Amazon Kindle (2016) 6" 4GB E-Reader

This single star reflects my disenchantment with Amazon's Kindle service representatives more than the Kindle itself, although I'm not happy with the Kindle ebook either. I give the Kindle a "2" star rating for the annoying way they changed the Kindle interface from "e-library" to "social media center". Back in April 2017, the "Home" button on my beloved but elderly 4th Generation Kindle ebook (with special offers) stopped working (it's a physical button below the bottom of the screen, not an on-screen button.) The ebook worked perfectly in every other way, I could still use the ebook to read with, but it was annoying having to back out of everything using the back button instead of the Home button. At this point, I upgraded to a Kindle Paperwhite as I thought having a backlit screen would be useful. I found I didn't like the Paperwhite because the interface you deal with to keep your documents in order is not set up the way the old ebook was set up, which is the way a computer filing system is set up. On the old ebook, I had a couple of dozen "Collections" that I thought of as folders, and any book that hadn't been assigned to a Collection/folder would sit on the top directory, easy to see, right after the alphabetical list of Collection/folders.Once you assigned a document to a Collection/folder, it would handily disappear from the top directory and into the Collection, so all you saw were the books you hadn't assigned a Collection, plus new documents I imported or bought would pop up on the list. It was a great system as it meant minimal clutter on my interface and an easy way to find/navigate the 700+ documents I had there.. Just like in a "real" filing system on a real desk, or on a computer desktop: once you stick a document in a folder, it disappears into that folder, but it doesn't obscure the "current" documents that haven't been assigned to folder yet. Simple & easy! Sadly, in the Paperwhite, if you assign a document to a Collection, you still see that document sitting on your top directory, it just gains the notation that it's now in a collection--which is useless! It becomes a real problem when you have more than 700 documents on your Kindle, as I do. I can assign all of them to Collections, but you'll still see them sitting on the top desktop, either floating around as bookcovers or in a long, long list on dozens of screens and in no useful order. Conversely, if I choose to see only Collections on my top interface, that is all I see: just the Collections/folders, and none of the books that haven't been assigned to Collections yet. I can't pick that as my go-to interface because the loose, unCollected books and new books that might pop in can't be seen in that mode. This is like having 700+ documents on your desk with little sticky notes on each one saying what folder they should be stuck in. Maximum clutter! Or a couple of dozen folders full of documents sitting on top of the documents you need to deal with, but you can't get to them or even see them because of the folders sitting on top of them. This is why I didn't choose and iPad back when I got my first Kindle. The iPad is designed for maximum clutter, with all your books floating around, begging for attention. I prefer my ebook to work more like a PC or laptop computer in its filing system, and I don't have that anymore with Kindle. HERE IS WHERE THE KINDLE CUSTOMER SERVICE PROBLEMS START: PART 1: APRIL SHENANIGANS: CLASSIC BAIT-AND-SWITCH In April 2017, I called Kindle to complain about this change in the interface of the Kindle and ask if it was possible to get the old interface, figuring maybe I just wasn't hitting the right buttons, but the Kindle reps apparently didn't understand that the interface had changed from previous generations of Kindle ebook! I had to keep explaining over and over the way my old ebook had worked. The Kindle reps kept bouncing me around the system for about an hour. Amazon Kindle reps who don't understand what your problem is or can't fix it for you default to bouncing you out to Amazon Retail with no explanation to anyone, which confuses Amazon Retail reps because they can't do anything with Kindle problems, so they bounce you right back over to Kindle. Each time it happens, you have to re-introduce yourself and re-explain the problem. I finally got a Kindle service rep who told me that if I just replaced my old ebook with a new, simple ebook for $79, I'd get my old interface back. He literally told me flat-out that the Paperwhite had the new cluttered "social media center" interface, but not the current generation of ebook,which was simplified. The ebooks, he said, operated the old way. Also, he could get me a 20% discount on the new, simple ebook as I was replacing a broken ebook. THIS WAS ALL A FLAT-OUT LIE, LIE, LIE. That was April. When I got the ebook in May, I found that it had the same annoyingly cluttered interface as the Paperwhite. (And I mean, seriously, if you like Goodreads, good for you, but I really don't care about the opinions of a bunch of people I don't know, so why can't I remove that annoying app from my interface?) There was literally no reason whatsoever to buy the ebook, plus the 20% discount he told me would appear in my invoice hadn't happened, I had paid full price. I had been massively bait-and-switched by an Amazon Kindle customer representative! PART 2: MAY KINDLE CUSTOMER SERVICE REP SHENANIGANS I spoke to 3 Amazon representatives on May 4 and it took an hour and eighteen minutes to (partly) resolve my problem. The first Kindle rep did the usual tactic where he realized the problem was complicated so he bounced me over to Amazon retail customer service. The Amazon retail rep had to apologize that he could do nothing to help with Kindle and that the first Kindle rep should not have done that (no, really?!), sending me back to Amazon Kindle (45 minutes and counting to get to this point) where I got Karoline R., a Kindle customer rep. Karoline had to struggle with the computer to fix this because the bait-and-switch Amazon Kindle rep I spoke to back in April had royally screwed up my Kindle account, so the computer fought her every step of the way. Karoline did her best to fix this, at least the part where I returned the ebook and got my money back, so she was a great Kindle rep, but every other Amazon Kindle rep I spoke to either tossed me back to Amazon Retail or screwed things up badly. She explained that the Kindle media interface is the same on all Kindles now, and there is no way to go back to the simpler "library reader" way of doing things. Also: there is really no effective way to register a massive complaint like a lying bait-and-switch customer service rep. Amazon needs to have more oversight on their Kindle reps because the names of the reps who screwed up (tossed me to someone else or bait-and-switched me) got away with it because their names aren't associated with their screw ups. Every time a rep speaks to someone, their name should automatically be associated with the action in both the customer's records and theirs. You as a customer shouldn't have to keep a list of the people you talked to, but I suggest you do, as I should have. So, I was finally able to return the Kindle ebook with a maximum of effort, though I still have the Paperwhite and of course, nobody is able to help me fix my problem with the annoying interface. Why did they change the interface to become more clumsy and cluttered, more like an iPad? If I wanted an iPad, I'd have bought one. Why can't the Kindle work like a computer desktop works, the way it used to work? I answer myself: the hard-working Kindle reader-as-convenient-library has become a slap-happy "social media center". I have done a complete turn-around from adoring my Kindle to mildly detesting it. I will be investigating other ebooks at this point.