I love Barnes & Noble bookstores. I love the selections. I love the atmosphere. I love the coffee.
But their online ordering system leaves something to be desired.
I signed up with the Barnes & Noble advertising system because they pay decently (if people buy their books, that is), and the advertising setup is lovely. Links you build get stored in their system, the statistics tracker is beautiful...
But the customer experience isn't what it should be, in my humble opinion.
I had never ordered online with Barnes & Noble before I signed up for their advertising program, and caring about my readers as I do, I thought I should give the setup a test drive. So I got online and found a few books I wanted, and I decided to buy them.
Oops.
First, my order had to surpass a certain dollar amount to qualify for "fast, free shipping." That annoyed me, but it's not a fair comparison with Amazon. I get free two-day shipping from Amazon on all my orders because I pay for a "prime membership." So okay, we'll ignore that one. I wanted more than $25 worth of books anyway.
But then I couldn't enter my membership number--the number that qualifies me for price discounts. I called tech support, and they admitted they'd been having some trouble with that part of the system on that particular day. So I logged out and logged back in, and that worked. Problem solved. Fine. Anyone can run into a simple computer glitch, and tech support was very friendly. Moving right along...
So I bought the books. I got an e-mail confirming the order--so far, so good--and letting me know when to expect shipment--the following day. Terrific! But then I received another e-mail apologizing for the delay and admitting that the order wouldn't be shipped for another three to five days. Ouch.
Well, anyone can run into an ordering backlog... right?
The books actually went out within another day or two, so Barnes & Noble was back in my good graces--or at least decent graces. I checked online, and there indeed was my order, with a note that all items had been shipped. Great! When can I expect delivery? There's a tracking number on the order, but no way to click on it and no indication as to how the items were shipped or how to use the tracking number to track my package.
Okay, I'm resourceful. I can figure this out. I enter the number on the UPS website. No dice. The number doesn't work either with or without the leading letters. I try the US Postal Service website. Again no luck. FedEx? Nope. So now I have no idea what the point of the tracking number is. Shouldn't a tracking number actually track something?
I call customer service. I get a computer automated system that tells me what the website already told me, with no way to interrupt the playback. Finally, the system runs out of its spiel and asks whether I would like to speak to a representative. Yes, indeed I would. I press the appropriate number, and I am then informed that customer service closed at 11:00 PM.
I'm all about people going home at night to their loved ones, so the 11:00 close time didn't bother me. But I'd already been through the wringer, and I was in no mood to be blown off by a machine.
Here's the thing. I've been ordering books online from Amazon.com for years, and I've never had a single problem with their system, from beginning to end. The computer system works. The order processing system works. For a reasonable "prime membership" fee, I get free two-day shipping on every single order, no matter how large or small, and almost everything goes out within 24 hours.
If the order will be delayed, I'm informed up front so I can make my decisions accordingly. The order ships when they say it will, arrives when they say it will, and is trackable in between through a UPS tracking number that is, believe it or not, a genuine UPS tracking number.
So the long and short of it is that I'm switching all my Barnes & Noble links over to Amazon links. Look for these changes over the next day or two as I switch the system over page by page and entry by entry.
I'd apologize to my readers for the inconvenience, but over the past three weeks, no one has bought a single thing through any of my Barnes & Noble dot com links. Apparently, that's just as well.
Comments (5)
Hi,
I am the assistant manager for Barnes&Noble.com's affiliate program and I wanted to personally apologize for your recent customer experience. Here at Barnes&Noble.com, we pride ourselves in being rated the Number 1 retailer in customer satisfaction for the third year in a row by the American Customer Satisfaction index. So we are unhappy when any of our customers have a bad experience with us. Most of our packages are sent UPS, which is a traceable service. Occasionally, a package is sent by USPS, which is not. Currently, our system automatically looks for a tracking code which it can put into the order information. This code is automatically generated for all orders, which is the cause for your confusion. We are currently revamping our order system and I've alerted our customer service to this bug. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. I hope that you will give us another chance in the future.
Sincerely,
Suzanne Sanders
Assistant Manager
Online Partnerships
Barnes&Noble.com
Posted by Suzanne
| May 4, 2007 11:18 AM
Posted on May 4, 2007 11:18
Hi, Suzanne. Thanks for your note. I appreciate your responsiveness, and I certainly recognize that anyone can have one less-than-wonderful experience even in a generally brilliant system. A sample size of one hardly represents a robust experiment.
As an aspiring author, I would prefer to remain on good terms with Barnes & Noble, and I meant what I said about loving the stores. I often drive half an hour farther than I need to in order to visit my "local" Barnes & Noble booksellers rather than visiting the competitor down the street.
Furthermore, I believe in the fundamental principle of choice that drives our current economic system. This is, after all, a free country, and we have long chosen as a nation to embrace free market enterprise. And although a staggering percentage of the world's population still suffers in terrible poverty and hopelessness, I have to admit--sadly--that to this day no other economic system has proven itself better able to provide for the financial, social or emotional needs of the "civilized" world.
So I'll tell you what: if you reinstate the affiliate account I closed--perhaps too hastily--I will gladly post at least one Barnes & Noble link back up on each book page so that my readers have easy access to your system. Far be it from me to deny anyone this small and simple choice when the soul-crushing decisions of war and vengeance have been so recently and so eloquently wrested from our strong yet silent hands.
Sincerely,
EM Sky
Posted by EM Sky
| May 4, 2007 12:20 PM
Posted on May 4, 2007 12:20
What an annoyance! I like Suzanne's reply but I think she skipped over quite a few of your problems and I think you were extremely gracious in your response. Personally, I love Barnes & Noble in person but I buy from Amazon online. I think when your entire business is online it becomes more important to pay greater attention to the online customer experience. Barnes & Noble no doubt still makes way more money in their stores than online. (I suspect that's why they get the No. 1 Customer Service rating.) We'll hope they catch up soon.
Just a point of interest, Amazon has free shipping for everyone when the order is over $25--it just takes longer to get the books. I'm generally fairly patient so it works for me.
Posted by Cynthia | May 5, 2007 1:16 PM
Posted on May 5, 2007 13:16
Thanks for the note, Cynthia. And thanks for reading! I think you're right about Amazon's dedicated focus making all the difference. And I do the same thing you do: I shop in B&N stores and buy from Amazon online.
I will admit that the books did arrive from Barnes & Noble--in about the same time frame as Amazon's free shipping service--and they were the correct books. But the jacket of Orson Scott Card's Empire has a deep score about four or five inches long along the right side.
It isn't ripped through, but it's an obvious defect--like someone keying the paint on a car. I'm going to take it to the B&N store and see whether they will trade the book out for an unblemished copy. I am a fanatic bibliophile and an avid collector. I have leather-bound editions, signed first editions, you name it. For someone like me, a blemish in the jacket is simply unacceptable.
Posted by EM Sky | May 5, 2007 2:58 PM
Posted on May 5, 2007 14:58
Just as a follow-up... The folks at Barnes & Noble were more than happy to trade the blemished copy for a good one. I called ahead to make sure they had a copy on the shelf, which they did, and they placed it on reserve for me. Once I got to the store, the whole process took about two minutes. So the Barnes & Noble in-store experience gets another A+. But, of course, driving to the store pretty much negates the point of buying books online.
Posted by EM Sky | May 8, 2007 3:25 AM
Posted on May 8, 2007 03:25