In late January of 2012 I attempted to order 3 Civil War books that my son needed for a college class. When submitting my order the Barnes and Noble web site had a message on it that said “Unable to process you order at this time. Please try agan later.”. So 45 minutes or an hour later I resubmitted my order and received a confirmation number. The next day upon reviewing my checking account I realized that they had taken the money out of my account 2 times.
I immediately got on the phone and called customer service to cancel one of the orders as, I obviously didnt need duplicate orders. The customer service representative ASSURED me that one order had been cancelled even giving me the number of the cancelled order. Problem solved right?.. No way. Two days later I checked my bank account and realized that the money had not been placed back into my account. I called customer service again.
They told me the order had been shipped. Yes… two days AFTER the customer service representative assured me that it was cancelled. I was aggravated, but not completely through with them yet….I was sent a return label by e-mail and when the extra, unordered package arrived, I had to take my time and gas to drive the package to a UPS store to be sent back to the company. Barnes and Noble received the package back in their warehouse on February the 9th.
A couple of days later upon checking my account my money still had not been returned to my account. So i make my 3rd call to Barnes and Noble customer service. I spoke to a manager at this time and i was assured that my money was being processed and should show up in my account within 3 days. I was actually told that the transaction had been processed by them and they were waiting on my bank to process it on their end. I said ok and at this time I placed another order with Barnes and Noble for a used book through one of thier MarketPlace dealers. Another book needed by my son for his College Civil War class.
I felt sure that the problem with my money was nearing an end. I waited 4 or 5 more days and believe it or not, no credit to my account from Barnes and Noble refunding my money for the UNORDERED books they send me. I made my 4th call to the customer service department yet again speaking to a manager. This time I was put on hold for 15 minutes while a manager “checked” on the refund order. I was at work and used my lunch break to make this call. When the manager finally came back to the phone he asked me to continue to hold because he was trying to find the problem but still had NO ANSWERS!..
I explained to him that I could not hold any longer and as bad as I hated to I would call back after I got off of work. I did call back and spoke to yet another member of management. This lady was the most helpful of the bunch, and she assured me that this time the order REALLY had been processed and within 3 days the money will be back in my account. She even e-mailed me a confirmation saying that the transaction had taken place. So FINALLY 21,Yes 21 days AFTER they received the UNORDERED package that I had to return, and 5 phone calls to customer service, my money was placed back into my checking account.
You might say, “oh that was a fluke. Barnes and Nobles Customer Servce department is well-trained, caring and very helpful. Oh I beg to differ. So by this time I was very hesitant to have to call them again when 2 weeks later I hadnt received the second shipment that I ordered from them. Because I bought it from one of their Marketplace dealers I attempted to contact and deal with that book dealer. I found the name or the store and looked on their website.
Found a phone number and called their customer service instead of Barnes and Noble. They have a recording and no representative available. I left a message on their answering machine. The next day after pondering on the thought that although the book was ordered from a marketplace dealer it WAS BARNES AND NOBLE who took the money from my account, I bit the bullet and made my 6th call to Barnes and Noble customer service department.
When I made this call I was told nonchalantly by a representative that it was MY RESPONSIBILITY to contact the dealer that I bought the book from. I explained that I had tried to call them several times and had left a message with no response back from them. He then told me that it was my responsibility to e-mail them. By this time I was very aggravated. Reminding the representative in a not so nice way that I bought the book on a BARNES AND NOBLE website.
And that BARNES and NOBLE took the money from my account. So it was Barnes and NOBLE’S responsibility to find my book. Just so you know, let me tell you the time line.. Order placed Feb.18th. Order supposedly shipped.. Feb.20th.
My first call to them about the second order was March 6th. I was told by the guy that I talked to on the 6th that there was nothing they could do until March 9th. And remember as all this time is passing so is the class in which my son is enrolled where this book is needed. I was really at the end of my rope. Barnes and Noble would do nothing to find thiis book for me. Or make the order good. I had no choice but to wait until the 9th. I was on vacation in Florida so I actually gave the book until the 14th to arrive.
When returned home and the book was still not here I called Barnes and Noble back for the 7th time in less that 2 months. Believe it or not now they are telling me that they can not even refund me my money before the 19th of March. They had no clue where the book is. I became furious with the lady and told her that a company as huge as Barnes and Noble should stand behind this order and make it right and send me a NEW COPY of the book. One from their store. The mananger said she could do that….If I paid for it.
I told her that they owed me a copy of the book one way or the other because although I had ordered the book from a Market Place dealer it was still ordered through their website and Barnes and Noble was still the ones who took the money out of my account. Oh yeah and let me assure you that it did NOT take them 21 days to get their money from me. This lady told me that there was NOTHING that they would do to try to make this right.
No book, no refund for several more days, (and even when it is supposedly processed how long will it take to go back into my account?). I asked her what my son was supposed to do about the book that he is desperately needing in order to start his final thesis for the class. She was very unconcerned, telling me I could order another one and she would “gladly process the order”.
I told her that that was totally unacceptable and I have no choice but to order another book, but I will assure her that I would not be ordering ANYTHING AGAIN from BARNES and NOBLE. It is now March 15, Still no refund or any compensation from BARNES and NOBLE at all for what I have been through with them the last 2 months. And to think, I still have to call them back at least one more time after the 19th to ATTEMPT to get a refund for the last order.
I just dont understand what happened to the old saying “The customer is always right”. I am not even asking for ‘always right’. I am just asking for fairness. If I order something from their website and it is not received they need to stand behnd the order and make it right. What happened to integrity in a company. What happened to pride in how customers are treated. It is such a shame that Barnes and Noble has become so uncaring and willing to risk losing customers in order to save 4 or 5 dollars. Barnes and Noble IS BOOKS!!!
They have a great selection and good quality. BUT NOTHING is more important than customers and Barnes and Noble is unwilling to help them and treat them the way a customer should be treated. I will never buy from Barnes and Noble again. I will always use Amazon or some other bookstore. I was planning on purchasing a Nook, but will now be purchasing a Kindle from Amazon.
It is just a shame that a Great American company like Barnes and Noble, has fell prey to the dollar over customer service!!It end the end, could be their undoing!!
