhite version but hey ho. 🙂

Cheers again

Replacement kindle arrived today 😀

Yodel (dear god no!) are picking up the buggered one tomorrow. Had to be a catch somewhere in this