Kobo Responds to Angry Customers and Revises their Customer Support

December 2, 2011 By Michael Kozlowski 134 Comments

Kobo customer support has been heralded by many people to be abysmal and if our blog is any indication on the poor service, it is hurting. Readers of our blog have responded that they experience sometimes an hour or more of wait time and in some cases are disconnected randomly. Support right now is outsourced to India and many of the 1st and 2nd tier support staff have no experience with the Kobo line of e-readers or the Vox. This results in customers becoming more irate, waiting an hour to talk to someone and then not resolving their questions. Finally, we hear that people end up being told they will receive email responses from the technical support department and never do. Kobo has now responded to these issues and promised swift action to overhaul their customer service department.

Mark Stevens, the Kobo VP of Customer Care issued the following statement today. “In order to keep pace with our rapid growth and to provide a more global support model across many products, countries and languages, we recently made a number of changes to our customer support infrastructure. We expect that these changes, when complete will allow us to serve more readers, with a higher quality of service around the world.

The transition to our new platform has caused challenges for some of our customers resulting in longer phone wait times, and delayed email responses. We have been working diligently to identify the problems and resolve them to reach the level of service our customers expect. As a result, we expect to see significant improvement in response times within the next week. While the world of eReading is a rapidly changing one, ultimately our goal is to make it easy for you to get your questions answered quickly and to take technology out of the equation so you can focus on your reading enjoyment.”

It is about time Kobo revised its customer support and there is no other details as of yet. We have an interview lined up with the VP of Customer Care in the next few days to iron out the details. It seems this is one of the things that are coming down from Rakuten, the Japanese E-Commerce giant that purchased Canadian based Kobo last month. If anything, the users who have e-readers and will receive them for the holidays will hopefully see elevated support soon.

Michael Kozlowski (7740 Posts)

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events such as IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send Michael Kozlowski an email to michael@goodereader.com

News Items of Interest

Tsmith

Oh really? I would love to know the date of this article because I am still living a nightmare with their customer service.
Sijo

Definitely very poor service.
Corinne

I have been emailing back and forth since December 9th – I have never had such abysmal customer service.
Leslie

Your customer care leaves a lot to be desired. Acct.: undercoverangel@live.ca, complaint 120110-001317. I have a $75 credit that I want transferred from denis.leslie@sympatico.ca to undercoverangel. This credit was given to me by my sister in law for Christmas. Denis.leslie account is my home account and not my Kobo account. This is the second time that I have had to have it transferred. The first time was in November and it was transferred successfully (after a month of trying). No, I do not want my sister in law to cancel the credit and re-issue when the last time it happened, I was told not to redeem the credit so it will be easier to transfer should this happen again. Low and behold. I have called customer care at least 5 times to try to get this resolved. Each time I get told that they will send the issue to tech level 2 who will get back to me. i have had no contact with tech level 2 at all this year 2012. Nothing has been done. I’ve lost patience. I think I have been way beyond tolerant. Either transfer the credit or cancel my account and send me the balance of my account by cheque to the address associated with the account. Do either. Because I have already contacted Consumer Affairs. This is not acceptable. I may be reached by phone at 514-735-5411 X402. Merci. Leslie Hagey
Kelly Doucette

If Kobo is doing anything to fix their customer service it is absolutely non existent from what I am seeing, I bought a new Kobo Touch before christmas (November) directly from Kobo and two days after it arrived the screen froze and will not work. Contacted Kobo no less then a dozen times and every time all I get told is that they have escalated the ticket as the call centre cannot do anything with exchanges and returns. The escalation has had a end result of nothing at this point except a lot of frustration on my end. DO NOT EVER BUY FROM KOBO you will be on your own after the purchase. Complaint #120112-002628
Marci

If anyone is still having issues with Kobo, please send me a message, I have direct access to one of their Executive Customer Care People, and will give you his name, email address, and telephone number(s) for him. I have had issues with them as well recently, so get in touch if your issue hasn’t been resolved as of now.
Lynn Masluck

Hello Marci, my name is Lynn & my husband bought me a Kobo e-reader from K-mart for our Anniversary. I am having problems trying to download books into it. When I go to open libraries I do not have the bookfolder & then when I click e-reader the folder changes so that I can’t drag & drop to copy books. I’m so upset for I’ve had this product for about a month & I can’t use it. I have e-mailed them several times but no one has returned me any information. I also call daily & have a problem when they won’t answer their phones so I can get information to fix the problem. I’m at a loss I dont know where to go from here. Any advice???Lynn
Kw31691

I know this is a year after your post but I have been trying to get a credit for an overcharge of $8.99 for over a month now. I keep getting the “this has escalated to tier 3. Someone will contact you shortly”. And nothing even though I have called and emailed every three days. If you still have that contact I would love to have it.
karla

I have been emailing and having phone conversations over a $8.99 overcharge for over a month now. I love my ereader but this is the 2nd time I have had to get a credit because of an overcharge. So done with them.
Stella-ward

I rang the free phone support line yesterdayfopr help witha problem I had with my e reader, after one hour they said they could give me 24hr cover 365 days with any software problems I had for £109.99, at first I agreed after a further hour I was told they could not help as they did not do e readers. I then insistyed that my money was refunded as they could not help with my problem and I already has someone who looked after my computer. I am about to ring my credit card to make sure that the amount is not paid
Fallenfairy

every comment made is re, i have no idea how to get through to these guys!! surely, if theare taking money for books we are not getting, it is fraud?
Stella

KOBO have the worst customer service.
Sweetsoot1

I have been trying to reach someone , any one within there office, It is concerning a promo I received from publisher–Publish America. I want to send someone in their office a copy of it. This publisher is asking for money to promote authors books to Kobo and this publisher in in the middle of a lawsuit for various infractions including promo fraud
CColdiron

Me too!!! I purchase an 8.00 book and thought it was a hardback, did not receive the download and they refuse to refund my money. Worthless I tell you, then they email me the same automated responses.
ChristinaColdiron

