Barnes And Noble Rip Off Big Time Scolding for free New York New York

I am the first to admit that customer service at Barnes and Noble may not be as stellar as other retail stores, but it certainly makes up for that in other areas. I worked at B&N at Christmas, and let me tell you, it is NO PICNIC. It is absolute madness. And the guarantee for shipping by Christmas is generally accompanied by the assumption that the items you ordered are in stock and easy to acquire. Barnes and Noble isn't like other retailers who have huge amounts of stock they can call upon effortlessly at any second. It is a vast labyrinth of huge numbers of books and an enormous inventory. The availability of books also wanes and waxes with the whims of publishers. So, on a good day, it can be very difficult to get certain books. At Christmas, it is an Olympic feat. Okay, so your stuff didn't come by Christmas, it sucks. But when placing an order that late, from a service like Barnes and Noble (They don't own the inventory like other retailers- they just sell shelf space and distribute! Blame the publisher if you want to blame anyone!!) within two weeks of Christmas, you have to understand, especially when ANOTHER third party (Paypal) is involved. This is a VERY complicated process that involves synchronizing several huge companies. You really weren't out anything on the shipping, since you didn't pay for it to be expedited or anything, so I suppose I would just roll with the punches and be thankful that my lesson was learned.
You can't be too angry about the lack of contact from people at Barnes and Noble on Christmas Eve either. Would you like to work Christmas eve after you had worked 10 hour shifts for the last 5 weeks? Probably not. It is Christmas, and Christmas is retail is like cocktails in hell. Please have a little understanding.
Gift wrapping- I am not going to lie. That is crap. And I would probably be upset too. Hope it works out :)

I own a jewelry store. About three weeks BEFORE Christmas a lady calls me and asks me about a piece of jewelry. I give her a price($65) and she tells me it's kind of high and she's gonna "shop around" for a better price. The Wed. (six days) before Christmas, she calls me and tells me she wants to order it. I guess she spent two weeks shopping around to find out she couldn't get a better price. I knew that. She tells me she wants it for a Christmas present and needs it for Christmas and she'll mail me a check. I tell her I'll order it today, I normally don't order items until the check's in hand but since time's short, I'll order and it'll be here by friday. I also tell her that I'm gonna charge her $12 postage cause I only ship things registered with postage insurance. I also tell her that since I'm gonna work that Sunday, the 23rd, I just might deliver it to her house.

When I receive her check on Fri the 21st there's a note in the that's says "IF YOU DELIVER THE BEZEL, I EXPECT A REFUND". How stupid can a person be? If I were to drive the 30 miles, to the other side of town in 40 minutes, take the time to set the coin in the bezel, drive back another 30 miles in 40 minutes AND give her her $12 dollars back? I took the time to wrap the package and mail it at the PO after standing in line. Postage was $11.79. I'm surprised she didn't demand the 21 cents back. That's what you get for offering good customer service.

This company should take all the time taken to write this rebuttal (bla, bla, bla) to do the job they charge for. I think it is obvious you looked for an excuse for everything said here, yet you overlooked the false line "order today, get before Christmas. No one made you lure your customers that way.

Blaming the mail is usually the recourse of all poorly managed businesses. And yes, I paid for a wrap I certainly did not expect the very same one you offer for free, only torn and wrinkled. To better describe the wraps, I will say they looked like they had been in the trash.

As for the books, you indicate online availability. I was never warned how difficult it would be for you to find "best sellers".

One piece of advise, the bla, bla, bla says more about your customer service (ultra lousy) than the actual clichs you employ to dismiss my complaint.
Guess what, most bad businesses also claim the "angry" customer is the very first one they ever got!!!! Take ten minutes to read how many angry customers populate this pages!

Borders? They gave me additional discount when I shared my experience with you.

Amazing!

Maria

Please, consider before you go off on a tirade that location and availability of books HAS to be considered when purchasing ANYTHING after November, and before Christmas.
You can't expect to place and order a week or two ahead and Christmas, when the title/s you are asking for are very far from you, in high demand, or hard to find.
Also, as BarnesAndNoble.com carries USED books, you have to consider if this person ordered used: it takes longer for used books to arrive as they come from an outside source from Barnes and Noble.

You might also consider giving people who work customer service a break around Christmas: until you work Christmas customer service yourself, you can't appreciate how HARD and TIRING it is to do this sort of a job, you can't really understand.

We all try our hardest to remain upbeat and friendly during that very trying time, and 99 percent of us do, but it's that 1 percent that gets an angry customer who ruins it for everyone.
Don't stereotype the company because of one customer who approached us with anger, and/or misunderstood and is now degrading us for their mistake.

It's also amusing how immense the numbers of customers I get who thank me so deeply for simply asking them what I can do to help them- about 60 percent of my customers COMPLAIN about Borders TOTAL LACK of customer service.
I suppose I should feel bad that you're not looking to B&N for your book needs from now on, but if you'd rather have no customer service, then by all means: be my guest!

One final note, about the wrapping problems: if you look at book prices online and in-stores you wll find a similar issue. Prices differ simply because of shipping and other, related expenses, and as the saying goes: you can't judge a book by its' cover. Just because they outside of the package was in decent condiditon does not mean it was handled gently or even well by the mail services.
When you check out, you're warned that gift wrap is extra. If you don't want to pay, then don't ask for it.