I’m gonna vent here, so the short version is: Barnes & Noble is trying really hard to put itself out of business with terrible customer service. Long Version: I got a gift card for the holidays and it has been burning a hole in my pocket ever since. Paul McCartney announced a wildly overpriced Egypt Station re-release which I normally wouldn’t shell out for, but after using the card, it would only set me back $13. The drawback: The nearest B&N stocking it is an hour away. I live in the heart of the music industry—NYC—and none of your stores carry it? OK, I’ll get it from BN.com. So I ordered it and it showed up all busted up. The photo doesn’t begin to do justice to how creased up and bent this thing is. Sigh. OK, I could probably exchange it at that B&N an hour away, right? I call up to make sure they still have it and NO, you can not exchange items bought on BN.com at a store, only return them. OK, I’ll return it to the local B&N. NO, the store has to stock the item for you to be able to return it. B&N’s only answer is that I have to mail it back—making a huge deal to me on the phone about how they’re doing me a favor because I won’t have to pay for shipping it back—and oh, it’s out of stock at BN.com too, so we’ll just send you a refund instead. That doesn’t even go into how their garbage website made me reset my password twice then locked me out of it because I supposedly got my security question wrong (Look, B&N, I KNOW my father’s middle name; clearly you do not). All of which is an hour of my life wasted over this. I guess it doesn’t matter if I’m locked out of the account; I don’t intend to use it again.
