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Kindle - Wow!


Simon-the-censored
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I’ve been sitting reading this forum from the start (sad, I know but I just got drawn in). So although ostensibly I’m replying to you, Suze, I’ve a few more comments to make besides.

My OH and I have a Kindle each, bought via daughter in UK last autumn. I chose the UK route after comparing prices – I think K3G + protective cover was about 30% more via amazon.com.

I’ve read with trepidation of Cathy, John and Mrs N’s problems of being refused from buying books from co.uk. We plan to sell off the majority of our paper books at the next Vide Grenier and I don’t know what we’d do without the Kindles.I was recommending the Kindle to friends in France only this week, but having read the problems of buying books, I’ve quickly drawn their attention to this forum so that they can weigh up the risks, themselves.

I have been trying to work our why we are lucky enough to continue buying books through .co.uk. When they arrived from UK they were registered to .com and we had to change the country in Manage my Kindle. Our cards are with a British bank but registered to our French address. However, OH and I have both had Amazon.co.uk accounts since before we moved to France. Also, we have had in the past, and continue to have our daughter’s address as one of our delivery options. I hope we will be able to continue to purchase from .co.uk.

You’ll probably pay bank charges to buy books from .com. I bought a couple of books from US before I figured out how to change country and one of the books, I bought in error (it’s so easy to press the default button by mistake). I got my refund but I was annoyed that the currency conversion charge, was not refunded. So watch out for that if you buy from .com. It seems wrong that I wouldn’t be allowed to buy from .co.uk with my sterling bank card and I am forced to pay bank charges to buy in dollars.

We have one 3G and one WiFi model and I picked up a great tip on a forum – they are both registered in the same name so we can both access the archive and read any of the books (we can both read the same book at the same time if we want to).

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Having woken in the early hours the cogs in my mind started turning. I thought that if I bought from the UK and was very unfortunate to come up with problems like Cathy, then I could either accept the situation and go to .com or I came up with the idea of de-registering the Kindle from my account and re-registering it to a family member/close friend in the UK. Not only does it save the problem but it also enables us to share our books. I could pay for a gift voucher in advance to cover any books that I buy 1-click
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Sounds a good idea, Suze, provided they don't block ordering whilst in France (which is surely against the "download from anywhere policy" anyway). We'd decided if we were forced to use .com, we'd have to buy one for our daughter in UK and register all of them together. At worst, she'd have to order our books for us too. If only we could pinpoint the criteria Amazon use to decide which of us are excluded from .co.uk. That would be very useful.
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I have ordered my Kindle!

It should be here before next wednesday the 2nd March - from the States - I just couldn't face the possibility of coming up with issues if I had a problem with it and ordered it through amazon.co.uk and had it delivered to a friend..

My worries about the very long delivery times from .com were unfounded. Despite their FAQ saying 18-32 business days, when you come to order it it is actually 2-4 business days. Also new to .com is that they have a currency converter and if you pay with a Euro currency credit card (or other currency) you are given the option of to pay in USD or in your local currency. However, 1-click is not yet set up for this but it is planned.

Having spent a huge amount of time looking at all the options I have discovered that I can order books, free/paid, from amazon.co.uk : I have a separate account with them (on a different email address) and have Kindle for My Mac application downloaded. I have download books to that application, then transfered them onto the Calibre application and then I will be able to transfer them on to my Kindle.

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Just joined the forum but have watched this thread for a while now.

Got my Kindle Oct last and it has transformed my reading habits. Advantages:

Easy to carry lots of books

Slim and light.

Holds charge for a month

Cheap ebooks

You can read trash novels and nobody can see the cover!

Arms don't get tired when reading in bed.

Disadvantges:

Expensive ebooks

Doesn't respond well to being dropped on tiled floor

Order from .com if not UK resident (unless prepared to tinker with the rules)

More fragile than a paperback

Nobody knows that you're reading The Iliad or Troilus and Cressida.

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Well, my Kindle arrived very quickly. I had ordered it last wednesday night and it was sent from Philadelphia and arrived monday morning, 4 and a half days delivery :) Since, I have been busy organising collections and downloading loads of 'free' books, and reading of course.

Oh, my last paragraph in my last post above - ignore it, it doesn't work as the Kindle says it's registered to another user when I try to copy it to my device. Tant pis, but I have loads of other books to read so I am not that bothered by it.

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I paid in euros (new facility on Amazon.com - pay in the local currency of the credit/debit card used). I bought the 3g model with the Proporta waterproof (5m) cover and I paid a total of 211€ which includes p&p, taxes/import duties etc.

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JK - The Kindle automatically connects to the strongest signal be it Wifi (fastest), 3G or GPRS (slowest). You just need to make sure it's enabled on your Kindle.

All books etc are delivered instantly once purchased via the Amazon 'Global' Whispernet - no delivery charge!

By the way - absolutely no problems whatsoever using my .co.uk ordered Kindle in France.

Simon :-)
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Only trying to help JK , no need to be so touchy!

Quite obviously you DON'T know how it works because you'd know that there's no need to 'CHOOSE' a delivery method - the Kindle does that for you based on the strongest available signal (so sorry to repeat myself!).

Does it really matter how the e-books are delivered so long as you get them? THERE IS NO CHAGRE FOR DELIVERY - GLOBALLY - no matter where you order them from...although I suspect they all come from the same Amazon server anyway.

I would add that you do pay a small fee, no matter where you live, if you want to send documents to your Kindle via their Whispernet.

