Barnes & Noble Sucks
[Updated January 17, 2012.]
Spending the various gift certificates I received for Christmas, I ran into a string of bad luck. Across four different shipments, two CDs arrived defective and two books were damaged in transit.
Neither is common. After spending a few years working in a record store, I can tell you that manufacturing defects are rare. Ninety percent of the time, when someone claims their CD is defective, it's not; either the CD or their player needs to be cleaned, or they're lying because they want a refund. Most people buy CDs from major labels; and obviously, when Sony manufactures 200,000 Dave Matthews CDs, they avoid making mistakes. Defects tend to happen to independent labels, because they seek cheap reproduction.
The first defect was a simple pressing error. The plastic coating on top of the disc was warped; it played fine, but I returned it anyway. You never know how those things will degrade. The second defect was more costly: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, a six-disc boxed set, arrived with a duplicate Disc 5 in place of Disc 6. Sony will have to eat about $100 on that.
Now the two books, they came one apiece from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And here's where it gets interesting. In both cases, the boxes hadn't been packaged properly and the books arrived crumpled and torn. But let's compare the process of returning them.
- Amazon: I completed the return online. I printed out a postage-paid return label from the website, and my replacement arrived before I had even mailed the damaged copy.
- Barnes & Noble: You can't process returns on their website. I had to begin by calling 1-800-THE-BOOK. They mailed me a postage-paid return label for the damaged book, and they refused to ship a replacement until I had first sent back the damaged copy.
But it gets worse. The operator explained that they couldn't automatically ship the replacement. They had to issue a refund onto a new gift card and mail that to me. If I wanted a replacement, I would have to return to the website and order the book all over again.
Note: Refusing Delivery—Several people have commented below that Barnes & Noble has refused to cancel their orders, and they have been stuck paying for items they no longer want or return-shipping charges. You should be aware that you always have the option to refuse delivery of unopened packages, whether from the postal service or UPS/FedEx. Just because Barnes & Noble ships something to you doesn't mean you need to pay for it, or that you need to pay to return it: Refuse delivery, and the package will be returned to its sender (Barnes & Noble) with no questions asked. And your payment will be refunded in full.
January 2012: I've been reworking my website this month, and something occurred to me. This six-year-old page gets a lot of hits. It's the top result on Google for the phrase "Barnes & Noble sucks," and apparently people type that phrase often. But nobody from Barnes & Noble has ever contacted me about it. No apology or clarification. No promise that they would reconsider their return policy and ask me to update this page accordingly. This is the #1-ranked criticism of Barnes & Noble on the Internet, and I've never heard a word from the company. That's pretty bad customer awareness.
posted by Stephen @ 9:08 PM
30 comments
30 Comments:
I just had a bad experince with Barnes and Noble. Last Wednesday (one week ago today) we ordered 4 books in a series for my daughter. Wen my wife and I arrived home we found we needed book 6 and not book 5. I called to change the order to the correct book. Simply change number 5 for number 6. Sounds easy, right?
The clerk on the phone said we could not do that. We could cancel the order but could not change it. I asked for it to be canceled. She said she could cancel it but could not reverse the charges on my debit card unless I drove back to the store.
A week later (today) I went back to get the money back for the three books. I was told they had been shipped to my home. I will now need to wait for them to get to my house, drive back to the store and THEN get my money back.
Customer service sucks at Barnes and Noble.
Barnes and noble is not so noble. they suck (that's there to get the searches to see this). Have you seen their new return policy. No more gifts from me. Check out some local stores. They are much more customer friendly. B&N has gone the way of other large entities, shareholder value over customer value, short term returns over long term loyalty, and likely will follow suit of those before them (Worldcomm, Enron, MOT...). The list will certainly grow as we head into leaner times.
barnes and noble sucks and believe me they are on the way out... their prices on movie / music media are horrible, they rely on unsuspecting customers to pay double the value for a movie. This means they don't have to sell as many but reap twice the rewards. Their book prices, you're better off buying on amazon.
I've been scam by them!!!! I buy an art book item of 500 dlls. it was supposed -as Barnes and noble says in the webpage- to arrive in two boxes. Huge boxes by the way: one containing a box and the other the books...
