Book Talk: Y U Don’t take my money?
Hello and thanks for joining me on this new meme. I will host this meme to talk about anything bookish. And today is a rant about the disgusting customer service of Barnes and Noble.
Last week I had a problem. You see, I don’t have the money nor the time to travel to every single book event. When I heard about the #YeahYA book tour was coming to Texas I was stoked! That meant that Harlequin Teen authors such as Julie Kagawa, Katie Mcgarry, Amiee Carter were only going to be hours away from me. Still, since I could not go, I decided to do the next big thing and that was call the store, order the books signed and have them shipped to me. No big problem right? Wrong.
This #YEAHYA book tour were being held at several B&N’s. I called 3. THREE different B&N’s to order these books. I was willing to pay shipping or whatever to get these books to me. Guess what they told me when I called the stores directly. They told me NO. N.O. Really, I was in shock. All I ask is if I can order the books, get them signed by the authors when they get to the store and ship it to me. This is what the girl told me over the phone:
“I’m sorry but we can not do that. I can order the books for you and they will be shipped to you but if you want them signed you must be present.”
Well chick, that will be hard since I’m 12 hours away!! Let me just go to my transporter in my back yard and have Scotty beam me up to the store! *rolls eyes*
I was beyond frustrated and angry. So I called another store in New York and another store in Texas. And all three told me the exact same thing. They can’t do what I was asking. All I was thinking was,”SHUT AND TAKE MY MONEY!” I wanted to support the authors even though I could not be present. Does B&N not realize that this not only affects the authors but the publishers as well? Here I was, WILLING to pay more money than I needed to in order to get my books sign by these authors.
I went to twitter and ranted. I sang like a freaking canary to anyone who would hear me. And I got some excellent advice. I have a few other blogging buddies who immediately went to my rescue. They gave me another book store, which is indie book store that will be also hosting these authors. I called frustrated and guess what? Katy Budgets Books took my order to get my books signed and sent to me. KBB scored $56 dollars from me and what does B&N get? A lost customer. FOREVER!
Have you had any troubles with B&N? Have you ever had trouble ordering books and getting them signed? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy Reading!
12 Comments
Categories
Currently Reading
Spread the Bite…
Unbelievable. I can’t believe that they were so rude to a customer on the phone. B & N is sometimes very elitist. I mean for me, i like the indie book shops like Books of Wonder where you can pre-order signed books and are happy to do that. Great conversations.
Grace
Thanks Grace? I couldn’t believe that either. I mean, wouldn’t they want to make more money and all? I’m glad that I found a indie to help me out.
Yeah B&N blows when it comes to customer service. My worst experiance was waiting in like eight hours to have my son’s book signed and he got sick literally 14 ppl back. He’s only seven I had to take him to the restroom and the people let me right back in but the B&N line ppl were like. No you have to go to the back. WTH… I will NEVER do that EVER again.
WTH? I’d be soooo mad. After this incident, I’m done with B&N.
I’m so sorry that this happened to you. My indie store has been so helpful and easy to work with. I wasn’t able to make a signing last minute, so I called. They got me personalized signed copies of Cassandra’s Claire book and it was off site…and this was about an hour before the event started. They took my CC info over the phone and held the books for me for a week before I could pick them up. No problems at all.
I’ve never been satisfied after visiting a B&N store. 🙁
I’m just glad that an indie store came to my rescue. I was able to get the books I wanted.
That’s really frustrating Savy! Especially since the authors almost always sign a big stack of books at the end for the store to keep and sell, I don’t know why they couldn’t “reserve” those books for you and ship them after the event. I’m glad you got it all sorted in the end though, and you found an awesome indie bookstore to help you out!
Right Jenny! That’s what I was thinking as well. Honestly, the people working there were just rude and lazy. No one wanted to anything for me.
Oh, do NOT even get me started on B&N. I have such a love/hate relationship with them. I own a Nook, so eBooks are pretty much the only purchases I make through them. I always buy hard copies at Indie book stores and, you know what? Dropping $50-$75 bucks at an indie is MUCH more satisfying than handing it over to a big corp.
LOL, exactly Kate! I felt like that as well. Since I’m going to spend such a large amount I might as well hand it over to a store that deserves it.
Oh wow. That’s why I don’t understand why the publishers set up these events with B&N. Our big Indie, Powells, will get you signed books. You can order them online, they’ll get them signed and personalized, and send them to you. Easy peasy, no drama. You can call to line it up too.
The B&N that does some events here does have some good event coordinators and I got to know them at the Cassie Clare signing, but I don’t know what their rule is for ordering signed books. I mean, I just don’t understand why they would do that, LOSE business. It makes so flipping sense. I’m glad you found a place that would help you! Thank goodness for twitter!
I know it has to do more with store policy than the people you are talking to… not that it makes it any better. B&N needs to really reevaluate it’s customer service. I think if they start thinking like a smaller chain store rather than a big one, they might actually gain what they want on Amazon in terms of book sales. However, that makes sense so why do it? 😛
So sorry you had that experience, but glad you found a way around it!