Finally out of my contract--looking forward to being FREE OF THIS SERVICE! ***UPDATED 01/09/03***
Written: Jun 24 '02 (Updated Jan 10 '03)
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
|
| Full Review |
MY COMPLAINTS The quality of the downloaded books is appalling, even using the highest quality (largest file size), it is below cassette tape quality. Customer service has had problems off and on throughout the year—they prefer you use the online help which would be fine if you could find the answer to your problem there.
HOW I CAME TO BE TIED TO AUDIBLE.COM FOR A YEAR OF MY LIFE: I love books on tape--have been buying them for years to enjoy on my daily commute to and from work. As a family we’ve listened to some great works of literature on driving vacations—it’s a great way to add a bit of fun to the drive. After filling several bookshelves in the house with my “read” books, I decided to look for an alternative. After selling my backlog of tapes on eBay (a GREAT place to pick up previously-heard books), I searched for something different.
I found an ad for Audible that offered a player "free" if you signed up for a year. It seemed a good offer. I checked Amazon to verify the quoted retail price—what I didn’t realize at the time is that Audible & Amazon had partnered for the promotion, not the most reliable way to gain information. Of course, after reading the Amazon Customer reviews I realized that the "free" model wouldn't be for me. It didn’t have enough memory to download a full book; I knew I wouldn't be happy. So I upgraded to a Casio Pocket Manager--$99. Still, not enough memory but this one was expandable.
LONG STORY SHORT: The Pocket Manager didn't work. After HOURS of searching for a contact number (there is one, you just have to really search for it!) it turns out that they were aware that the propriety software needed to download and play the audible files wasn’t compatible with the hardware they sold me. However, they were “working on a fix”. Weeks went by--hours on HOLD waiting for someone to offer assistance. Finally, they admitted the problem was more than the software and the only solution was to send me a new manager—just as soon as they received the defective one.
LONG ON PROMISES...SHORT ON FOLLOW THROUGH: I reminded them that I purchased this device and service because I was going on a cruise--they PROMISED me that if I paid to overnight the defective unit they would send the new one out ASAP--it would definitely get here in time. It cost me $47.50 to send the defective unit to them, they wouldn’t send the replacement until they had this one in their hands (so much for trust). They didn't send the new one out until the DAY I LEFT—days later than promised as “someone signed for it and it didn’t get to the proper person”, so unfortunately I didn’t have it for the eight day cruise as planned.
I insisted that they reimburse me for the overnight fees as I could have mailed it Priority for $4.50 since they weren't going to hold up their bargain. After MANY e-mails and phone calls they finally gave in and refunded the shipping. The new unit worked and I've was a semi-happy customer. Sadly I didn’t realize that they do not carry many of the wildly popular books like the entire Harry Potter series and that the availability of unabridged books is limited. Also, since the format of the files is proprietary (NOT MP3 or other widely distributed files are these!), you MUST use their software and only on approved/compatible players.
MEMORY? WHAT MEMORY? AND WHEN MEMORY DOESN’T EQUAL QUALITY… : To enable my device to hold an entire unabridged book I needed to buy a new memory card—cost $70. Ouch! The savings are flying away! The memory is needed because Audible offers the books in several ‘sizes’. The lower the file size the poorer the quality. Even the highest files size is claimed only to be about that of audio tapes—if you’re used to CD quality you’ll be VERY disappointed with the downloads available here. I listen to most of my books on my laptop—a top of the line Dell. Even with the highest quality the sound is just barely passable.
WHAT DID I LEARN: Downloading was a pain—whether to my portable unit or to a CD burner (an option that was just recently added which is very buggy and doesn’t work on most burners and requires specific software to work—they say they’re working on improving it). The portable player requires a USB connection and a standalone program that works with Audible—unfortunately it’s a program that just adds one more layer of frustration between you and your files.
I have 24 audio books now—I’ve listened to two. The frustrations are just too much, especially when I can pop over to Amazon to buy used/new audios or to Ebay and not deal with the trouble and have first-quality listening instead of the sadly poor Audible download. I also have something to resell or pass to a friend so the full cost of listening to it isn’t such a huge hit—you can’t sell your Audible account or the books on them (propriety file format).
Our libraries have added an eBook option—check your library and if they’ve done the same, get your Audible.com content for free—the best part is you can try out their Otis player & a Rio player for free so you can judge the quality yourself.
THE BOTTOM LINE: They’ve improved their content and added many more Unabridged editions, however, the quality of the recording is so sub par even to that of audio tapes, that it’s a challenge to listen to them. Downloading and listening on your computer is fine, but using a portable device or trying to burn to a CD is troublesome and the support lacking.
GENERAL INFORMATION The website search if frustrating, turning out too many reponses that just don't make sense. They need to upgrade to a serch engine that offers multiple ways to find information. Ordering is easy--click to add to your cart. Once purchased, the "books" go into your library--there you can listen by streaming online or downloading.
-
- - - - - - - - -
-
UPDATE 12/02: It’s been a year and I can now disconnect—FINALLY! As a condition of choosing the “Free” unit (see above), I was stuck in a contract to pay $15.95 per month to download 2 books each month. I’m free of that now and will still have access to those books which I previously paid for. 'll take the $15.95 a month I was spending and use it on eBay. Then I'll resell them....seems a better deal for me.
UPDATE 1/9/03 I tried to disconnect last month and they said it was too soon—darn! I marked my calendar and waited for the day that I could finally cancel the service—today was the day! Although they have a 800 number, the inconvenience of having to call was bothersome. If you can sign up on line, purchase a $100 item, and commit to a years worth of service, why can't you disconnect???? Like AOL, they use this as an opportunity to market you more items---“would you like to try one of our other plans?” “Where you not finding enough books?” “Would you like assistance in finding additional titles?:” NO, I WANT TO CANCEL!!! Geez, sometimes companies just make it so hard.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
About the Author
Member: Mom
Location: USA
Reviews written: 253
Trusted by: 190 members
|
View Information
