Starbucks Free E-Books Are Not Free
This particular story somewhat disheartens me. I’m a big fan of Starbucks and also enjoy reading e-books on my Barnes and Noble Nook. So when Starbucks decided to start offering up free e-books on a weekly basis it got me a little excited. Starbucks has been offering free weekly Itunes downloads for awhile now and that has worked smashingly. It has helped introduce new bands and music to a new audience for free. Surely this is a win a win. With that in mind surely this free e-book thing will work just as well, won’t it?
With the release of their first free e-book offering The Night Circus by Erin Morgestern we see that this deal is not as good as it would seem. It would appear that those people lucky enough to download this title for free found a bit of a catch when they got to page 330 of the 400 page book. Upon reaching this page the reader is greeted with a message that informs the reader to buy the book if they want to see the final 70 pages.
Now the blog posting introducing this new idea does actually say that the book is an extended sample. However, this is not noted anywhere else including the cards that are given out in the stores. This may not be a situation where Starbucks is acting in a shady manner but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. After all, one can browse the Barnes and Noble e-book store and come out with hundreds of free samples of books. Overall it makes sense that they are not offering an entire e-book for free given that they cost ten times what a song will. It’s really my fault for getting my hopes up. Oh well off to Starbucks anyway.
http://mynorthwest.com/11/545861/Starbucks-free-ebook-offer-irks-some-customers
2011 Consumer Action Handbook
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