Barnes & Noble Booksellers
reviews and complaints

We were robbed of our money on our gift card - we tried to make a purchase online on january 8, 2010, then received an email saying our credit card was denied, but they also robbed the gift card and did not process our order! We have called more than 7 times in the last week and have sat on hold for up to 2 hours! The customer service for barnes and noble sucks! We sent emails and got automated responses saying to call the number, so we call and all we do is sit on hold! We were robber and we will never buy from barnes and noble ever again!

I have had my nook for little under a year when I got a black line in the screen obstructing a few words making it difficult to read. This was not a major problem I just thought I would call and get a replacement. Well the problem started with their customer service... After being on hold for a min. 15 minutes before speaking to anyone I got someone who really didn't know how to explain the resetting device... Told me to do that then call back... Nothing worked... I called back and spoke to another person who took my name and account info, and told me the replacement would be sent out in 2-3 days. 4 days later, I have to call to check on the device, another lady told me that it was still on the way and would be there by the next day. Come the next day, it had not shown up. This is almost a full week after my first contact with them. I call them back (Everytime I wait about 15 minutes before speaking to someone) and they tell me it probably got lost in transit... Wtf. So she takes my account info again and sends out an new order on the 12 of jan... It's now jan 15 and I have yet to receive the nook.. The tracking packaage options shows it is in nj and has not been updated in 2 days. The mailing address is just my name and the town I live in... How the hell are they supposed to deliver a package to me with just my name and town?... They have all the correct info online and yet their total incompetence is really irritating me. I will never buy another digital product from barnes and noble again and encourage everyone else to do the same. Bad bad bad and incompetent customer service.

I placed an order for an item that states it "usually ships within 24 hours. " that was on 1/5. I get an email confirming everything, saying it will ship on 1/6. When I received no confirmation of shipping or email telling me of a problem I called the company and was told that the item had already shipped. They had no excuse for why the website wouldn't update. The next morning (1/6) I receive an email telling me my order has been delayed and will not ship until 1/7. I called them again (Waiting on hold for 60 minutes (Hands free is great) no less) and they gave me a tracking number and once again told me the item shipped. Mid-afternoon on 1/7 I receive an email telling me that my item has just now shipped and I receive a tracking number. The customer service department tells people whatever they can to get them off the phone and avoid a problem. I was lied to multiple times and I will take my business elsewhere. We have a local bn store and I will patron a locally owned bookstore where items can be ordered in. I ended up having to purchase another item as this was a gift for a friend's birthday. The expected arrival is 1/12, 7 days after I purchased the item. When I tried to cancel the order I was told that it was too late, the item had shipped. Except that I was lied to because I received an email on a later date telling me the item was shipped. I am done with this company and wish bankruptcy on them for their loss of focus on who pays their bills (The consumers, in case someone from bn management is reading this).

I was given a gift card to barnes and noble for christmas. I used the card online to buy some books. I tried to use my account, but they required a credit card, so I used a guest account. The site read that I had more then double the amount I was trying to use on my gift card. Later, I get an email saying that my card was denied. I check my balance for a second time, and lo and behold, it is $0! I get on the phone with them and wait an hour and a half before hanging up. I tried the next day with the same results. I have sent them 3 emails in the week following this, and made multiple calls, all to no avail. They have the worst customer service ever. As far as i'm concerned, they are a bunch of thieves who don't care about their customers at all! I will never purchase anything from them again!

