When I clicked over to look at the deals, I was hugely annoyed to see that many of the books listed were not, in fact, on sale. They were listed at full price.
(Which is often ridiculous -- $15, $20 (Canadian) or more -- for an e-book??! I mean, I realize, writers don't get paid a lot of money, and there are editors and designers, etc., who also need to be paid -- but you're not paying for paper or printing costs -- and I'm sure the publisher is taking a nice chunk of profit for themselves too..!)
Dh & I have both noticed this happening a couple of times lately. We've also been annoyed that the deals being offered lately -- both weekly and daily (under $5) -- haven't been that plentiful (e.g., usually well over 100 or 200 books offered in all categories; recently just 30 or 40 in bargain fiction!) -- or all that enticing/interesting to us. AND, all this past week, a good chunk of the books listed under daily deals in the non-fiction category were actually fiction books! WTF?
I was annoyed enough on Sunday morning to start hunting for a way to voice my displeasure to the company. Of course, there was no email address. Just a chat box on the website, and accounts on all the usual social media channels. I decided to leave a comment on the most recent post on Facebook. Here's what I said:
Is there a reason why so many of the books in your "today only deals" email are listed at full price?? And why a whole lot of books in the "nonfiction books on sale "section are actually fiction books?
Not too long afterward, I got a response:
Hi! We are truly sorry that you are experiencing issue, please send us a direct message and we would be more than happy to try and troubleshoot any problems you may be having. Thanks!
Obviously a bot. But a response.
Okay. I decided to bite. I sent them a DM (via Facebook Messenger) at around 3:10 PM, repeating my original comment and adding:
This has happened more than once lately (re: the "today only deals"), and the fiction books have been in the nonfiction sale books all week. Very annoying!
Then I added links to the pages to show them what I was seeing, and mentioned that I was in Canada.
Around 3:50 PM, this response:
Hi! Thanks so much for getting in touch with us. If it’s not too much trouble, could you share the email address linked to your Kobo account and the last awesome book you purchased? We’re excited to help and will get back to you very soon!
(Well, the bot has certainly been trained to be polite & enthusiastic, at least??)
I was busy and left it for the time being, intending to get back to them the next day. When I woke up this morning, I had this message, sent just before midnight the night before:
Hi there!
Thank you for reaching out to...
We're delighted to hear from you. We wanted to check in and see if you require any additional assistance. If you do, please don't hesitate to reply to this message. We're always eager to lend a helping hand.
For any inquiries, big or small, please feel free to visit us at... [help desk link -- another bot, I assume...!] We're here for you!
Best regards...
I hesitated, but decided to respond, at around 10:15 AM. I gave them my email address and name of the last book I'd purchased, and added:
My husband is also a Kobo customer and has noticed the same things. Yesterday's so-called bargains are now expired, but this wasn't the first time we've noticed this, and I'm sure others have also seen the same things. It's just irritating to open an email, expecting to see bargains and so many of the books are still full priced (and the non-fiction under $5 section is full of fiction!). We just wanted to make our feelings known, in the hope this can be fixed going forward. Thank you.
Responded the bot:
I'm sorry if you are experiencing this. I understand your frustration regarding this issue. Rest assured that I will help you with your concern. Please send us screenshot of the offers that you want to purchase so that we can review it in our end. We appreciate your cooperation and patience during this process.
Me (getting annoyed now...):
The offers have now expired. And I wasn't interested in many of them anyway -- it's the principle of the thing. Thanks anyway. I just hope that in the future, an email listing "deals" really does contain all deals.
Bot:
Below that was this message:I apologize for any inconvenience and frustration this may have caused you. In the future, please feel free to reach out to us immediately so we can make any necessary adjustments for you.
Your exclusive one-time use promo code is: 75% off (Promo code xxxx reserved for user)Promo codes are discounts that can be applied to specific books in the xxxx Store. Due to publisher restrictions and territorial limitations, promo codes cannot be applied to all books.
To apply your promo code... [list of detailed instructions]
Well, okay. It's nice to get offered some sort of compensation for my time and irritation, and 75% is nothing to sniff at. I spent some time this afternoon going through my wish list, selecting a few of the most expensive books on it and filtering to check whether they were eligible for the promo code. (Happily, most of them were.) I narrowed down my choices, finally made my selection, went through the steps to purchase and apply the promo code... and this message popped up on the screen:
This promo code has already been used the maximum number of times.
(Seriously?)
The kicker: while I was scrolling through my wish list to pick out which books might be candidates for my 75% discount, I noticed that one of the books listed as a "deal" yesterday -- at full price-- was now listed for $1.99!! (Yes, I bought it.)
I suppose I could have gone back to chat/argue with the bot some more, but I feel like I've spent enough time on it. This is when you really wish for a human on the other end of the chat/email. I feel like it would have been a much faster and more satisfying process -- certainly for me. And I wonder if a human will ever see and consider what I had to say?
(I'm hoping for better things from the Black Friday sales...!)
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
I was getting irritated reading this on your behalf. I cannot wait for the day where people remember how much better it was to speak to a human and not a bot and return to that time. Because that's going to happen... I hope. I think the kicker was the code-that-could-not-be-used.
ReplyDeleteGAAAH, my blood pressure went up as I read the increasingly annoying bot responses! If on the phone, that's when I start yelling REPRESENTATIVE! HUMAN! I WANT TO SPEAK WITH A HUMAN! But the bot won't understand that in writing, ha. So weird about the promo code. I'm sorry that was so frustrating!
ReplyDelete