Sony decided to closed down their ebook store in the United States and Canada back in March of this year. Then they proceeded to close their European and Australian ebook stores in June.
But that hasn’t stopped dishonest retailers from continuing to sell Sony ebook gift cards online.
Last week I was browsing Walmart’s website and was surprised to come across a listing for a $25 Sony ebook gift card. The card isn’t being sold by Walmart; it’s a marketplace item listed by TigerDirect.
As it turns out, TigerDirect has these outdated, no longer valid Sony ebook gift cards for sale on multiple websites, including eBay, WalMart and of course TigerDirect’s own website.
Given the fact the Sony ebook store has been closed for several months now, it’s flat out ridiculous that TigerDirect continues to sell these gift cards for a store that no longer exists.
Sony sent customer accounts over to Kobo when they closed their store, and Kobo most certainly doesn’t accept these outdated Sony gift cards.
Last week I might have thought that it was just an honest mistake on TigerDirect’s behalf. But not after sending them an email suggesting that they stop selling gift cards to a store that no longer exists. They said they’d look into it but that was over a week ago now and they are still selling them, so make sure to avoid buying these bogus Sony Reader gift cards this holiday shopping season.
Kobo didn’t even accept the Sony gift-card balance I had in my Sony account prior to the transition. Despite numerous assurances that they would, they didn’t. I lost all of my Sony gift-card balance.
Yes, I’m still bitter about it. I refuse to do any business with Kobo. If I’d been told that the balance wouldn’t transfer — rather than that it would — I’d have used it to buy e-books at Sony before the shut-down. As it is, that money’s totally lost to me, and presumably lining Kobo’s pockets.
(Kobo also lost most of my Sony e-book library, but that wasn’t a surprise. Besides, I’d already downloaded everything so I’ve still got the e-books even though I can’t redownload them from Kobo.)