Barnes & Noble Booksellers
reviews and complaints

My response to a barnes and noble survey

More supervisors available to process returns. With my return being processed after supervisor approval, I didn't get any sort of email saying that they were processing my return. I am very unsatisfied in this sense because I had to do a stop payment through my bank which was $30.00.

Due to lack of communication on the customer service center on processing returns I am going to give a 4 on likely to refer a friend.In fact, I am a college student going to medical school with a lot of future rentals. I was going to order more books for the summer but then saw an auto deduct on my account for a book that was properly packaged.

I knew I was being scammed when the barnes and noble supervisor told me that the book has all sorts of highlighting when I never highlight in my books even the ones I own. I asked the supervisor to send me the "damaged" book back and she said she couldn't and unsure what the warehouse does with damaged items. This is a very poor business practice because it makes the consumer assume that they are being scammed. College books are not cheap whatsoever; its best to set up a book return option at the closest store and let them process the books and inspect for damages face to face.

Book rental $70.00
Damaged book fee $170.00
Stop payment fee $30.00
Total $270.00 with nothing as of 05/18/12 (Possible overdraft fees pending)

Today I went to the Pittsfield Barnes and Noble to return a book that I had purchased . Since I did not have a receipt, they refused to let me return it. When I returned home, I had called the Barnes and Noble customer service number and the person on the phone told me that there was nothing that they could do because I did not have a receipt. They also explained to me that each store has a different policy regarding returns. After my phone conversation with the people in customer service was over, the person tried to convince me to purchase a $25.00 membership card.
This is not my first problem that I have had with them either. In September, I ordered a book for a class that I was taking and they they told me that it would be in in a week. The book did not come in until after the class was over.(8 weeks) I have had it with them and refuse to shop at their store anymore.

In november I ordered a nook as a gift. The person I bought it for wasn't comfortable using it so I called bn to return it. I got an authorization number and returned it within their time period.

Six months later I am still fighting to get my refund. I can't call customer service any long because they can't access my files since my case was "escalated to upper management. " upper management is still "reviewing my case". There is no way to contact them except by email, and they are not responding to my questions. They admit I did everything correctly on my end, but offer no reason why the refund is still being held up.

I have kept all my original invoices, return authorization emails from bn, tracking and delivery info from ups, and documented the countless conversations I have had with customer service.

It is at a standstill while I keep sending emails asking for some kind of answer. No response, no response.

I was a loyal borders customer for years until they closed. Then I started getting emails from barnes and noble. I've never really liked them but figured maybe i'd give them a chance. One of the emails I got recently was for a free 3 month trial of the b & n membership (A $25/month value) , to be used online. The catch is, you can't activate the membership without buying something. So I find something else to buy, for which I have a coupon from yet another email b&n has sent me. However, when making online purchases, only one coupon code can be used. So different coupon codes for different items isn't available to use online. Nowadays, it seems very peculiar that such an act would not be made available especially with all the competition found in this field. B&n's lack of it and market awareness cost them not only the sale of the item I would have purchased but also all the future sales they would have made when I bought things through my trail membership and perhaps even beyond. Your loss, b&n.

I have been a loyal customer of barnes and noble for many years. Today I went to return a book which was a duplicate christmas present. I did not have receipt so was not sure if I could even do a return... No big deal. When I walked up to the register an employee began harassing me about returning. Saying she sees me in there a lot making returns and how generous b & n is for returning it! I explained to her that I never return things and yes she does see me in there buying items a lot. She gave me a look which clearly showed she did not believe me and walked away. I believe she may be the manager but not positive. Meanwhile I said to the other employee ringing me up that I was offended. She told me that I need to understand that everyone who returns things without a receipt always say they never bring things back. I was so steamed that I had to write this complaint. I never have complained in public about anything but I will not let this go especially since I have put so much money into this store! It was totally unnecessary to be treated in this manner! I should have given the book to good will!

My father purchased a book, unbroken by laura hillenbrand, from barnes & noble for my wife for christmas. Unbeknownst to my father I already had purchased the same book for my wife the year before. When my wife went to barnes & noble to return the book, the clerk refused to give her a gift card. After asking for the manager, my wife was told the same thing, and it also was implied that she may have stolen the book off the shelf since no gift receipt was available. Incensed, my wife had the store call my father who confirmed the purchase and gave his credit card number over the phone, which matched the record in barnes & noble's database. Incredibly, the store still refused to give my wife a receipt for an exchange / purchase at a later date, choosing instead to refund the money via a credit to my father's card.

