Bookeen support won't even reply

Snuffi · 01-23-2008, 04:33 AM

I first saw the Cybook last fall and was pretty excited about the device.
When I ordered beginning of December I knew shipping would take a while but they managed to get the device out before Christmas with the cover and the spare battery missing. I though this was a pretty nice idea to deliver the device as quickly as possible and send the missing extras later because that way I could start playing around with the book on my holiday.

Second week of January, though, we started to ask Bookeen if there was a rough date by which we could expect the remaining items to be sent. After a week without response we inquired again but no response whatsoever. Next we told them that if there was not even an expected date available when shipping could happen that they refund the 100 Euro for the Deluxe pack and let us know when covers and batteries would be available again so that we could repurchase then. Neither this nor any of the following mails was graced with any reply whatsoever.

It's pretty sad that a company which offers an innovative product - which btw I like a lot - lacks so much in customer relations that even though I would normally recommend the device to everyone I have to warn people instead that they might be in for a long fight if they purchase from Bookeen.
What I don't understand is why a simple e-mail response in more than 2 weeks is really too much to ask. If they tell me that they will deliver by end of February I will definitely not be happy but I would rather wait than try to quarrel with them over a few days. But no response means I will have to write again and again and as I am not too happy about spending my time writing complaints which aren't even read I'll rather use that time to get legal advice and take according steps to get my money back.

Does anyone else have similar problems getting any answer back from Bookeen? So far I have been very friendly because I know that they have been swamped with orders (I even had our mails translated to French to make it easier for them to read and respond) but not getting at least a "Please give us a couple of days more, your case is already being investigated" reply in weeks is something I cannot tolerate. I sure hope they start improving soon because I was already thinking to buy another Cybook for my wife...

P.S.: Anyone heard anything about a firmware upgrade?

HarryT · 01-23-2008, 04:43 AM

I suspect that your e-mail is being "eaten" by a spam filter. I write to Bookeen support regularly to report various bugs, etc, and always get a response within a few hours. Probably worth trying to re-send your mail from a different system - eg hotmail or yahoo.

Prospect · 01-23-2008, 05:16 AM

HarryT - Your beeng to kind.

Either way this is unacceptable behaviour by Bookeen. Since they have not provided a telephone number for contact, email would be the only feasible means of communications. Not having an operational mail system is no better than not answering the mail in the first place.

diabloNL · 01-23-2008, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prospect

HarryT - Your beeng to kind.

Either way this is unacceptable behaviour by Bookeen. Since they have not provided a telephone number for contact, email would be the only feasible means of communications. Not having an operational mail system is no better than not answering the mail in the first place.

I agree. I had to send an email four times in 1,5 week time to get an answer back and I had send it each time to four different email addresses.

montsnmags · 01-23-2008, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prospect

HarryT - Your beeng to kind.

Either way this is unacceptable behaviour by Bookeen. Since they have not provided a telephone number for contact, email would be the only feasible means of communications. Not having an operational mail system is no better than not answering the mail in the first place.

While I mostly agree with your criticism (and I have experienced similar frustration elsewhere), it should be noted that actually Harry is being helpful rather than "too kind". If their spam filter is eating the email (and Harry notes he gets pretty good response when he sends emails to Bookeen) then his suggestion is worth a try for someone experiencing difficulties contacting them.

Cheers,
Marc

HarryT · 01-23-2008, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prospect

HarryT - Your beeng to kind.

Either way this is unacceptable behaviour by Bookeen. Since they have not provided a telephone number for contact, email would be the only feasible means of communications. Not having an operational mail system is no better than not answering the mail in the first place.

No - not being "too kind", just trying to make a helpful suggestion to get a response. Take it or leave it! Most companies these days use automatic blacklists to block spam. If your ISP gets listed on there (as can happen very easily) any e-mail that you send will get eaten. I've had it happen to me. That's why I suggest sending from mail from a different system to see if it gets a response.

