Cool-er Readers: happy with product?

[davebalme]

The Cool-er was the first ereader I bought in September of last year. It lasted about a month before it packed up. The replacement lasted three days before it went grey screen. Interead customer support was awful, eventually responding to my last email some weeks after the replacement was returned to place of purchase for a full refund
I bought a TuffLuv case off ebay which was reasonably priced and good quality.

[sassanik]

I am sorry that you had such a bad experience with your Cool-er. Though I think most of the first batches of Cool-ers got returned to Interead in June-July '09. They seem to have pretty consistantly have had the grey gradient screen issue. Which at this point seems to have been fixed.
I admit I am on my 3rd Cool-er, though my experience with Intereads tech support was very good, they had a quick response and replaced my Cool-er without a problem. I did order my Cool-er directly from their website though.

Amy

[VickiS]

Originally Posted by DojoPat

I know the Cool-er reader has been out a few months now, but I've never seen one. Are people who own one happy with the device?

(I'm a happy 505 owner, but if Sony keeps using touch-screens on their new models I may eventually switch to another brand that has a crisp 6" screen)

My husband ordered me one of these for christmas. The site showed that the color that I was interested in was "in stock" but guess what, it's january 22 and I still haven't received it!

I also saw that QVC was offering the product, and I should have known then that I was in trouble. Well, I went to take a look at QVC just after christmas, and noticed that people who bought it from QVC already had theirs! I don't want to discuss how hot-under-the-collar I was, but that soon subsided when I started reading the feedback; at that time it was 107 negative reviews!

I had my husband cancel our order, but we never once received any sort of email confirmation. So, he began calling again the following monday, and after 3 more hours of dialing, he finally got someone on the phone. The woman told him that in the off chance the order arrived that we should refuse the package... All I want is my money back, and to date the money has not been refunded to our account.

In hindsight, I learned that I will never trust a new product during the christmas holidays. My husband feels so bad, being that I was the only family member who didn't have a present to open on christmas morning! I feel so cheated!

I do not agree with anyone in this thread who says that this company has great customer service! They might have some kind of great technical support, but customer service is deplorable! I wouldn't be here writing this if it were not for the fact that my money has not yet been returned!

Best wishes for those who are enjoying their cool-er... I wish we had more money to spare to buy the kindle until our money is returned from cool-er, but alas we don't.

Vicki S.

[andygates]

Very happy with the hardware here; the software's a bit shonky.

For me it was a choice between the Sony Pocket and the Cool-er, and the Cool-er was lighter and had a simpler bezel: the Sony felt like a Quality Gadget [tm], but I don't want a Quality Gadget, I want an unobtrusive frame into my books.

Build quality bears off against weight, so until someone does a titanium case, I'm cool with plastic,

[mrvanes]

Apart from a horrible experience with customer service (grey-band brick costed me a 6(!!!) months wait for return!) I'm quite happy with the device. For all that matters, the device can't help it's being offered by a bunch of pricks .
The default font sizes are indeed a bit off sometimes, but manipulating them in Calibre once makes for the perfect reading experience for me.
Like everybody says, the build quality is what you can expect from a 'lower segment' reader: maybe a bit flimsy, but very light and good enough to keep the device and everything in place.
I made myself a nice hidden treasuse book inlay to store the cool-er in. Makes for funny views when I open it to read my E-books

[Loccy]

Originally Posted by mrvanes

The default font sizes are indeed a bit off sometimes, but manipulating them in Calibre once makes for the perfect reading experience for me.

The latest firmware makes this MUCH better. The font sizes go up in sensible increments now, rather than offering the sizes

miniscule
huge
gargantuan
size of Jupiter

[VickiS]

Originally Posted by VickiS

My husband ordered me one of these for christmas. The site showed that the color that I was interested in was "in stock" but guess what, it's january 22 and I still haven't received it!

I also saw that QVC was offering the product, and I should have known then that I was in trouble. Well, I went to take a look at QVC just after christmas, and noticed that people who bought it from QVC already had theirs! I don't want to discuss how hot-under-the-collar I was, but that soon subsided when I started reading the feedback; at that time it was 107 negative reviews!

I had my husband cancel our order, but we never once received any sort of email confirmation. So, he began calling again the following monday, and after 3 more hours of dialing, he finally got someone on the phone. The woman told him that in the off chance the order arrived that we should refuse the package... All I want is my money back, and to date the money has not been refunded to our account.

In hindsight, I learned that I will never trust a new product during the christmas holidays. My husband feels so bad, being that I was the only family member who didn't have a present to open on christmas morning! I feel so cheated!

I do not agree with anyone in this thread who says that this company has great customer service! They might have some kind of great technical support, but customer service is deplorable! I wouldn't be here writing this if it were not for the fact that my money has not yet been returned!

Best wishes for those who are enjoying their cool-er... I wish we had more money to spare to buy the kindle until our money is returned from cool-er, but alas we don't.

Vicki S.

Update: We did "FINALLY" get our money refunded to our account, after numerous calls, at the very end of January. I cannot review the product itself because it was never delivered, so my experience can only be related to the worst customer service I have ever been subjected to in my entire 40 years.

From what I understand, cooler headquarters is located in the UK, and that US shipments are subjected to the full customs review. I feel as if I got caught up in a poorly planned, poorly executed corporate not-so-bright idea, hatched by money-hungry idiots ill prepared to deal with inevitable disaster! Sorry, but I needed to get that out of my system!

I have since discovered great feedback on the product, and feel that if it had been represented properly my experience would have been far more positive... I am extremely happy with my kindle 2 replacement, and I am very happy about the way this entire experience played out.

The sad thing is that customer service, here in the US, is going to ruin a reputable company and product... I know that it left a bad taste in my mouth! Perhaps someone will read this feedback and realize that this product is only $20 less than Kindle; which has so much more to offer by way of features. I just went to the cooler site and looked at all the different cities, and the product is still "out of stock" across the board. I found myself wondering if I would still be waiting for my cooler to arrive?

Vicki S...

[KimnCocoa]

Heeee I was at Barnes and Nobel and the Cooler fits nicely into the Nook cases and they had some cute ones!

[codeMonkey]

Originally Posted by KimnCocoa

Heeee I was at Barnes and Nobel and the Cooler fits nicely into the Nook cases and they had some cute ones!

Thanks for the tip!

[al zymers]

well the reader was Ok and happy to use it, had some probs when i first bought it and customer support did a great job, but hoiw things have changed now!

no reply to emails

and the screen on the damn thing has gone all grey lines on me!

not sure why, found it when I returned from a recent trip abroad, and its just out of warranty too..

well if they dont answer in the next few days it will be binned and a kindle bought...

I hate crap aftersales service!

[Godzil]

Interread (those who sells the cooler) is dead, so that's normal that they no longuer answer to emails...

[panda53]

I had a weird thing happen last week...

I had been using my cool-er on the bus during the day - but when I turned it on at home it was all weird, the icons were different and I couldn't read any of the ebooks.

Thankfully I had previously unpacked the last firmware update onto an SD card. So, I backed up my books and did the firmware update.

And now it's working just fine.

So it might be worth just reflashing the firmware before you bin it...

I've had 9 happy months of reading on mine - but I do wonder when it will die!

[nnylyart]

Is there anyway you can send me the firmware update or tell me where I can download it? I cannot find it anywhere.

Thanks