Sam is so elated with the way Amazon handled his broken Kindle complaint that he’s almost happy it broke in the first place. The CSR overnighted a new device to him and gave him 30 days to return the busted one.

Sam writes:

I wanted to share a wonderful experience I had with Amazon.com.

I received a Kindle as a gift last March. Always an avid reader, I have come to rely on and love my Kindle for school and travel.

This evening I took my Kindle out of my bag and found that the top two inches of the screen were not functioning – the “screen saver” image displayed when the Kindle is off was permanently stuck. I did some research on the internet and this seems to be a relatively common issue (usually due to pressure on the screen of the device). I keep my Kindle in a protective sleeve in my bag, so I was surprised to find the damage.

Hoping to avoid purchasing a new device I called Amazon’s Kindle support. By now it was 1am and I wasn’t expecting to even find the line staffed. To my delight I was answered with less than 30 seconds on hold by Mike.

Mike was courteous and personable. After taking my information he took me through some troubleshooting steps which failed to resolve the issue. Then, to my surprised, he told me he was overnighting a new Kindle and I would have 30 days to return my old one!

My issue was resolved in less than 5 minutes at 1am in the morning. Amazon.com had no reason to take me at my word about the damage – the issue is usually caused by mistreatment.

I just wanted to share this positive story. Amazon isn’t great with customer service for their online sales, but this experience left me happy, satisfied, and loyal.

In a related matter, does anyone think the unfortunately named iPad will make the Kindle obsolete?

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