Snuffi · 01-23-2008, 06:55 AM

Thanks for idea, will try from another account. Must admit that it had not occurred to me that my mails could have been "eaten". Would think that it's not a good idea for a company to block GMail mails (especially not on the support account) but as it's not really a problem to send the thing from another account, I'd rather just send it again, just in case...

Good thing I tossed this issue into the forum before getting all worked up about it :-)

greyparrot · 01-23-2008, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

If your ISP gets listed on there (as can happen very easily) any e-mail that you send will get eaten.

I haven't had this problem with any company I have purchased from in the past, and if this is their problem I suggest they fix it because my ISP has a very large customer base and they (Bookeen) would be trashing a lot of e-mails. I haven't received any responses to my five e-mails sent over the last month and a half. I just tried sending from another account (yahoo) to see if I get a response. (I hope they don't block all yahoo e-mails)
I have no respect for a company that treats it's customers as Bookeen does and would not recommend them to my friends. I'm thankful that I haven't had a problem with my Gen3 because I doubt that I would get a response to a support e-mail and I'd have a paper weight on my hands.

HarryT · 01-23-2008, 09:54 AM

These days it's getting harder and harder for any company to use e-mail reliably. If you have a public web site with e-mail addresses on it, you get swamped with spam.

I run my own software business; my "support" e-mail address receives typically 4000-5000 emails per day, 99.5% spam. If I didn't use spam-blocking technology, I couldn't begin to cope with the e-mail. I do use such technology because I have to, as does every company. The inevitable consequence of that is that if you are unfortunate enough to be sending mail from the same server as a currently-active spammer (blacklist operate, at least partially, using the IP address of the mail server), your e-mail won't get through.

It works the other way too. I'd estimate that about one in four or five of the e-mails I send to my customers doesn't reach them because of spam-blocking. That inevitably leads to irate customers who say "why aren't you answering my e-mail", which is very fraustrating when I am answering them and my reply isn't reaching them. There is, for example, a large American ISP called "earthlink". When I see an "earthlink.net" address my heart sinks because I know for a fact it'll bounce any reply I send to it (they seem to block virtually all international e-mail).

I wouldn't be so quick to blame Bookeen. Perhaps your mail isn't reaching them. Perhaps their e-mail isn't reaching you. That's why I'm suggesting that you try sending your mail from a different source and seeing if you have any better luck that way.

It's a no-win situation.

David B · 01-23-2008, 10:03 AM

@HarryT
I understand that very well, but if they can't rely on email and don't want to give a phone number... there are a lot of ways to avoid spam with a contact form for example.

HarryT · 01-23-2008, 10:05 AM

Yes, you're right. Contact forms are probably the best way to go these days.

Snuffi · 01-23-2008, 11:35 AM

Here's an update: HarryT was right, I re-sent the same mail via another account and within hours we got a response. Response was friendly, there was no indication whatsoever that they were aware of any prior attempts to contact them (I didn't mention in may mail that I tried to contact them before but if the had received my mails I suppose I would have been able to "read between the lines").

Info was that

"Les expéditions recommencent dès demain jeudi 24 janvier.
Les articles manquants seront expédiés en mode postal standard avant la fin
du mois."

I didn't know that the delivery of missing articles was connected to the general pause in deliveries (I thought that temporary stop in deliveries was only for new orders as indicated on their page) but it seems that this bit of information was already requested by a couple of people here in the forums.
So, here's for everyone: Deliveries will start again tomorrow, 24th of January!