Please give it to me, I want my 8.00 back.
cathy trainor

I have been trying to get my money back from Kobo for 2 books that did not download. There is a credit on my account for the first book and when I tried to use it I get a message that I can not use the credit in the currency the book is being sold in and to contact customer service – but – there was no link or information on how to contact customer service. Every time I email them they respond telling me there is a $12 credit on my account and how to view it and use it – they do not acknowledge the second book that I paid for and couldn’t get or the fact that I keep telling them I have tried to use the $12 credit and couldn’t. This is very frustrating. Does anyone have a phone number for Kobo? I have tried getting one on line but everything brings me back to the Kobo website which is useless!
cathy trainor

Marci – I have been trying to get a number so I can talk with someone – the email thing is getting old and they just keep repeating themselves and do not address my issues or requests. Could you please send me the contact information? I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you!
vct56@live.ca
mickz

i went to buy a book and got the message “server is busy try again in a few minutes your bank/credit card will not be charged” so thinking ok i will try this. low and behold they have charged me 4 times for a book and i still dont have it. i emailed them for a refund and it is still being esculated 1 month later. i have sent them the bank statement with the charges on it and done a screen dump of the web page all the books i have brought and still they are esculating this. so to anyone who is thinking of getting a kobo dont the customer services is cr@p
asa

hi marci
could you please give me the email address and name of this executive customer care person as i have been charged 14 times for a book i have not recieved
thank you in advance
Wendy

I agree can’t find any answers as to why the gift cards I have been given are not recognised
So Frustrated

I do not think they have fixed their issues in 2013. I have been struggling for almost two months with an issue. Every time I contact someone and explain the situation, the information seems to evaporate. I contact them again, update the situation, and the information evaporates. Then I get an email saying that as far as they are concerned the case is closed because I did not contact them. All I can say is Kobo spells FRUSTRATION.
diego de jesus

I called your main office today inquiring about getting a part to replace in my kobo arc. See my son damaged the female connector in the main body of the tablet. I opened it and found the damaged part and could be simply replaced with a new one. I was told there is no place where I could find this connector. Isn’t it a pity that I have now a useless tablet because a simple part can’t be found?
Rick000

If you ever read his and still have the device, a cellular phone repair shop might be able to replace that for you. I checked into the same issue with a Kobo Touch, the place I went to thought they could fix it but the cost was going to be as much as replacing the Touch – it might be worth while for an Arc….
Kennys

I can’t open books on my Ipad,I have been reading on the Ipad for months
TraceyC

Their customer service is most assuredly still horrible. I have also had the experience that information evaporates, or is not acknowledged at all. Avoid ordering e-Readers from their website, as this creates a nightmare.
Graham Parr

Hi Marci, I am trying to contact Kobo, but their lisited U.k. number routes through to Scottish Energy.
I have a problem with my recently purchesed Kobo Aura. Many thanks,Graham Parr.
grahamparr@blueyonder.co.uk
cisshanu

Virtual asistant services are basically the customer support who also provides tech help. Nice informative blog !!
Will

Yeh Hi Marci
First tell those clowns to have somebody who knows how to build a web site, do so and get rid of the crap they are now calling a web site. I have yet do go onto their site and not have it crash.
As far as customer service is concerned, they make it very difficult to find them.
A book I purchased some time ago has yet to be delivered as it states the the book is not in the proper format for their ereader. Then why sell it.
This is my second reader in two years and it starting act up as well. Why can’t I buy another reader from a more reputable company and transfer my books over?
This is is the short list of complaints so far.
Thanks for listening ……………Will
Doc

I’d love the contact info for this person. Can you please provide. Thanks, Doc.
Marci

Everyone who has an issue with KOBO, email me at marci{AT}serendipitous-readingsDOTcom with your issue, and I will forward it to my contact. The sooner the better ! Thanks.
Grrrrr!

My e-mails were ignored and when I spent 21 minutes on the phone to them, mainly on hold, my problem was not resolved because the book had been opened. I had waited over a week for some correspondence with them. Very very unsatisfied with their customer service considering the issue I had was as a result of their system.
doublehour

What a waste of money !!!! and so say all of us!!!!
Rlsails

Kobo service – an oxymoron. Ordered an Aura HD on 9/6, got tired of waiting for it so on 9/17 called to cancel and change order to the new Aura. Was assured the request would be “escalated” to “Tier 2” immediately. Today, 2 days later I got an email stating the HD was being shipped. Apparently Tier 2 did nothing. Called Support again and they said (again) they would escalate the problem to the magical Tier 2. In the meantime they said “just refuse the shipment”. In order to do that I’ll have to take a 30 mile round trip to the Post Office, take over an hour of my time to do that. The Indian company Kobo picked for their Level 1 support is terrible – barely fluent in English and their web site offering the support number is painfully slow – if it’s up. I like the Kobo device but I really have to reconsider dropping myself into this maelstrom willingly – a second time. How can a company remain in business with this sort of customer service is beyond me.
Spadework

Hi Marci – Would very much like to get the contact info for the Customer Care person – I’ve had altogether too many go-arounds with India. Thanks
Zwiebelkuchen

I am also having a really bad time with Kobo Customer Service. I ordered the new Kobo Aura with a Sleep Cover and never received my order but my credit card of course has already been charged. They used FedEx for shipping and FedEx messed up the orders from what I can tell and my order was delivered to an arbitrary address which I never provided. Anyway, FedEx tells me to deal with the sender (Kobo) and Kobo keeps on blowing me off saying I need to deal with FedEx. The customer service people from Kobo don’t really seem to fully read my emails and are eager to just close my tickets without actually solving the problem. I also called them and of course reached someone in India but they were not able to help me. They just keep on telling me that someone will look into it and get back with me. I am so tired of this cr$%&, what kind of customer service is that???
Judy

Hi Marci, I live in Spain and am having a nightmare trying to get through to Kobo to find out what has happened to my Kobo. About five weeks ago I was in the UK and posted my Kobo Glo to Kobo using an address that W H Smith gave me. I’m now back in Spain and have received or heard nothing back. Could you give me the Customer Care person details that you have? My email address is judybell27@hotmail.com. Many thanks. Judy
SorryIboughtKobo

Nothing has changed been trying to get an issue resolved for severe weeks now. Kobo customer service does not exist having read others people’s complaints it seems like their policy is the opposite of costumer service and the object of the game is to delay,delay,delay in the hopes you go away.
dave

Hi Marci I need to get on touch with Kobo in the UK, as I have multiple withdrawls from Kobo for books I haven’t ordered
Rachel

To be honest, don’t call Kobo. The best way is through chat or email. Email takes longer, but if you are able to get a select few (roughly between 9am eastern US time and 6pm eastern US time) on chat, they not only know what they are talking about, they get the job done right there. I have contacted them via phone, email, and chat roughly 50 times, and some are absolutely stupid, where there have been a few like someone named Arlen, Eliza, and John H. that have known exactly what to do every time.

