Amazon Kindle in Taiwan

[Taiwan_Student]

I just dropped my kindle down a flight of stairs! Dang it. Its screen is streaky now and it won't turn on.

Anyone know of any place to get it repaired here in Taiwan? Amazon whats it sent back in the original packaging, which I don't think I still have, and warrenty won't cover dropping it down stairs. Of course.

This sucks.

Housecat,too bad about dropping the Kindle. That is exactly t something I would do and the the worry that is keeping me from buying one. Did you get it repaired? If you have to buy a new one, consider purchasing the Square Trade all risk warranty available when you purchase stuff at Amazon. I got a three year warranty attached to the Asus Skype phone I bought my mother. It' an all risk policy. Cost me only 49 dollars more. The price of the warranty is dependent upon the value of the thing insured. Your price may be cheaper.

Not too sure how it works out of the USA though? Perhaps you can use a US address. The cost of sending it back to someone in the states, who will send it out for repair should not be that much. I believe the warranty covers shipping too. They will also act as an advocate for you and take care of shipping and things not covered in the manufacturer's warranty such as dropping

Good luck... let us know what happens.

PS: Be sure to choose the ALL RISK OPTION. Again I have not used it yet, but the promise is good so I bought it. To the best of my knowledge, it covers everything.

[housecat]

Actually, they're being quite good about it. Dropping it isn't covered by warranty, but when I tried to plug it in again, thinking maybe it's just frozen and out of juice, it got really, really HOT, really, really quickly. I called them when that happened. and this is how this works:

They send a new one and charge you for it, but also do a refund on the same day. This will tie up funds in the bank for a few days, but you don't actually get charged. Then, I have to send back the broken Kindle within 30 days, with insuance and tracking, or I WILL be charged for the new one. But I can send an email with information about whatever it costs me to return the old one, and Amazon will credit my account with that amount.

My new reader should be here before the weekend, and I can use the box of the new one to send the old one back in, so there's no more confusion about not being able to ship it in the same packaging.

[Bigbird]

WARNING! For all who have ordered Kindles and had them delivered to Taiwan without a problem, you guys are incredibly lucky.

Now for those who are thinking about ordering a Kindle, DO NOT ORDER MORE THAN TWO AT ONCE! There is a regulation about importing any Wi-Fi capable device, which is why so many people have had to send through extra documents. But the real problem I had was that no one person may order more than 2 Wi-Fi capable devices unless they have a shipping permit. Without knowing this, I asked among my friends and two other people wanted one, so together with them and my wife, I ordered four.

So what happened to me:

1. After it arrived at Taoyuan airport it was scanned and then there were no updates for an entire day.
2. Then I get the worst possible tracking activity: Non-customs Government agency hold
3. I had to call UPS and find out what was going on, they said they needed extra documentation which I sent off within an hour of them telling me it was required.
4. I immediately call to confirm they had received the fax and that all the documents were in order, they tell me I had faxed it to the wrong place (which was the only fax number in the e-mail with the attached documents), so they told me they would forward it to the correct place and confirm that they had done so and that all the documents were in order. I never received any call to confirm this.
5. There is no activity for almost an entire day and then towards the end of the day they inform me about this regulation that no more than 4 Wi-Fi items may be shipped together. They ask me if I want to cancel the order.
6. I contact Amazon and they point me towards Kindle support, which for international buyers only has a phone number (no chat like regular Amazon). The Kindle support hears me out and gives me a ray of hope that they will try and get two Kindles released to me and refund the rest, seeing as how 2 Wi-Fi items are allowed per person. They assure me that they will pursue this avenue and get back to me.
7. They get back to me in the negative saying that only complete orders can be processed.
8. UPS for the first time calls me after two days and tells me that the only way I will get all 4 Kindles released is if I acquire the services of an import agent, at a cost of NT$1,800 (whom I must contact myself and pay for myself and he doesn't speak English), who will acquire the necessary permit and then release the Kindles to UPS who will then deliver them to me.
9. I contact Kindle support with this solution who say they will refund the amount ($60 to cover the agent), no questions asked and the person is very sympathetic and apologetic.
10. Now in point 8 I spelled out my e-mail address and asked them to send the contact information of the agent, and as yet I have not received it. The worst part is that when I tried to call them, I got disconnected three times and suspect that they were trying to avoid me as when I dialed a 4th time it was after 5 PM and all there offices, island-wide, immediately give a not-in-office answering message when you call. So now it is Saturday night and I cannot organize anything until Monday morning.

