A warning for anyone thinking about buying ebooks from the telegraph.co.uk website.Today I ordered PDF versions of 3 x Osprey titles. The order pages specifically stated that I was buying PDFs, the prices were good so I went ahead.After I paid I received an order confirmation email with download links. When I clicked on the first link it did not download the PDF as I expected, but instead an “.acsm” file. I had no idea what this file type is until I waded through the ebook faqs. It transpires that in order to access any ebooks (PDF or Epub) you first have to create an Adobe ID, then use the “.acsm” file to download the actual pdf that you’ve bought. There are further restrictions: you have to set up this unnecessary Adobe ID on every device that that you want to read the download file on, and you are restricted to the number of devices that you can use.To add insult to injury there is nowhere on the order page that explains this. You only find out by sifting through the faqs. This information should be displayed prominently on the order page so that customer understand BEFORE they buy.As soon as I discovered this I immediately contacted telegraph.co.uk informing them that I have no intention of creating an account with a 3rd party just so that I can read ebooks that I’ve paid for. I told them that I want the order cancelled and that I want an immediate refund. Let’s see how long it takes to get my money back!