Now, I have had issues with my Kobo, and multiple withdraws on my account, and books that do not work. Plus there have been changes to the way that you can find books and buy them, but I stay because I have always been able to get it fixed.

The best advice is to email or chat and hope you do not get someone that does not know what they are talking about. I sent it roughly 20 emails so that I knew that one of the smart ones would get my email.
Rachel

I wish you would have the same people I was able to contact in chat and email. They are very upfront and say exactly what is going on or if they need to order it again while fedex fixes the other one.
Rachel

I have a good contact with them now too. I think we have the good luck in talking only to the ones who know what they are doing. My favorite is somewhere in central america, though I originally thought they were in Canada. I don’t have anything bad to say now that I can bypass the idiots and I NEVER call them.
Rachel

Try this, just got it from some new site kobocare.com

Log out of the ipad application and then log back in.
Rachel

I can definitely agree, most of their customer service is still horrible, even today. You have to find the gems in there, they do have some really good experts.
Betty

I am having the same problems with both Fed ex and Kobo, ordered an e Reader over a month ago and still waiting, they took my money. I have sent them many emails and get no reply their customer service is non existent.
Betty
jeanne40

It should not be that hard, after you purchase the books to download them to the Nook. Can’t do it. It is driving me nuts. My grandson is upset until I get this figured out. Just put the instructions in simple language so we can understand it. Have one page of instructions on ho to.
Sharon Hunter

I would like to know why Kobo doesn’t have a procedure in
place if a publisher goes bust. My publisher closed down and gave over all
rights to me as the author. I have not had any problems with Amazon or any
other website but Kobo still insist on emailing the publisher who closed down 6
months ago, and they tell me they can not remove my book as they have a legal
obligation to the person who opened the account. While I agree with what they
say under normal circumstances, what happens if the account holder is a
publisher that has closed down? Does this mean my book will remain indefinitely
on Kobo? In the meantime I wonder who is pocketing my royalties, it’s certainly
not me. No wonder Kobo aren’t in a hurry to do anything about this, it’s not in
their interest is it if they can keep all my royalties!!!
Jeanie

I contacted support and inquired about chargers for the kobo vox they sent me an incident number I replied to it and they send it back saying I used the wrong email address associated with the incident number Talk about annoying I can’t get a charger for this device from the store because they are always out of them My e-reader is useless if I can’t charge it
Judy

Hello anyone…. I’m just new to this and purchased a ebook. I must be really stupid, but I cannot figure out how to download (?) and start reading it – tried to contact Kobo for help and no reply. Can anyone just walk me thru it? Thank you Judy
Paul Westwell

Kobo customer care is disgusting. My Kobo Touch is just two years old and has frozen. I contacted Kobo and got the usual emails try a factory reset, when this didn’t work they asked for a photograph of the Kobo front and back and my receipt. Once they realised it was just over two years old, they then came back with there is nothing they can do. I even offered to pay to send it to be repaired, they are just not interested. I have never asked them to replace or repair this free, all I wanted was help and they are not prepared to help. I have asked for an email address to complain, no answer. The tone of the last email was sarcastic, wishing me best in my endeavours, this is because they know it can not be fixed. I have spent about £200 on books from Kobo as well as the cost of the ereader that I cannot read.
Donna

HI marci my name is Donna and iam having trouble updating my new credit card details i have emailed them twice and still cant do it could you give me the number you have for kobo thanx, i live in the UK. Hope to hear from you soon my email address is donna_spencer25@hotmail.co.uk
Rachel

Awful awful customer service. Its infuriating that a company can even survive with bad service like this.
Henry A.

I am also trying to figure out how to download 3 books from Kobo as e-books onto an IBM computer.
Paul

Wrote to customer service for help as my Kobo would not load new
content, but would simply freeze. Received a auto acknowledgement of
receipt but nothing further until a week later when I received, believe
it or not, a request to complete a customer service satisfaction survey.

Explained on the survey that I had received no assistance whatsoever, but this too was ignored.
Will
toss the Kobo and replace it with a Kindle. My wife has a Kindle and
the customer service when a problem occurred was great!
Arnold Spemgler

Kobo customer service stinks. Now that Sony has gone over to them thee is less variety in the market – replaced by this woeful joke that is Kobo. Still waiting for a refund or credit on a book that did not download. These dopey Canadians are really selling themselves short by allowing such poor service to ruin hat could be such a good business. Kobo’s “customer service” team is either thick, hopeless or don’t understand English….possibly all three. I’m guessing Mr. Kobo – whoever he is – doesn’t care but that’s OK – I’m taking my book buying elsewhere. Kobo can shove it.
NoBullBob

KOBO was bought out by, Rakuten, the Japanese E-Commerce giant that purchased Canadian based Kobo last year?? Nothing has changed. Customer service is non existent, Fill out their Help Section which says expect a reply with in 5 minutes doesn’t work. Their phone # provided by their bank, 416-977-8737 refers you back to the website (no reply), or press 0 for reception and it’s always leave a message (no reply). The unlucky people who happen to have an early reader (Borders) can no longer download books because they are no longer formatted for ADOBE DRM. I mistakenly downloaded 2 books and can not get my charges reversed. (Seems to me they should have a statement on their website telling you that they no longer support their older readers) I was, in my opinion a good customer with over 68 purchases in 3 years. . . .but a guess I was mistaken . . . .they don’t really care. It looks like it’s on purpose (money maker for company) that they don’t support their customers. It’s really not the $9.08, it’s about a company that doesn’t care about their reputation and you cam complain until you turn purple, or the cows come home.

