Broken Kindle - Your Home For Broken Kindle Info

An Ironic Broken Kindle

This one comes from New Zealand…

How do you break a Kindle Fire? Cold weather.

We have our first report of a broken Kindle Fire!  Check out this message from a fellow broken kindle owner:

my husband bought me a kindle fire for christmas 2011.  I left it in my car over night and the screen cracked when it got too cold. 

That is right folks, the way to break a kindle fire is to leave it out in the cold.  So here is a handy guide to Kindle Fire longevity.  If you find yourself outside in the cold, leave your kindle fire at home… unless of course you have a fire going, in which case you should keep your kindle fire near the fire and it should be just fine.

Amazon support drops the ball - again

If you make a product which isn’t very durable, in my opinion as a company you should stand behind it and replace it when it breaks.  We have read a lot of stories here about how Amazon did replace a bunch of broken kindles, but it turns out they don’t always.  Adding to my original story (which spawned this blog), I share with you this reader story:

Sorry to bring you the sad news: My Kindle 3G died – RIP. It was delivered on the 10^th Nov 2010 and it died on the 15^th Dec 2011. During its short life of 13 months it was well looked after, never being put squeezed in bags, pockets, never dropped on the floor, never smacked or punched. Even in its death its look is perfect –  no scratches, the whole screen picture is clear, no messed – up lines,  no grey or white coloured danger zones. This is the reason I did not send you a photo of my Kindle – its exterior is like new. For 150 British pounds I paid 13 months ago it looks pretty impressive. I am glad that I can use it as picture on my wall to serve me as a reminder – never to buy something that would cost me over 50 pounds and to last for a bit over a year. As Bob said in his story “it is not worth it”.

The reason the Kindle in question is just a picture perfect now is that the power on/off switch does not work. Actually it does move to the right, it slides back to the left, there is a solid green or a flashing green light coming out (beautiful colour green I must admit) but it does stay switched on for 5 seconds only and back to the left to its death. I trudged the net for days, followed all the advice (15, 50, 60 seconds rule and so on) there to reset / reboot it but to no avail. The Amazon customer service (mostly highly praised on the net) asked me to pay another 50 pounds to get a replacement. I refused to pay on the grounds that as a new Kindle lasts for 13 months, I could not decide on the durability of a reconditioned replacement. The Amazon people seem quite brazen in their attitude if a technical fault occurs outside the 1 year warranty. They seem to think that it is reasonable to expect a Kindle to last for a year.  

In my circle of friends four of them had some Kindle problems. However, when you read the Kindle links on the net they mostly smell of roses and violets. So I was glad when I came across your blog. The more people know about the Kindle problems the better they will be informed to make the right choice.    

Thank you, guys, for being here to share my grievances with you. 

XXXXX

It’s like deja vu for me.  It is a shame that even now in 2011, with the zillions of data points about past Kindles breaking in this fashion, Amazon still tries to nickel and dime their customers.

At least with this blog we have a way to share these stories with a broader audience.  As always, if you have an amazon horror story, just send it to brokenkindle@gmail.com.  Also, if an Amazon employee is reading this, if you email me I’ll forward the complaint of the above customer so you can make it right and replace her Kindle.

Note: We are not Amazon

While we are a helpful resource for you to share your stories and tips about broken kindles, we are not in any way related to Amazon!  Here is a recent letter from a confused reader:

Hi there what do I do about my broken kindle screen? 

I am very disappointed that they are soooooo flimsy as I didn’t do anything to break it except the normal use.

My name is XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX and I live in Australia.  I have an account with you so I expect you can trace my purchase.

Please get back to me asap as I am half way through a book and don’t have anymore hard cover books since I bought the kindle.

Here is the official link to kindle support.  If you need help or need to get it replaced, go there.  If you want to read stories and see pictures of broken kindles, stay here.

Speaking of which, here is the shot of the aforementioned kindle:

Yup, that one is down for the count!

