Max Engel - the 8BitKid
living bit by bit

I have been enjoying my Amazon Kindle e-book reader for several months now.  I am a gadget fiend, and having one that encourages me to read is a good thing.  It is incredibly portable and readable, and the wireless store is a fantastic convenience.

A problem has arisen recently that is definitely aggravating.  After being away for a couple of weeks, I came home with a hankering to dive back into a book.  When I powered up my Kindle there was no power to be had.  I had never run the unit down during use, so it meant that the battery is draining even while off.

My first instinct was to research the matter.  I found mixed results from other users in the Amazon forums, and so I created a new thread.  After not finding a clear answer I contacted support via e-mail.  I got a quick, somewhat-canned response from them telling me that battery drains like a cell-phone battery in standby. My unit was losing charge when completely shut off, and so I wanted more details.  I called Amazon customer service and explained the drain issue.  They provided a similar story about how it is normal for batteries to drain slowly on consumer electronics devices, but I asked why it was using power while off, because if the battery is being used it isn’t really “off”.  They failed to provide me with a satisfactory reason for why this behavior was occurring, so I ended the call to regroup.

This morning someone posted in my forum in the Kindle saying that they experienced a similar problem with theirs, and that Amazon replaced it.  So I called back and described the situation, and they were able to pull in my unit’s log files over the Kindle’s wireless connection.  After persistently explaining that this wasn’t a standby problem but a problem with how the unit works while off, and having the battery drain 25% just while we were on the phone, they agreed to escalate my case.

So now I play the waiting game to hear back from Amazon about their analysis of my log files and what will happen next.  They told me it will take 24-48 hours for them to get back to me, and hopefully the Kindle tribunal will decide that I am ready for a new unit.