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Amazon's Ad-Supported Kindle Still Working Out The Kinks
By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 7, 2011
Modified Nov 7, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 7, 2011
Modified Nov 7, 2011
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Back in the end of September Amazon made a big splash when it announced its Android-based Kindle Fire tablet. But what caught our eye at that media event was the much cheaper, ad-supported Kindle which the company now sells for $79. At that price point, how could we say no? And since we got ours in the mail we've been pretty smitten with the device. Until, that is, it started butt-buying Amazon Local deals for us without our permission!
You know how your cellphone will occasionally get unlocked and call your friends from your pocket? Imagine that, but with your eReader buying things for you. Because that was what was going on, until today, with the the Amazon Local ads (think Groupon, but with the Amazon brand) which appear on the Kindle when it goes to sleep. See: If, when the ad is displayed, you hold down on the main controller button the device takes you to a page where, with just one more click of that main controller button, you could purchase whatever was being offered (until today, that is). The convenience of buying a deal for $10 off burgers at some place you've never heard of with two taps of a button is hard to deny. Except when you don't mean to buy said deal and don't even realize until a week later that your reader it bought it for you from your bag.
Luckily, Amazon really seems to have taken the customer service lessons it bought from Zappos.com to heart. Yesterday when we called to complain that our Kindle had bought some deals without our knowledge, the company immediately refunded us. Even better, when we sat down to write this up today we discovered that they had already fixed the way it pushes its deals on to Kindle readers. Now when ads appear on the Kindle another button press will "email me more details" rather than have you buy the deal on the spot. Good work, Amazon. Though maybe that ad pushing 50 percent off of Kindle cases was a bit of overkill?
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Garth Johnston
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