Just a thought. . . . BBB?. . . . .State Attorney General?
Julia

This is a shame. Tried to get help on several times, no answer at all. E-mail correspondence? Come on!
More than that, even buying using Visa or MC gift cards isn’t possible. What kind of business is that?
I tell you: that will disappear. No regrets.
Lynn

I contacted them about replacing my cracked Kobo screen. They responded quickly, but I was floored to find out they cannot help me! They do not replace screens!!
BozzedOffInBrighouse

Appalling service so far. I have logged three calls via email without receiving an automated response even. Although I have references there is no easy place to check progress against any reference. Might be a write off and off to Amazon!
Michael Mendelson

I bought an ebook using my Kobo Aura HD with a wireless connection on 7 July 2014. The book would not download and troubleshooting was no help. When I went to my lap top the book also did not download onto my computer. In the succeeding 4 days I have sent four emails to Kobo customer service and all of them have said that they will phone me back in twenty minutes. I have not yet (11 July 2014) gotten a call back. There does not seem to be any other way to contact customer service! In the meantime I figured out how to resolve the problem myself, which just required a number of steps that are not especially logical but easy enough to follow if you are told what to do. My first complaint is that Kobo is not providing any response to customer calls, which is terrible. My experience with Kobo has otherwise been fine, but just because of this I would never recommend to a friend that they get Kobo. My second complaint is that Kobo is making commitments which it is not fulfilling – namely to get back to customers in twenty minutes. It would seriously be better business practice to just say they will never get back, then to fail to fulfill commitments. My third complaint is that the on-line troubleshooting advice available is really limited and what there is is difficult to search. A quick look on-line informed me that many people have the problem I have and there is a solution, so why is it not in troubleshooting?
Gary Spragg

I have contacted Kobo three times via e-mail and still no resolution for my problem. In an e-mail, they suggested that I call them but I cannot find a phone number that get back to Kobo – What a joke!!!!
S Keene

I find Kobo’s default book format unusable, starting page numbering new for each chapter. One can get round that by downloading as Adobe ePub (with a bit of a fiddle). But, many books turn out not to be available in that format and Kobo don’t show the available formats in the selling information about the book, that I can see.
So, I’m struggling to get a refund for a book I never even downloaded because I saw in my library that it was not available in that format.
But guess what, Kobo help persist in not reading what the problem is and I have trouble because their stupid system keeps rejecting my reply emails.

FED UP! I want to avoid buying thru Amazon tax dodgers but Kobo is making it impossible.
David Bryant

Since I bought my KOBO, I have had nothing but problems with it – Downloading, freezing, etc. The latest is a complete blank screen, a flashing (continuous) green light! Rebooting with the “pin” aperture has done nothing! After two years of frustration, I am throwing the thing in the bin and going back to hard copy literature! KOBO – YOU HAVE FAILED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS – I couldn’t even log in to this site, so had to sign on as a guest – What an insult!
Louisa

I hope they can get the Customer Care Issues resolved. I was having trouble with blocked books and sent a messge via e-mail (the only way I could find to rquest help) on July 13 & waited the promised 20 minutes for a return call which never came. 3 days later I got an e-mail with instructions that didn’t work and direction to call customer care if I continued to have trouble, but no number was provided. With no other choice I re-registered my complaint waited the promised 20 minutes for a call that never came and gave up. 2 weeks later at 9:50 pm on a Sunday evening my home phone rang stating it was Kobo Customer Care and did I need assistance? I pointed out the time and the fact that I had been waiting for 2 weeks and said this was not a good time and I was given a number to call for help when it was a good time. Thanks to Kobo I was so angry that it took me an hour to calm down. During that time I calculated that I received a return call more than 22,000 minutes after I requested help. I am so frustrated and angry that I haven’t placed a call for help with my unresolved issue. I feel trapped because I have a library of 200 + books (purchased when the business was sony…I have a sony reader) and I’d really rather never deal with Kobo again. I am not planning on ever purchasing another e-book and will borrow library books and read them on my i-pad. Sony let me down too by selling me a reader 1 month before passing the business to Kobo but that is another story. The whole e-book business has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
EvolvedApe

Kobo customer service sucks!!! (Actually, their customer service reps are nice, once you are able to get though to them. But the whole set up is terrible!)

Just tried to purchase aKobo Aura HD on their site. I add it to the card, then click next and the page goes into infinite loop. It does it on every browser, including Safari, Firefox and Chrome.

Their Customer Service phone number tells you to go to their site, for “better service.”

Well, they just lost a sale, I am buying a Pocketbook….
EvolvedApe

BTW, here is the customer service number I found: 1 (800) 368-5390
ChickFlickCherry

Kobo listened! I just had the most fantastic customer service experience. I phoned the number below (1-800-368-5390). Pressed “2” for a new issue. My call was answered immediately. I asked my question (related to using more than one gift card when making a purchase). After some discussion and time on hold while she likely sought the advice of a supervisor, the customer service rep provided an outstanding solution, asked me to hold for a minute while she typed an email to me with all the instructions, and then read the email to me to confirm I understood it. She asked if she could help me with anything else, thanked me for calling Kobo… A perfect 20 minute call. If I had not read the comments below, I would have thought Kobo must be well known for its superb response to its customers.
Paula Marentette

Trust me, this “dopey Canadian” is every bit as pissed off as you are!
Paula Marentette

I bought a Kobo Touch a couple of months ago and I cannot download books protected by Adobe DRM at all. Adobe won’t help me, Kobo won’t help me…I’m ready to blow. Over $100 down the toilet. Tell all your friends – don’t patronize this company!!
Paula Marentette

Yup…I even bought one of their cute little “covers” – colour-coordinated and all. Oh well, it’ll make a pretty paper-weight.
Info

Kobo has never been a Sony company. While I agree their customer service is terrible to say the least, you have the wrong company. They wouldn’t have been able to help you if you’re asking about another company’s product.
Info

You could have tried a factory reset by either inserting the pin into the reset hole and sliding the on button, sliding the on button while holding down the light button (for ereaders that have a light burtton), or sliding the on button and holding the home button, depending on the kobo you purchased. I had to look forever to find that information. It was not easy and they should really just post it on their site, the jerks. On another note, this site has nothing to do with Kobo. If you can’t log on, you should really talk to the site’s admins.
Info

