# Kind of curious



## dickj (Nov 26, 2008)

I have been just kind of lurking here and also on the Amazon discussions.  I got my Kindle the day after Thanksgiving.  AND HOW I LOVE IT.  But, if I had been looking at these boards and at the Amazon boards,I probably would not have bought a Kindle.  So many people with problems!!  I just wonder how many of you have the first Kindle you received?  How many of you had to go to customer service and get a replacement?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

had mine since October, never missed a beat.  (I realize that's not long).  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Kindle, in fact I bought one for my brother, because Amazon WILL make it right.  They stand behind their product; I don't think I can lose with the Kindle.

Betsy


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

My husband got his in May, I got mine in October, no problems with either.


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## Linda Cannon-Mott (Oct 28, 2008)

dickj said:


> I have been just kind of lurking here and also on the Amazon discussions. I got my Kindle the day after Thanksgiving. AND HOW I LOVE IT. But, if I had been looking at these boards and at the Amazon boards,I probably would not have bought a Kindle. So many people with problems!! I just wonder how many of you have the first Kindle you received? How many of you had to go to customer service and get a replacement?


Welcome and congrats on your first post. I absolutely love my Kindle and it froze once. A soft reset took care of it. I don't think there are that many problems, I think it is more of getting a Kindle and not taking the time to read the How To book from cover to cover. I was guilty of that myself.

Dickj please go over to *The Intro/Welcome Board * and introduce yourself. There are nice folks her that will want to welcome you. Bookklubs starting in Jan, check it out in *The Book Corner*.


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## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

Hello dickj and welcome to KindleBoards. I have had no problems (other than the occasional operator error) and love my Kindle. I have no regrets on my purchase and would highly recommend it to anyone.


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## ScrappingForever (Nov 26, 2008)

My husband and I got our Kindles in January of this year. I have had to get a replacement but he still has his original one. I dropped mine, and even though it was in the cover, I think it did something to the inner workings of the thing. But as Betsy said, Amazon Customer Service makes it right. Because it was still under warrenty, they sent me out a new one and I had it the NEXT day! And this was after the Oprah show, when they already had a waiting list.


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## Nytngale (Dec 20, 2008)

I got my Kindle in July and so far, so good!

Sherri


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## Dori (Oct 28, 2008)

Got mine in October and it has always worked perfectly.


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2008)

I've had my Kindle for only a month and haven't had any real problems with it yet.  Mine gets a little tempermental if the charge gets to low but that's about it.


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## kim (Nov 20, 2008)

Not a single problem. I would, and have, recommend a Kindle to anyone.  I've had Anabel a month and she's been a reliable little friend.


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## Rivery (Nov 10, 2008)

I've had mine since last April.  Had to reset it twice in the beginning.  Other than that, no problems and I love it.


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

Glad you got your kindle.  I've had mine since June, and being out of the country (Mexico) I was a bit concerned, but I have had no problems at all.


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## Lynn (Nov 4, 2008)

I've had mine 2 months and have had no problems, no freezing up here. It went on a cruise and was exposed to sea air and the beach with no troubles.

Lynn L


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## bosslady402 (Nov 6, 2008)

As far as durability, mine spent the night on the side of the road in early November (see http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,396.0.html ) and the only thing that still doesn't work is the 'e' key (no biggie for me) - I was astonished. Wanting to tell that story is how I ended up here, so what you may be seeing is that people who have problems typically go online to research them - and end up here for answers. I don't know if there is any way to figure out how many people have never had a problem, and hence have never ended up here.

At least you should be reassured that if there is a problem, it will be resolved quickly and in your favor...


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## Avalon3 (Dec 3, 2008)

dickj said:



> I have been just kind of lurking here and also on the Amazon discussions. I got my Kindle the day after Thanksgiving. AND HOW I LOVE IT. But, if I had been looking at these boards and at the Amazon boards,I probably would not have bought a Kindle. So many people with problems!! I just wonder how many of you have the first Kindle you received? How many of you had to go to customer service and get a replacement?


