No more white Kindles for international customers

The Amazon Kindle‘s really taking off in Australia. I had lunch at a café on Thursday, and the woman at the table on my right was reading one. To my right, one old lady was convincing her friend to get one. I had a paper manuscript to mark up, but I still had my Kindle in my bag.

So it’s a shame to see Amazon offering its international customers some shoddy treatment. My housemate’s desperate to get one of the new 3rd-gen Kindles, but only wants it in white. Trouble is, if you live in Australia, you have to order a Kindle from this page–where white’s not on offer.

It’s not publicized, but Amazon is not selling white Kindles to international customers right now. Here it is right from the horse’s mouth, in a response to a query to Amazon customer service:

Amazon: Currently, white Kindle [sic.] are unavailable for international customers.

We value our international customers and hope to make white Kindle available in more locations in the future.

And here’s my most recent reply.

Me: That’s BS–to say the white Kindle is no longer available to international customers. All the Kindles we’ve had to date are white, so why would upgraders be happy with black?

And surely it wouldn’t kill you to offer white to international customers from the get-go?

When are you going to get your act together on this?

When, indeed, Amazon?

Author: Ben Hourigan

Ben Hourigan is a novelist from Melbourne, Australia. His books Kiss Me, Genius Boy and My Generation’s Lament are Amazon category bestsellers, and are available wherever good books are sold online. Ben also works as an editor, copywriter, and self-publishing consultant at his own firm, Hourigan & Co. For news and book release updates, sign up to his email newsletter.