If you want to avoid buying books from Amazon and Kobo’s giving you problems, you can always rent ebooks from your library or download from other sites. There are tons of sites you can download books for free as well. For the record, Amazon’s format is mobi, Kobo’s is kepub, most are ebooks are pdf or epub format, and you can also use doc format with ereaders as well. All you have to do is download Adobe Digital Editions on your computer and “register” your device. Once it’s all set up, you can read any format on any device.
Info

I’ve never had issues using a Visa or Master Card gift card to make a purchase on Kobo. Have you registered your cards online (Visa and Master Card have gift card sites where you basically just add your name and I think your address)? If you haven’t, they don’t always work on online purchases. You can also try buying a reloadable Chapters Indigo card, Those work every time and all you need are the card number and pin to make a purchase. It saves tons of time and you can add money to your card by going into a Chapters, Indigo, Coles, Indigo Spirit, World’s Biggest Books Store, The Book Company, or SmithBooks and asking them to add however much at the cash desk.
Info

Have you tried downloading Adobe Digital Editions, or does that not work on the older ereaders? ?_?
Info

You obviously didn’t download the program and register your device. Don’t blame them because you don’t know what you’re doing. Yes, their service sucks, but anyone with a brain can easily find the solution to this for a Touch.
http://www.adobe.com/ca/products/digital-editions/download.html
It’s simple enough to do if you pay attention to the instructions. Your welcome.
Info

Sony wasn’t able to keep up with the advancements that Kobo, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble’s were making. Second, Kobo isn’t the name of a person, you moron. It’s an anagram for book. That means they moved the letters around. Kobo is no longer a Canadian company either; it’s Japanese. As for not understanding English, you should try grammar-checking your post before insulting ANYONE else’s grasp of the English language. Get your facts straight and learn proper spelling and sentence structure. I find your ignorance offensive as a reader. While it’s a fact that Kobo’s customer service is horrendous, insulting Canadians for a small group of people you have issues with is uncalled for.
Paula Marentette

For whom are you shilling? I followed the instructions to the letter and still cannot download books protected by Adobe DMR.

And it’s “you’re” welcome, not “your” welcome.
Michael

the phone number works wonders I was frustrated that they hd charged me twice for a book I already had and was losing hope as I was directed to an email support line. This number got me someone within the first 5 minutes and they quickly promised to refund the extra charge from my account onto my credit card. I’m actually impressed and as a long time kobo user and an avid kobo technical user this does wonders for my confidence in my purchases.

1 800 368 5390

good going much better then the email support
LadyErnee

In a series of 8 books Kobo had two books in this series that they downloaded to my account that were not formatted the same as the other six books and thus could not be used on my reader. I contacted Kobo by email, they first stated that this problem was all my fault. I told them that I had checked the first four books and when they were formatted correctly I assumed that the two books in the middle of the series would be formatted the same way. I then received a return email asking if I would want a credit to my account or a refund. As I would have to purchase these two books from another e-book seller I asked for a refund. By the way I had tried to call them original about this problem and was told that there would be a 45 minute wait for the return call. It is now over a week later and I still have not heard from them by phone.
After returning their e-mail I get another e-mail from them saying that their records show that I paid for these two book by PayPal and that I needed to furnish them proof of purchase. If there own records show that I paid for these two books by PayPal I would assume that that would be proof of purchase but to be on the safe side I sent them their (Kobo’s) purchase confirmation number that they had e-mailed me for the original purchase. Guess what, I get the same stupid note back asking for proof of purchase. I guess I will have to go through my states Attorney General and file a claim or contact PayPal and have them reverse the payment as the only way to get my money back. These people are a rip off company and should be avoided if you value your money and your time.
Albert Pang

I had similar experience. Book format was out of whack and I asked for a refund. I paid by credit card, which was set up as the payment method when I opened my kobo account. When I made the purchase, I didn’t need to put in any other payment information. Customer service said to me their record showed that I paid by PayPal. I told them I don’t even have a PayPal account. They asked me to check my mailbox carefully. I told them I haven’t received any emails from PayPal. Why would they send me an email when I don’t even have an account with them? Then the credit card statement came (which was a few weeks later obviously) and I told them about the fact that on my credit card statement, the entry has Kobo as the name of the business. I gave them the transaction reference. After that, the response was “Please allow me to do some checks to see how best we can deal with the situation”. Two days later, they sent me an email saying they have effected a refund and would take 3-5 business days for it to appear. This was one month after I asked for the refund. Two weeks thereafter, I still saw no refund. At that point, I simply gave up and decided to move on to other ebook sellers. There are others around which are much more reliable and customer friendly.
LadyErnee

Albert,
If I could make a suggestion, if I were you I would call my credit card company that the books were charged against and explain your problem to them. If your credit card company was Discover they are great in helping a customer out with problems like Kobo but the other credit card companies can also be very helpful. And if nothing else you are making them aware that Kobo is their credit card to cheating their customers. I finally contacted PayPal and copied their refund policy and sent it to Kobo and received my refund a few days later. By giving up you are just rewarding them for cheating you and encouraging them to use this tactic on other customers.
old grumpy

I down load books from the local public library, or I should say I try to down load books, even after going through the perscribed procedure messages pop up saying Adobe sends a notice declaring download is not permitted. Trying to communicate with KOBO by phone is a waste of time, they put me on hold for approv 20 minutes and then they just hang up. Atleast i have one pleasure and thats continually returning the KOBO to Best Buy and getting credits,one day they will have a decent product not made in China and then the credit will be activated but never anything made by Kobo
H.L. Armstrong

They seem to have fixed their phone problem all right. They no longer have a customer service helpline! I tried calling it and it referred me to the website for help! If I’d wanted to send an email, I’d have done so!
Kaz

I’m trying to contact Kobo, have sent two e-mails and haven’t received any reply, not even an acknowledgement. Is there a UK based phone number? I agree with the general feling that their customer service is shocking!!
Pissedoffreader

I’ve been emailing for over a week. Says each time they’ll call within 30-45 mins and I’ve gotten no call. Canadian support phone number is disconnected tells you to do it online. They just quit all customer service so it seems. I will never purchase another kobo product.
TennaSea