I have purchased many books from barnes & noble at their local store. I had never ordered online, but I received a gift card during the holiday season and figured it would be easier to purchase items on-line and have them delivered to me. Boy was I wrong. The items I purchased were all marked as "in-stock" and "shipps withing 24 hours". Upon my check out, there was no indicator that the items were on back-order or not in stock. I paid extra for additional shipping, and upon check out the shipping stated I would receive my order within 1-3 days. I ordered this on 12/28. On 12/28 I received an email confirming that the order had been received. I then received an email later that day stating it was scheduled to ship on 12/28. As of 12/29 I had not received anything stating it had been shipped. I decided to wait. On 12/30 I received emails stating 3 of the 4 items had been delayed. I called their customer service phone number and after waiting about 20 minutes, was able to speak to someone. She explained that one of the items had already shipped and I should receive it within 1-3 business days. She then explained that one of the other three items was not in stock (Even though it appeared as in stock upon check out and in an e-mail sent by the company) , and that it was holding up the other items. She was rude, and expalained to me that 'because of how fast technology moves, we cannot guarantee that an item is in stock upon check out, b/c by the time you check out ten other people could have purchased it'. If that is the case, then I would have this experience with many other companies. I have never had this experience with any other companies, and I do quite a bit of online shopping.
She then asked if I wanted to cancel the item that was holding up my order. I replied yes, and that I would purchase it once it was in stock again. She did so and explained the other items would ship out within a day. On 12/31 I received a notice that only one of my items was on it's way. The other two items that had been allegedly held up by the item that was cancel were still not sent. I figured it was new years eve and perhaps that is why they had not been sent. So, I patiently waitied for the item that had been shipped, and for an email regarding the others.

I did receive the item that had been shipped on monday. Though I cannot say it had much to do with them, but rather with ups (Which I might add is wonderful at shipping items on time). On 1/3 (Today) I received emails stating that my "attention was required immediately". I opened them only to find out the company was requesting that I allow them to keep my order pending "for up to 30 days" what?! So I called again, and was on hold for about 30-40 minutes (Hmmmm... Probably because there are many other unhappy customers calling?). A man by the name of "jamal" helped me. He was polite but did not give me any definite answers. I asked that he cancel the remaining order, which he did. He said it will take 3 business days for the funds to return to my card and my gift card!? It is ludicrous for this to be the case when it took them a very short amount of time to charge my cards. He then stated that the item I cancelled last thursday had still not been refunded to my cards! Ridiculous. I asked if the money that was charge for the item that was shipped would change (B/c I noticed it stated that cancelling the other items might result in being charged more on the movie I had received) and he said "it should not" but would not give me a guaranteed answer. He then stated that the woman who had previously helped me had not read the information right, and that the movies she stated would ship with the cancellation of the item that was not in stock, were actually on backorder and would not ship for quite some time. Ridiculous! As I explained to "jamal", why would I wait "up to 30 days" to receive my items, when I could just walk into the store and purchase them.

Alas, what I thought would be a simple, faster, smooth transaction has turned in to a nightmare. Why do these big companies feel it's okay to falsely advertise their merchandise, lie about shipping times, have incompetent staff, and take forever to cancell/refund charges? I hear they are going out of business and I think 'it's sad that more people will loose their jobs' and on the other hand ' I am not surprised!'.In this economy, companies cannot afford to loose customers, and their reputation. As a consumer, our money is very valuable and every penny counts right now. I will not put my money into a company that has such terrible business practices.

I will make it my business to go on as many websites as I can in order to expose this company to the consumer, so that people do not waste their time and money ordering/purchasing items from barnes & noble.

I hope this desuades others from purchasing from this company and falling into this nightmare.

Got a gift card for Christmas to B&N.com, and I wanted to download some ebooks. I was little uncomfortable that, in order to register for an online account, I had to submit a credit card. I only intended to use the amount on the gift card, and I didn't want my credit card to be 'accidentally' charged. But I got over my misgivings because, hey, Barnes & Noble is a reputable company, right? Except when I purchased my books, two of the five I ordered were billed to the credit card instead of being deducted from the gift card. This despite the fact that there was more than enough on the card to make the other two purchases.

So I emailed customer service. Got a 'hey, sorry, we're really busy but check out our FAQs!' reply. Gee, thanks. So I emailed them again. This time, not even a 'hey, sorry' email. So now I guess I'll have to call them. I hope they have nice hold music, since I'll probably be spending a while listening to it tonight.

