B&N Rant

julie37619

I think I'm officially done trying to save the world from the inevitable takeover by Amazon.  I've tried to be a loyal B&N customer, but I'm so sick of the terrible customer service that I'm giving up.  I'm reading the Penguin Drop Caps books and collecting them for the way they look.  I could just read them online because they're in the public domain, but I want to own them because they are beautiful.  My "B" copy of Jane Eyre came with a discolored spine that you couldn't see while the book was shrink wrapped, but because I unwrapped it, revealing the discoloration, they won't let me return it.  I'm over it.  Amazon claims another soul.

PS: While trying to return this B&N I also needed to return an Amazon gift.  It took literally five minutes of my time to say why I was returning it, get approval, and print out the mailing label.  I hate selling out to them, but I think I have no choice.

Young_Love

Ugh. Same. I tried so hard to stay on board w/ B&N, but their service is really lacking. 

I had a membership card for several years, but I let it expire this past year without renewing. When pinky and I went to meet Jason Segel at his signing, apparently you got to go in an earlier line if you had a membership, but NO ONE MENTIONED THIS. Had one person said "want to renew your membership? You'll get to go in a special line!" I would have done it in a second, just for that. No one bothered to say anything to anyone in our group. Stupid. 

Every time I go in there it is a frustrating experience. 

84Lauren

This makes me sad, because my B & N is the best, I love everyone who works there.

Over Xmas I ordered Raven Boys online for a friend, and then when I opened it they had sent me the wrong book - some anthology. When I called they refunded my money, sent the right book directly to my friend at no cost, and didn't require me to send the other book back.

I have definitely heard a lot of bad service stories from them though.

AyshM

I don't even bother with them these days. They rarely have what I need and most of the time it's expensive. I'd rather use my library, who has awesome services.

pinkybooklover09

Amazon has same day shipping for $7. The prosecution rests.

Young_Love

I just remember when a book I got for my classroom had a huge misprint. Half of my teen vampire romance was What We Talk About When We Talk About Running in the middle. I tried to exchange it for one that wasn't half a novel and they gave me SUCH a hard time about it because it was past the exchange date. 

Skeezon

I am staying strong and sticking with B&N. My local store is great, but I had lots of issues in NYC.

ThisModernLove

My B&N is just so so. Customer service is spotty and the selection of books I'm actually looking for has gotten worse.

That being said it is our only brick and mortar store so I'll still go even just to feel the spines of the books on the shelf.

funkypineapple

I dislike my local B&N. Every time I go in there the YA section has gotten smaller and smaller and the used DVD section gets larger. They never have what I'm looking for and if I'm going to pay for a book online then I'm going to use my Amazon Prime account to get it for $9-13 with no extra shipping charges and get it in 2 days.

I do like my local Books-A-Million though. The majority of the time they do have the books I'm looking for and the YA section is fairly larger than BN. 

booneybear

I would much rather drive 45 minutes out of my way to go to my two favorite independent bookstores than drive 10 minutes to the local B&N.  

In the meantime, when I can't go to my favorite independent stores, I am more than happy to buy from Amazon.  They always have what I want, I love getting mail, and shopping on line is so much easier than getting dressed in the winter and having to go out in the snow.  

B&N can keep their lousy board games, godiva chocolates, CDs (who the hell even buys those anymore?) and 52,000 nooks and nook covers.  I want to go to a book store to buy books. 

Jliongrrrl

I am lucky enough to live in a town with an independently owned book store. (It's actually the only one for 3 counties) and I've only been back to B&N once since. It was to buy a nook for my grandmother and I left wishing I had just bought it online because the people were so rude and non helpful.

MrsC7

Young_Love said: I just remember when a book I got for my classroom had a huge misprint. Half of my teen vampire romance was What We Talk About When We Talk About Running in the middle. I tried to exchange it for one that wasn't half a novel and they gave me SUCH a hard time about it because it was past the exchange date. 

@Young_Love B&N gave you a hard time for returning an undeniably defective book because it was past the exchange date? OMFG.

84Lauren

Young_Love said:

I just remember when a book I got for my classroom had a huge misprint. Half of my teen vampire romance was What We Talk About When We Talk About Running in the middle. I tried to exchange it for one that wasn't half a novel and they gave me SUCH a hard time about it because it was past the exchange date. 

Gah, this is so crazy! I was just there on Sunday to exchange a perfectly good book I bought for my husband in NOVEMBER for Christmas, and they gave me store credit without batting an eye!  WTF.

Lauren620

My B&N membership just auto-renewed and I was so annoyed with myself for forgetting to cancel it.  The closest store we have is almost an hour away, but the past few times I've gone in stores I just am not impressed.  I do still buy nook books, though mostly only when they are really cheap.

We have a small indie bookstore not far from the house and a Books a Million about 30 minutes away, but I'm not crazy about either of them and end up buying a lot from Amazon.  I miss our Borders

jackiback

I have spent *ahem* a lot of time at the train table at our B&N, which is right beside the employee computer in the kids area. I cannot even tell you how many times a customer has come and asked for a book (even a normal title) and the bookseller looks up the book and says, "We don't have it in the store, we can order it though..." and the customer walks away. 

I always want to advise them to go to Toys R Us instead because they have a wider selection of books and less toys than B&N now 0_o 

They are the only book store anywhere near us so I do all my bookshopping via Amazon. 

sonore32

I agree with mostly everyone else, I normally do the best I can to support brick and mortar stores, however I also don't believe in supporting places with bad customer service. I've had so many issues with B&N that at this point I only go there if I need something today. Amazon is just cheaper and I know if I have to return something it will never be a hassle.

MrsJenE

I know it's been said a million times, but my local B&N just never has what I want.  I go there occasionally just to actually be in a book store, but I always leave unsatisfied.

I don't have any great independent bookstores except for the one at Harvard, but parking around there sucks.  The bookstore in my town is shutting down.    It was my dream bookstore that @booneybear and I were supposed to run someday.  She'd bake things for the cafe and I'd handle the books.

Young_Love

My student just told me she went to the local B&N looking for 3 books for our class - Hamlet, Everything is Illuminated, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - and they didn't have any of them. 

booneybear

MrsJenE said:

I know it's been said a million times, but my local B&N just never has what I want.  I go there occasionally just to actually be in a book store, but I always leave unsatisfied.

I don't have any great independent bookstores except for the one at Harvard, but parking around there sucks.  The bookstore in my town is shutting down.    It was my dream bookstore that @booneybear and I were supposed to run someday.  She'd bake things for the cafe and I'd handle the books.

We will have to take over the bookstore in Portsmouth and do our thing @MrsJenE.

ThisModernLove

Young_Love said:

My student just told me she went to the local B&N looking for 3 books for our class - Hamlet, Everything is Illuminated, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - and they didn't have any of them. 

1. Those are great choices! 2. seriously!?!. Those are very popular books...

Young_Love

ThisModernLove said:

Young_Love said:

My student just told me she went to the local B&N looking for 3 books for our class - Hamlet, Everything is Illuminated, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - and they didn't have any of them. 

1. Those are great choices! 2. seriously!?!. Those are very popular books...

Thanks! I'm super proud of the reading list for this class. The guy working at B&N also thought they were all awesome and told my student the class sounded rad. He just didn't have any of them to sell her.

GilliC

Young_Love said:

My student just told me she went to the local B&N looking for 3 books for our class - Hamlet, Everything is Illuminated, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - and they didn't have any of them. 

WTF?! Do they carry books?!

They don't have Hamlet?

The only time I can imagine a bookstore not having all three of those would be if it was one of those airport bookstores with less floorspace than my office.