They just send one box. Go to customer 'service': I will receive two boxes.. if I send back the box received in order they can send box number 2 along box number 1.
I live in another country so I paid around 150 dlls to receive box 1. I explained that if I send it back, etc I will ended three times to receive the box... It doesn't matter, now I just receive automated emails.
DO NOT GO FOR B&N, in a lot of years buying books by internet I never have a problem with Amazon, I will take my bussiness there for good.
I ordered a book for University and realized I had ordered the wrong book. I called within a half an hour and they would not cancel my order. So I had to wait three days for my order to be shipped. Now I am waiting for it to get here to Canada and I will have to return it express post to get a refund!?! Does this not sound totally ridiculous to any intelligent person?
Barnes & Noble's customer service ranks right up there with Sony's, and if I could deter people from either of them in one paragraph so much the better!
In November, 2008 when I bought my Dec 25th gifts NO ONE mentioned the return policy. But the manager smugly told me later "it's printed on the recipt" Like, hmmm sucks to be you! And she couldn't look up my missing reciept as she rolled her eyes and said "well, no one can do that")
Ah - but others can grasshopper. Because the return policy is clearly meant to avoid customer satisfaction I guess we could say
"Job well done! I'm completely dissatisfied".
And, I am stuck with an archived animated series because I can't even exchange it for something my son would rather have.
Kudos B&N You Suck. I will run as fast as I can to Amazon, to Borders Books, to any OTHER merchant.
I purchased a book for the GRE psychology test. I ended up cancelling my test and tried to return the book, but it was outside the crappy 14 day return policy. The book is not even creased in the binder or anything and I had the receipt.
I will not be buying anything from Barnes and noble again, but I will go and sit for hours in their reading areas to take up space not purchase what I can read for free.
I couldn't agree more. I ordered books and took advantage of their "free delivery" special offer. Unfortunately, since one of the books I ordered won't be published for six weeks, they are holding the entire order until it is ready. The won't let me split the order or even cancel it at this point.
I refuse to buy from them again and I urge others to think carefully before you spend your money with them.
I ordered a couple items only because the B&N web site said they weren't available at my local store (incorrect). The items were labeled as "in stock" and I needed them quickly so I paid for expedited shipping. Then I got an email the day after they were supposed to ship saying that they were sorry but they hadn't shipped. I went to the web site to cancel my order. It didn't cancel. Then I tried again several hours later and got an email saying the items had shipped. Only part of it shipped so I tried to cancel the other items with no luck. The packing slip said to call or email for an RMA#. I emailed and got a reply to call for one.
I then got an email saying the 2nd part of my order was delayed and would be canceled if I didn't go online within 24 hours to say I wanted it. Two days later I looked and the item wasn't canceled. I tried to cancel, but got an email saying I couldn't (no reason given). I finally called and was on the phone for 45 minutes to get an RMA# and to try to cancel the second part of my order - which turned out to have been shipped! Not only did I pay for the "quick" shipping, but now I have to pay to ship everything back. Barnes and Noble online sucks ( I do like sitting in their store and reading though)
B&N is a horrible bookstore. As a loyal customer for 10+ years, I am finally fed up with their awful customer service. I placed an order on a book that "usually ships within 24 hours." They canceled my order for no apparent reason and refuse to give me an answer as to why they will not sell me the book. I hope Amazon eventually runs them out of business because I always receive wonderful service at Amazon.
Alan Kahn, President
Barns & Noble Inc
122 Fifth Avenue
New York NY 10011
Dear Mr. Kahn,
I feel compelled to let you know about my first and most likely last experience with your
company, your order number 120324549 for the nook.
I waited two months for the nook thinking it would be better than other products on the market that I could have had in two days. After waiting two months for the nook I found it came with minimal instructions that were very difficult to read, took too long to get hooked up to my secure wi-fi network, provided no instructions at all on how to download the firmware upgrade, failed to book mark where I was in the book and overall provided a slow boot up followed by a very disappointing user experience.
My attempt to return it for credit was beyond belief. I spent about one hour and twenty
minutes on the phone trying to explain why the nook did not deliver upon written promised features and that I wished to return it for full credit because the nook did not do what I wanted (be as good as or better than Kindle) and that the lack of a book mark feature was the final straw.
