I used to enjoy reading stories that Amazon sells on my Kindle for PC, because I also had a tablet, so I could read on my PC at home, and on the tablet when not. Then they came up with Amazon Prime and I inadvertently got roped into it. On one of their un warned renewals, their $90 fee drove me into overdraft.
I'd really like to read some of the books that are on the site now. Perhaps, I'll just have to learn to deal with Amazon? Though, I'd really rather just pay full price for what I get than put up with their flimflammery.
Gwen
Comments
You are not alone
It is getting very difficult to NOT buy anything from Amazon without signing up for Prime even if it is a free trial.
They are deliberately making it harder and harder to opt out of prime.
That is why they are my last port of call these days.
I messed up at the beginning of the month and got a free trial. Cancelling requires determination and at least three clicks on 'Yes I am [redacted] well sure I want to cancel' my prime membership.
I have a few days of free delivery left so I might get a few things but TBH, I don't need the hassle of dealing with them the way they are trying to trap us into forking out 'loadasmoney' each month.
Avoid if at all possible. If you do then just be careful where you click. You may have signed your life away.
Samantha
Nice to know
I am not alone in hating Amazon.
By the way, if you "buy" an ebook from them that also is on prime for page by page reading all you get is it sent to a cloud account from where you can only read it with their app you have to install. You never actually get ownership of the ebook's file, just the right to access the cloud account with their app.
If anyone would bother to take that to a German court it would most probably be classed as fraud, as the site
claims they are actually selling "the book", which would mean transfer the file to your computer after payment.
Amazon on the other hand are quite happy in the assumption, that people don't really care or are too lazy to invest any time and effort into an item that cost just over three dollars or 2.99 €.
Monique S
Amazon and file download
Do you have an example for a book like that?
I have only seen this kind of behaviour for magazines: All books that I "bought" or "borrowed" (yes, I use Kindle Unlimited) were downloaded to my PC.
Not that I would actually take them to a German court (not worth the time and money, also the courts are overloaded and the value of the item might get the case dismissed right away), but at least I could learn what to look out for to avoid that kind of offer.
Seems like they know and work differently in Germany.
I bought some English books from Amazon France and I can show you that all you get as confirmation is the access to their Cloud reader, where "your book" appears. All my attempts at downloading though failed.
Monique S
Not in my experience at all
DLing to cloud is a choice, not required in my use of Amazon. It may be offered as a default, especially if you have no machines registered to your account. I can DL to my kindle, my phone, either of my tablets and any of my computers. It's a rolldown menu.
As you express, the behavior you describe would be fraud and I can't see even Amazon getting away with it.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Never seen this
I have more than 300 kindle books downloaded, just to see if I could.
Not sure what your experience was, but you CAN download books you buy. Sending them to the cloud reader is an option but you can send them to your Kindle or other devices, too.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
On Amazon France
there is no download option whatever I try, whether at the point of purchase or later.
That probably is, because Claibre, that reads all the formats Patricia mentions, too, on a notebook is not classed as an ebook reader?
Monique S
Calibre is a conversion program
Not a reader. You actually need to download the Kindle app. You can then download and read on your device and the book is on your device and can be read without connecting to the internet or cloud. You just can't read it without using the proprietary app. I have the app on my pc and once the book is downloaded to the app I don't have to be online to read it.
Commentator
Visit my Caption Blog: Dawn's Girly Site
Visit my Amazon Page: D R Jehs
Calibre
is much more than a conversion program. It has a part that is a reader window, that opens anything you have in your library, from epub to PDF to RTF and so on. It does convert .rtf and .txt and .odt to epubs as well, true. I have downloaded all sorts of publications, including scientific papers that I read with that. It is absolutely brilliant, actually.
I also use it as my library.
Monique S
Be that as it may
You still need the Kindle app. In fact I use Calibre to convert epubs and pdfs to simple text files and send them to my kindle as docs just like stories from here and fm.
Commentator
Visit my Caption Blog: Dawn's Girly Site
Visit my Amazon Page: D R Jehs
Calibre
Yep, calibre is a great tool, I use it too. But to access Kindle ebooks, I first have to use the Kindle for PC App, download the file, then add it to my Calibre library. You must have a Kindle App registered to your account to be offered to download your purchases (this does not work with magazines, unfortunately).