While I am very happy to have heard from them now, I still think that it's kind of a problem to block GMail. Not that I'm angry or something, I'm just wondering about all the people using GMail to contact some company (I suppose this problem must be the same for alle companies) and having their mails vanish into the big black void of spam protection. If these cases increase at the same rate as spam increases (and a chart of the increase of the latter would make anyone wish it was a chart of one's own shares at the stock market) that would render e-mail unusable as a means of staying in contact with one's customers. But well, that's more of a philosophical question rather than one which can really be answered at this point...
Thanks for the tip about using another account, HarryT, saved me a lot of hassle over nothing (it seems they had not forgotten anyway, just didn't tell me there was a complete stop of all deliveries in place) :-)

greyparrot · 01-23-2008, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

I wouldn't be so quick to blame Bookeen. Perhaps your mail isn't reaching them. Perhaps their e-mail isn't reaching you. That's why I'm suggesting that you try sending your mail from a different source and seeing if you have any better luck that way.

Surprise! Surprise! I got a quick reply to my message using a yahoo account. From now on I'll use that account to contact Bookeen rather than my normal ISP account. This is a inconvenience but if it solves the problem I'll live with it.

HarryT · 01-23-2008, 12:18 PM

That's good news; I'm pleased that it worked for you.

solodoc · 01-23-2008, 12:37 PM

Though you seem to have been caught out by a spamfilter...........I have had responses only after several emails and getting a response usually a week later , till I wrote to them about how displeased I was that they hadn't ....then they started to respond in a more realworld fashion.......ie. hours to over a day......

P.S it still is an awesome device

01-23-2008, 04:33 AM	#1
Snuffi Addict Posts: 245 Karma: 718 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Vienna Device: Pocketbook Pro 612, Bookeen Cybook Gen3	Bookeen support won't even reply I first saw the Cybook last fall and was pretty excited about the device. When I ordered beginning of December I knew shipping would take a while but they managed to get the device out before Christmas with the cover and the spare battery missing. I though this was a pretty nice idea to deliver the device as quickly as possible and send the missing extras later because that way I could start playing around with the book on my holiday. Second week of January, though, we started to ask Bookeen if there was a rough date by which we could expect the remaining items to be sent. After a week without response we inquired again but no response whatsoever. Next we told them that if there was not even an expected date available when shipping could happen that they refund the 100 Euro for the Deluxe pack and let us know when covers and batteries would be available again so that we could repurchase then. Neither this nor any of the following mails was graced with any reply whatsoever. It's pretty sad that a company which offers an innovative product - which btw I like a lot - lacks so much in customer relations that even though I would normally recommend the device to everyone I have to warn people instead that they might be in for a long fight if they purchase from Bookeen. What I don't understand is why a simple e-mail response in more than 2 weeks is really too much to ask. If they tell me that they will deliver by end of February I will definitely not be happy but I would rather wait than try to quarrel with them over a few days. But no response means I will have to write again and again and as I am not too happy about spending my time writing complaints which aren't even read I'll rather use that time to get legal advice and take according steps to get my money back. Does anyone else have similar problems getting any answer back from Bookeen? So far I have been very friendly because I know that they have been swamped with orders (I even had our mails translated to French to make it easier for them to read and respond) but not getting at least a "Please give us a couple of days more, your case is already being investigated" reply in weeks is something I cannot tolerate. I sure hope they start improving soon because I was already thinking to buy another Cybook for my wife... P.S.: Anyone heard anything about a firmware upgrade?

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01-23-2008, 04:43 AM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I suspect that your e-mail is being "eaten" by a spam filter. I write to Bookeen support regularly to report various bugs, etc, and always get a response within a few hours. Probably worth trying to re-send your mail from a different system - eg hotmail or yahoo.

01-23-2008, 05:16 AM	#3
Prospect Other Posts: 143 Karma: 644 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Norway Device: Cybook, Kindle	HarryT - Your beeng to kind. Either way this is unacceptable behaviour by Bookeen. Since they have not provided a telephone number for contact, email would be the only feasible means of communications. Not having an operational mail system is no better than not answering the mail in the first place.