I have developed products for another company I run and can appreciate how difficult it is to get a product to do what one wants it to do or what was promised to customers.
When all was said and done I got my credit, however in making it so difficult for me to get a credit means it is likely your company will have one less customer for life.
Your companies failure to deliver on promised features was an easily fixed problem.
Customer service "could have" given a small gift card or promised a discount on the next few books I bought or even just apologized for the problem. Instead customer service refused to do anything at all to recover from the customer service failure. Rather than even bother trying to cure an issue it is likely they lost your company a customer for life just because none of them cared (or knew) enough to use common sense.
I completely understand why people are upset about having to wait for orders to be shipped, crazy mailing debacles, high prices, the nook, and a lot of other things mentioned. But I feel compelled to say one thing. It's at a company's discretion whether or not to accept a return and how to do so. I can't believe anyone would allow a BOOK to be returned at all. And if you can't even do so within 14 days, why SHOULD they accept it? Stop feeling so entitled. Has anyone stopped being a customer for just a minute and instead acted like a human being - that is, stopped to consider how your actions affect others? For example: you walk in the store, you immediately seek help finding the book you want because you can't possibly try to find it yourself, you pick up a copy of People and then set it down in Young Readers (because why put something back yourself when you can make others do it, right?), you use the bathroom and don't flush, your kid is screaming bloody murder, you leave your trash at the checkout counter, you need help figuring out how to swipe your card, and then you're finally out the door. BUT you return the book, which means all the work that everyone did to put it in your hand is wasted. No sale = no profit = less hours for the employees to work. Is this extreme? Of course. My point is: buy the right book to begin with and spare everyone else all your bullshit.
Don't get me wrong. Barnes and Noble DOES suck. But not because of their in-store return policy. (Who returns a book?)
Nice corporate response there bud. Earned your $8.25 an hour today.
I couldn't be less interested in defending a corporation, but having worked in retail while finishing college I understand what it's like for the employees. The simple truth is that upon walking into a store, most people check all courtesy, respect, and independence at the door. My previous post was not meant to vindicate Barnes and Noble (the corporation) of being crappy (They are.) I was addressing the people who complained about the return policy, because in reality they were just pouting because they didn't get what they wanted. Again, because so often people adopt the "customer persona" and feel entitled to anything and everything. Then when they don't get it, it's "bad customer service", despite how the employee actually behaved.
"Corporate response" my ass. No corporation would endorse what I'm saying because they're all scared to death they might hurt somebody's feelings. They allow themselves to be taken advantage of by people who are more than happy to do so because it's easier for them that way. In fact, the corporations are the ones to blame for encouraging customers to act the way they do (at the employees' expense). It's a competition to see which company will allow its employees to be fucked over the most. But I digress...
I wouldn't expect anyone who's never worked in retail or the service industry to understand.
Wayne, Wayne, Wayne!
You confuse customer service with customer directed policy.
When the store manager is smug it causes ill will, period.
You make a lot of assumptions about "customer persona" based on voiced frustration. So, what, every person who is frustrated is an asshole? I don't think so.
I also have worked in retail, people act in all sorts of ways. But if you work in retail, and are willing to be rude to customers, do us all a favor and change jobs. Customers being pissed just comes with the territory when companies have policies to protect only the company's interests.
And, by the way, they don't even trust their salesclerks to do returns, ONLY managers (maybe because they are so pompous about their policies and piss people off so often.)
Also - only the corporations with concsience care if they upset their customers...that's the whole point of this blog.
Barnes and Noble does not care what their
"customers" think or they would help people resolve these issues more fairly and with fewer headaches.