Calibre Companion
I love using the Calibre program on my Windows PC. I use it to hold my library of unencrypted books and to read books on my PC. I also have a (4 dollar?) app called "Calibre Companion" on my Android phone. It syncs the library on my PC to my phone. I use "FB Reader" (Friendly Book Reader) to read unencrypted books on my phone. Please note that there are a number of other good Android ebook reader apps.
On a different note, please note that most books in Amazon Kindle are encrypted. So even though a copy is downloaded to your computer using the "Kindle for PC" program you will still have a problem trying to read it using any reader besides the "Kindle for PC" reader. And also note that the Kindle for PC reader will delete the downloaded copy when Amazon wants it to. And while you can copy the encrypted ebooks to another directory there is still the issue of trying to read them if and when Amazon does not want you to read them.
Is it Amazon bashing time
Is it Amazon bashing time again?
You have to go out of your way not to read the dates for when you will be charged. It said on the confirmation page, on the Prime account page, and in the email confirmation that they sent to your email account.
And the to the Anti-Amazon backers who will jump on me: don't bother correcting me, I've dealt with cancellations for Kindle Unlimited and Prime multiple times. I screwed up last Sunday when I spaced on the date and forgot to cancel my Prime so have a month of it that I didn't want. It says right away that it's automatic renewal, you have to opt out of it to cancel. Just because someone is too lazy to read through the agreements before signing off doesn't give them a free pass to blame the "evil" corporation for "exploiting" or worse consumers. People need to stop acting like sheeple and start taking responsibilities for their own ignorance, laziness, and mistakes. I am and I freely admit it was my mistake and I paid for it.
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
As long as we are Amazon bashing
I would like to one thing on the plus side that really impressed me. There have been a few times when I accidentally purchased a book that cost more than $0.00. I have had no problem returning them for a full refund.
Without knowing a thing about Amazon's ebook policy
When I decided that I wanted to go for an ereader, I did my homework. At the time, (haven't looked into it for several years) Kindle only supported Mobi, (now AWZ) PDF and one or two others. Where as Nook supported Epub, PDF, txt, doc, and a host of others that I know nothing about. Based on the number of files each device would read, I chose Nook.
I did download Kindle for PC on my computer and when I upgraded to Nook in the Samsung Tablet, there as well. I've purchased a few books to read on that because they weren't available anywhere else. but being used to the Nook, I really don't like the Kindle.
As for avoiding Amazon's policies, I'd recommend Smashwords. They offer all their books in epub, mobi, pdf, rtf, lrf, pdb, txt, and html. So you can read them on any device you want. Prices are competitive.
As for self publishing, I've published a few books there as well as at Amazon. The process to format is about the same. However, Smashwords has a lot more feedback in a much quicker response time. At Amazon, you have to choices. KDP where you are locked into publishing only there (you do get a higher royalty) or the lower rate where you don't have to destroy the already published web content or refrain from publishing elsewhere. KDP does promote your book to Amazon users. At Smashwords all rights remain yours as to where and when you may want to also publish. Smashwords sends your book to a number of world wide distributors, Amazon, Apple, Baker & Taylor/Follett, Barnes & Noble, cloudLibrary, Diesel, Flipkart, Gardners Extended Retail, Inktera (formerly Page Foundry), Kobo, Library Direct, Odilo, OverDrive, Oyster, Scribd, Sony, Tolino, and txtr.
To be honest, I've never found any of my work published solely on Smashwords available on Amazon. However as for number of books sold, Smashwords out performs Amazon, which may not be a fair comparison because none of my work is KDP on Amazon. Still with all the distribution options from Smashwords, I think it's a good gamble.
Smashwords has a simple, filling the blanks publishing page and will obtain ISBN numbers and register the number for you free of charge.
On the downside, BCTS isn't currently registered as an affiliate with Smashwords, but they could be.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
sounds like
I should get into Smashwords!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Alternative to Amazon
It would be nice to have an alternative to Amazon Kindle.
I know that paying BCTS directly might lead to all sorts of tax and other problems. I just wish it wasn't so.
Gwen
all
My published works are available as a digital download from Lulu as well as Kindle and dead tree. There are options out there for authors to use, they might not be as easy as Amazon but as they say, you pays your money, you take your choice.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Low IQ
There are people here who are very smart, but I am one of those who got where I got by being aggressive and persistent. I would not be surprised to find that my IQ is less than 100. So, things like coding and being sneaky like Amazon might be beyond me.
People get impatient with me at times, and I am sorry.
Gwen
Don't believe it
You have friends where you might not look.