Monday, September 7, 2009

Managing Stolen/Lost Kindles

It should be so much easier than this. I'm talking about Amazon's policy regarding lost/stolen Kindles, as outlined in this article. I can't imagine losing my Kindle and having Amazon tell me they won't disable it.

Come on. That's an almost $400 device and it would be so easy for them to deny service to the person who found/stole it. If England can do this with cell phones why in the world can't Amazon do it with Kindles?

Whatever happened to this company that built its reputation on a foundation of outstanding customer service? Anyone who accepts this policy and then buys another Kindle to replace their lost/stolen one is a sucker.

Dear Mr. Bezos, can you please just implement the oh-so-simple solution outlined at the end of the article?!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not even just in England. Verizon does it here in the US

Anonymous said...

I am blown away by the fact that we have a device that cannot even be password protected. C'mon, any other electronic device can be password protected, so why not a Kindle?

Anonymous said...

yes..except it's not always so simple. What if someone sold it or gave it away and then a dispute comes up and now they claim its stolen. Amazon would have to get in the middle of this all the time. Apple won't do anything about their devices either (ipods) probably for the same reasons.

Joe Wikert said...

Sure it is. Here's an extremely simple solution to the problem you note: The original owner needs to electronically sign it over to the new owner. This is a one-time process and cannot be undone, so if the original owner feels cheated after they e-sign it over, it's too late. IOW, don't e-sign it over till the check clears and you're totally satisfied with the deal!

What would e-signing require? Just another option on the "Manage my Kindle" page where the original owner checks a box to say they're passing ownership to John Doe, and the only thing that's required besides the check box is John Doe's Amazon ID (not password!). Pretty simple, no?