For lack of an alternative, best yet, but not good enough; downfall inevitable.
Written: May 17 '04
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Shopping was comparable to standard web-based shopping. Already saw tell tale signs of a company not able to keep pace or not meticulous about details: on signing up, I got a pop-up offering me next month off by going to the page www.audible.com/palm04. Upon visiting the page, I saw no such offer, only a notice saying that that page was a space holder for future development. If it is, if you ask me, your customers don't need to know, and if you are alluring them to the page by offering them a promotion, you had jolly well honor it, eh?
Here are specific observations:
1. software interface sucks - bad, shoddy design. Software itself is clunky - crashed my PDA, froze on me, and often does not load or download properly. Irritating.
2. selection is good in some areas, but not superb. Perhaps still the best in the market.
3. Pricey, pricey, pricey. (I predict the business is going to fail on the price-point issue - just wait until competitors show up on the scene...right now audible.com has the First Mover's Advantage)
4. support hours inconvenient for the east cost (especially if you subscribe to the WSJ or NY Times in the morning) - you can not get any help before you leave for work. In light of loading/downloading problems, this is irritating
5. long long long hold times on the phone.
6. inflexible subscription conditions: my basic subscription allows one periodical and one book a month. I requested that since I am not a book reader, I would like two periodicals instead. They refused.
7. no cancellation option on the one-year plan. Never heard of any such thing. Don't even let you try it out for 2 weeks.
8. No way to listen to any sample - such as one day's recording for a daily newspaper such as the NY Times - before deciding if you want it or not. Does not let you decide between two or more options by listening to samples. Come on, one day's free sample for a daily newspaper is not much to ask for. Or a few pages from a book - even amazon.com shows pages from books on their website before you buy.
7. overall - best option so far, but not good enough. I hope competitors come in quickly and break their annoying monopoly.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? audible.com subscription
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anenduser
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