Amazon says it’s fixing the Kindle Colorsoft’s yellow screen

Amazon says it’s working to fix issues with the Kindle Colorsoft, its first color e-reader, following complaints from early buyers that a yellow band of discoloration appears on the bottom of the display. The company is making “adjustments” so that “new devices” will not have the yellow band; people who already own a unit can contact Amazon for a refund or replacement.

“We take the quality of our products seriously,” Amazon spokesperson Jill Tornifoglio wrote in an email to The Verge. “Customers who notice this [yellow band] can reach out to our customer service team for a replacement or refund, and we’re making the appropriate adjustments to ensure that new devices will not experience this issue moving forward.”

Existing customers can keep using the Colorsoft until they receive a replacement, Tornifoglio said. She added that shipping dates may slide around while the company works to fulfill those replacements alongside new orders for the device.

Shipping dates vary depending on where users are, but generally, the Colorsoft isn’t shipping earlier than next week for US buyers. In the UK, people report seeing even longer delays, with shipments pushed out to the end of the month. Prior to the proliferation of complaints, people could expect the tablet to arrive within a more typical day or two in the US.

The delays come after people who first received the device started reporting the appearance of a yellow band along the bottom of its display. The Verge’s own review unit has it, but Andrew Liszewski, who is testing it for us, says in his case, the discoloration is not especially visible to his eyes and shows up more obviously in photos.

Multiple people in a Reddit thread about the delayed shipping times say the company contacted them after they left bad reviews. One wrote that they were told “they want to have it sent to engineering about the yellowish line at the bottom.”

As of this writing, 1-star ratings make up about 30 percent of Colorsoft reviews on Amazon.