Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Kindly Give Me Back My Kindle

Hello readers :)

I figured that it had been awhile since I last posted something of interest on this blog, so I thought that I would write a post while I had a spare minute or two.

As anyone who reads my blog may have guessed from the many posts about books, I like to read. Quite a lot really. Enough for me to have books to fill practically fill a full two bookshelves by myself. Which means that when I move around, when I travel and when I move houses, I tend to take a lot of books with me. What this leads to is a lot of extra weight and a lot of extra space. This led to a decision being made last year - I needed an ebook reader. When Shaina got given her Nook for her birthday, I was incredibly jealous and I started working on Grant, insisting that I should get such a device myself. It would come in handy for the both of it, I pleaded. And eventually he gave in, getting my a wonderful Kindle for my own birthday in March.

It is now August, and I am ashamed to say that I have not made too much use of my Kindle. After downloading a huge number of books and taking my Kindle to Johannesburg with me, I have barely touched it since, and there is good reason for this. My Kindle, my wonderful Kindle, the third (or fourth) love of my life (after Grant, Puddims and, at times, my HTC) is faulty. You see, while Amazon advertises that the Kindle battery can last a full month, I can barely get four hours out of the thing. The wireless is turned off. There is no music playing. I have decreased the number of books on the machine, but after fully charging it, turning it on and opening a book, it automatically jumps to less than half health. The last time I did this, I then turned it off and left it sitting on my desk. Two days later, it was completely dead.

Contacting Kindle from South Africa is a problem. You see, Amazon does not have South African support, and though I emailed them about the problem, they required a phone call. There is no local number to call. My cellphone does not have roaming and cannot dial international numbers. My Skype does not have credit as I have no credit card. I am left with only one option - to take the machine in to the shop where Grant bought it. Which I will do. But I thought that I would vent my upsetness first.

I am upset. I loved my Kindle with all my heart, glorifying it as the best birthday present ever. And it is broken. I seriously think that Kindle needs to get some South African support, particularly if these devices are being marketed at an International audience, which they are. If they cannot get South African support, then they need to be prepared to have better reception when emailed and provide better service than merely saying: "We can't help you over email. Give us a call." I can't give you a call, and I am left with a defective machine until I can get off my ass and go to Insight. Which, fair enough, is not too far away. But while Amazon offers a replacement in days, I know that my Kindle is not going to get back to me for weeks when I hand it over to Insight, because it is doing nothing more than passing it on to a middle man, who then has to get in contact with their suppliers, who then have to get in contact with Amazon, who then have to send a replacement, which then needs to be sent to Insight and finally ends up at me a lot later than it would have if I could have just gotten hold of Amazon myself.

I am upset. I am unimpressed and I want my Kindle back, the way that it should be. Rant over.

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