TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘crappy customer service’ Category

By Chris Meadows

As Circuit City commences liquidating its remaining 567 stores this weekend, it might be worth TeleReaders’ while to check out the sales and see if there are any good bargains to be found on e-book readers or PDAs or netbooks that can be used as such.

But it is also worth considering the lessons to be learned from Circuit City’s failure.

Divisive DIVX

Some would say that Circuit City’s road to bankruptcy began ten years ago, when it bankrolled DIVX (Digital Video Express), a digital video disc format that semi-competed with the fledgling DVD. An expensive failure, DIVX in some ways predicted such digital rights management (DRM) controversies as those that dogged Spore.

Unlike DVD, DIVX offered a minimum of special features, pan-and-scanned video, and a singularly obnoxious DRM system that insisted on phoning into centralized servers every time a movie was to be played to make sure viewers had permission to watch their time-limited movie disc.

The idea was that it was meant to replace video rentals rather than video sales—you could “re-rent” a disc in your possession without having to bestir yourself from your sofa—but then, as now, consumers had the funny idea that once you buy the medium, the content should be and stay “yours.”

In the end, DIVX folded and the DIVX authentication servers went dark (presaging the similar fates of Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo music or video DRM servers more recently), and every DIVX disc that had ever been sold became unplayable. This cost Circuit City a great deal, both in investment losses and in good will from those who had bought into its boondoggle.

Lesson: Consumers aren’t inclined to give up their ownership rights just because media and corporate interests think it might be a pretty neat idea.

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By Robert Nagle

Wow, I have just tried the last 15-20 minutes trying to send a support email to Sonystyle about ebooks. The telephone reps won’t let me purchase an accidental coverage 2 year extended warranty and I wanted to ask for confirmation in writing. I wanted to know if those chronic display problems would be covered under the normal extended service plan (which I am still eligible to buy apparently).

I am used to dealing with malfunctioning support contact pages. But with Sonystyle I’ve tried everything!

Go to this customer support page. Choose the tab, Email a question.

I didn’t remember if I had registered an account with them, so after I typed the question, it asked me to provide 3 different email addresses! Every time I hit submit I get a random error message. “Email already created.” “Email form has timed out.”  “Each email address is supposed to be different.”

I try a different tactic. Create new account (without email confirmation). Submit questions, submit. No message, nothing. Instead, I’m redirected to a user registration page. Wait, wasn’t I there already? Does this mean the  message was sent? No idea? (Nothing in email).

So I try a different tactic. Go to a URL outside of the Sonystyle’s frame. Shut off popup blocker, try to register with another email. Try to send email. Submit, nothing. Wow, the help page provides me with no useful information!

Wow, I really like the Sony PRS505, but this website doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence about Sony’s grasp of technology!

Hey sony, if you want to contact me, my email is idiotprogrammer@fastmailbox.net

In other news, according to the results of Teleread’s  informal survey of device owners last month, Sony PRS 505 leads the e-eink devices in the likelihood of critical device failures. The results:

• Cybook. 87% have not experienced screen breaking  problems (159 responses)
• Kindle. 84%  have not experienced screen breaking problems (191 responses)
• Sony PRS 505. 78% have not experienced problems with the screen breaking (148 responses)

By a TeleBlog Contributor

Computer users know of the contempt of many software companies for consumers. “Blame the end user” is the mantra of many a tech support staff. It’s great to see consumer protection bills introduced in Congress to warn the public of copy-cop schemes that could interfere with the usability of various kinds of products. Be interesting to see how this concept could affect, say, e-books in the future. Lest one doubt the need for precautions, consider a wonderful article by Lee Dembart in the International Herald Tribune, Companies fine-tune the art of fending off complaints. The first part:

PARIS–Years ago, the story goes, when people still traveled in Pullman sleeping cars, a passenger found a bedbug in his berth. He immediately wrote a letter to George M. Pullman, president of the Pullman’s Palace Car Company, informing him of this unhappy fact, and in reply he received a very apologetic letter from Pullman himself.

The company had never heard of such a thing, Pullman wrote, and as a result of the passenger’s experience, all of the sleeping cars were being pulled off the line and fumigated. The Pullman’s Palace Car Company was committed to providing its customers with the highest level of service, Pullman went on, and it would spare no expense in meeting that goal. Thank you for writing, he said, and if you ever have a similar problem–or any problem–do not hesitate to write again.

Enclosed with this letter, by accident, was the passenger’s original letter to Pullman, across the bottom of which the president had written, “Send this S.O.B. the bedbug letter.”

The Tribune article goes on to raise the rather reasonable question that Microsoft may take XP-related complaints about as seriously as AOL take spam reports. So would this apply to e-books–beyond problems with Microsoft Reader and variants thereof? Well, imagine 100 years from now when you’re trying to read an old format. Heck, for all we know, Microsoft might not even be around to play down end user complaints. Just about all the orignal members of the Dow index are gone. Simpy put, if we want e-books to be both readable and reliably preserved a century from now and beyond, we need a well-stocked national digital library system that would address these issues in a systematic way.