"PDF for Digital Editions" is not PDF; I asked a refund

[Guest]

I bought my first two books from ebooks.com (format : "PDF for Digital Editions"), costing more than $150. At the time of purchase, I knew nothing about ADE but I knew about .pdf files, I knew they could be read on my iPad and I assumed that PDF meant PDF. However, after the purchase, after installing ADE and downloading one of the book, I realized I could only read it on my desktop (what good is that?). Worse, the book file extension is .pdf and even my computer thinks it should be readable by Acrobat Reader but it does not open. I therefore cannot read it on my iPad; these books are useless to me. Bottom line, "PDF FOR DIGITAL EDITIONS" IS NOT PDF. This is not clearly stated by ebooks.com prior to purchasing the book.

I honestly feel this is misrepresentation by both Adobe and ebooks.com of the name "PDF". I asked ebooks.com for a full refund and I also want other ADE users to know about this. Adobe should either make ADE available to all platforms (like the Acrobat Reader) or stop using the name "PDF" and the extension ".pdf" for ADE files.

[Guest]

To be fair with ebooks.com, I want everyone to know that I did get a full refund on my credit card. They seem to have the largest choice of technical and academic books, so I will certainly be a customer again, but not before I find an iPhone/iPad app for ADE ebooks. In the meantime, someone else is getting my money.

I am now much wiser about ebooks in general. The take home message is i) always assume the book will be readable on one device only, and ii) always purchase the ebook via that device.

[floyingmd]

I agree. Same problem. Digital editions Sucks.!!! I cant say it enough. Want to know how I really feel????

[morgannelson]

This is also compounded by the use of the ePub file format from other e-book resellers.  I can't help but wonder if this was done intentionally to hurt Apple's iPad since it advertises that the iBook reader supports the ePub standard.  The problem is that Adobe's Digital Edition ePub is anything BUT standards based.

For all e-book customers - research the .pdf/epub format your reseller uses to determine if it is indeed an Adobe crippled product before purchasing  - especially if your intent is to read it on an iPhone or iPad.