Horrible customer service!Not bad enough that they won't do anything about a brand new textbook ($92.00-still in shrink wrap) , because it has been more than 14 days, but promoted a used book by a "barnes and noble authorized dealer" as being in good condition only
To have pages missing, etc. When I called and discussed these issues with their wonderful customer service, I was told that it was the customer's responsibility to look at "every single page" to make sure that it is okay. Hence, put the blame on the customer! Yea, I am to blame for making the stupid decision of spending my hard earned money at a useless company like barnes and noble. Never again!

I ordered an egift card from barnes and noble, I found out that it was never received by the person to whom it was sent - it was very embarrassing. Barnes and noble took my money but never delivered the card. Trying to get it resolved is a headache with barnes and noble as they are not responding to the problem, all I receive is a we're too busy right now. Call us some other time. I'll have to cancel the charge with my credit card company. The reason I ordered the egift card was because it was quick and easy - ha, what a headache it turned out to be.

I ordered a dvd collection from b&n on november 30. Several days later, I received an email that the shipment was delayed, and then another notice that it shipped on december 7. It hadn't arrived by december 18. I then sent two emails asking b&n to check on the shipment (Which hadn't moved in a week) ; I received no response to the first, and a generic response to the second. I called, and after getting the runaround from one of b&n's customer service robots, it was agreed that the order was lost in transit and would be reshipped to our place in vermont. I asked for email verification of the reorder, didn't receive anything, and when I called to confirm this found out that the robot hadn't reordered the merchandise. This time I spoke with a supervisor who assured me that the dvds would be shipped out in time for christmas. So, today's the 26th and ups tracking says that billing info has been received and b&n's automated service says it hasn't been shipped. Tonight's scripted robot says the order has been shipped. Ill believe it when I see it. B&n's policy does not permit the robot to send an email to the customer to confirm tonight's conversation. Unfortunately the merchandise was purchased on a gift card - so i'm compelled to use it. B&n has the least responsive and rudest customer service department i've ever dealt with, and satisfaction is not guaranteed. I won't do business with them again.

My daughtwe received a book that she already had for christmas from barnes and noble with a gift receipt. We tried to exchange it on 12/16, but barnes and noble wouldn't do it. The book was bought 10/18, and their return policy is 60 days so we were sol. I realize companies have policies, but it still made me mad. We were just trying to exchange a brand new book for another and were only 8 days past their return policy date during christmas. A company that wanted our future business would have found a way to make us happy. Barnes and noble will be my last choice for books from now on.

I ordered 2 books from barnes & noble.com. Later I received an email saying one book was out of stock but they would send the other. The book never arrived to my post office box. When I checked my credit card bill, they had overcharged me for the book. I had their email with the amount they were supposed to charge me and tried to dispute it. They replied the email they sent me was wrong. So I was overcharged for a book that never arrived and they won't do anything about it. Never use barnes and noble.com. I no longer shop at the store either.

Here are some reasons why I feel their customer service and product fulfillment are atrocious:
12-06-10: placed an order with 10 items that all & ldquo;usually ship within 24 hours”.
12-12-10: package left warehouse (120+ business hours since order was placed).
12-12-10: package arrived at 3rd party intermediary vendor (Argix direct) location.
12-14-10: argix direct logs that they delivered the package to the usps in philadelphia, pa.
12-14-10: usps in philadelphia, pa put on their "track and confirm" webpage that they received an electronic notification to expect my package for mailing.
12-20-10: usps has not logged that they have received my package.
12-20-10: it’s now 11 business days since I placed my order and I still do not have my package. Christmas is only 4 days away.

[protected]:34 pm: I contacted a b&n customer service representative. It took 25 minutes to get through. The representative told me that I could expect my package today (12/20/10). When I told her that usps has not logged receipt of my package she said that they sometimes don’t update their system. It was either wishful thinking on her part or I was getting a blow-off. Which do you think it was? However, I did contact usps and their automated response said that my package has not been received.
12-20-10 6:10 pm: after it became apparent that my order wouldn’t come today I called b&n’s customer service department again. This time it took 44 minutes to reach a representative. She said that I have to wait until tomorrow [protected]) to see if my package comes. When I explained that I think my package is still at the 3rd party vendor, she said there was nothing that she can do until tomorrow. Then if I haven’t received my order I can call back and cancel it. At this point I asked to speak to someone in the next level of management. I was on hold for another 27 minutes and then someone at b&n clicked the line and it was disconnected. I guess no management people wanted to talk to me.
Barnes & noble advertises 2-6 days (Business not calendar) for them to ship the product to the customer. As of now b&n has taken 12 business days and I still do not have my package. And no help from their & ldquo;customer” service reps.