Don’t break your kindle in your bag, briefcase or purse

Has this website become a force for good?  A new reader, Diana, read some stories on our site and decided to complain about her broken kindle to Amazon, and scored a free replacement.  Key move: Don’t mention that your kindle was broken in your bag, briefcase or purse!  Great tip Diana, hopefully this helps the next person who stumbles on this website with their broken kindle.

Hi! I was searching online for ways to get My kindle fixed without having to buy a new one and stumbled upon your site.

I went ahead and called Amazon Kindle support and they too are sending me a new kindle free of charge to replace my damaged one. They made it *very* clear that the warrantee (which I didn’t have) doesn’t cover damages done by having the Kindle in your bag, briefcase or purse! Where the heck am I suppose to put it then?

Anywho - I shut my mouth and just let her varify my info so I can get my kindle ASAP. Until then, I’ll be gazing at the frozen fish on my kindle screen waiting for them to defrost.

Cheers,
Diana

Her kindle also had a fitting final image now that it will soon be sleeping with the fishes: 

Broken Kindle… now in black

I guess the screens didn’t get any more durable for the newest version.  Although it sounds like their support is getting better from this report from another broken kindle owner:

Hi there! Funny site. I had a nice last generation Kindle, but well, one day I picked it up, it looked like you see on the pic.

I phoned to Kindle, and they kindly proposed to replace it, after a few minutes I got a UPS sticker to pay for the return costs. They promised to will arrive soon.

Chapeau for the service. If it isn”t what I expected, I keep you posted.

John

I guess Amazon started figuring out that offering a replacement is better for their bottom line than annoying the owners so that they start websites where they post pictures of broken kindles!

Anywho, Hat Tip to John for offering his story to the blog.  As always, send me a story of your broken kindles to brokenkindle@gmail.com and I will share it with the world for you.

Reports from the wild

Attached is an email from another frustrated customer:

Attached is a screen shot of my broken Kindle.  The customer support folks offered a new or refurbished model of the same for $90 plus tax plus shipping.  The newest generation is $139.

If these things only last a year or so, they aren’t worth it.  I’m really disappointed in Amazon.

Bob **************

How generous of Amazon to offer a 30% discount on a refurbished unit.  If was anything like my experience, the refurbished model comes with a 30 or 90 day warranty, so given how fragile a kindle is you are probably better off buying a new one anyway!

When one of these screens breaks like this, Amazon should do no less than replace your unit with another full manufacturers warranty attached to it.

Keep the reports coming to brokenkindle@gmail.com!

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was ◻◻◻◻◻◻◻◻◻ [sic]

Like many people, I excitedly purchased a Kindle a few months after they came out, and boy was I hooked.  I could purchase books instantly, reading was easy on the eyes and the battery lasted forever.  I was reading more pages and faster than I ever had.  Often I would see an interesting book discussed on TV, find it in the Kindle store and be reading it that night!  And so it went for the first year.

Then a few months after the one year mark, I set my kindle face down on my nightstand as I often did after reading it one night.  The following night, I happened to be reading a rather large technical book, and after I was done parsing through it, I set it on top of my Kindle.  Little did I know the large mistake I had just made.

A few nights passed, and some friends were over at my house.  The topic of the Kindle came up, and they mentioned they hadn’t seen one before.  I quickly ran to my nightstand to get my Kindle and show it off, and as soon as I had picked it up, my jaw dropped.  This is what I saw:

It was ruined.  The book on top of it couldn’t have been more than a few pounds, and that pressure completely ruined the Kindle.  Its E-Ink display was now down to a sad few words:

Of course I called to complain, and after multiple calls the best I was offered was a replacement Kindle for $180 (with 3 month warranty).  My 1-year warranty had passed, and I was told Amazon was being generous to offer me this deal!  I didn’t accept it.  Amazon had gotten enough of my money, and I was going to lose anymore to a broken Kindle (and buying books that are now useless!).

So everybody, thats my story.  I know I’m not the only one with a broken Kindle.  Please send your stories and pictures to brokenkindle@gmail.com, and I’ll post them here.