Friday, February 19, 2010

Sony ebook store stinks!

On Friday, February 5th I purchased a copy of "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan from the Sony ebook store.

I immediately started to read it and immediately noticed TYPOS! Dis tracting typoslike these.

I jumped online to the Sony online chat and even though I clearly stated my problem at the very beginning of the chat, one hour in the support person tells me that they aren't able to help me, that I have to phone Sony!

One hour in!

So I called the Sony Book Store help line and explained the problem withthe typ os again. I was told that the issue would be fixed in a couple of days and that I'll get an e-mail notification when the corrections have been made.

On that same day I sent a carefully worded e-mail to Sony (feedback@ebookstore.sony.com) explaining my disappointment with a) their online chat customer service and b) the quality of the ebook I purchased.

No response.

So on Monday I re-sent the e-mail.

No response.

I called the Sony reader store again and was told it could be WEEKS before the typos arecorrected. What??? I want to read the book NOW and it's not readable!

On Monday I was given a credit for my purchase (why didn't they do that on Friday???).

But I was still annoyed that a) the book still had typos and I can't read it and b) that I didn't get a response to my e-mail.

So....on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday AND Monday AND Tuesday following the dreaded e-book purchase I RE-SENT the same e-mail to Sony.

Guess what??? NO REPLY!

So I e-mailed Penguin (the publisher). First the Canadian office. NO REPLY and then the American office. At least the American Penguin people are nice enough to send me a computer generated "thanks for you e-mail, but we are flooded with e-mails and may not reply to you" e-mail.

So, two weeks later the Sony store is still selling the same version of the book, full oftypos and I still haven't had a reply to my e-mail.

So what am I going to do??? Boycott Sony of course.

I've discovered Kobo Books which is affiliated with Chapters Canada. They sell ebooks. They appear to have a fairly good selection and the books are CHEAPER than the Sony Reader Store! Food Rules is $9.9o at the Sony store and only $5.69 at Kobo!

So take that Sony! I'm divorcing you!

Now, having said that....I do love my Sony Reader. I mean LOVE it. I'm only divorcing the Sony Store, not my Sony Reader.

Since I'm a high school librarian I've shared this story with other staff who own Readers and when we have our regional library meeting we usually end up discussing different reading devices. I can't wait to share my story!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your horror story! I've been wavering between purchasing a Kindle or a Sony Touch Reader and I think I've just made up my mind!

Kindle is the way to go for me!

Diane said...

Oh Karyn, you told me you were going to blog about this and I'm SO glad you did!

Hopefully Sony will listen to you now!

I think the worst part of the whole story is that they didn't respond to your e-mails, at all!

lera said...

That is too funny. Well, your post is funny. The situation is NOT funny.

But, I'm divorcing Toys R Us. They won't return my calls or letter either.

Mark said...

My wife was reading your blog and she asked me to read it because I'm "this close" to purchasing a Sony Reader.

I'll be anxiously watching your blog to see if the Reader Store does anything to respond to your issues.

J R said...

that SUCKS!

on a positive note, i really like your header image!

Andrea said...

Thanks for sharing!