Barnes & Noble Booksellers review: barnes and noble has unprofessional and hostile staff 28

I had a similar incident happen to me today. I was purchasing $70 worth of books and I simply asked the cashier if they had any free bookmarks and if not where I could find them in the store to purchase. He didn't even speak to me, just just simply shook his head no and proceeded to rip off a piece of his receipt tape and he slapped it down on the counter. I felt like he was treating me as if I was 10 years old. I am 25 and well aware of his sarcasm and bad customer service. I am also a retail store manager for a large media outlet and I know a thing or two about customer service. I tried to locate on the website some sort of phone number or email form in order to put in a formal complaint with the company and I came up short. I even tried a google search and could not come up with anything. I am going to call the store right now and ask for a corporate number to contact the district manager and put in a formal complaint. We shouldn't be treated like garbage. If you don't like your job, you should resign from it. There is no reason to take out your frustrations on customers.

I personally run three children's programs at Barnes and noble, which is standard for all of our stores. please check your information before going off on an ill-informed rant.

First off, let me say I realize people treat book stores like the library and it's frustrting when a customer returns a book because there's no way to know if they read it before the return. HOWEVER, THAT DOES NOT GIVE THE EMPLOYEES & MANAGEMENT THE RIGHT TO TREAT PEOPLE LIKE I WAS TREATED TODAY. I purchased a book, realized it wasn't the book I thought it was, tried to return it WITH THE RECEIPT, had the manager take my book and my receipt, call me a theif and kick me out of the store. I work in customer service, my wife works in customer service, many many people work in customer service. It's difficut and we're not paid well, but I'm not a jerk, she's not a jerk, and neither of us would EVER treat another person so poorly. Frankly, the Manager at the 4th Plain store in Vancouver WA should be ashamed of himself.

"tried to return it WITH THE RECEIPT, had the manager take my book and my receipt, call me a theif and kick me out of the store."

Yeah right.. if that did happen you could of called the police to get your items back.

My wife gave me gift cards valued at $100, they told her that they only had up to $50 cards so she got me two of them. I go there regularly and I've been using one card upbe fore using the other. Barnes and Noble charge $1.50 per month per card on unused balances. Because they would only give you a $50 dollar card I was being charged $3.00 a month. I was surprised when I had a 4 dollar and change deduction on my new card and saw that I only had $28.00 left on what was a new $50 card.

I'm not going to shop at a place that blatantly steals money from me that way. There is always borders and Amazon.

Rarley have I had this type of problem but Ive had that happened to me, problems returning books and all.
As for rude CS, my experience, I bought some bargan books*6* and when the cashier looked at them, then at me he said 'I guess your kind never heard of a library.' I said 'what?"
"nothing, Suprised you can even speak english and read, let swim across the rio."
Most other locations are pretty good but still.

I used to love going to Barnes and Noble until today. The guy who checked me out today at the WESTFIELD, NJ store was completely rude and unprofessional. He commented on my book choice and practically yelled the title out so as to embarrass me. Then he made some comments about my personal life based on the book (it was a book about relationships). I should have asked for the manager, but I felt too embarrassed. Now I want to file some kind of complaint if only so that he doesn't do that to another customer. Where should I go?

Write a complaint letter to Barnes and Noble CEO or president or who-the-hell-the-highest-person there is, indicate the date the incident happened, the place where it happened and name of that ###-manager, and his exact words and behavior. More details. Lets make them responsible for their mistreatment of customers. After all, we are CUSTOMERS. We give buy thing for our money, we don't beg for merchandises, we buy them.

After realizing that they had auto-enrolled me in the Member Savings plan and calling to discontinue it yet again - the customer service rep refused to discontinue it unless I could remember the email on the account after having given them my home phone number, address, etc. Without that they would not be able to help me.

I remembered the email - however, that email was over a year old and could not have been used to verify auto-enrollment in the first place. What a con - and so much customer service to boot!

This is the 3rd year in a row I've had this hassle with Barnes and Noble and I will not shop there again. Additionally, I'll tell everyone I know about the poor service, disreputable business practices and lact of ethics.

Good luck Barnes and Noble!

