The customer service issues were based on my own personal experience with the only problem I ever sought their help on, & ones I saw posted on the discussion board on their website. Where, a sizeable number of people had evidently encountered the same basic problem as I did, and many of them were displeased with their attempts to get it fixed in a timely fashion.
Basically, Audible only allows you to connect only a limited # on portable devices (I believe 3) to your PC for downloads, because of the deals they made with copyright owners. This sounds like a workable restriction, but it can be a real problem from a practical standpoint. If your handheld has to be reset several times because of hardware or software problems, or it gets stolen after a few resets, the software will prohibit you from setting-up a portable again. Then, your only recourse is to contact Audible, tell them your sad story, and hope they will make a revision to your control settings on their server, so you can use your portable again. My own experience with their Customer Support was bad, as they did not answer my e-mails. Finally, out of frustration, I surfed their discussion board and eventually found where some company rep was periodically looking at serious problem posts and solving their problem. And, that is how I finally got mine resolved. But, it was a bad experience IMO. And, I saw many posts indicating others had also suffered this poorly designed restriction, and had problems with Customer Service as well.
A few months later, I checked the Audible website, and I believe they had removed the discussion board, and the Customer Service phone #. And, I seem to recall that they had some kind of notice that they would not be able to promptly return Customer Service request e-mails. Not exactly my idea of how to run a customer oriented company. But, this preceded their recent financing, so may have been the result of their overhead cutbacks.
I just now logged on to the site and was pleased to see that the Help Center now looks fairly friendly. And, the phone # & e-mail contact issues seem to have been resolved. So, maybe, they have made a new commitment to good Customer Service. I would be curious to hear about some recent User experiences with their Customer Service dept.
Other than this Customer Service problem, my experience using Audible on my PC, IPAQ and my new OTIS have been fantastic. But, they need to match that the product with their Customer Service, if they want to really build a successful company.
Also, thanks for the updated financial. Very helpful.
Robert |
