Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First, the good stuff. Kindle 3 has a very readable high contrast screen. The form factor is small and light enough to be a book replacement. Purchasing and downloading content is simple and convenient. However, I had a series of problems which eventually led me to return my Kindle. After unpacking and charging my Kindle 3, it refused to connect to my wireless network. I have a variety of other devices ranging from a Nintendo Wii to an iPod Touch and two computers that work just fine on my wireless network, but the Kindle couldn't connect after many attempts. I eventually gave up and turned it off. When I turned it back on several hours later, it had mysteriously connected to my WiFi network with the exact same settings that did not work earlier. I have noticed that several other users have ran into the same problem. The next problem I noticed was that something was rolling around inside the casing. This is obviously not a good sign. Then, my Kindle 3 started freezing. The first freeze happened while using the experimental browser. As this is an "experimental" application, I wasn't too concerned. After a power reset, the Kindle came back up. The second freeze happened while playing Shuffled Row, which is a good game. After this freeze, my Kindle refused to reboot after many power reset attempts. (Yes, I did try keeping the power switch in the "turn-on" position for up to 30 seconds as suggested by the manual.) I eventually gave up and put it down. However, after a few minutes, the Kindle started to reboot itself. The was another freeze while reading a book, which was fixed with a power reset. I tried to contact Amazon for service, but it looks like the only way to get Kindle customer service is through a phone call. And then my Kindle froze again while reading a book. This time, nothing would reset the kindle. When this last freeze happened, the battery was charged about 75%. At this point, there was no option but to return the kindle. There are some comments among the negative reviews here that the usual Amazon.com return process does not work. In my case, I was able to follow the regular Amazon return process and print a return label. So my Kindle is back to Amazon after less than a week of use. Judging from other reviews that had similar experiences as mine, Amazon appears to have a specific quality control problem with this latest version of the Kindle. People may be more tolerant of the reliability other electronic gadgets, however, it is unacceptable for a product that is primarily intended to replace paper books to have issues like freezing and/or rebooting. After all, I never had a "paper" book freeze or reboot on me so far. Receiving a product with defects that should have been caught during testing before shipping pretty much destroys the "Kindle experience". UPDATE (October 31, 2010): Since I do like the Kindle concept, after reading about the improvement in stability with the latest software upgrades, I purchased another Kindle WiFi. Everything was great for almost two weeks, no crashes. However, yesterday, the second Kindle also ended up with a frozen screen. After following through the instructions on Amazon's Kindle troubleshooting page and talking to the customer service, there was no way to get the Kindle out of the frozen state, so this one is also going back. The fact that this situation can happen to the same customer twice in a matter of few months indicates either a serious quality control problem or component reliability problem.