Grains de cesames: Kindle users: Beware of Rubber belts !

The guy on the screensaver doesn't seem happy, I wasn't either.

I always heard that Amazon have a great customer’s service, and that they always take care of their customers and try to be as fair as possible. Sounded like a fairy tale, but I began believing it, because I began to feel it while wandering through Amazon’s website or using my Kindle’s services, and then, SNAP. Today, something happened, and, right now, I am really beginning to change my mind about Amazon.com…
But let’s first talk about the real problem: my Kindle’s screen was completely toasted a few hours ago.

Kindle users, beware of the X-ray machine! It is now your greatest enemy. I did not realize it just after it went through this machine, but actually this is what killed my dear Kindle. You could think that this Kindle killer does its work thanks to the X-rays it emits, and I would not blame you if you think that, but you would be wrong.

Professor Daping Chu, Chairman of the University of Cambridge centre for Advanced Photonics said: “I don’t think the radiation used in an airport scanner would ever be strong enough to damage an electronic ink display, but you can get a build up of static inside these machines, caused by the rubber belt rubbing. If that charge were to pass through a Kindle, it’s conceivable that it could damage the screen.” Thank you Mr. Chu, now, I know what happened to my Kindle!

I was able to do this research on the internetz when I came home, after traveling from Paris to Marrakesh in an airplain, with a broken Kindle in my hands. This announcement of Mr.Chu shows that everybody is aware of the problem, even Amazon.com; actually, if you search on the internetz, you will realize that it already happened many many times: Kindle 2, Kindle 3G… They were all destroyed by the evil rubber belt, so what was Amazon.com reaction?

"Come on dude, put the Kindle on the belt, it's 50/50"

I thought that they were going to warn their customers, especially when the product we are talking about is used a lot during plain travels, a lot of people use their Kindles in plains, and to be able to do that, the Kindle has to go through this mysterious rubber belt. My Kindle crossed the rubber belt dozens of times without being broken, and that may be because of the time the rubber belt was not discharged (being touched by someone for example). So be careful next time, it may be your turn.When I came home, I also searched in the Kindle’s User’s Manual to see if this kind of incident was in it, and if Amazon.com was already warning us. There is no such thing in the user’s manual. So Amazon.com is aware, since many months? years?, that the airport’s rubber belt can destroy the Kindle’s screen, but they didn’t warn us, why?
On the internetz, you can see that most people who had this problem were able to exchange their broken Kindle against a new one freely, Amazon.com is unofficialy taking care of the problem by exchanging the broken Kindle’s because of these incidents, but they still refuse to recognize that the rubber belt can destroy the screen and I can understand them:

The Kindle has to go through the rubber belt if you want to take it in the plane (you can choose to put the Kindle in the cargo compartment of the plain, but there is no use to have a Kindle if you can’t read in the plain…)
If Amazon.com recognizes the problem, nobody would take the Kindle in the plain because the rubber belt moment is going to be really risky…
If they don’t, one Kindle on a thousand will be toasted every few days, and people may not even understand that it’s the rubber belt. The ones who will, they will contact Amazon.com, and they will get a new Kindle in exchange of the old one.

"Sorry, wrong Amazon!"

So I decided to contact Amazon.com through their Kindle Support page and ask them to change my Kindle 3G against a new one because I really think that they have to warn us (at least in the user’s manual), customers, about how we have to use our products without destroying them, also, they already exchanged Kindles for a lot of people with the same problem, so why not me?

Since I am not, right now, in a country covered by Kindle Support’s phone calls, I chose the chat option and talked during more than an hour with someone from Amazon.com who was supposed to help me. He told me that I have to pay 85$ to repair my Kindle. I tried to explain that I really do not think that I have to pay 85$ because I did something completely normal with my Kindle, I did not let it fall on the ground or put it in the water, but if I was told before that the Kindle has to stay far from rubber belts, I would not have put it in the X-Ray Machine.

"Kindle, Y U NO WORK?"

But the result was the same. He told me in the end that he can give me 25$ on my Amazon.com account, but I will still have to pay 85$.

I did not pay them yet, because I am actually really thinking that it may be the time for me to leave Amazon.com; this kind of behavior with customers seems unacceptable, to me, especially for a huge company which always had a good reputation with customers like amazon.com.
The funniest thing is that my warranty is out since 3 weeks. 3 weeks only, and they can not even make a nice gesture because I really think they are, in a way, partly responsible of what happened, and because of 3 weeks I have to pay half the price of the Kindle 3g = the price of the new Kindle Touch.

"This is how I felt when the chat was over..."

If they change my Kindle, I will buy e-books on their store, and it could be a win/win situation, but if they do not, and if they can not even properly explain what I did do wrong, that was explained in the User’s Manual (they don’t even mention static charges!), to pay 85$, I more feel like buying a B&N, a Kobo or some other reader maybe, and I am definitely not using the amazon store with one of these products: loose/loose situation.

So Kindle User’s, please be careful of the evil rubber belt if you don’t want to find yourself with a useless Kindle, like me, and do not hesitate to talk about this around you so that, maybe, amazon.com will make a public announcement or something. Me, I am going to search the internetz a little bit about new e-readers, and take the time to think before deciding anything.