Why #Amazon's #WP7 #Kindle app is a #Fail for me

Having just wasted 54 minutes on the phone to Amazon (albeit at their expense), I am no further forward.

It seems one of the books I have bought (the complete works of Charles Dickens) is one of the biggest in their library (about 22MB).  It has downloaded satisfactorily to the Kindle and the iPad app, but on the Windows Phone 7 app it repeatedly barfs.  After you have requested the download, every time you start the Kindle app (or worse – switch away and then back to it) it restarts the download.  In the wilds on 3G that could get very expensive.

Having bypassed tiers 1 and 2 in technical support by explaining I had already tried turning it off and on again, and also deregistered the device, removed the app, rebooted the phone (on more than 1 cycle) I hit a brick wall.

Firstly, explaining how the app works to technical support strikes me as a bit unprepared of Amazon.

Secondly, repeating the same diagnostics seems unlikely to suddenly fix things (when they admit they are doing nothing on their side of the fence to change the experience).

Thirdly, stating that there are so many variables in the equation that the developers might not be able to sort it out (whilst failing to acknowledge the successful download of the book on devices other than their own Kindle hardware) is not really on.

I’m sure Amazon has deep enough pockets that it could get a UK Orange HTC 7 Mozart, connect it to a Wi-Fi circuit on a 1.5Mb ADSL line (or thereabouts), and attempt to reproduce the problem.

It’s also a bit frustrating that as an IT Pro and an occasional developer they won’t permit a willing customer to engage with the next tier to help them track down and resolve the problem.

Lastly, in the modern era, it really isn’t on for them to say that I’ll “just have to hope that it gets fixed, and a future download attempt will work”.  I want to be told it is fixed, and know my next download of the book will work.

End of.