So yes, moral of the story order two or only one at a time and hope you don't have to jump through the documentation hoops.

But on a side note, I would advise obtaining the Nook Simple Touch. It is only $99, has a touch screen, no advertising, expandable memory slot, double the battery life (Kindle is 2 months based on 30 minutes per day reading time, Nook is 2 months based on 1-hour a day reading time), it has received many positive reviews and it is .epub compatible, which is becoming the standardized format for e-readers. Kindle is the only major e-reader that no longer supports .epub and many public libraries are offering e-books in .epub format. So yes, if I was American or didn't feel too bad about putting an American friend out I would get a Nook.

Sorry for my long-windedness, just want to tell people and help people avoid making the same mistake I did. I doubt Amazon will stop people from Taiwan ordering more than 2 any time soon.

Cheers

[housecat]

Thanks Bigbird.

I forgot to update, but returning my kindle and getting the new one went off without a hitch. The only problem at all was trying to convince the workers at the post office that I wanted to pay for certified service to ship it back, as the kept insisting that the package was so light that I didn't need to do that! Once I finally convinced them I wanted certified mail, they shipped everything that way (I was sending some other packages to some friends), but that was no big deal.

Amazon credited my account for the postage at my word, before geting the package to confirm, as soon as I emailed them the amount.

[forefit]

Housecat this is helpful and very hopeful for me, I have just had the same situation and cracked my screen an hour ago on the MRT Hopefully this should work nicely.

[housecat]

So sorry to her it, Forfit! Good luck!

[Taiwan_Student]

Wow... This thread is too long.... This tread should be boiled down to an FAQ right now. Maybe we should have a MS Word/Open Office document library that we can download, use it, then edit it or add passages and re-submit it back to our librarian (moderator) for re-posting.
This and the android phone thread would be prime candidates... Now my question..

With the news that library books can now be used on the kindle, my whole apprehension about buying books that are not transferable is mitigated...

I'm interested in the low end +-79 dollar model. It has a black and white e-ink screen. My question is how the books and magazines are rendered into black and white. Are the illustrations pleasing?
What about bar graphs and other research data.... Would the device render the graphs into shades of gray or patterns.

I'm concerned about publications such as psychology today (if it is available) and other academic stuff that uses charts and graphs.

[housecat]

My question is how the books and magazines are rendered into black and white. Are the illustrations pleasing?
What about bar graphs and other research data.... Would the device render the graphs into shades of gray or patterns.

I'm concerned about publications such as psychology today (if it is available) and other academic stuff that uses charts and graphs.

My eight year old son has read several book on my Kindle that include illustrations. They've all been very good. In fact, he said of the illustrations in The Magician's Elephant, "Wow, mom, this book has drawings and I LOVE THEM! These pictures are SO COOL!" So, there ya go.

Graphs and charts aren't great on the kindle screen, IMO. I've read one or two financial books on my Kindle and the graphs have been nearly un-readable, because they turn out too small, or too large to fit a single screen (though you can change font size, which would help with that), and because many graphs employ color, but the Kindle does not.

[lostinasia]

Graphs and charts aren't great on the kindle screen, IMO. I've read one or two financial books on my Kindle and the graphs have been nearly un-readable, because they turn out too small, or too large to fit a single screen (though you can change font size, which would help with that), and because many graphs employ color, but the Kindle does not.

True, but you can also look at your Kindle books on your computer, and in that format they'll probably have full colour. This isn't an ideal solution, but I've got a few books where I do most of the reading on the Kindle, and occasionally open the book on my computer (or iPhone) to get the "proper" illustration.

[kelake]

It has a black and white e-ink screen. My question is how the books and magazines are rendered into black and white. Are the illustrations pleasing?

I think generally no. I love the device for reading, and the ability to share books via email, but viewing any kind of complex illustration on the kindles slow to refresh gray scale screen is disappointing. Children’s books are painful. Sometimes it works ok, the Steve Jobs biography looks fine, but it’s not really a good replacement for a glossy magazine.