I have my Kindle that I received a year ago and no problems. Also I gave one to my sister this last July and she hasn't had any problems.


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## LyndaC (Nov 5, 2008)

I have had mine since last March and only had to reset once when battery got too low. I can't imagine my life without it. Traveling is wonderful now.

Lynda C


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## Mom of 4 (Oct 27, 2008)

I have had mine since May.  No troubles at all!  Been to the beach, the pool, camping, works great!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

if you want to read BossLady's horror story, here's a direct link (you may need to scroll down to the actual message):
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,396.msg4959.html#msg4959

Betsy


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I've had mine since August.  No problems at all.  Even if I did have a problem, I know those wonderful folks at Amazon would make it right.


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## tessa (Nov 1, 2008)

Hi  I've had my Kindle since May with no problems at all .  

It's gone every place with me.


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## Cuechick (Oct 28, 2008)

I have had mine since the end of October with no problems at all. I would keep in mind, that part of the function of forums is to help those 
who have or are having a problem. It may seem like there are a lot of complaints, but the vast number of Kindle owners have no reason to complain, so no reason to post.


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## tarabenet (Nov 22, 2008)

I received mine as a gift last Christmas.  My first one never had a problem.  Well, not until it was broken while it was with me in the ER when my husband was admitted on Valentine's Day for a heart emergency!).  Amazon took pity on me, I guess, and sent me a replacement.  The customer service team was wonderful.  I've had that Kindle ever since.  I've never had a problem with it.  It goes everywhere I go.  I was a big reader before, but read even more with my Kindle -- two or three books a week, plus various blogs, etc.


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

Never had a problem...it was mostly my inexperience with a device. I never read instructions.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

It's interesting: you say you wouldn't have purchased if you'd read the message boards first: "so many people with problems". I did read the message boards first, mostly on Amazon, and my impression was "so many people really love it and Amazon takes care of you if something doesn't work right."

For the record, I purchased in early July and have had no problems. At least, nothing I consider a Problem. I've had one or two freezes. Usually trying to do something on the web, downloaded a lot of content at once, and/or the battery is low. Plugging it in and doing a reset has always fixed it. Now screen problems, or keys or wheels not working -- those _are _Problems. But Amazon has been earning A+ in customer service with these issues.

So I say: Enjoy kindling and don't go lookin' fer trouble! 

Ann


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Welcome, Dick and congratulations on your first post.

I have had my Kindle since April and it is fine. I love it. I've also bought four other Kindles for family and friends and those are all working fine, too. I think it is a great little device.

L


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## DawnOfChaos (Nov 12, 2008)

Welcome!

I've only had mine since early November, and I did have to do a soft reset once.  But I think it was related to content I was trying to upload (a badly converted file), not a fault in the Kindle itself.


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## jdsmke (Oct 31, 2008)

Let's see if I can set you mind at ease about "so many people with problems".  The Kindle is a huge phenomenon.  It was on Ellen, Oprah, and wasn't it on Rosie too?  Or the View, or something?  Anyways, the blasted things are backed up about three months in shipping.  There are a lot of them out there and a lot of them being sold.

I used to work in a store that built and sold PCs.  All custom builds, at the time our company didn't have any "shelf models".  We also serviced anyone's computer.  We steered clear of Seagate Hard drives for our builds because of their supposed "high" failure rate (somewhere around 10%, which seems high now, but this was in 1991 while the PC industry was still in toddler clothes, as it were).  I was doing a stock analysis (I was in the purchasing department) and was analyzing our returns and found that our chosen hard drive was failing at about a 10% ratio too.  We switched brands of hard rives, and they were failing at 10%.  Nowadays, Hard drives fail at a rate of about 1%.

The point is that new technology always fails at a higher rate than established technology. But even so, if we accept as valid EVERY issue, it still is a pretty small proportion of the people on this board, and on the Kindle boards at Amazon.  Then take into account the idea of trolls who make up problems just to get attention (they don't own a Kindle, they are just lonely people who want others to respond to them) or to make the kindle look bad because they are a fan of the Sony Reader (yes, some people are just THAT petty).  

