Rakuten Kobo Reviews 

Accordable, well built and light but a little bit slow

I was so excited to be reading on my new kobo Clara BW, checking out books directly from overdrive. But just 2 weeks from getting it, it started to freeze up, be unable to shut off, and the highlight feature wouldn’t work. When I started a highlight, at first word it would highlight everything, and I do mean everything—the whole book! And be unable to undo. Then unable to turn off. I am a longtime Kindle user and very familiar with using ebooks and ereaders. And good luck getting help from the company. There is no phone listed on customer service, the “help” link for returns will not fully open after repeated attempts, and their chat also is a bot, as well as telling you to fill in your email address but not providing the space to do it! Spent more than an hour trying to initiate a return before it appeared to go through finally, and then the email they sent with the return authorization said it was for an exchange, not a return! Had to Google to get an actual phone number in Canada and then agent tried to tell me it “wasnt under warranty!” Blah blah blah FINALLY she understood and said “just use that label and you will get a refund instead of an exchange,” but what confidence do I have? The instructions they sent me are for packing up and sending in to exchange a defective unit. It IS defective but I did not have a chance to tell them that since there is NO WAY such as “reason for your return” like any normal company—I guess they just assume the return of a two-week old device means it’s defective! Or maybe they have so many defective ones returned????Dealing with this company was a nightmare. If it says you can return the device within 45 days of receipt, what they mean is, if you are willing to spend an afternoon trying!!!!

1 out of 5 stars

Very disappointing experience.

I accidentally purchased an eBook that turned out to be locked to the Kobo ecosystem. I already own another eReader that uses standard EPUB and MOBI files, making the book completely unusable for me.

Although I contacted customer support immediately, they refused to issue a refund simply because the file had been downloaded—even though I cannot actually use the product. The store does not make it sufficiently clear before purchase that there is no choice of file format and that compatibility is limited.

Good customer service should consider whether a customer can actually use the product they purchased. Instead, Kobo relied on a rigid policy and showed no willingness to resolve the situation fairly.

As a result, I will no longer purchase books from the Kobo Store and cannot recommend it to others who use non-Kobo eReaders.

Bought my first Kobo (Kobo Clara BW), and have been using it for slightly over a year.

Been extremely satisfied with it.

Although, some software UI and QOL functions could be better.

Easy transaction. User friendly website. Fast delivery. Love the small form factor of the Kobo Clara Colour. Moved from the less than stellar Sage to this model and I couldn't be happier with my decision.

Incredible experience, had a unique situation and they really helped me out

Rakuten Kobo never disappoints! I bought a new Kobo for my husband and he LOVES it.

In general my experience was good as a first time Kobo user. My only problem was trying to download a borrowed book from my County Library using Kobo.
It wouldn't download to my e-reader. It generated several errors.
But it did download to my cell phone, which I had been using to borrow Library books.

Easy to use, easy to load, good backlight, and adjustable font size.

A great eReader! When Amazon stopped supporting their Oasis model, I looked for an alternative. And my Kobo has been a smooth transition. Hoping some authors stop being exclusive to The Amazon Machine, but I haven’t had any problem finding 95% of the books I want to read in the Kobo library… sci-fi, fantasy, classics, etc. No complaints!!!!

The Clara BW is fine -- basically equivalent to the Kindle I had before. No better.

- Some Libby books show up after I check them out, many do not. Can't tell what the difference is, sometimes I'm just SOL I guess.
- Why no landscape mode? I want to hold it with my thumb on the thicker bezel, very natural. Don't tell me they didn't think of it during development, really cannot be that hard. Maybe excluded on purpose even? Available on the model that's twice as expensive, which makes me angry.

Seamless experience. Works across all my devices.

The device works great. Its a little smaller than I had hoped. Smaller than the Kindle I am used to using. However, I have adjusted and over I am satisfied.

Kobo’s native software is terrible for reading PDF image files, even installing KOReader doesn’t help. This is why the unit was returned. The refurbished Elipsa unit works good.Ordering, returning and customer service was top-notch. Unfortunately I had to return the Elipsa because the software doesn’t work for me.

Downloaded a book for my Kindle to try and avoid using Amazon, downloaded the file, couldn't get it to work on my Amazon (couldn't convert the file type) now they won't give me a refund. Completely rubbish customer service.

I got this as a gift for my husband, and he's in love with it.

The whole process of deciding whether to get a BW or Colour (Clara) and then it arriving at the door and furthermore signing in and immediately recieving my previously purchased ebooks ready to read, was excellent.
It's early days, but I have no reason to be doubtful, it's a great book (opted for BW) and lightening fast compared to my old Kobo.

Overdrive and library integration makes this so much better. I decided to switch to the kobo platform and was moving away from Kindle. Overall the device has been really solid and even though overdrive integration does have some quirks, I still think its quite good. So much so that I got a device for my wife as well.

This is my 2nd Kobo; had my original Clara for 7 years and took it around the world with me until it finally died and was not repairable. The Clara Color is even better. I was thrilled how fast and easy it was to get it set up with my Kobo library and all settings, and had no problems getting it synced again with my Calibre library as well as with OverDrive and Instapaper, and I love having color images. I haven't tried the Bluetooth audiobook feature as I usually do audiobooks via Libby, but may consider trying it for books not readily available at my library.