Downpour.com

Mostly the same books available endlessly. In recent months books that sell for the likes of $29.99 have appeared in 99 Cents deals. Clearly, nobody is minding the store. Hoopla does a much better job of providing new books (for free), and Audible (and sometimes Apple) are better buying options. Blackstone Audio, Downpour’s owner, is flailing.

Can’t even search for an author. The moment I find the one I’m looking for and the collection of work appears…It promptly disappears along with the search bar!

App does not initialize because of a JSON error so I cannot login and access my >200 titles, or search and acquire more. Can provide the full error message. Hope yo can fix.

Absolutely wreaks havoc on my iphone 12 battery. Have been through 3 different iphones with this app and eats the battery on all of them. Simply, why?

It seemed good then it started crashing after launching the app so i don’t know how to feel.

I just made my first purchases. Tried to download them, but the app kept on cycling between 2 different ‘download’ buttons! Then l tried to relay this to customer service via the email link on the purchase confirm, but got an ‘undeliverable message’ response with the reason that l wasn’t on the group’s ‘accepted email list’. What kind of foolishness is this? Unless l get satisfaction l may not stay on this site, which would be a shame for Blackstone as well as me since I’m seriously looking to purchase the $390 Shakespeare set. Your serve, Downpour.

I paid for a download a couple years ago. Now, after completing the app update I can’t access my files without repurchasing. I find this completely ridiculous and unjust. Giving them even one star is one star too many.

Does exactly what you need in an app of this sort: wide variety of titles, excellent voice talent and a good mix of rent-or-buy options. This is an update to a prior (one-star) review. I had given a low rating because I was unable to play a rental due to an “Invalid license content” error and had no way to get around it. Tech Support had me delete and reinstall the app, and it worked fine from then out.

I see absolutely no option to rent, which was why I wanted to try this app out. The buy prices are at least $10 more than Google Books or iTunes, so I'm going elsewhere. Waste of a download!

I would like to point out three problems with your app, all of which make me more inclined to use Audible instead, even though I would prefer to buy titles directly from you, whenever possible... if only you would fix the app. First, the time display shows progress and time remaining only in the current chapter. I would like to be able to switch that display, but could not find an option for doing so. Second, the volume level drops whenever I get an email or other alert tone, but does not pause playback, and so I miss several words of the book, every time this happens. It is quite annoying, and mostly, I would like a setting to choose how I want this behavior to exhibit. Third, is that the playback will pause when I remove an AirPod, as does Audible, but if I have it out for more than a very few seconds, it will not resume without my taking out my phone, opening the app or pull-down access, and hitting the play button again. This is a lot of extra effort every time someone makes a comment to me or demands my attention for a moment, while I am listening. This also should either be changed, or be made a selectable preference option. I hope that you will fix these problems, so that I may use your service as much or more than I use Audible. If not, I will likely return completely to Audible, even though I am terribly annoyed with how poorly they treat authors. Sincerely, - Prof. Cascaddan