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Wait, you have to pay to not have ads on a Kindle? When did that start being a thing? I've been using a kindle for about 14 years, my current one is a few year
by hi_hi 2y ago
Wait, you have to pay to not have ads on a Kindle?
When did that start being a thing? I've been using a kindle for about 14 years, my current one is a few years old. I've been thinking about upgrading, but it works perfectly fine, and I've never had it display ads, and haven't had to pay anything for that "privilege".
It sounds like this will be my last Kindle device if I now have to pay extra for no ads, on a device I've already paid for, to read books I also pay for.
When will the madness stop!?
- rdn 2y agoIts been that way for years, the ad is on the lockscreen, and its an ad for other books. The version with no advertisement is 20$ more, I don't see the problem if someone wants to get a discount for looking at ads.
- wkat4242 2y agoYeah I don't find it that bad either. The ads are non-intrusive (only when not using the device) and the standard wallpapers are super boring anyway. As much as I hate advertising, this is as good as it gets
- dfxm12 2y agoAs far as problems go, I understand it's been a constant and this specific implementation is pretty low on the list, but generally, greed leading to ads intruding every aspect of our lives and people thinking up with new spots to place ads is a problem. Creating a different experience around reading books for those who have and those who have not is also a problem, given how important literacy and the printing press are to the development of our society.
- zeroonetwothree 2y agoIsn’t it strictly worse if they only offer the $130 no ads version? Why is choice a bad idea in this context? All it means is more people can afford it.
- vundercind 2y agoI'd love to see most advertising simply banned, but in the case of books there's precedent from back when people used to actually read enough to be worth advertising to: mid-century pulp novels often had a couple pages of glossy ads right in the middle, usually including one or more cigarette ads. The first or last pages of books are still frequently used to sell other books from the same author or from the same publisher. Not that long ago they'd come with cut-out cards to mail in for your order for more of the publisher's books from the partial catalog printed in your book (nobody orders by mail any more, is the only reason the stopped that, I assume). Some of my books when I was a kid would have the first chapter of another book from the same anthology series at the end, to sell it (Goosebumps did this, for example).
- majormajor 2y agoAt least ten years ago https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/technology/personaltech/removing-the-ads-from-a-kindle.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/technology/personaltech/r...
- tjoff 2y agoCan't read that but that is surely if you bought the subsidized ad-version of the kindle.
- michaelt 2y agoThere's no difference between a "subsidized ad-version" and what al_borland said: that they "paid to not have ads on the Kindle" You can get a Kindle for $110 with ads, or for $130 without ads.
- tjoff 2y agoI read it as if it was a subscription, my bad.
- MaxikCZ 2y agoI got my Kindle before any ads were in play (its like a second generation?), and several years afterwards it started displaying ads. Thankfully a chat with amazon solved it because I wasnt in US, so the ads were not applicable to me, but I definetly did not have option to buy non-ad version when I bought it.
- optimusprinceps 2y agoI'm an avid kindle user, I've never seen ads on my device. I'm in the UK
- gambiting 2y agoI'm in the UK and you absolutely get ads on kindles unless you have a very old device or bought the ad free model(TBF all kindles sold outside of Amazon at Currys, JL etc are always ad free).
- PhasmaFelis 2y agoIt's a one-time thing, it's like $20. They've been doing it for at least six or seven years. You probably selected it when you ordered your current model.
- FredFS456 2y agoWhen I bought my Paperwhite around 2013, I noticed that ads were an option on the kindles sold in the US but not in Canada. In Canada there was only the no-ads version.
- DaanDL 2y agoI've been using the same Kindle Paperwhite for about 13 years and there always have been ads in it because I didn't pay for the 30$ extra initially. It never bothered me as they stop when you put the device in airplane mode, which is what I always do ;-)
- letniq 2y agoActually there is a hack. After buying a kindle, you just write to kindle support and say that you are getting ads and you are not aware why are you getting them. They usually would remove them for you. Worked for me though when I bought kindle.
- lencastre 2y agoYMMV, I paid for a no ad version of the Kindle and when I moved countries and changed the kindle store I stated receiving ads. After a 5 minute online chat they removed the ads again, but not before confirming my original purchase of the ad free kindle PW 10 in 2018.
- grishka 2y agoAlso works to say that you live in a country where Kindles aren't officially sold so you can't make use of the ads anyway even if you wanted to. Don't know if they actually check if you are in one of those countries, but I am so it worked for me.
- TeMPOraL 2y agoThis was, arguably, a huge driver for Kindle sales in such countries (mine included), as that $20 or whatever saved made much more of a difference for people there.
- gizmo 2y agoThat's not a hack. Customer support just doesn't want to argue with people who are likely to get belligerent. You can get a lot of stuff for free just by throwing a tantrum, but is that really who you want to be?
- n4r9 2y ago> Hacking might be characterized as ‘an appropriate application of ingenuity’. http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html It's not far off a hack. And not OP but personally I've got very few problems with getting one over on massive corporations like Amazon.
- edanm 2y agoAlways been a thing, I think. When you bought it you could pay like $20 extra to not have them - you probably paid and never thought about it since, I imagine.
- ErigmolCt 2y agoThis policy has been around for several years.. Hopefully, some competition from other e-reader brands will help rein that in
- op00to 2y agoI asked Amazon via chat to remove the adds because I was SCANDALIZED, just utterly SCANDALIZED to see romance novels on ads on the lock screen. They removed the ads for free. ;)
- bschne 2y agoI bought the slightly cheaper version with ads years ago and asked support to remove them because they „weren‘t relevant to me given where I am living“. I found out about this option on reddit or in the product reviews on some local retailer‘s site, so I assume it is/was a bit of an open secret.
- eloisant 2y agoCongrats, you made a big fuss to save $20