Kindles Crack, Amazon Cracks Too

Amazon has one of the best customer service reputations out on the market. The company has been around for years, and I have never had a single bad incident with it. And while I do believe that the whole cracked Kindles fiasco was blown out of proportions, Amazon could have handled the situation better by clarifying its stands and helping customers get their hands on working Kindles. A lot of customers didn’t like Amazon’s attitude towards the Kindle community, which is why a class action lawsuit has been launched against the company. I am not a big fan of lawsuits, but if that’s what it takes for Amazon to clarify its position towards Kindle repairs and returns, then so be it.

In a move that many will consider backtracking, Amazon has promised to replace cracked Kindles without charging the $200 fee:

we encourage anyone who has an issue with the cover attachment mechanism to return the cover and device for a free replacement so we can investigate further.

Does that leave Amazon open to policy abuse? Possibly. You can now expect anyone who’s ever owned a Kindle to file a complaint with Amazon. Not all cracked Kindles should be replaced for free. If you are careless with your Kindle and drop a hammer on its screen, you should not qualify for free replacement. Amazon will “investigate” before sending you a new Kindle, so most bogus complaints will be rejected anyway. But as always, there will be a few folks who will abuse the system. At the end of the day, a few bad apples shouldn’t keep Amazon from treating its customers right.

The Kindle lawsuit will go on and will probably be settled at some point, but I hope that Amazon will be more clear with its Kindle policies. The company has done a great job developing Kindle into a killer, must-own gadget, and it offers excellent customer service as far as I can tell. But it has been passive with some of its policies, and that’s probably why this lawsuit has ensued. Let’s hope that all changes with next generation Kindles.