Kobo customer care (or lack of)

[John F]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps that the Kobo Forma was discontinued over two years ago? Even if you purchased one of the last Forma's sold, unless you paid for the extended warranty, your Forma would no longer be in warranty.

Are you stating that your Kobo Forma is still in warranty? You paid for the extended warranty?

Have you tried opening it up and re-seating the cables? There are enough YouTube videos though adding battery replacement to the search string will eliminate most of the unboxing videos.

Out of curiosity, I still see Formas for sale, for example blue proton is still selling them on Amazon U.S. Does Kobo still need to honor the warrenty?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by John F

Out of curiosity, I still see Formas for sale, for example blue proton is still selling them on Amazon U.S. Does Kobo still need to honor the warrenty?

Considering that Blue Proton also states that the Forma is not discontinued by manufacturer? BTW Kobo Canada was selling the refurbed Forma for $189.99 Cdn (~$139.80 US).

[John F]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Considering that Blue Proton also states that the Forma is not discontinued by manufacturer? BTW Kobo Canada was selling the refurbed Forma for $189.99 Cdn (~$139.80 US).

Does it being discontinued matter as far as warranties go? I seem to recall that Kobo was selling Formas at a discounted price once the Sage came out and the Forma was "discontinued"?

I assumed Blue Proton was an authorized dealer. Should people who purchase from Blue Proton be worried about warranties?

I'm ignorant on warranty law, so I'm curious.

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by hermano

.....but they claim they have no authorised repair facilities.

That would be the most worrying bit to me - no authorised repair facilites, now maybe Amazon is the same, but when a company says this what they are really saying is no matter if your device is five years old or five days old if it breaks it gets chucked away.

Yes Kobo can be fixed (from what I've seen, I don't own one) but I'm guessing that if they have no authorised repair facilities if you do fix one it would not be an authorised repair so if it was still under warranty that warranty would then be void (?)

I just had a problem with a new Paperwhite, Amazon replaced it with no fuss, but what happened to the faulty one? in the bin?

I think companies need to be forced to make goods that are repairable as the mountain of junked e-waste is just getting bigger and bigger

[DNSB]

Depending on where you are the rules can differ. Locally, once a device is discontinued, the end of sales date kicks in. Once the base warranty period has been exceeded (i.e. end of sales date plus 1 year), trying to register your device for warranty purposes may not work though most manufacturers allow a grace period of 6 months to 1 year after the end of sales before no longer accepting registrations for warranty purposes.

A purchase made from Blue Proton should have the usual warranty terms but Ghu alone knows how purchasing a discontinued item that is at least 2.5 years old is going to be treated for warranty purposes.

Much of this is based on the experience of one friend of mine who purchased a 55" Sony TV from a local retailer a couple of years back. The TV had been discontinued by Sony about 3 years before (2018/9? model in early 2022) and was put on sale along with a bunch of other found in warehouse devices. The price was great but when he tried to register on Sony's site, he was informed his TV was not eligible for warranty coverage. OTOH, he was still able to download the latest firmware update and install it.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by John F

Does it being discontinued matter as far as warranties go? I seem to recall that Kobo was selling Formas at a discounted price once the Sage came out and the Forma was "discontinued"?

I assumed Blue Proton was an authorized dealer. Should people who purchase from Blue Proton be worried about warranties?

I'm ignorant on warranty law, so I'm curious.

In the US, there's a one year warranty from the date of original retail purchase from an authorized dealer. They'll repair or replace with a new or refurb unit, perhaps another more valuable model. https://www.kobo.com/userguides has warranties for many countries.

I don't see any limits relating to a product being discontinued, but I might have missed something.

[PeterT]

I seem to remember many years ago (back at the time of the original Kobo with Bluetooth and the Kobo WiFi) that some repairs were done by Celestica in Toronto.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by foosion

In the US, there's a one year warranty from the date of original retail purchase from an authorized dealer. They'll repair or replace with a new or refurb unit, perhaps another more valuable model. https://www.kobo.com/userguides has warranties for many countries.

I don't see any limits relating to a product being discontinued, but I might have missed something.

From what I find on Kobo's web page, Blue Proton shows as a authorized dealer. See Where to buy.

OTOH, after a quick chat with Blue Proton's online assistant, I suspect that no one there knows any more than we do.