It’s official. Borders bookstores are closing their doors for good. Unable to procure the necessary funds after filing for bankruptcy a few months back, the remaining 399 Borders and Waldenbooks retail stores will all be closed by the end of September, with liquidation expected to start as early as Friday.
If you’ve purchased any ebooks from Borders, there’s no need to worry. Kobo has everything covered. All you need to do is transfer your Borders ebooks to a Kobo account. The process is very easy and takes just a few minutes, and comes with the benefits of Kobo’s ereading apps, which have more features and work better than the Borders apps.
Here’s where you need to go to start the transfer process. Just follow the on-screen directions and you will be good to go in no time.
If you encounter any problems, here is the help desk at Kobo relating to the Borders transition.
According to the information over at the help desk, warranties for Kobo eReaders purchased through Borders will continue to be managed by Borders, so Kobo isn’t picking up the slack on that.
Additionally, if you have a Kobo eReader that is still running on the Borders ebookstore, you’ll need to update the software to add the Kobo ebookstore to it in order to purchase ebooks. Here are the directions for updating the software if you don’t know how.
The bigger issue here for Kobo is to have a US retail presence since they are a Canadian company. They will have to get into places like Walmart, Best Buy and Target or the Kindles and Nooks are going to push them out of the picture.
Well I’m really sorry to hear this. I always perferred Borders over B & N.
We have just started a new ebook shop. Not exactly going to replace Borders yet but it’s a start : )
Tell us what you think.
http://acsebook.com/
Regarding the gift cards, it appears as though Borders did what they could by putting notice in three widely published newspapers. I’m assuming their bankruptcy lawyers advised them accordingly. It should be noted that it appears unduly burdensome and expensive to have to notify each card holder as I’m not certain Borders could contact each of the card holders personally if they tried. On the flip side, it’s the type of case where a lawyer could make a lot of money forming a class action suit.
Thank you for reporting this. This is good information to have as a Bankruptcy Attorney.
Joseph S. Pearl, LL.M. – A Professional Law Corporation
1400 Chester Ave., Suite C
Bakersfield, CA 93301
661-281-0253