Disaster Strikes!

I love my Kindle.  Absolutely love it.  But then I'm a huge bookworm and a bit of a techy gadget loving girl so it was an obvious step for me.  I still absolutely love real books as well and by them often but I use my Kindle a lot.

Yesterday I sat outside for just under an hour.  I started reading a new book on it.  To My Best Friends by Sam Baker.  Based on it's subject matter (it's fiction and is the story of the friends left behind after one of them dies having made certain bequests to the others) I'd been worried it would be a little sad so hadn't started it before bed the day before when I'd been feeling depressed.  Having read and enjoyed another of Sam Baker's books (The Stepmother's Support Group) I should have realised it wouldn't be - it's not sad or depressing at all.  It's really good and I got into it and enjoyed it sat there in the sun. Eventually I had to go in and have some dinner and get on with my evening.

Just before bed I picked up my Kindle and thought I'd read a bit more before going to sleep.  I was quite looking forward to it - I'd put it down earlier out of necessity and wouldn't have done so if I could have avoided it.  This was going to be an enjoyable read to wind down before sleep.

Disaster struck.

I dropped my Kindle.

Heart in my mouth I wheeled over and carefully picked it up.  With a very tight grip on it I checked it over slowly and thoroughly.

Nothing had come off

Nothing had come loose

It had no visible damage

The screen saver was still showing Emily Dickinson just as it had when I'd come in from the garden earlier.

Huge sigh of relief.  Things were going to be OK.  It was absolutely perfect, you'd never even know I'd dropped it.  Wheeled back over to my comfy spot full of resolutions to be more careful next time.  Settled myself down, the adrenaline of disaster averted dying down as thoughts of reading occupied my mind once more.  All was well and happy once again I slid and released the on switch as I'd done thousands of times before.

Only.

It wouldn't turn on.

Panic set in and the thoughts of going to bed, let alone reading before bed, disappeared.

I'd broken my much loved Kindle - which was very expensive and my treat, a combination of the saving up I'd done for it and for achieving a long held goal which had meant I'd been able to buy it sooner than I would otherwise have been able to.  And this was accidental damage.  Which warranties don't cover.

Googled the problem.  Forcing a reset by holding the power switch for half a minute before releasing didn't work.  I tried it repeatedly though, hoping each time.  Pushed all the casing together more just in case it had come loose and I'd not noticed.  No luck.  Put it on charge for a bit even though the battery had been pretty well charged.  Still nothing.

Tweeted my woeful tale of disaster and a broken Kindle.

Lots of tweets in response.  Supportive, but mostly of the "thank God it's yours and not mine" variety although no one actually came out and said that.  One tale of how they'd broken their Kindle and had it replaced for free.

Left it over night having had a very late one as a result.

Tried to force a restart again repeatedly but it still wasn't working.  Called the Kindle helpline listing to very jaunty hold music.  She got me to try various things.  I'd tried all but one.  In the end she got me to plug it into the USB on my computer and leave it for an hour when she'd call back.

At that point I'd realised that when I'd said "I dropped it no more than a metre" (she asked)  the assistant had replied "is that about a foot and a half?" and without thinking I'd said yes.  I was distracted, that's my excuse... I do know that a meter is more like 3 foot!

Phone goes, Amazon calling back.  After talking me through various things to try the assistant transfers me to the "specialist team".

My heart sank.  This was going to be very expensive.  And I'm broke at the moment.

The first thing the specialist said?

"your Kindle will have to be replaced."

oh shit I thought

"Which we'll do for free."

"sorry, how much will that cost?"

"it's free."

"thank you very much."

Relieved.  this was working out ok after all.

"You'll need to return the broken one."

"Yeah I can do that."

"Just confirm your e-mail address for me, we'll get DHL to come out to collect it and I'll need to send you details"

"how much will that cost?"

"it's also free."

Seriously so relieved.  I must have thanked her about six times in total.  I bet she hears that a lot though!  I wouldn't have expected that to be covered in full - no one covers accidental damage in full on their warranty.

I had an e-mail about an hour ago.  My new Kindle has shipped.  It'll be here Saturday.

I've ordered a silicon skin for it.

And my tale of woe and disaster had a happy ending after all.

Seriously impressed with Amazon's customer service - that's going above and beyond!