I am a preschool teacher for 3 year old children. Yesterday I read the children a cute book, "Pigeon wants to drive the Bus". I must have read the book 5 times so I thought that I would purchase another book. After a long day at work I went to Barnes and Nobles located on 76th st in Milwaukee. A very nice lady in the children's department helped me find the book and also suggested that I could get a teacher discount card. I was pleasantly surprised and happily filled out the short application (which had an area to check what age group including prek)
I went to the front of the store to buy my book. I was happy to save 2.00 on a hardcover childrens book ( I dont make that much money) I put my book down and my discount card. The clerk asked me if this was a personal or professional purchase. I was a little put off by her question but I thougt it was standard. She then asked where I got this card from. I told her the childrens department. She told me that they are not supposed to give me a discount because I am only a daycare teacher and they dont qualify. I started to feel embarrassed because there was a line forming behind me. She called the manager who told me the same thing. I told her to keep the discount card, I did'nt ask for it and left. I have not had someone make me feel that I am less of a professional than other "teachers" in a long time. All I wanted to do was buy a book to read to my children and I ended up feeling unworthy and foolish.

@Laura:

You have no idea how many people try to return used books. And if someone does return a used book, and the manager doesn't catch it, then it has to be sent back to the publisher to be destroyed, and the company loses money, as well as the publisher. So I can understand him being skeptical because he doesn't want to be responsible for losses.

And way to go stereotyping. I'm soooo sure he was trying to "dominate" you. If you were that pissed, you would have gone to corporate or had asked to talk to the store manager, gotten his name, and registered a formal complaint instead of posting this on the internet.

@ Bambie:

Yeah ###ing right. I don't believe that for a second. If they said that, then you're a ### for not asking to talk to the manager and having that person fired on the spot. I know what people are employed by B&N and no employee in their right mind would ever say anything like that.

@ Renee Hammes:

I used to work at Barnes and Noble and you have no idea how much teachers abused their discount cards, so much that our store was losing money. They were buying for themselves. One customer my coworker had said he was an elementary school teacher and tried to use his educator's discount on a book about gay issues or something like that (it was definitely LGBT and not appropriate for the classroom). It got so bad that we couldn't issue them anymore, and could only give the discount on certain occasions.

Anyways, we have to ask if the purchase will be used in the classroom, because that's what it's for. I'm really sorry the children's department associate gave you a card, s/he probably misunderstood what you meant by being an educator, and no, they aren't meant for day care personnel. They are meant for teachers to buy materials they use in the classroom. I'm sure they would have made an exception, but because so many teachers abuse the privilege of having that discount card, they couldn't do it.

Frank Halvorsen: are you sure that you have the right store? I have worked at B&N for years, and I know with 100% certainty that gift cards do not have fees of any kind. In fact, I just had a customer yesterday who brought in a years-old card and wanted to know what the balance was. She assumed that we, like other stores, charge a yearly fee or that the cards expire. Neither of these things apply to Barnes and Noble cards. They never expire, and you are never charged a fee. EVER.

@ billiejoeisevil:

Gift card fees differ by state law. In California for example, it is not lawful to charge an inactivity fee. But in other states, it is lawful and in fact occurs. I don't believe Barnes & Noble pockets the money though - I think its the 3rd party, like Visa or something...

I asked my store manager about the gift cards, and she contacted the district manager about it (even she was that curious!), and he said that it was Barnes and Noble policy that gift cards would not be charged fees of any kind. He also said that the policy is nationwide, and that no such thing occurs anywhere in the country. So, I assume that if someone believes that they were charged, they really spent the money and forgot.

billiejoeisevil you are right. I work for Barnes & Noble, INC and dotcom. There is not fee for having a Gift Card. You can have the Gift Card for years and Bn will not charge a penny.

When I worked for barnes&noble.com, my dept was next to the Gift Card dept. So I know a lot of BN Gift Cards.

@ billiejoeisevil
@ Ladydiana

We're all half right on this one. I've worked for the company for 12 years now so I have some experience. When we first went from paper gift certificates to plastic gift cards, there was a period of about 2 years where the small print on the back of the cards stated quite clearly that the banking company we partnered with (Visa or Mastercard I believe) will take $1.50 per month after a specified inactivity period, except in States where it was unlawful. After many complaints, BN eventually removed this clause (around 2004 maybe?) So Mr. Frank Halvorsen could be correct if he was talking about an incident from 6 years ago (but he sure waited a while to file a complaint, so who knows.)

Terri Pucin, Vice President of Customer Experience for B&N.. try contacting her through the switchboard main number [protected]. Good luck although I recall her being the biggest ### in the world and she is supposed to lead the entire company's customer experience but she is absolutely a horrible wench which tells a lot for the company if the person at the top is completely rude..

