Monday, April 29, 2013

Kindle News: Paperwhite at $99 thru' April 30 at 11:59pm (Little doubt, U.S. only)


Amazon has a rather hidden promo for $20 off Special-Offer models of the Kindle Paperwhite through 11:59 PM (PST) on Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The promo page was mentioned by TechnoBuffalo, but the promo code didn't work for me.  They also didn't reply to my question of where the rather hidden actual promo page could be found.  Commenters, though, let us know where we can find the brief promo page.

  HOWEVER, the promo code of " KINDLEPW " still might not work for you, as it was initially sent some via email and probably targeted certain customers.

 What some people have done, if they have a problem, is to just contact Kindle Help (as described below) and choose to have them chat with you.  The Chat feature entails typing with them.

  LessthanZach, who happens to be a Sales Manager for AT&T, advises the following, which worked for him:
' Ok guys. Here's the wrap.  The offer is only available for the Special Offers edition[s] of the Kindle.  As of right now, the code doesn't seem to work.  Simply go to "help" then "contact us" and click the option to chat about "payments or promotional codes".  I chatted with a very helpful representative who had me place the order without the code and then he manually applied the discount.  It only took about 5 minutes to get it taken care of.  It is a bit of a shame you have to live with the ads, though.
@David Nguyen I appreciate your suggestion of chatting with them and I can confirm it indeed works just fine. '

This would work with the Special-Offer edition only, remember, and the promo doesn't mention at all the 3G model BUT it also does say "Add any Kindle Paperwhite device to your shopping cart..." so the links to both are WiFi only or WiFi+3G models with Special Offers.  Again, they don't specifically show the 3G model as eligible for the discount, but they did say "any Kindle Paperwhite device."

  My guess is that it's limited to US customers (as are most brief Kindle device promos) but they don't say.

  Reminder of a few other rules (full rules are at the promo page)
. Promotion applies only to new Kindle Paperwhite devices sold and shipped by Amazon Digital Services. It does not apply to the same products sold by other sellers or to Certified Refurbished Kindle products.
. If you do not purchase Kindle Paperwhite prior to April 30, 2013 11:59 PM (PST), the promotion will not apply.
. Each promotion code can be used only once
. The promotion code is not transferrable and may not be resold.
. Limit one promotion code per customer.
. Does not apply to orders placed with 1-Click.
. Offer good while supplies last.

An answer to what happened here found after I wrote the above.
At the Amazon Kindle Forums, flipoid writes the following:
  "I called Amazon Kindle CS and was told by the CS rep that the code was sent out in emails to non-Kindle owners who purchase lots of print books from Amazon.  He told me that if you didn't receive an email, you can't use the code.  So it seems that they're trying to get non-ebook purchasers/readers to get on the digital train. (-: "

And my answer to that is that apparently Amazon is allowing people who call them about this, to buy it, because the promo in no way holds language limiting this offer to people who don't already own a Kindle, and there are many who have older Kindles and DO want a Paperwhite, and it seems only fair that they could get the benefit of the promo if they know about it (which is what has been happening).

The ones that were allowed to go through with customer service chat help were bought many hours after the forum member's phone call got a negative for current Kindle owners.

  And, the promo code entry validation is no doubt programmed to work only for those who don't already own a Kindle device, which is why the automated discount would work for some people but not for others.

  Normally, if they want only a subsection of customers to be eligible, they'll add the language "For new Kindle [device] customers only" but they didn't.

So, this will be your call. Customer reps, in chat mode, have been asking customers to go ahead and buy one and they will issue a refund after the purchase process.  Those were allowed to be purchased with discount half a day or more after the morning explanation to a Kindle owner by phone.

Please let me know if any customer rep does not allow this to be done after you've let them know that manual purchases with customer service rep help on the promo have been going through.  It's a dilemma of sorts for two more days :-)



  For daily free ebooks, check the following links:
Temporarily-free books - Non-classics
USA: by:
   Publication Date  
   Bestselling   High-ratings

UK: PubDate   Popular

The Kindle Daily Deal

What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care

Highly-rated under $1
,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3
Most Popular Free K-Books
U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):
   Top 100 free
UK-Only:
   Top 100 free

Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.

USEFUL for your Kindle Keyboard (U.S. only, currently):
  99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,
  99c Calendar,   99c Converter

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button


Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle


(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

2 comments:

  1. I don't think it's just for heavy print book buyers. I haven't bought a paper book from Amazon in ages, but I do buy ebooks for the iOS apps. The offer shows up on my Amazon home page - no email promo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bree, re the paraphrasing of the customer rep's explanation, I'm sure you're right that the overriding focus was on people who just don't own a Kindle yet, either because they buy only print books or they have been reading Kindle books via apps on other devices.

      Thanks for the taking the time to post the info that you see it on the home screen, without getting an email. Others on the Kindle forum had your experience, seeing it there and not owning a Kindle device.

      Delete

NOTE: TO AVOID SPAM being posted instantly, this blog uses the blogger.com "DELAY" feature.

Am often away much of the day, and postings won't show up right away. Posts done to use referrer-links may never show up.

Usually, am online enough to release comments within a day though, so the hard-to-read match-text tests for commenting won't be needed this way.

Feedback and questions are welcome. Thanks for participating.

Technical Problems?
If you're having problems leaving a Comment, Google's blogger-help asks that you clear the 'blogger.com' cookies on your browser's Tools or Options menu bar and that will fix the Comment-box problems (until they have a permanent fix).

IF that doesn't work either, then UNcheck the "keep me signed in" box -- Google-help says that should allow your comment to post (it's a workaround to a current bug).
Apologies for the problems.

TIP: There's a size limit. If longer than 3500 characters or so, in a text editor, make two posts out of it.

[Valid RSS]