It came to my attention this past november that I was no longer receiving discount coupons from b&n where I have been a member for several years. I buy throughout the year but purchase a lot of books/dvds during the holiday season when many coupons are emailed. I contacted them about it.

Cs told me that they don't email coupons to everyone? Bullox.
Anyway, I received one email from them a week later acknowledging the problem sent a couple of coupons in that email and again I have received nothing since.

Tonight's customer service person told me it was escalated to new york and could go no higher. I asked her when I should expect a phone call or email?
She had not a clue but told me they are very busy now. Obviously too busy for a customer with a problem.
She again told me she could do nothing. I requested both times to either receive a slew of coupons or to give me a free membership renewal this january as compensation.
I check my spam box, have their email add in my contact list and have changed nothing in my bn profile. Basically for the past 8 months I have not had received the benefits of my membership and it would appear they don't care.

This has been by far, the absolute worst shopping experience of my life.

They advertise http://video. Barnesandnoble.com/dvd/harry-potter-years-1-6/daniel-radcliffe/e/[protected]/?Itm=1&usri=harry+potter as shipping within 24 hours. However, the email confirmation I received states an expected ship date of 1/5/2011. Checking the site again, the site still says ships within 24 hours.

When I call b&n customer service to cancel the order, a christmas gift, I am told that it is impossible. I don't understand how an unfulfilled order cannot be canceled. I had a similar experience with amazon.com, and was able to cancel the order without any problems, without calling customer support, without waiting on hold, and without being told a completely nonsensical situation. The b&n customer service associate offered the option to wait for the item to come back in stock (Whenever that is) , be charged for it and have it shipped to me, and then mail it back for a refund? How does that make any logical sense? That is the most asinine and backwards policy i’ve ever heard of and completely puts the responsibility on the customer for a scenario that should have never happened in the first place if your website was up to 1990 standards and could at least accurately reflect the amount of stock in the warehouse. Much smaller companies can at least do that, so what is the excuse for a large company such as b&n to have such poor policies?

They are flat out lying about their inventory, and then essentially holding my money hostage. I don’t want the item anymore, it’s a gift, and i’d rather buy the individual something that they can get in time for the holiday. I had heard that b&n was struggling a bit, so I guess that explains selling items that they can’t deliver and have to lie in order to get my money. Apparently the only option I have is to have the credit card number that I used to be changed. I refuse to be held accountable for a situation not of my doing that is the result of bad business, bad practice, and quite frankly, rather ridiculous.

I clearly made a mistake ordering from the website (Or stores) that I won’t be doing again. The website was a poor experience as were their policies. The customer service associate was quite polite, and I do feel badly for her as i’m sure that b&n practices make her job rather miserable. Disappointed and frustrated don’t even begin to sum up the experience.

When I purchased a Nook Color from the B&N store, I was suggested to use gift cards for the purchase so that I can use a promotion to get $20 back, sweet right? The part they do NOT tell you is, if you return the product, all you get is $200 worth gift cards, NO option to credit your money back to your credit card. Basically, they render their product impossible to return. If you try to return it like I did, you get no money back, they steal your money, and you get stuck with a high amount of useless gift cards that you will never ever use. Basically, they close all venues for you to return the product and get a refund.

My advise to everyone is steer clear of Barnes & Noble, since their business practices are dishonest. They do big mistakes as they did in my case, and they don't admit their mistake. All they care is how they can sit on your hard earned money, buy luring you by phony promotions to prevent you from ever being able to return their undesirable products. I am truly sorry to be so stupid to ever step in their store, at least you don't repeat my mistake!