You're probably right, darcy. I admit that my time in retail left me jaded but it's only because i saw the "customer is always right" philosophy mutate into the "customer can do whatever they want". I understand that philosophy was probably designed to protect the customers from the big, bad companies, but in my experience it has been turned 180 degrees (and no i'm not trying to drum up sympathy for the companies). You're 100% right that it's no better for store employees to be rude and i didn't mean to exempt them from my previous tirade. In hindsight this random blog is probably not the best place for my opinion. Just to clarify, my original reason for posting anything here was not to be pro-corporation, but to be pro-human, pro-respect, pro-courtesy... I know you don't get those things from every employee out there, but in my experience you get them even less from the customers. It would be nice if everyone could just treat each other with courtesy and not engage in the employee/customer power struggle. But again, this is probably not the place for that, and I'm sorry I failed in conveying that message previously.
Best of luck to you all.
Barnes & Noble does suck. Much of Barnes & Noble's website is written to intentionally mislead users who only skim. In purchasing an eBook, the website lists four devices with which B&N books are compatible, and then links to "other devices." What other devices does it serve? None. OK, my mistake. Then read the return policy: "It's easy to return an item if you're not satisfied. We will issue a refund to your original form of payment for items returned within 14 days." The policy does not say "most items" or real books, and there is no asterisk. It says "items." Then at the bottom the policy says eBooks are not returnable. Is the eBook not an item?
Barnes & Noble only honors their gift cards when they feel like it: http://eimatters.com/barnesandnoble.htm
MY BAD EXPERIENCE
I placed my original order for a hard cover edition of The black douglas, when it arrived without a dust jacket I called customer service, she assumed as well as I that It should have had a dj, due to the on line details. I was told that she would contact the ware-house to make sure it came with a DJ and resend if in fact it did.
I received another copy without the Dj and called customer service again and ask for a manager which i was refused, because it is not their policy when an agent can take care of the problem, she also stated she would take the necessary steps, call ware-house ect...
I also ordered another book it also came with out a dJ..
So i was sent another copy of two books that arrived without DJ again,
By this point i was furious and called and emailed customer service and asked to speak to a manager and was told i could not speak to a manager, but i could speak with a supervisor if she felt it was necessary after i told her my complaint, which i did.
I was transferred to cliff who would only identify himself as part of the manager team. he refused to give me his title.
After retelling my complaint again he stated, hardcover books only come with a DJ if it mentions it in the details, my reply" go to the website and pick any new hardcover release and tell me where to look for the description DJ included, of course he could not. He also told me to make sure i secure the books with bubble wrap and newspaper when i return them or I would be responsible for any damage. My reply "i am returning them in the boxes they came in, is it secure he asked.
He gave me the same song and dance i will call the warehouse and give you a call back.
he left me a message which stated "i can;t get in touch with anyone who can tell me if it comes with a Dj, so lets assume it does not and for all your trouble i will give you free shipping on your next order.( I am a member i get free shipping) regardless.
I have literally spent hours writing customer service over and over agin with no reply from a manager. I called cooperate serval times and left messages and no reply
Finally i spoke with a man named rashid who finally gave me the answer i already knew that the two books did not come with Dj.
He offered to send ups to pick up the copies of the books I have, i don't plan to stay at home all day and wait for UPS.
so he offered to give me a 10.00 gift card if i toke them to the post office. "BIG insult"
The whole time i am emailing a Ms. doty whom the receptionist said i should do. I have emailed her Three times and have not heard anything back.
I am so tired of telling this story over and over againI have never done busy with a company who could care less about dissatisfied customers.
They should have a new hold message when you call customer service "IT SUCKS TO BE YOU"
I had a horrible customer service experience where I ended up being treated incredibly rudely by store a manager. He would interrupt me (as I calmly explained what happened), he was actually shaking and never once apologized for the inconvenience. I have a feeling their employees are conditioned to getting angry customers since their customer service is RIDICULOUS. Before going to the store (an hour away, roundtrip), I talked to customer service several times, always waiting on hold for 5 minutes. Needless to say, I finally got my refund on a gift card as they wouldn't credit back my account. When I got home, I re-read their policy and the manager flat out lied to me! Anyways, I used it online to order another book. This one arrived damage - ha! I received it and started to laugh. Of course they don't protect their items with shrinkwrap like my love, Amazon. That's what I get for cheating on my favorite store! Amazon's prices are so much better too. Even after using my gift credit, I ended up paying the same for an LSAT study book that I would've at Amazon.