01-23-2008, 06:55 AM	#7
Snuffi Addict Posts: 245 Karma: 718 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Vienna Device: Pocketbook Pro 612, Bookeen Cybook Gen3	Thanks for idea, will try from another account. Must admit that it had not occurred to me that my mails could have been "eaten". Would think that it's not a good idea for a company to block GMail mails (especially not on the support account) but as it's not really a problem to send the thing from another account, I'd rather just send it again, just in case... Good thing I tossed this issue into the forum before getting all worked up about it :-)

01-23-2008, 09:54 AM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	These days it's getting harder and harder for any company to use e-mail reliably. If you have a public web site with e-mail addresses on it, you get swamped with spam. I run my own software business; my "support" e-mail address receives typically 4000-5000 emails per day, 99.5% spam. If I didn't use spam-blocking technology, I couldn't begin to cope with the e-mail. I do use such technology because I have to, as does every company. The inevitable consequence of that is that if you are unfortunate enough to be sending mail from the same server as a currently-active spammer (blacklist operate, at least partially, using the IP address of the mail server), your e-mail won't get through. It works the other way too. I'd estimate that about one in four or five of the e-mails I send to my customers doesn't reach them because of spam-blocking. That inevitably leads to irate customers who say "why aren't you answering my e-mail", which is very fraustrating when I am answering them and my reply isn't reaching them. There is, for example, a large American ISP called "earthlink". When I see an "earthlink.net" address my heart sinks because I know for a fact it'll bounce any reply I send to it (they seem to block virtually all international e-mail). I wouldn't be so quick to blame Bookeen. Perhaps your mail isn't reaching them. Perhaps their e-mail isn't reaching you. That's why I'm suggesting that you try sending your mail from a different source and seeing if you have any better luck that way. It's a no-win situation.

01-23-2008, 10:03 AM	#10
David B Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Munich, Germany Device: Cybook GEN3	@HarryT I understand that very well, but if they can't rely on email and don't want to give a phone number... there are a lot of ways to avoid spam with a contact form for example.

01-23-2008, 10:05 AM	#11
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Yes, you're right. Contact forms are probably the best way to go these days.

01-23-2008, 11:35 AM	#12
Snuffi Addict Posts: 245 Karma: 718 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Vienna Device: Pocketbook Pro 612, Bookeen Cybook Gen3	Here's an update: HarryT was right, I re-sent the same mail via another account and within hours we got a response. Response was friendly, there was no indication whatsoever that they were aware of any prior attempts to contact them (I didn't mention in may mail that I tried to contact them before but if the had received my mails I suppose I would have been able to "read between the lines"). Info was that "Les expéditions recommencent dès demain jeudi 24 janvier. Les articles manquants seront expédiés en mode postal standard avant la fin du mois." I didn't know that the delivery of missing articles was connected to the general pause in deliveries (I thought that temporary stop in deliveries was only for new orders as indicated on their page) but it seems that this bit of information was already requested by a couple of people here in the forums. So, here's for everyone: Deliveries will start again tomorrow, 24th of January! While I am very happy to have heard from them now, I still think that it's kind of a problem to block GMail. Not that I'm angry or something, I'm just wondering about all the people using GMail to contact some company (I suppose this problem must be the same for alle companies) and having their mails vanish into the big black void of spam protection. If these cases increase at the same rate as spam increases (and a chart of the increase of the latter would make anyone wish it was a chart of one's own shares at the stock market) that would render e-mail unusable as a means of staying in contact with one's customers. But well, that's more of a philosophical question rather than one which can really be answered at this point... Thanks for the tip about using another account, HarryT, saved me a lot of hassle over nothing (it seems they had not forgotten anyway, just didn't tell me there was a complete stop of all deliveries in place) :-)

01-23-2008, 12:18 PM	#14
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	That's good news; I'm pleased that it worked for you.

01-23-2008, 12:37 PM	#15
solodoc Connoisseur Posts: 55 Karma: 19 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: CybookG3...	Though you seem to have been caught out by a spamfilter...........I have had responses only after several emails and getting a response usually a week later , till I wrote to them about how displeased I was that they hadn't ....then they started to respond in a more realworld fashion.......ie. hours to over a day...... P.S it still is an awesome device

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