Books, life the universe

Sunday 12 September 2010

Do people complain about nothing these days?

I've been frequenting the Kindle forum on Amazon and found the following complaints about the Kindle which seem to me extremely petty:
  1. The Amazon-Kindle logo on the screen surround irritates me - does anyone know how I can remove it?
  2. I don't like the screensavers which come with it - they're just black/grey pictures of authors etc - can I change them?
  3. I can't buy books from Waterstone's - why do Amazon insist you only buy books from them?
  4. I don't like the size of the margin on the page - I want it smaller
  5. The screen goes black when the page changes - it irritates me
  6. Why isn't there a memory card slot?
  7. I don't like having lots of small transactions on my credit card for Kindle books because my card provider has queried some of my transactions.
  8. I want a Kindle in white not grey

My answers were:

  1. You don't notice it when you're reading but something like T-Cut might get it off if it's really annoying
  2. Do you look at the screensavers when you're reading a book?
  3. Amazon don't insist you only buy from them. In fact they specifically direct you to other sites where you can download books for free and the Kindle supports some other formats as well.
  4. Size of the margin varies from book to book and if you change the text size and the number of words per line - try experimenting
  5. Duh! All e-book readers do this - it is for a fraction of a second only and you could try blinking when it changes then you won't notice.
  6. Do you really intend buying more than 3,500 books? If you do try deleting them when you need more space as Amazon keep a list of everything downloaded from them and you can always re-download them if you want.
  7. Credit card providers get used to your spending pattern and query transactions outside the norm for you. I'm all for them querying transactions myself so I can't see the problem
  8. Grey is easier to read from - a white surround will distract you from the page you're reading. You could always try painting it ;-)

I didn't actually answer some of the questions because my answers would probably have got me severely criticised. But seriously all these points could have been clarified from reading the product page BEFORE purchase. One person sent their Kindle back because of the page change thing even though he'd been told by everyone who responded that all e-book readers do this and you don't notice after a while.

Do people look for things to criticise? As for the person who said the screensaver picture of Jane Austen frightened her - well words fail me!

3 comments:

NAM said...

The answer to your question is, as you know, yes - they do.

I think we all do it to some extent, but the knack seems to me to lie in (a) knowing when to complain in public and when to mutter under one's breath and (b) to try to complain positively, or at least good-humouredly - much more likely to get a good result, after all.

Unfortunately, whingeing is encouraged by the fact that most organisations ask for feedback, and most people seem not to consider how they come over when they respond - obviously not been on the receiving end of much of it! And this despite the upsurge in writing in public...

Anne Brooke said...

Tee hee! I am constantly terrified by Jane Austen - she's very scary, you know! :))

Jilly said...

NAM - yes it is so difficult to complain constructively - so difficult in fact that most people never manage it!

Anne - well yes - very sharp tongue - but frightening appearance - not really I'd have said!!