This is a funny, sad story of an old media hack trying to make good in the bewildering world of modern gadgetry. I am very much into social networking, blogging and generally living my life off the Internet. I adopted Amazon.com WAAAAY back and have made regular purchases with them for years.
So when the kindle came along, I thought, AHA, this is for me.
You see a fellow called Colin Daniels used to work around these parts until he left to work for autotrader a few months back. He had a kindle and the nous to hack the thing into action in SA long before it was allowed/encouraged/commercially operational in these parts.
The departure of Colin Daniels was followed by two seismic events: The launch of a new version of the kindle and the announcement that an international version was now available.
Hehe, I thought, this time I will be the early adopter. I will watch them go green with envy. I will beat Shapshak to the draw. So, the very second I read news of the international version, I went to a tried and tested (so I thought) South African website to make a quiet purchase.
Called “Wantitall”, the site was, in retrospect, obviously a cleverly laid trap for digital immigrants. Should have seen it coming.
But when I went to the site, lo and behold, the kindle was on sale and I ordered one, paying a sizeable premium and doing so up front as one does with Internet companies.
A week later the kindle arrived. I opened it, followed the instructions, charged the battery and then tried to register myself. Nothing. Niks. Nada.
I went online to check the map and there I was, slap in the middle of the 3G footprint that was supposed to offer free connectivity.
Meanwhile I was gaining kudos for my early adoption. I allowed myself a tweet and got lots of RTs. People were insanely jealous, yes, they were green with envy.
But I was harbouring a large secret. The damn thing didn’t work. Finally I sucked it up and got hold of Shapshak. If anyone could make it happen, it would be him.
A day passed as I saw off Twitter demands for a review. It was getting hectic out there.
Then came the news from Shapshak, the local kindle people were saying I had been had.
Dwup. DMMM. Bwihi.
So much for being an early adopter.
I got hold of wantitall. No, sir, they said. You have to stick with the dud.
To whit the email:
Hi Ray,
I checked your order and only the USA version was avaiable when you placed a order for the item.
Unfortunately we would not be able to accept a return for the item as it has been opened.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Please mail us if you have anymore questions.
Regards Don.

Ha. Somewhere out there Colin Daniels is smirking …

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