I guess I am going to have to buy a Kindle or a Nook. I can’t even talk to Kobo now. Not only do they not speak English they don’t know what they are doing. The tech had me remove and trash my Sony Reader program, empty the trash and now I can’t get it back so there is nothing left for me to do but leave.
Quitting kobo

Purchased several books at once, discovered (some time after purchase, ie when I went to read the book) that some were in a format incompatible with my ereader (no warning about format issues given at time of purchase) and some were simply defective (missing some pages, and multiple copies of other pages). Was offered credit, which I indicated I would accept if there was no other way to get a useable version of the book. Had some back-and-forth about how the latter might be achieved, finally realized it could not. so accepted the offer of credit only to be told “too late, the 90 day period for credit has now elapsed”. Given this was for 3 unreadable books and one readable but defective, they’re telling me to absorb over $50 of loss for no good reason. Feeling very disgruntled.
tjm

I have waited on hold on their customer service phone line for a combined 65 minutes over 3 calls and still NO ONE ANSWERED ! ! !
I am beginning to think the place is a farce and that I have been duped.
I WANT MY MONEY BACK ! ! ! ! !
sms

Crappy Brand!!! Do not buy KOBO!!! I didn’t know you now have to research to see if what you are buying is fixable!! Have no idea how screen broke as wasn’t home at the time (no one but the cats were actually!) and tried Chapters where I bought less than a year ago and they just hand you a piece of paper with KOBO’s 1-800 # on it. Called KOBO they can’t replace as wasn’t their fault and a broken screen is not under their warranty which I get but when you spend as much money as the ARC 7 HD costs you would expect a company to at LEAST have a repair department. Will never use or have a KOBO again! What a waste of money! Especially when the power cord for it crapped out 2 months in, the screen freezes at least once a month, and would overheat and turn it self off when reading! Never again, this consumer has learned her lesson.
ReallyFrustratedExKobeOwner

Crappy Brand!!! – I couldn’t agree more!!! I loved my hood for just over 2 years… Then just like sms’ experience below, the touch screen failed suddenly. I called Kobe. They told me that since it was out of warranty they wouldn’t pay for it, but that I could have an appliance repair technician come to fix it on my own dime (this isn’t even the bad part)… So I call the appliance repair people, take the morning off from work to meet them and then they eventually show up (in the afternoon, so had to take the day off from work). Then the technician, seeing that it’s the touch screen calls Kobe about getting the part only to determine that they no longer stock the touch screen for my model! There is literally NOTHING that can be dome to fix it. The only thing Kobe will offer is a 50% discount off a crazy high MSRP that all of the appliance places discount by 50% to begin with… So basically, I just spent over $2000 (including the cost of installation) for 2-years worth of service and now I have to buy a brand new one!!! I assure you it will NOT be a Kobe!!!
cynical48

Download Adobe Digital Editions. Free to register with an email address. Some books on Kobo are only available by PDF. Adobe will read all of the formats and the books are easily transferred to the e-reader. Due to recent problems I experienced with my e-reader I put everything on Adobe now just as a backup.
BL

Guess I am the exception to the rule…..I started with the Vox e-reader…it was ok…bought it first generation kindle fire. Only difference was the movie things….I have since up graded to the Arc7 HD…it is an hour okvtablet..also have the water proof e-reader. I did have trouble with that order, but it was a production/ supply issue……seems this reader is popular…. Customer service was good in both email and phone contact…the Arc7 HD is the android KitKat..which is good… Am satisfied w/ Kobo, the books etc
Markt

Kobo customer care are worse than useless along with their product. I have an 18month old Kobo Arc–only used it 4-5 times. Now I have retired I resolved to make use of it but it will not turn on. An hours conversation with ccare resulting in email back suggesting tring to turn it off and action a factory restart!!! How can I turn it off when the issue is that it will not turn on!! They refuse to phone back despite promises to do so and then just say out of warranty and nothing can be done. £200 for a product that works 4-5 times.They are simply not interested in helping their customers.
AVOID.
Ian

Get free calibre from the internet. It will change most formats into one that can be used.
Leslie

Has ANYTHING happened re the above? I have yet to receive a response from KOBO about any inquiry I have ever made to them- the most recent was by email more than 1 week ago. Their customer service is a joke- TOTALLY non- existent
Epiales

I tried calling the phone number given to me on the support page and can’t even get through. It seems the line is out of service.
Will Killyou

I did not buy the Kobo H2o because of this and WILL NOT deal with any company that outsources their support to India! When I was stateside I noticed that they provide especially poor support to the USA starting right off by charging more to US customers. If they sell an item such as the H2o for 179 Canadian dollars they sell it to the US for 179.00 US dollars. Given the exchange rate the price would be 142.00USD to match 179.00 CAN as of today Feb 9th 2015. Couple his with indian support and I just decided against them! Really is their loss since we are buying 42 E-readers.
Will Killyou

They are awful!
Julie

Yes! I just tried the Kobo customer care phone number because their email response time took over 9 hours for the first response, which was a little long for my taste (plus the response didn’t even deal with half my issue, it was like they didn’t even read my whole issue). So I called the 800 number they had listed in my email that said “for immediate service”. It rang once then gave me a busy signal. I have tried several times in the past couple hours, during the “available hours”, all with the same response. What kind of 800 customer care phone number is that?
Epiales

I finally got a response by email which stated I should just go ahead and purchase what I want on my credit card and they’ll sort it out and refund my payment later. That doesn’t exactly sound like a solution.
RayCanada

Nothing Has Changed Since This Article the Customer service is exactly the same and appears to be still outsourced to company’s that don’t have any notion of The Product. I Have experienced multiple issues that all ways result in a scripted run around that can go on for weeks if not months. My Advice don’t buy from them, and If you do and have problems do the minimal amount you have to in good faith to resolve things with them. Then depending on how angry you are write to the company’s asociated with them stating you will boycott them and File Complaints with all government agencies that you can and after that use social media and if you are still ticked off take legal action.
Cycledoc

ditto. Want to return my aura. Flashes when turn pages. Really annoying. can’t get anyone to answer. Seems to be an inferior product with terrible support.
Doug

I am hearing impaired. Is there anyway that I can communicate with Kobo without using the telephone? I am used to using email or chat with other companies.
Dan Perry

I have had a few Kobo freeze on me after purchasing. I thought the first one was a random incident – that I had bought the one lemon out of many good ones. I foolishly went out and bought a replacement, just to have the same thing happen inside of five months. I emailed them and I was given instructions on how to reset the Kobo, which is pretty common knowledge. I had tried to reset them already. Just to be game I tried again with no success. I notified them that the reset did not work on either devise. That was three weeks ago. I have not heard from them, and I doubt that I will.