Oh - and while talking to the manager, I asked if the credit would expire. When he snidely said, "nope", I wanted to say "well what happens if you guys go under because of your terrible customer service?". I give 'em a year or two.
I never again will shop at Barnes and Noble, online or off; their customer service left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. It was a total dehumanizing and time-wasting experience. Their company could TRULY care less. In this economy, you'd think they'd start to care just a bit more.
Well lets see,...yes B&N sucks...
I received a Nook for Christmas, it had a defective display, 20% was too dark to read...
4 calls, over 2 hours and 36 minutes on hold, four days and a return label later... trip to UPS...then a second e-mail saying they would return the defective unit to me unless I put a RA number on the box...
I had already sent the unit back!...so I expect after reading this blog, they will send it back without fixing it! what do you think? The saga continues and yes B&N sucks
You guys don't even know the half of it. As a former employee (as of today) I can honestly tell you Barnes & Noble isn't interested in making you happy as a customer. They're interested in sucking up as much $$$ from you as possible before you realize what they're doing and cease business with them. Now, this is all from the digital realm since that's what my position there was: digital support.
Do you know how many times I've received calls and e-mails from customers because they were in the country, seen the nook or NOOKcolor, asked about it, received false information, bought it, then returned home only to discover the device couldn't be used where they were at. Puerto Rico, Mexico, Ireland, Australia. All these places had people calling about not being able to download eBooks, and they're wondering why since the person at the store told them they could outside the country. Do you know what Barnes & Noble's response to that is? Tough luck. B&N does not assume responsibility for their own actions, or their employees actions. If you are from somewhere outside of the country and bought a nook or NOOKcolor, you literally just flushed money down the drain.
If you're a college student and you call digital support because you can't open your eTextbook on your computer suddenly, you had better hope that you're not past seven days or you just bought a product that you will have to call digital support about twice a week to fix.
Don't get me started on Macs. If you own a Mac, stay away from B&N. They don't like you. LOL
Oh, and do you want to try something sure to make you laugh? Call digital support, and after you've been on hold for thirty minutes, ask them about their international eBook purchase policy. They'll tell you publishers set this and that. Then ask them why Amazon has the same books, from the same publishers that can be purchased internationally. Hahaha. Listen to their answer then escalate the call to a supervisor and listen to their answer on the matter. Hell, call ten times and listen to all ten answers (which are sure to be different). Truth is, no one knows why B&N doesn't sell eBooks internationally. We all have our ideas, but no one knows.
All-in-all, I've heard so many threats from so many customers about Barnes & Noble going downhill. I agree. They have so much potential as a business, but with each passing day their once-honored name as a genuinely great bookseller becomes more and more tainted.
Not only do they suck, but they don't monitor their sellers.
I own a hard cover copy of a book. I ordered what I thought was another hard cover copy of the same book, per the listing, from one of their sellers, Super Book Deals.
I get the book, after three weeks, and it is soft cover.
I sent it back for a refund, with a tracking number. They have had the return since April 18, and have not yet refunded my money. They claim they haven't received it, when the tracking information says they have.
Barnes and Noble will do nothing to help, PayPal, which I used for payment, doesn't offer any guarantee for Barnes and Noble transactions, and now I'm stuck trying to deal with the idiots at Super Book Deals.
I'm sticking with Amazon - you have trouble with one of their sellers (and I sell there myself), they handle it.
Barnes and Noble and Super Book Deals suck!
A few weeks ago I received a Barnes & Noble gift card as a thank you from a student. It was a totally unexpected and unnecessary gesture, and much appreciated. The other day I was organizing my desk and came across the card, so I decided to use it before it got lost. I picked out a couple of books from the Barnes & Noble website, but as I was going through the "check out" process the computer told me that the card's balance had bee exhausted. That wasn't possible so I called customer service. The woman who took my call checked the card number and informed me that the card had never been activated. I pointed out that was an oversight of the store clerk, that she could see very well on her computer the card had not been used, and that why didn't she just credit me the $25 and let me pay for my books. Impossible. The person who bought the card would have to go to the store where the card was purchased with her receipt to get the problem fixed. I explained that was ridiculous, that I wasn't going to bother the person who gave me the card, that it was highly unlikely the receipt had been saved, and that, in any case, that was putting an unfair and unreasonable burden on the customer for a mistake made by the store. Tough luck! So I asked to speak with a supervisor. The next person gave me pretty much the same story. I explained that the situation was akin to thievery, but they weren't interested. I've tried email, but so far I've only gotten two machine generated responses that are really insulting. This is BAD customer service and creates the impression of a horribly run corporation.
