Grr different ebook formats, Groupon, and me

[thistlechaser]

Sometimes it feels like I'm buying books nonstop. With an ebook reader, it's so easy! And you don't have to deal with packages arriving, empty boxes, storing the books, all that.

So, when Groupon offered a $20 of books for $10 at Barnes & Noble (online or in store), I figured what the hey. I usually buy from Amazon, but it couldn't be that different, right?

Wrong. I had to download the Nook app, and could only view the books through there. Slightly annoying, but not horrible.

What was horrible was that unsurprisingly the two apps (Kindle and Nook) don't check with each other to see if you already own a book, so by mistake I bought a book that I already had for the Kindle. A $10 book. So my $20 coupon for $10 became $10 of books for $10 on an app I'd rather not use.

Blah. Nook is actually the third ebook app on my iPad. There's the native one (which has a handful of books in it), the Kindle (which has most of them), and now Nook has a few. It'd be nice to have one app that covers all the various formats/sellers.

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

...what I'm surprised about is that you sound surprised by the behavior or lack of interactivity between the Nook and Kindle app.

Amazon and B&N are in a war over eBooks. Both sell hardware designed as a reader. They have all the reason in the world to make their software proprietary (can't buy from B&N and read on Amazon, or vice versa. I don't actually know if this is true, but I wouldn't be the slightest bit shocked if this is their position), so you would have to buy your books from their store to work with your their eReader.

Would it be nice to the consumer if it worked the way you describe? Sure. But there's no business reason for Amazon or B&N to make it that way.

But, sorry you accidentally double-bought a book. But, hell. I've done that with dead tree versions. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

"What was horrible was that unsurprisingly the two apps (Kindle and Nook) don't check with each other..."

Nope, I wasn't surprised. Sad, desiring it to be different, but not surprised.

(can't buy from B&N and read on Amazon, or vice versa. I don't actually know if this is true, but I wouldn't be the slightest bit shocked if this is their position)

That seems to be true, yeah. I did some googling after buying them but before realizing my mistake and it's not even easy to move one format to the other.

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

Amazon at least will let you do a refund of a kindle book if you ask promptly, perhaps you can unbuy which ever one you bought most recently if you ask customer service nicely.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hrm, that's worth a try. It's been at least a week, so I wouldn't be surprised if they say no, but I might as well try!

Edit: Still going to try, but seems likely not:
Items That Cannot Be Returned
We are unable to accept returns for NOOKbooks, magazines, downloadable PDFs for SparkNotes and Quamut products, gift cards, and shrink-wrapped items that have been opened. Please note: Once purchased, NOOKbooks cannot be refunded.

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

Point goes to Amazon then, they will take Kindle refunds.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And I like the Amazon website a whole lot more. B&N feels clunky, plus they use the Facebook thumbs up/down thing (so annoying, why does every site have to copy that now?). I haven't even opened the Nook app yet, so I can't comment on that.