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Trouble with Kindle in China


ChTTay

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Hello there!

 

I have had no problems buying books via my Kindle (First ed. then a paperwhite) for the last 2 or 3 years I've been in China. I use the UK store.

 

All of a sudden I can't buy or see samples. I get some nonsensical error message about 'Kindle Editions are not available in the United Kingdom'

 

What?? I'm in the UK store, signed in as a resident of the UK, using my UK kindle and the error message says I can't get kindle books in the UK?? It would make sense to me if it said 'Not available in your country' or 'not available in China'.

 

Anyone else come across anything like this? Do you think it's a bug or down to my being in China?

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I've had the same experience buying Kindle books from amazon.com when in China. Try to update your adress to China or contact the support, that worked for me. I agree with you that the error message seems strange, I did also get some strange message but I don't remember what it said.

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ChTTay --

 

Do you think it's a bug or down to my being in China?

 

I think it's due to your being in China.

 

I'm in China, and I get a similar error message when trying to buy Kindle books from the US store via my Kindle paperwhite reader (using wireless.) The US Amazon "cloud" and the China Amazon "cloud" don't play well together.

 

What I do as a workaround is buy and download new books using my laptop (with VPN enabled so they think I'm in the US.) Then I "side load" them into my Kindle reader via the USB cable. (Will furnish details on how to do it if you need them.)

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@xiaokaka - if I change my address to China that doesn't suddenly ban me from buying books from the UK store? I'm worried they'll try make me use the Chinese store which would be near useless

@ABCDEFG - I don't have a VPN but that was an option I was considering as well.

If there isn't an easy fix it will probably push me into just getting friends to send me some books to tide me over.

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So I went into Amazon to try and change my address to China ... but then it told me that, if I did so, my account would be switched over to Amazon.com. This just isn't practical for me. I've sent them an email and will see if anyone gets back to me.

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...but then it told me that, if I did so, my account would be switched over to Amazon.com.

 

Do you mean Amazon.cn (Amazon China?)

 

I wouldn't want that either.

 

Sounds like it's time for you to bite the bullet and get a VPN.

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Furthermore, after contacting Amazon they said unless I reside in the UK then I can't buy books online from that store.  I don't know what the policy is for people on holiday. To be fair, I've not lived in the UK for almost 4 years and they've only just realized.

 

ABCDEFG, I want a VPN but I've yet to find one that can work where I live. It's a long story but I need a new router or something.

 

I probably just won't buy kindle books from Amazon anymore.

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ABCDEFG, I want a VPN but I've yet to find one that can work where I live. It's a long story but I need a new router or something.

 

That must be real frustrating, ChTTay. I would probably have had some sort of ballistic melt-down by now. But I suppose it has helped make you a proficient user of the Chinese Internet, whereas some of us (like myself) continue to rely mainly on English-language websites when we can.

 

I use the Chinese internet only when I must: mainly for travel articles and recipes.

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  • 2 months later...

That's strange.  I buy books from the US Amazon site all the time for my Kindle, and I live in Norway.

 

It sounds like it must be something from being in China with a Chinese IP address or something.  Try going and buying the books on your pc via the Amazon UK site and then send them to your Kindle.  Maybe that will work?

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Recently I've got the same problem when buying books from Amazon.com here in China. I sometimes get the error and sometimes not. But by using a VPN I've been able to sample and buy books like normal, so getting a VPN would solve the problem. 

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@Joseph Kimbrell, I believe the reason Amazon.com works from Norway is probably because there is no Norweigan Amazon store yet. I'm from Sweden, and we don't have our own Amazon store (yet), and when I'm in Sweden I can buy books from both Amazon.com and from Amazon.cn, but when in China I sometimes have trouble with amazon.com.

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