Comments on: Washington Post on Kindle: Screen problems, ‘often-awkward interface,’ lockup, wireless issues, but ‘you can get lost in a compelling book’

By: J. Olsen

J. Olsen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:25:00 +0000

I wrote this to Amazon,

I would like to close my account and have my name removed from your company, I know I have an credit account with you and will get that paid and closed. I am not at all happy on how I was treated when my kindle first generation screen went bad or whatever happened to it, I have always treated it with care; it’s never been dropped or damaged. I have at the most used about 15 times, now it does not work or the screen it covered with black lines. I am told by your support people that I will have to pay a $99 to fix it or replace it. I haven’t done anything to have it fail!! You can look at my account and see that I have always been a loyal customer, I have recommend you on many occasions, telling potential customers to “buy from Amazon because you can be trusted and get a good deal”, that for me has changed and ended. There will no longer be any recommendations, I will tell others of this occasion, and that they will buy it at their own risk, I paid a pretty penny for that little device and I did so because I believed in you and wanted to support you on this endeavor, I bought it because I knew you would be around to support it, that you would be there for updates, I could of stayed with my PDA and read books from there as I have for many years, and now I will have to go back to doing that. I guess it’s not time for E-readers yet. Thank you and good bye.

By: flordesakura

flordesakura — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:41:12 +0000

I purchase the Kindle DX, and just 2 months later one night when I put it to sleep it did not work and in the screen several lines appeared and the back screen became very dark, making it impossible to read on it.
I searched on the web after trying many things including depleting the battery and found out that this problem was not so uncommon, and that the only solution was to get a new kindle. The customer service of Amazon was very kind and immediately sent me a new one. But I´m very worry that this problems with the Kindle that can only be solved by having it replaced, and also the warranty that only last for a year is another concern, but buying another year extender warranty for $100 dollar is just too much, after making such an investment in a E-book reader like the Kindle DX

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:39:39 +0000

I bought a Kindle 1 as a birthday present for my wife on 8-JUN-2008. It locked up once about 6 months in. I did a reset using the button in the back and it was fine. One year and 20 days after the purchase the device locked up and continued to do so after every reset. I have talked with customer support 3 times. I tried a firmware reset and a firmware update and still no improvement. The device constantly locks up and takes multiple attempts to reset even while plugged in just to get to the home page. I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist but this certainly makes me wonder. A $359 electronic device should last longer than 1 year unless maybe Amazon decided it was time for us to upgrade (exactly 20 days after the warranty expired). My wife spent about $125 on books in one year. I was given the option of paying the full price for a Kindle 2 or sending in my defective unit and getting a refurbished Kindle 1 for $180. I don’t believe Amazon will get any of our money ever again.

By: Jon Jermey

Jon Jermey — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:00:20 +0000

Since when has your p-book frozen up?

A few years ago I bought a second-hand detective story paperback, read it through with mounting interest, got to the second-last chapter — and discovered the rest was missing. Does that count as a freeze-up?

I’ve also owned pbooks in which chapters were out of sync, single pages missing and whole chunks bound upside-down. Tight binding which cracks the book when it first opens is commonplace (planned obsolescence, perhaps?)

Technical flaws are not confined to electronic media.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:26:47 +0000

Nate: Thanks. Sounds like a likely explanation. Of course, Amazon would do well to make that clear in a quick start guide or whatever. Notice? Even the Amazon tech support guy didn’t have an answer. For all practical purposes, it might as well have been a freeze, even if it wasn’t. Happy holidays. David

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:22:46 +0000

LC and Brian: Well, keep us posted—especially on the positives of the Kindle (in the interest of balance). You can use this thread if you’d like. If you have tips to share for fellow owners, please do so! Thanks. David

By: Nate the great

Nate the great — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:09:58 +0000

The screen only draws power when it is being refreshed. If it is not being refreshed, the screen will not change. His Kindle didn’t freeze. The battery died.

By: LC

LC — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:46:19 +0000

Brian-

Are you talking about using the cover while reading? I don’t use it for that, since I don’t consider it a secure fit like the Sony reader. I consider it more a protective case and only use it when I am putting it away.

When your unit froze up, was it when you connected it to a pc or did it happen while using the book independent? Let’s hope that Amazon is working on a fix for this soon.

By: Brian Carnell

Brian Carnell — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:31:23 +0000

I’ve seen the freezeup a few times, including where the reset button wouldn’t work. Yes, I was able to solve this by plugging it in — the problem was when it froze I wasn’t anywhere near either of the two charging cords I’ve got for it. I expect my Win Mobile to freeze up occasionally when I load a bunch of third party software on there. No reason at all a single purpose device with all the code written by Amazon should lock up. I’ve *never* seen the RocketBook I grabbed from Fictionwise freeze up.

What’s annoying about the buttons is that if you close the cover they ship with it, it will push the buttons for you. So you have to remember to put the Kindle in a special suspend mode. Ugh.

The Kindle…its the worst dedicated ebook reader…except all the other ones.

By: LC

LC — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:23:11 +0000

I have had my Kindle for 2 days now. I have not put it to extensive use, but I did buy an issue of the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and read them both without any freezing or hangups.

I also browsed some web pages and for the most part, they looked pretty good and loaded fairly quickly. I searched the store as well and purchased a book. No problems there.

I agree with the issue many have about accidental page turns due to the large buttons on both sides of the device. I am hoping a firmware update in the future will give us the ability to choose left or right handed reading that will disable the buttons on the side we hold.

So far I haven’t needed to recharge it. Then again, I only turn the wireless on when I need to make a purchase or the one occasion I browsed the web.