Latest Support Problem with audible.com

[Kathleen]

I don't often post here but I read audio books constantly and usually from audible.com. I had a wake-up call yesterday. For several years I've bought books, far too many books, from audible.com. I've spent hundreds of dollars over the years buying these books. I read them on a Victor Stream MP3 player, specifically geared for blind readers. Well my old Victor Stream finally died and I bought a brand new one from Humanware. For the life of me I couldn't get the memory card to set up an audible account. And then guess what I found out. Audible had decided not to support the new Victor Stream. Just like that. I guess they may have changed their mind about that now, according to discussions with Humanware, but the wake-up call is that audible in its connection with Amazon may be too big to care about its individual customers anymore. Although you can still get the most books on audible, I'm going to have to start looking for other downloading services if they can so arbitrarily cut off a reading source from support. What other downloading sources have audio book readers found helpful?

[[deleted user]]

Well...you don't know WHY the decision was made. My guess, as a visually impaired reader who loves audiobooks, is that Audible did not suddenly resolve to abandon its blind consumers. Something more is at play here.

The challenge with other audiobook retailers (and believe me, I have looked, in my quest for a particular title) is that their acquisition process seems cumbersome.

[Dee]

like Jennifer said, we don't know what precipitated the change - maybe the new Victor Stream uses a different format that Audible isn't set up to provide right now (I honestly, don't know, because I have never heard of Victor Stream) - but I think that it is unfair to blame it on Audible/Amazon without more details - because right now you are going solely on what the product manufacturer told you - which might not be the whole story

[Verena]

Kathleen wrote: "I don't often post here but I read audio books constantly and usually from audible.com. I had a wake-up call yesterday. For several years I've bought books, far too many books, from audible.com. I'..."

This is surprising, as Audible still lists the Victor Stream as a useable device. It doesn't differentiate versions of the hardware, though. Your post indicates that you spoke to Humanware. Have you contacted Audible directly?

[Jeanie]

I feel your pain over this issue. As a blind user of Audible myself I know the frustration when trying to find hardware that's both compatible and blind-friendly. But that's not just an Audible problem. I bought a Sony Walkman MP3 player a little while back only to discover it wasn't supported by Audible--I mean, a Walkman! And my Sansa Clip likes to default to a non-audiobook folder whenever I add a title, meaning I have to get a sighted friend to return it to the right spot--aaarg! My battles with technology are frequent and I find I usually wait until it wears out altogether rather than switch to the newer stuff--or it becomes tooold to update to make it compatible.

That being said, I've found Audible to be very helpful whenever I call, even when they can't always fix the problem as I'd most like.

For the other visually impaired users, what MP3 player do you use?

[[deleted user]]

I have an iPad, Jeanie. I am fortunate - I can read print - but I find I focus better with an audiobook and an e-book as backup for difficult passages.

This has obviously been very expensive, so I've now upgraded to Platinum on Audible, and joined two libraries for their Overdrive collections.