Lacking solid sales and failure numbers from Amazon, I would guess that the failure rate for Kindles is pretty much in line with industry norms, we just hear about them more because the kindle buzz is so huge (would deafening be a good word?).  Not everyone who owns a Kindle goes to the two forums.  For every member of the forums there are a whole truckload of people who own Kindles.  

Anywho, that is my common sense, pragmatic view on the supposed high kindle failure rate.  For the record, Hythloday is alive and well and is on my bedside table.


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## tlshaw (Nov 10, 2008)

I have had mine since April and never had a problem.

Like jdsmke said, some of the problems discussed on the other board sound fishy and are possibly made up.


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## Eclectic Reader (Oct 28, 2008)

No problem here, and I've had mine since mid-February.


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## JoAnn (Nov 10, 2008)

I've had mine since Dec 2.  Other than one freeze-up caused by me, I haven't had any problems.  According to my DH, the only problem is how many times I have used the "one click buy". lol


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## Mnemosyne (Oct 31, 2008)

My first one was defective . Wouldn't connect to WN even though I had full bars and froze up constantly. Amazon sent me a new one and I've never had a problem!

Nemo


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## saltraker (Nov 10, 2008)

I've had my Kindle (aw...no name yet!) for only a few weeks.  It froze once, but a hard reset solved that problem.  Other than that, I have had absolutely no problems with it and would recommend it to anyone who was debating whether to get one.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

I've had my Kindle since July.  I've had no trouble except having to reset it twice, and the first time I'm pretty sure was user error.

It's always going to sound like there's nothing but problems if you only go by the message boards.  How boring would it be if nobody ever had a problem?


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## dickj (Nov 26, 2008)

Thanks to all of you for your comments.  I asked the question in hopes of getting the response I got.  It makes me feel confident that I made the right decision in getting my Kindle (which has no name - and will not have one) and hopefully someone thinking of getting a Kindle will read this and see that they don't all crash and burn.


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## ScottBooks (Oct 28, 2008)

Hey BJ! Here's another one  ...










...only 998 more to go!


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## Wannabe (Nov 6, 2008)

Had mine since Oct 31 and never a problem, unless you count all the time and money I've spent on it  .


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## Diana (Nov 9, 2008)

April 22nd--no problems


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## MonaSW (Nov 16, 2008)

We have two Kindles, purchased in August, and both are working fine. I only had to call customer service once when I downloaded a book that was causing problems with the Kindle. I was able to download and read it later with no problem.


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## Jamjar (Nov 22, 2008)

I received my first Kindle in early August.  It had a thin vertical white line running through the screen savers.  I called Amazon customer service and asked if there was anything I could do.  The fellow on the phone said "No, but I can do something for you."  I received a new Kindle the next day with a perfect screen.  Pretty cool service.  I have had no problems with the second Kindle.


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## hazeldazel (Oct 30, 2008)

i got mine on December 4th and zero problems.

keep in mind you're always gonna see the issues for something in a forum more than the working-perfectly stuff.  I mean, not many ppl are gonna post "today nothing went wrong with my kindle".


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Today, nothing went wrong with my Kindle.  
Actually, nothing yesterday either!

Sorry, couldn't resist!

(operating on 5 hrs sleep. . .Merry Christmas!)
Ann


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## patrisha w. (Oct 28, 2008)

I have had my Kindle since May. I have had to reset it twice with the paperclip. Other than that--it freezing twice -- I have had no problems at all and I love love love it!

I have an Oberon cover coming in a few days for it---the red skydragon one--and Amazon gift certificates for Christmas worth $300 to buy more books!

Patricia


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## sjc (Oct 29, 2008)

I am on my third.  I believe it was a batch thing.  My first one the text would fade outdoors or in bright light; second one same thing.  THIRD IS PERFECT.  I didn't care if it took 50 to get it right...I would never diss my Kindle.  I LOVE it.  Over on the forum, if one had to be replaced they would rant and complain and "Kindlebash"


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