They aren't intentionally being pricks; they just don't care. Caring costs too much. It's cheaper to have an unresponsive automated customer service system that lets a certain percentage of customers suffering from edge cases fall through the cracks. This guy was the unlucky one today.

I also have been extremely happy with my kindle. The closest I have to a complaint is the limit on the number of devices that can be authorized for certain books, and even that is normally reasonable. The cloud based reader accessible through a browser also makes that restriction less painful (though I wish they would enable highlighting...)

But I still have concerns about the DRM. Amazon seems extremely stable, but things in tech move fast. Even if Amazon survives, I may eventually want to move to a completely different reader from a company that doesn't exist now, and the DRM will make it hard to take my library with me.

I love the cloud drive player Amazon rolled out for MP3s, but I have it redundantly backed up on 2 harddrives. With the Kindle content I don't have that option.

You can hook your kindle up to your PC and pull the AZW files off if you wish to keep the content backed up.

But what are those files worth if your Amazon account gets mysteriously locked, or Amazon goes bankrupt 10 years from now?

Kindle customer service was excellent to me too - bottom half of the screen died and Amazon sent out a replacement device immediately, then made arrangements to collect my broken one, at their own expense. Unlike the iTunes store I was able to get through to the right person by following the instructions provided.

Its not too difficult to imagine edge cases where communication between the person taking the phone call and the person able to resolve the situation breaks down; that can happen in any large company. But then getting things resolved also requires good faith on the part of the complainant; filing chargebacks against a reputable company within a month of the problem isn't the best indication of this.

I don't doubt I'd probably have a very similar experience to yours with my device. It's entirely possible that I could use it as intended for the next ten years and never experience a single hiccup with the service.

I guess worrying about those edge cases just kind of comes naturally, perhaps a little too much personal experience with Murphy's Law?

Perhaps really my chief complaint boils down to the stereotypical issue with DRM: If I paid for a book, why do I need your permission to read it?

Actually, as a device purchaser, I personally don't care about edge cases. (It can happen to anyone.)

However, as a service provider, edge cases are what keep me up at night but are fantastic opportunities for providing even better service. I'm not saying Amazon shouldn't care, but I personally wouldn't care too much about an edge case as long as Amazon does that person good.

As for DRM: if it isn't invasive or affect my experience with the book (Kindle and Steam are good examples here.) then I am okay by it. If it is used in some weird way to censor things? That's uncool.

DRM isn't inherently "used for" one thing or another.

A kill switch is a capability one party has over another. Once in place, it can be used for any purpose.

I've had the opposite experience as you. While the kindle is a very sexy device, all it really does well is the reading part. However, pretty much every e-reader does that part well.

The thing I hate most though is the whole Kindle experience. Buying e-books from Amazon is kind of scammy since there's no confirmation page when you buy books and there's no way to turn off one-click for kindle books. Also, I wasn't able to find where to refund the book at all when I clicked "buy" thinking that there would be a confirmation page.

Also, the syncing is kinda broken because if you click a link in the book and end up in the appendix, there's no easy way to reset the furthest page read. Finally, epub is such a "free-ing" format since I can purchase books from Google books as well. Sync is just a minor convenience since e-book sellers will usually let you re-download the book anyway if you've purchased it.

When you purchase a book on your Kindle, you get taken to a page saying you bought the book.

There's a link for "Made a mistake?" which I clicked once, thinking I would get a confirmation page as well, and the refund was instantaneous.