(http://markaldrich.blogspot.com)
Barnes and Noble has the worst business practices. Their member program is a complete scam. They refuse to honor free shipping for many items despite paying for the membership which supposedly provides free shipping. When their scam is exposed they refuse to cancel the order. The only option is to contest the order with the credit card company. Avoid this company at all costs.
Barnes & Noble just decided that Puerto Rico is not a US Territory. Why? Because someone make a mistake. This is wrong. I live in Puerto Rico and I bought the nooK color directly from BN.com and
guess what? They sent it to Puerto Rico with no shipping cost. I registered it and started buying books and apps from store online using my Nook Color account with my credit card from Puerto
Rico. Suddenly two weeks ago i can't do that anymore. Somebody push the wrong button on the server. They said that my billing address is not a US billing one. Guess what? You can see the option for Puerto Rico when you write your billing address. AHHH If
you can not buy ebooks or apps why do i need a ereader???
I ask them how to return the item. I bought the Nook with extended service on December 2011?
Yes, Barnes and Noble sucks...
Well, B&N customer service is still working overtime to stiff their customers. I pre-ordered three books on a gift card, with free shipping. Three weeks later I saw the price on one book had dropped several $$, but not on my order. When I called B&N they said pre-orders are always charged the price at the time the order is paid, regardless how low the price drops before the book is actually released.
So I canceled one of the three books. B&N then refused to release the hold on the gift card funds until the order was completed at some future date. So a week later the first book was released and shipped free, and with only the one remaining book the order was now less than $25, so B&N promptly added shipping costs to the rest of the order.
I finally gave up and cancelled the rest of the order to get my gift card $$ released, and I will place a new order in the future. I will also tell my entire family to get Amazon gift cards in the future!
There is no place you can go to be treated worse as a customer than b&n. No where else will place so little value on you as a customer, be so rude, and offer zero resolution to any complaint. Joe one of the customer service managers even continually lied to me about a refund and my product arriving at their Texas warehouse.
Completely unacceptable. Spread the word to protect your family and friends. Just deny the charge with your credit card company and save your self the rise in blood pressure.
Woah, This is a whole lot of shit happening there at B&N.
But most of these orders seem to have been placed from Canada or the US.
I ordered 2 box sets, 1 came in perfectly and the other did not have shrink wrapping, the books were upside down in the box and in the wrong order. Plus there was a huge gash in the box AND one of the books had a dent that goes through the hardcover.
I am from the Netherlands and strangely enough got whole another treatment. At first the woman at customer service was a bit reluctant and seemed to be deaf. I had to repeat my order number 7 times. She told me I had to return it against costs and they would send a replacement.
As soon as she found out that I am from the Netherlands it changed. I would have to return it.I can return it for free and the 14 days return does not apply. The shipping will be refunded including the full price. "it is now my fault, it is theirs and I should not have to pay for that." I was pleasantly surprised.
But as I read all these messages I might not be making a smart move ordering with B again. So I think I'd rather just spend an extra 20 bucks on re-ordering that 1 books than returning the box and ordering it again. I do not want to be stuck in the same situation.
I wonder, do they not check returned items for damage?
I actually bought the Nook Classic (or first edition) and have been sorry ever since. I often am locked out of my account and have to call customer service which is the worst outside or comcast or verizen. I call the number my Nook posts when it says my account is locked and have to wait, then when some one talks to me I have to give my email and name and then they transfer me to support where I have to wait and then finally give my email again. They talk very slowly and repeat things (when I say I am locked out of my account they say "to clarify, you are locked out of your account" as if I didn't just say that. I have books on it to read while on vacation this year and when I'm done I am done with Nook and Barnes and Noble. I will buy a kindle and buy from amazon. Screw barnes and noble.
Post a Comment
<< Home