Just before Christmas I decided to purchase an e-reader, along with apparently everyone else on the North American continent. My first choice was a Kindle, but due to overwhelming demand, Kindle temporarily halted Canadian shipments. Partly out of impatience and partly because I was peeved about Canadians being treated like second-class citizens by Amazon, I decided to purchase a Kobo instead.
Not as easy as all that ...
I figured this would be just a matter of walking into my neighbourhood Chapters/Indigo store, but no; increased demand meant that there was a shortage of Kobos, and I was asked to come back after Christmas. And even then, I had to settle for the less popular lilac version, over the businesslike black or the oh-so-elegant silver. Plus, there was a minor problem: when I turned on my Kobo, I discovered that what I had been sold was the U.S. version that would only speak to the mothership at Borders (an American bookstore), so I couldn't access my Canadian Kobo account, which I had set up the week before and on which I happened to have my books.
And when I returned the Kobo to ask for a replacement, it turned out that every single other Kobo in the store was similarly meant for the American market. Instead of being able to read on my e-reader "within minutes", as the box promised, I had to wait two days, hours of which I spent on the phone waiting for customer service trying to get someone to tell me how to make my Kobo work.