Not only does this demonstrate pathetic customer service, it also defies logic. Why would a company make it so difficult for a consumer to exchange a gift? Not only did barnes & noble take away the opportunity to exchange a book, they also took away the very real possibility that my wife would buy additional books while she shopped for the exchange. I've never been a fan of barnes & noble anyway, but know they've upset my wife to the point where she swears she will never go back again.

I have one thing to say to barnes & noble: can you say amazon dot com?

Do not use this company for internet purchases - fraudulent business actions

Your operation is completely absurd. I ordered these items over a week ago. All items were stated as in stock, but got a e-mail saying the delivery was going to take 4 weeks. I called next day and asked for one item to be deleted to remove the long delay. Over the course of 3 days i've waited 2 hours talking to customer service to correct this problem with no success. I keep getting the same excuse; the ordered is processed and can't change it. Ordering on nov 23rd and getting a ship date of dec 20th is unacceptable. To top it all off, b&n supervisor, rebecca rudely disconnected my call after waiting on hold for 30 minutes. Stay away from this company!

Stay away at all cost. Order canceled without my consent after a week + of waiting (their online policy lists that they don't cancel unless I approve...)

Never done a online business whose online site shows the item in stock and yet they don't ship them out for a week and then notify buyer that they don't have the item to ship out.

Their online shopping site still says this item in stock and ships in 24 hours...total scam.

Ordered mp3 books this morning from B&N. The site said that they will send me a link to download the items in 5 minutes. But several hours passed by and no email. I am on a trip and thought I could receive this audio book in few minutes. It is such a disappointment. It would not be the same to receive it after one day. Very disappointed with B&N. Also you have to download their media player for these downloaded files. That sucks! I searched google if any one else had same experience and I similar complaints from people who bought mp3 from B&N. Wish I had read them earlier. Some of them did not receive their files from B&N. I hope I receive mine. Even if I received lately now, it is just useless. SO BE AWARE TO BUY MP3 BOOKS FROM B&N.

Few days ago, I purchased some items using my gift card, but b&n cancelled my orders without any explanation. I used total of 2 gift cards. $150.00 and $25.00. I got my money back for my $25.00, but the balance for the $150.00 is now zero. It does even have the remaining balance of $82.67. I called the customer service and said they will send me new gift card in 2days. It has been over a week and I still don't have my money. I called again, they say i'll just have to wait two more days again. Three days later, I still don't have my money. & whenever I call rep only tell me it will be sent in 2. Days, but they don't keep promise. I will never trust b&n again!

Used the & ldquo;pick up in store” option online but once my husband got there to pick it up an hour later, a customer service rep said they didn’t have it. Then I called the store and they said the did have it. I had the send my husband again because they don’t know what they’re doing!

Barnes and noble advertise online 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 barnes and noble customer service to cancel the order, a christmas gift, I am told that it is impossible. 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. Disappointed and frustrated don’t even begin to sum up the experience. This has been by far, the absolute worst shopping experience of my life.

I purchased a coupon worth $20.00 for $10.00 from barnes and nobles. Very excited. The coupon was charged to my credit/debit card $10. Around feb 7th 2011. The barnes and noble coupon would expire april 2011. Well after several attempts to retrieve my coupon. I gave up. And of course now the coupon I paid for is of no value. The program kept telling me the coupon expired the day I purchased it. Every time I went to retrieve. I would like a full refund perhaps, barnes and noble should provide customers full value for the aggravation, as it is very hare to find a place for a complaint. I used a debit card/credit card and was charged, quite promptly I must say!

I hope someone can help me. I am retired, 62, and will start social security soon. $10.00 means alot, with medical bills mounting. Pattijo77 [at] verizon.Net

In november I ordered a nook as a gift. The person I bought it for wasn’t comfortable using it so I called barnes and noble to return it. I got an authorization number and returned it within their time period. Six months later I am still fighting to get my refund. I can’t call barnes and noble customer service any long because they can’t access my files since my case was & ldquo;escalated to upper management. & rdquo; upper management is still & ldquo;reviewing my case”. There is no way to contact them except by email, and they are not responding to my questions. They admit I did everything correctly on my end, but offer no reason why the refund is still being held up.

I have kept all my original invoices, return authorization emails from barnes and noble, tracking and delivery info from ups, and documented the countless conversations I have had with barnes and noble customer service. It is at a standstill while I keep sending emails asking for some kind of answer. No response, no response.