I figure that I am owed a new Kobo or a deep discount on one at the very least. How about a refurbished one? I would be happy with a repair. Cosmetically both are in perfect shape with expensive protective cases. One had the protective screen film still on it the day it died.

So the moral of this story is, don’t get a Kobo. They are much too fragile and poorly made. Further, they have no regard for their customers. Once they have your money you are nothing to them. Get something good like a Sony or a Kindle.
Brallan

Eleven days ago I emailed Kobo with a question about buying books on my Kobo Touch, and I received an “incident number”. When I hadn’t heard back, I phoned and used their ‘we’ll call you back’ function. I still haven’t had a call back or an email response to a question that would help me do more business with them. Really?
Fintan James Lyons

I got a Kobo a few month ago as a gift.Its not turning out as expected. Very poor on the connectivity and uploading of books from my laptop. wifi has packed up altogether now. Basically downloading a book, one of the most fundamental functions of an ebook has become so hit and miss, i’m thinking about giving it a miss. The software is clunky and the information is poor. Not an issue if its superfast but when it stays in synch mode for an hour with no indication its making any progress, that is no longer funny. Little if anything in the way of diagnostics to give you a clue as to the problem. I foolishly disconnected one night without pressing the disconnect button and waiting for permission – took me a couple of days to figure out how to reboot the book and synch again – I agree with the other posters – don’t buy one.
Mary Moore

Mary M.
I got the phone number. It is 1-855-732-3662
Jerry L. Hanson

Worst customer service ever…. I have two eMail addresses. I opened a ticket under one email address – the one I give out to everyone. However, my outgoing eMail address is different. Kobo cannot or will not recognize this fact. Received this: Your recent incident update was from an email address not associated with the incident. In an effort to maintain the security of information, we cannot update the incident using this email address. If you are the incident owner and your email address has changed, or you want to be able to update the incident using this email account, please update your contact information using the following link, then resubmit your update. So I updated my account to reflect the other address… Now they are sending this same message because they still don’t match! It appears they have a computer as a buffer between the client & customer support. However; I do have the option of sitting on hold for 2 hours waiting for human contact. Frustrating!
damien

Worst customer service ever…. I confirm! I live in Europe and they call me from US… The guy was sooo bad. Finally I paid the communication and didn’t have any answer to my problem. He told me he’ll call me back…
Libby King

I have had to exchange 3 kobo ereaders so far, I have been trying to ring kobo to get help with setting the fourth one up as this one is not responding either and I keep getting a dental practice in China. WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!! Totally abysmal
Jack W

Coming up to 4 years since this article was created and I can confirm that after dealing with Kobo customer services over the past 2 weeks nothing has changed.

My Kobo was bricked after a ‘recommended’ firmware update via the desktop app. Did some digging online and found that it has been happening to a vast amount of old-gen Kobo users over the past couple of years and the only way to fix the issue is by taking the Kobo apart and flashing the microSD card. It’s almost as if they want to break old devices so you have to get a new one.

Customer services was unable to help, passed me between 4 different representatives who had no idea what had been discussed with the previous ones, ignored half of what I told them, seemed to have no technical knowledge about the eReader and just kept repeating solutions from their troubleshooting guide which I had to keep telling them I couldn’t perform because the device was stuck on the loading screen. They then told me it couldn’t be replaced as it was out of warranty when at no stage had I asked for a replacement and repeated again that I just wanted help getting it to work again. No response since except for a customer services satisfaction survey which did nothing but annoy me further.

So they break my eReader when it’s out of warranty, mess me about on the phone and then via email with useless suggestions then basically tell me that it’s tough sh*t.

The entire operation sucks and I would advise anyone to stay away from Rakuten Kobo and get a kindle instead. They obviously haven’t got their sh*t together after 4 years and I doubt they ever will.
Jon Fraser

I can also confirmed that nothing has changed. I cracked the screen on my Arc 7HD (which was my own fault) and contacted Kobo to see where or how I could get it fixed. There response was – “we don’t offer repair services, we don’t sell parts” and worst of all, “we can’t/won’t recommend anywhere that you can get it fixed – we don’t have repair partners”. I had to escalate to social media to even get them to start the escalation process internally.
judith

I can’t do anything with Kobo because every time I open it, I’m told I have to upload an update. Nothing will work until I do. I upload and install, go back to Kobo and he same thing appens all over again, regardless of which browser I use.
G.O.Daley

kobo are awful, not only from a customers point of view, but from an authors point of view too. The actual royalties are far less than advertised, the promised 70% royalty is actually 53%, needless to say, I have withdrawn my book
Cleekamin

this blog post (https://wordpress.com/post/airtinhame.wordpress.com/125) describes exactly the frustration of many Kobo owners and the later post (https://wordpress.com/post/airtinhame.wordpress.com/283) indicates the likely future for Kobo. Organisations which refuse to accept email from customers, treat customers as idiots, insult the intelligence of customers and deliver inferior product will fail.
katie c.

I ordered the Kobo glow HD and it came with the wrong USB cord. I having been calling and emailing the support line and I continuously get the brush off. I am told the matter has to go to another department for
a decision. I am told the matter is beyond their training. Then I hear nothing. I have never experienced such poor customer service. I wish I had read these complaints before I purchased a Kobo
DO NOT BUY KOBO!
Lisa

Kobo took out hundreds of books from my library. I contacted them today and I was told that I would have to rebuy all my books in order to get them back. Has this happened to others.
phillib

I can report that they still have astoundingly terrible customer support as of today. I contacted support using their Live Chat feature, but the customer support representative didn’t seem to be a native English speaker, nor did he seem knowledgeable about Kobo’s store front. Despite clearly describing my problem, over and over again, in every manner of phrasing, the support representative failed to ever understand the problem.