Boring stuff JK - just relax and enjoy it

Simon :-)
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quote user JK:- "Well, that sounds very reasonable. Will you use the 3G or wifi to get books and do .com levy a charge for delivery outside the US?"

You have to set what region you are in - so I am in 'Europe' region (as apposed to UK / US / Australia....) . It seems as though most of the 'free' books that are on amazon.com US region cost 2,30usd on amazon.com Europe region. This, I am told on the Kindle forum, is due to France imposing a charge on 3g downloads. Plenty of free books are available on other sites though.

I am happy in the knowledge that I have ordered my Kindle 'correctly' should I encounter any problems.
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How complicated, and expensive some peoples lives are !

Take a look at this text from the 'Manage My Kindle' page on my Amazon account:

Your Country

If you're moving, you can change the country associated with your Kindle account.

Current country

United Kingdom

Edit

Simple - just change it. If you gave your Kindle to someone in another country they'd do the same thing.

There are millions of people all over Europe who order their Kindle from the UK and use it in Europe (including France!) and Worldwide - without any problems. I fly all over the place and have never had a problem.

Why on earth anyone would order their Kindle from the US when they can get it across the Channel I've no idea......

Simon :-)

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Quote from Simon-come-lately:

''Only trying to help JK , no need to be so touchy!

Quite obviously you DON'T know how it works because you'd know that there's no need to 'CHOOSE' a delivery method - the Kindle does that for you based on the strongest available signal (so sorry to repeat myself!).

Does it really matter how the e-books are delivered so long as you get them? THERE IS NO CHAGRE FOR DELIVERY - GLOBALLY - no matter where you order them from...although I suspect they all come from the same Amazon server anyway.

I would add that you do pay a small fee, no matter where you live, if you want to send documents to your Kindle via their Whispernet.

Boring stuff JK - just relax and enjoy it

Simon :-)''

Thank you. I haven't been patronised like that in a long time! Thank you also for saving Suze from replying to my question to her - I'm sure she will appreciate your replying on her behalf.

Try getting Amazon to send a Kindle from .co.uk to a French address. Then try getting your books from .co.uk with a French account and card as many people who have no UK address must do. And then baulk at the extra charge .com makes for ebook orders from a non-US account.

Then try patronising someone else.
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The lockout that occurs when using Kindle overseas seems only to affect those using wifi. The IP address is flagged as a non-UK one. After about 3 or 4 orders you will get a message something like ''Are you travelling? Please contact us.'' There is a link to a page which then doesn't exist when the link is clicked.

I emailed them explaining that it was a UK reg Kindle but I was both a UK and French homeowner so would expect to use the Kindle in both regions and that the ability to download while travelling was a fundamental element in my decidiing to get one in the first place.

I got a reply to the effect that they would allow 5 more downloads as a courtesy until their investigation was complete.

I understand using 3G doesn't flag this in the same way.

Using a VPN seems to be the only satisfactory way to allow one to access .co.uk while travelling (which is, after all, when you don't have access to your proper books!).

Not impressed with this aspect of the organisation. Buy your Kindle so you can download and read as you travel - er, unless you want to download using wifi when you're travelling.
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quote user="Simon-come-lately" How complicated, and expensive some peoples lives are !

Take a look at this text from the 'Manage My Kindle' page on my Amazon account:

Your Country

If you're moving, you can change the country associated with your Kindle account.

Current country

United Kingdom

Edit

Simple - just change it. If you gave your Kindle to someone in another country they'd do the same thing.

There are millions of people all over Europe who order their Kindle from the UK and use it in Europe (including France!) and Worldwide - without any problems. I fly all over the place and have never had a problem.

Why on earth anyone would order their Kindle from the US when they can get it across the Channel I've no idea......

Simon :-) /quote

Because I live in France, have done for nine years, have no connection to the UK, no address in the UK and so it is the correct way to order a Kindle. Kindle UK won't deliver to France. I have ordered from .com because that is what you have to do, and I did it in order for my life to be NOT COMPLICATED by trying to cheat the system (and yes I fully understand about changing your location in Manage My Kindle)
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[quote user="JK"]

I got a reply to the effect that they would allow 5 more downloads as a courtesy until their investigation was complete.[/quote]

Well isn't that nice of Amazon! You buy their product when you could get a similar item elswhere. You buy their books and then they have the nerve to tell you that you are being investigated! I would tell them to s**ff their K where the sun don't shine and buy a Nook or something similar.

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Jay wrote:

''Well isn't that nice of Amazon! You buy their product when you could get a similar item elswhere. You buy their books and then they have the nerve to tell you that you are being investigated! I would tell them to s**ff their K where the sun don't shine and buy a Nook or something similar.''

(The quote facility is producing gobbledegook - prob'ly 'cos I'm using Opera)

Their Ts and Cs clearly state that only UK residents can use the .co.uk store. On the grounds that I bought the Kindle from my home in North Yorkshire where my a/c is registered I foolishly believed the guff about downloading worldwide using wifi and Whispernet (there's always a McDo's with free wifi).

As I put in my email to Amazon, the beauty of the Kindle is if you go away for a month not only do you not have to take 20 books but you can also buy as the mood takes you rather than having to predict your reading requirements. I never had a reply, incidentally.

i would not have bought the K if I had known that this travelling thing was an issue. They should make clear when extolling the portability that they will limit download. They also need to recognise that the EU permits full, unfettered movement of its citizens within the community and that there will be many people who through work or lifestyle will not spend there entire time in Little England.

Really, the parochialism drives me potty!

I nearly did return it but I like it too much!
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