@ChicConsumer

Wow, I know Terri professionally and she has never been a "###, horrible wench, or rude" to me. I am kind of curious what she did to earn such stellar titles. Customer Experience does not necessarily mean Customer Service and in this case it deals more with the integration of the customer's experience with BN across all channels of the company (e-commerce, .com, stores). At any rate, I have never been charged a fee on Gift Cards from BN, but that may be because my state does not allow it.

hippie looking and a skinhead? how DOES he manage to be so versatile?

to frank halvorson: barnes and noble does not, nor have they ever charged monthly fees for their gift cards. I can only conclude that you are either one of those uniformed twits that have no idea what store they are in/talking about, you are simply a liar.

@Papalebas

Your excuse for her being in "customer experience" and not "customer service" is pathetic because everyone who works for the company that sells to a general audience should see customer service as a responsibility in their job, no matter what title they really hold. If that is their excuse then the company sucks because they don’t value customer caer and it is sad that some wretched manager such as Terri cannot see that..

To Anonymous:

You claim to have worked at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, and that you believe teachers abuse their discount privileges. What right have you to make such a generalized claim about a group of book buyers at B&N? I don't believe educators make it a habit to buy personal books with their discounts; but even if they did, how could that hurt the business? The books are still being sold & it doesn't change the value of the sale whether or not it's business or personal related.

I had a problem with their gift cards. I just recieved a $50 one for christmas and placed a $31 online order the next day. The order went through no problem. They didn't ask for an alternate payment, nothing. Two days later, they contact me via email saying the card was declined and when i checked the balance, it was 0. I've tried contacting customer service over the phone but the wait times are long and when i do finally get through they disconnect me. I'm getting furious. I have contacted them by email and currently waiting a response.

P.S. I'm pretty sure this thread is supposed to be about bad experienced at the Store not to tell the customers that have experienced these experiences liars and other names.

At the store I worked at, my store manager explained to me that it was happening. Teachers would come in and buy books they obviously were not planning on using in the classroom. I didn't say all teachers were doing it, but it became such a problem that they had to discontinue issuing out the cards. That was my experience at the store I worked at.

And yes, it does hurt the business because they're giving out a discount. The teacher's discount was meant to be a privilege, and a lot were abusing that privilege.

@ltrombley: Most customers do lie or embellish about their experiences in order to get free stuff. I've seen it way too many times to take most people seriously.

Lotsa luck folks! Don't blame it on Best Buy. I have been upset with Barnes and Noble over my nook turning into an etch sketcher after two months, and been fighting with them since BEFORE Thanksgiving (over 6 months). After over 3 hours of cell phone calls to their ridiculously poor customer service department overseas, one of which took 40 minutes for the inept rep to TRY to switch my call to a supervisor, two trips to the store (where Rob the manager on duty) DID take excellent care of me having to wait about 40 minutes on hold with the customer service line as well, numerous emails to their customer "service" website and twice trying to post to their facebook page about my poor service received, I have a replacement nook but NEVER been contacted regarding the complaint on customer service except numerous non-responses. I wish I had bought a KINDLE, and will when it's time to replace or upgrade. Now their emails do nothing but infuriate me when they try to get me to buy something else. I have NO respect left for that company at all.

I have been trying to get the courtesy of a response to a complaint about the atrocious telephone customer service they provide (overseas). BEFORE Thanksgiving, my nook went all " etcher sketcher " and was unreadable. After over 3 hours of cell phone calls (for which I had to PAY), two trips to a local store amounting to over 2.5 hours of MY time, and numerous emails to their online customer "service" the only response I have gotten was that someone would get back to me within 48 hours. I guess that's in God-years (like the evening and the morning were the first day...). I did get a replacement nook from Rob at the Fields-Ertel, Cincinnati store after he talked to their customer service for over 40 minutes one day and they wouldn't even give HIM (a store manager) a straight answer, but the T E R R I B L E service I received from everyone ELSE is unconscionable and has lost my business and respect. I will continue to get the nook books as long as I have a working device or until I decide to upgrade to a KINDLE, but will NOT give their stores any more custom. (I STILL don't know if they charged me for the first replacement nook or not, researching and finding out WOULD push me over the edge. I will consider any charge the price of what's left of my sanity after dealing with them. :( )

To Tam S: While the B&N customer service rep might not have spoken great English they are indeed based in the US not overseas.

Barns and Noble in Macon Ga. on Riverside has a racist policy of giving paying Black customers anti-theft bags (clear bags) but give the White customers ahead of me white bags. At about 12;30pm july 6th the saleswoman again gave the White customer ahead of me a white bag for his merchandise but when she bag my Grover Washington-Winelight cd she went to put it in a anti-theft bag. I told her I wanted my CD in a white bag just like the previous customer. I stated I worked and managed upscale clothing stores for 20 years, so I was aware of what she was doing. She smirked and put in it a white bag.