Pre-ordering ebooks, and cancelling, could I get some feedback from others please?

[Cariad]

Hello All,
I recently preordered some ebooks from (probably not allowed to say, but Epub format) I cancelled an order as my Telco had double billed me and put my account in debit. I cancelled this preorder three days prior, and you guessed it, they still billed me, and caused bank fees. I requested a refund, and attempted to cancel another preorder to pay for the bank fees, this one is not due for another seven days.
This took four contacts, four different promises and ticket numbers, and I went into my account to check, and no, it hadn't cancelled.

This groups has saved my sanity, as I am disabled and often confined to bed, and am on a very limited income. Being able to access your ebooks has been such a blessing.

I was so excited when I preordered these books, I thought I would at last have a chance to give back to this community.

After this final online chat today, I will be cancelling them all an removing my payment details from the site.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? How can they get away with doing this?

Can anyone tell me if Kind-le is better? I was honestly too scared to buy a Kindle as I was downloading books from this site and thought they'd be able to track that I hadn't bought them .
I love my Kobo ereader, and can't afford to replace it, and my entire Calibre library is in epub format, not mobi

I'm really upset, and so sorry I couldn't give back to this community as I had hoped to .

I'd love some feedback on this.
Thank you Lovelies

[Aglaea]

Wow. That is really unfortunate!
Sorry you experienced that.

Since you mentioned it was epub, I am going to guess it was B&N or Kobo that you bought them from?

I never had this happen to me and am not sure what the policy of these sites are re: cancelling pre-ordered ebooks.

I do think, even though it is a hassle, not to give up until you get your money back!

I tried to Google and since you didn't mention the website, I had to guess...

I found Kobo's instructions:

Checking or cancelling your pre-order
You’ll find details of your pre-order in your purchase history, although you aren’t billed until the book is released.


You can go to your purchase history and cancel a pre-order right up until the date the book is released. If your pre-order doesn’t arrive on the date you expect, it may be because the publisher has changed the release date. You can check for an update on the Kobo website or the publisher’s website if your pre-order doesn’t arrive when you expect.


Go to kobo
Sign in to your account, depending on what you see:
Click Sign in.
Click the Menu icon. Click Sign in.
Enter your username and password.
Click Continue.
Open your account details with one of these options, depending on what you see:
Click My Account next to the Profile icon at the top right of the page.
Click the Menu icon at the top left of the page, then click My Account next to the Profile icon.
Click Purchase History.
Under Pre-Orders at the bottom of the page, you’ll see any books you’ve pre-ordered.
Click Cancel Pre-order beside the book you'd like to cancel.
Your pre-order is cancelled and removed.

B&N says:

Canceling NOOK Book Orders
NOOK Book orders cannot be canceled or refunded. If you have technical difficulty with a product, please contact NOOK Support.

It is on their B&N Help page.

**

If it is B&N I don't think they'll be cancelling them.

I was so excited when I preordered these books, I thought I would at last have a chance to give back to this community.

You can look though places like Open Library, which has PDF and epubs of many books that are not public domain. They offer them for free and you just need an account to check them out (Adobe Digital Editions to read them) and the simple to use epubee DRM removal tool.
There are a lot of books out there that are not in ebook format officially, but are on there because someone took the time to scan and convert them to PDF/Epub. Older romances and other genres for example.
You can share books off of there.
Also, there are tons of non-fiction books of all sort of topics that are not shared on here that you can post.
Also, if your public library offers ebooks via Overdrive, you can do that as well. I've done that a number of times myself.
If you'd like other ideas, let me know and I can try to show you some other possiblities that do not cost a dime.

[Cariad]

Hi Algaea,
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond so comprehensively <3

It is Kobo that's done it. I followed all the above instructions, but when you cancel a pre-order you can't access your purchase history to check if it's done it.
I've cleared my cache and logged back in, but this persists.

I gave plenty of notice, and made allowances for the time difference, as I'm in the Southern hemisphere, but four frustrating 'chat's' and I was very patient until today, and four different answers and solutions.
I just couldn't believe this had turned into such a drama, I hate drama! Lol!

I am a member of my local library, but my laptop will not cooperate with digital editions right now, it's dying and I'm waiting on a loan to replace it, in fact it's not cooperating with much at all

I had not heard of Open Library, thank you so much for that.

Can you use the drm removal tool on Amazon mobi content? I'm wondering if I can, in future, purchase through Amazon, remove the drm and convert using Calibre, would that be possible?

Thanks again for your kindness xx
Amazon often has releases from some authors way ahead of Kobo, it's contractual I believe.