On November 25th I logged into my Barnes and noble account and ordered a certified pre-owned nook and the additional warrenty. My money was put in a "pending" status for 3 business days (From the 25th to the 30th) before it was released by B&N. On November 30th I received an e-mail from Barnes and Noble informing me that my order had been cancelled. I logged back into my account and confirmed that the Nook was not going to be shipped. I then cancelled the order for the warrenty as well because if I am not getting the Nook, why would I want a warrenty. After canceling my order online I received a confirmation e-mail confirming my cancellations. So I have my money back and my order is cancelled so I spent my money on other items. Fast forward to December 2nd. I receive a e-mail telling me that my order is getting ready to be shipped. I log into my account and confirm that my orders status is still cancelled for both the Nook and the warrenty. Later that day, I received another e-mail telling me my order was cancelled. On December 6th, I received an e-mail telling me my order has been delayed (WTF?) So I called Barnes and Noble customer service to confirm that my order was cancelled. I spoke with a brainless CSR who said that my order was DEFINATELY CANCELLED and that she would put a note on my account just in case. That evening I received another e-mail telling me that my order has shipped (WHAT?!) so I logged into B&N and my status online was still "Cancelled" and my money was still in my account. Figuring it was a glitch in their system I didn't respond until this morning (Dec 7th). I checked my bank account at 8 am with no charge showing. (phew!) and then received an e-mail from B&N with a tracking number for my Nook and around the same time I get a text from my bank alerting me that I am now in Overdraft (OMFG). So, I called customer service again and spoke to another clerk who confirmed that yes I did order a Nook on November 25th and congratulations on it being sent out. I tried explaining that I don't want the Nook, that I cancelled the order at least 5 times both online and through Customer service. I told her about all my e-mails and her only responnce was "It's a glitch in the system i guess." Ok fine, whatever. So now I am awaiting a Nook that doesn't have the extended warranty (Because that part stayed cancelled) and I am in Overdraft. I am truly upset by this and will never shop B&N online again. In their store I have always been treated fairly and with respect, and until they screw that up, I guess it will have to do... maybe I should switch to the Kindle...

I visited the b&n store in san antonio, texas yesterday to check out the nook e-reader. It was the northwoods shopping center, 18030 hwy 281n suite #140 location. The male hispanic behind the nook stand would not leave us alone and let us explore the nook for a single minute without aggravating us and interfering. I handed the nook to him and told him, "here, you buy it. " I told the store manager at the counter about it and she seemed like she didn't give a rat's butt. Her response was that I must be lying.

Barnes and noble can keep its nook? I am not going to put up with an irritating socialist control freak in barnes and noble. Its employees treat their customers like garbage and don't deserve our business.

It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but the lines are 15 minutes long at Borders. This is for 10 people and 3 cashiers, and why? Because the policy at Borders is apparently not to ring up your purchase and go on to the next customer. No, the policy is to ask "Do you have a Borders card? Would you like one?" and spend 5 minutes per customer selling the advantages (ha!) and gathering information... There's some other program too, a card on top of a card, which takes another 5 minutes...

I finally got to the front of the line, already had a Borders card, so I was spared the sales pitch. I was buying a couple of paperbacks -- "Buy one, get one 50% off" and "use your Borders card and get another 10% off". Only the Borders card wouldn't work -- I hadn't registered an email address. I told them I didn't want to share my email address, and they told me that I couldn't have the extra 10% discount. Fine, keep your books.

I came home, and (as usual) did a search at bookfinder.com. I found both books for LESS than I would have paid at Borders, and that was with shipping included. More and more I find I just use Borders as a place to browse and find books I want to buy, then come home and buy them online. Sure, I don't get to read them for a week or so, but I also don't have to stand in line and waste my time. Borders, you can either sell books or you can collect customer information, but if you collect information and waste my time I probably won't be buying my books from you. They're cheaper elsewhere; the only reason for me to patronize your brick and mortar store is convenience. Standing in line for 15 minutes and then not getting the price you advertised unless I'm willing to give you my email address is not convenience, it's annoyance.