I placed my barnes and noble order on 6/19/2011. I had an emergency & ndash; so after midnight I cancelled my order. I got no response from til the next day in the evening. They said I couldn’t cancel my order because it was already shipped. There is no delivery on sunday. I still had the option to cancel. Barnes and noble kept lting to me, and swithcing things around in my account. I called my bank & ndash; and I disputed it. I also contacted the better business bureau, internet crime center (Ic3) , and federal trade center. I would’ve done alot more, but there isn’t anymore. I have pro0f of our correspondance & ndash; when barnes and noble decided to answer me. I would’ve loved to havd taken them to court!

Thank you. It was my first shopping there at barnes and noble & ndash; and it’s definitely my last. They’re not the respectable company as people say they are.

I went into a barnes and nobles in co op city in the bronx, ny and was in search of a means to do some work and much neede reseearch. I finally found an oulet to power up my lap top and then was in search of seating. I asked an employee and he informed me that that wasnt his responsibilty, b&n only provides free wifi and electricity was not their responsibilty and noted that thet to had to pay for elecrticity.. Terrrible. I have never been met with such poor service and a disregard for customers. I left abrubtly and refuse to spend my money at that location ever again and I will tell all my friends and associates…

Until the beginning of this month, I had no trouble using the "percent-off-one-item" store coupons to purchase magazines at a local barnes & noble store, since I don't often buy books.

However, earlier this month, I was bluntly told by the cashier when she went to use it that it wasn't eligible, but I replied that this is not stated on the coupon. She refused to honor the coupon even though I tried to explain repeatedly that it doesn't say this, just stating that her "screen" told her it wasn't eligible.

I contacted b&n customer service to get a clear answer why I can no longer purchase magazines if they are not listed on these coupons as one of the items that are not eligible, and after several vacant e-mails back and forth in which I was asked for more information, I was then told that "according to the terms and conditions of this promotion, the coupon could not be applied to magazines".
I replied again asking for the specific terms on the coupon that state this, and they then replied that it came under "purchases made from third parties accessible from the bn.com website (E. G. , used books, pc and video games, etc. ). "
How does this apply to my purchase? I was in their retail store when purchasing the magazine. After saying as much and complaining heavily that this wasn't a satisfactory explanation, that the coupon should clearly state that magazines aren't eligible, and that I would not recommend them to anyone, I received one more reply today with the following message:
"thank you for writing to us. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We reviewed your concerns. Your feedback is very important to us at barnes & noble and we appreciate your taking the time to send us your opinion. We assure you that we have reviewed the issues you have raised with the appropriate people on our groupon team and they are under consideration for implementation. We truly value your patronage; your online shopping experience is extremely important to us.
Once again, please accept our sincere apologies and we thank you for your time sending us your comments. We look forward to your next visit. "

Note it says online shopping experience. Just one more thing that tells me they really don't feel that our "shopping experiences" are that important since they don't properly pay attention to what is sent before issuing a reply.

What would this have cost them? They would have made a sale one way or the other. It's ridiculous that rather than give me what would only amount to maybe one or two dollars' discount at most, they would prefer to send me numerous e-mails back and forth that basically give nothing in the way of a legitimate answer, and then add insult to injury by thanking me for my "comments" and "feedback", which they would then consider in the future because my business is important to them.

It may be a relatively small matter to complain about, but the fact that they list specific items that are not eligible and also add vague terms on the same coupon, tells me that they just wish to cover themselves whenever they find they cannot provide a legitimate reason for why they don't want to honor a particular product with the discount. If they don't know what to say to a customer when they know that a valid point has been raised, they can just throw the "third-party" line at them to avoid a legal issue.

It's clear from the number of negative comments I have found about b&n online, that I am not the only one who has had bad experiences with them. I will definitely never recommend them to anyone, and if I can find somewhere else to buy my magazines from, i'll gladly avoid them in the future.

Ordered a book online that was used. Was sent the wrong book. Have been trying to settle this since April 2011. Used books handled by second party which they will not give me any information on. I ended up purchasing the book already. All I want is a return label and a refund. I have phoned and emailed countless times. Every time I call customer service it is an overseas operator. I have never received a response from their second party provider. We are Borders Reward members. I can not believe that they are trying to recover their business and this is how they are operating. I give up on my $14 purchase but they are the losers of all of our future business.

I didn't notice that my barnes & noble master card (By barclays bank us) was stolen until the thief had charged over $2600 on it. I called barclays about the theft and reported it. They refused to issue a theft report. The first customer service rep I spoke to marked down that I had allowed a 3rd party to use the card and they decided to stick with that. I asked them to review their recordings because that was an error, but they refused to review the case.In arguing with them, they told me they wouldn't change their position because I "have more to lose" (Don't I wish I had a recording of that!). The police closed my report because I didn't have the theft report from barclays and to add insult to injury, barclays accepted an additional $200 in purchases after I reported the theft.