He kept giving me canned responses and misinterpreting what I had described. Each time that he misinterpreted the problem, he invented a new accusation about why he thought the problem was my fault. Eventually the representative tried to end the chat without solving my problem, and I told him I wouldn’t be a return customer. Up to that point, I had been polite. The representative seemed not to care whether I returned as a customer or not, so I left the chat and immediately deactivated my account.
Paws

Wish I had known this before I order a Kobo Touch. I ordered one 10/5 and still can’t get any information on it and can’t find a phone number to call either. Customer service sends your email back with the same requested info each time you answer them. I am going to see if I can get my credit card company to cancel or retrieve my payment to them. It is now 6 days with no satisfaction. The live chat does not work!!!! This is horrible. If I had known I would have gotten a different reader but my other one had died and I had quite a few books on it.
Ruth

For a company that only specializes in ebooks for the most part, they do an extremely poor job at Their One Job. IE: for example, if you are fortunate enough to ever get your book on your ereader, then half the time the cover doesn’t come along with it. Really, Kobo? You are incompetent, go into another business and leave the epub market to another company who can handle it.
Ruth

This sounds like a case for contacting the Better business bureau and the Atty. General’s office. No way that is going to fly with ME.
Dan

Worst Customer service I have ever dealt with.
Penny Arcade

This company is a complete waste of my time. I registered bought a book i have NEVER been able to read. Website says my email does not exist..customer service insists that it does AND I CONTINUE TO GET NOWHERE!
Jennifer Alison

Kobo is terrible!!! My device, which was working perfectly fine previously, crashed during a required software update. The customer service was horrible! They blamed me for the crash, even though it happened while I was downloading a book I purchased from them. Their online customer support never worked. I kept getting a bot named Jason that would never reply. It even disconnected several times for no reason. After months of chasing after their customer service staff who were supposedly looking into the matter, and would never reply to me without me following up first, they finally offered to replace my device under warranty. I filled out their replacement form and then they decided later they would not honour the replacement, for no reason! They have never been able to provide an answer as to what caused the crash or how I might fix it. They are clearly crashing older models to force me to upgrade. I replaced my older model and the newer one is more glitchy. It will skip ahead 5+ pages at once for no reason, the batter drains faster, as well as other smaller glitches. Will not be buying another one again!!
Gbolahan

Oh my goodness! the live chat does work!! I just chatted with a dude called raphael now. the link is below…

https://kobo.frontlinesvc.com/app/chat/chat_launch/
Gbolahan

yes, live chat.

https://kobo.frontlinesvc.com/app/chat/chat_launch/
Bernier Jean-Claude

I am stuck with a Kobo H20 that quit on me instantly. I try to find a place to at least changing the battery. Impossible to find a place in CANADA. The company does’T have any service system or technician. on the phone the person hang-up on me probably because i had problem with my english. a real stupid company. After having paid $200.00 for reader machine. It break and the only solution is buy a new one because the garentie is off by a few months.
Krista Gordon

I’ve been a kobo fan for years but I lost a ereader and had to deactivate my account and create a new one and that turn into a nightmare with their customer support or lack of. Hold time is over 10mins and I didn’t always get a call back or i get disconnected. It took 6 people to not be able to fix my problem which was missing books that I bought from my new account only to find out it went to my old account cause they didn’t cancel it. I got told by each service rep they were going to do something but didn’t until I spoke to a supervisor. This took all day and to find out that because I had to deactivate my account I lost my points fine but my VIP MEMBERSHIP too and I paid for that. They could merge my books but not that and of course they share that afterwards. Horrible service when I needed them the most and all the money I’ve spent on books makes me sad. This was just two days ago and I’m still in shock.
Des Pemberton

October 2017 and Kobo customer support has got no better. I bought my wife a Kobo ereader and opened her an account. I then did the fatal act of linking her account to mine. Although thankfully I’ve kept my library, my identity and points have disappeared. Their telephone rep asked me to send any proof of my points, and then they ignore the emails I sent. Talking to their reps is like walking through treacle and sending emails is a futile waste of time. Up to this point I had no adverse issues with Kobo, but now I’m thinking I should’ve taken this opportunity to defect to Amazon’s Kindle.
Marcus

By far the worst customer service experience I’ve had with ANY company. Emails and messages are just ignored, I get assigned a reference number and that’s it, no more responses months later. It’s like talking to a brick wall. I like my device but there is no way I would recommend Kobo to anyone, because if you have any issues they are impossible to resolve, you’re on your own.
Marcus

Just realised that Kobo used to be good until they were bought by Rakuten. Exactly the same thing happened to Play.com, Rakuten puts their investors before their customers every time and turns their acquisitions to sh*t.
Graham Moss

We have just had a bad experience using the chat line. My wife gave me a $25 gift card. I bought a book and at same time entered the gift card number in accordance with the instructions. I expected the gift card amount to be added to the small balance that was in my account. The card was accepted but the credit balance never changed. The record of the transaction did not show the gift card. I went on the chat line and after a very long process, the agent said the card was valid and it would work next time. I tried again today. I sent the agent the transcript of the previous chat. But she wanted to redo the whole process. Not only that she wanted pictures of my card along with the various other information off the card. After over and hour she got to same point I had been with previous agent. The card was good. Now she wanted me to buy another book and try again. I had now spent at least 1 1/2 hours or more and had got nowhere. I had to go out so closed the chat down. I asked her to send the problem to someone in upper management that could do something about it. But that is not likely happening. Kind of ridiculous to have to go to such lengths just to try and use a gift card. Basically card will go in garbage. We wont be using them again and will see if I can get a Kindle app for our tablets.
Graham Moss

My wife called Kobo. She was told that gift cards cannot be added to account if there is an existing balance. THis should not be like that. You should be able to use your gift to add to your credit balance. Nowhere does Kobo explain this. My wife spent about 5min on phone to find this out. I spent a total of 2-3 hours on chat line, took photographs of the card and had to jump through various hoops and yet never got that answer. We now won’t know if the card will work until we have used up our existing balance. Time to give up on Kobo, I think.
Sekuture Getachew

I got a $100 kobo card but could not buy the books I need since there is no option at the payment to redeem my card number. Wasted my time to get solutions but in vain. I am not sure what to do with my ereader and the purchased card. So disappointed!