Consumerist – April 3, 2010:
If you buy a nook from Barnes & Noble and think there might be any possibility whatsoever that you could drop it, be sure to buy a protection plan for it. That’s because if the nook breaks and you didn’t buy an extended warranty, no one at Barnes and Noble can fix it. Not even if you offer to pay for the repairs.
My wife loves to read and pre-ordered the Nook in October of last year when Barnes & Noble first announced it. She finally received it sometime after the first of this year and despite the delay was genuinely excited about having one. She has purchased more books then ever before and uses it all of the time.
Yesterday she dropped it for the first time and the e-ink screen cracked. The device is now totally useless.
We’ve contacted Barnes & Noble through their 800-number and were told that there is nothing that can be done since we didn’t purchase the two-year protection plan when we bought the device.
I’m not asking for a hand out here. I know we didn’t purchase the insurance – we don’t on all consumer electronics we purchase. However, I don’t think that means we should now be stuck with a $270 (+ the cost of books purchased) paperweight.
What I need is a way to repair the device we already have. Ideally I would like to send it back to Barnes & Noble and have them fix it. Naturally we would pay any cost involved. Barnes & Noble refuses.
Maybe you can re download your ebooks to some sort of computer?
I have a lot of books on this computer. Hundreds.
Kindle has limited format support which made it totally limp for me.
I dropped a book the other day.
It still works.
I bought nooks for myself and my wife and we both love them. My wife dropped hers about a month after getting it and the screen quit working correctly so we are in pretty much the same boat. I do think it sucks that there is no repair option, but the fact that my wife dropped it is not B&N’s fault, just the way things go. And as many others have pointed out, similar results would come from dropping many other devices.
In our case, we bought ours with a platinum Mastercard which has purchase protection on it, so we are pursuing a claim with them, but no word yet on if they will pay it or not.
#22 Kindle can read:
AZW, TXT, MOBI, PRC, PDFs, Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP.
Doesn’t seem all that limited to me.
What docs do you have that AREN’T in one of those formats?
#25 Zybch : your point is a very good one. I’m sure #22 doesn’t realize that most of the e-readers can read many formats. The problem I have is the individual DRM of the vendors. If I buy a book from Amazon to read on a Kindle but next year someone spits out the greatest device ever and I want to switch, I can’t (legally) take my books with me. Enforced loyalty is no fun at all.
“# 23 Skeptic of the AOBCCS said, on April 3rd, 2010 at 6:56 pm
I dropped a book the other day.
It still works”
And never needs to be recharged !
Re.#3 McCullough, re: “Seems like a simple matter of cost of repair exceeds the cost of replacement in our crazy world of Chinese produced junk.”
Why are do you hate the fact that China (Asia) is making all our electronics? You seem so angry in your posts lately. Do you realize what the alternative is? The internet would never have happened as you know it today, it would have been prohibitively expensive to set up, and practically no one would have a $25,000 made in USA computer, $7000 LCD, and a $600 modem.
Anyway, it’s the American middlemen that are screwing you. Those Nooks were probably purchased for $25 each… and that’s no exaggeration. They are making them for the American pigs who are too greedy to pay an additional $3 for a removable cover and battery. So before you go bashing those poor sweat shop workers, you might want to think about at how the world works these days.
I have dropped many, many paperbacks, and none of them ever broke.
Regarding getting the books off the device, when you buy something with DRM, the only thing you really get is screwed.
I can fix it for you. A repair of the screen is $300 plus postage.
#14 Get a life!
Modern consumer products are designed for cheap manufacture, not cheap repair – because few consumers will pay for or even recognize the difference. I’ve been selling this stuff for years and EVERYBODY thinks they’re smarter than me when they buy. This story is the inevitable result. Reliability, durability, and repairability cost more. You won’t spend more, you don’t get more. WalMart et al win, you lose.
It’s a $270 device, a significant portion of which is the screen. What sort of response would you expect from the manufacturer? This is why they offer the damage protection plan.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple planted this story.
I bought my nook before Chirstmas and I recieved it on Jan. 5th…I’ve used it until today, and now its dead. Now I’ll not be using it again, because I don’t have a protection plan on my Nook. Well, heres the funny thing..I don’t recall seeing them asking me if I wanted to buy the extended 2 yr warranty on it. I usually buy these sort of things on all electronics for my clumsy cases. I’m beginning to think this is all on part of B&N. You buy this in good faith that the company will work with you..not against you. I realise I should be more careful. And by the way, it slipped off the couch onto the floor. Hardly enough to tear it up, I would think. Now half my screen is frozen in place, the other has lines running down the screen. And yet, “I’m sorry Mrs., but there is nothing I can do for you” I just wish there was something I could do. I really love my Nookie.
TOm there is generally a 1 year warranty, on Hardware.
My Patagonia cover is still on its way, but I’m already getting worried about the possibility of my K2 falling out of it because of the ineffective straps that some reviewers are mentioning
My first Nook case cracked and was replaced within the warranty period. The replacement also cracked and was replaced within the warranty period, My third Nook has also cracked, though it took over a year this time and it is out of the warranty period. B&N will neither replace it nor give me a credit/discount to apply to a new Nook.
So……that extra 50 bucks you were too cheap to spring for seems like a bargain now?