Barnes & Noble Booksellers
Reviews and Complaints

For those commenters criticizing the poster's not thoroughly reading the product description prior to purchase, please take into consideration that B&N is more than partially responsible for this happening as B&N is, first and foremost, a BOOK STORE ... not an edownload provider, not a Starbucks, not a DVD or music outlet but a BOOKSTORE. Yes, B&N also provides the aforementioned services as well as selling books and yes, it is necessary for the customer to be reasonably responsible for researching what they are buying BUT it is also necessary for the seller - B&N in this instance - to clearly state product information. Very often I find it difficult to find it clearly defined on their website if a product is an ebook, hardcover, or paperback. Heck, sometimes they even list products no longer available or with images. Often the images for an ebook are the same for the paperback or hardcover and that can be very misleading.

Wow. Why are you buying books when you can't actually read? Idiot.

I ordered a used book on their wedsite 2 weeks ago, never got my book.

I totally agree with you about Barnes and noble staff lacking customer service. They do not know how to communicate with customers. I live in Houston and went to my closest Barnes and nobles with my toddler cause he likes to play with their Legos there and he happened to climb on the Lego table I was right next to him when a rude employee by the name of Angie comes by and starts saying in a very rude manner how he can't be on that table and we had to replace that table 5 times, I had a previous encounter with her when she came before and lectured me on how my son took one of their toys in the bathroom and now it's "contaminated" and cannot be sold. If you have rules I respect them but come and say things politely...when I complained to the manager she was worse she was like we have rules here and she said its wrong for your son to climb a table it's unsafe for him lecturing me again on how to be a good mother. How dare they speak to me like this when I'm a member and I buy so many toys and books from them. NEVER going there again!

Wow, working at a BN in CT makes me want to apologize to you. I can't say why they would all be so disgruntled, and I wish you'd have had a better experience. I feel like I should apologize and possibly call the Home Office about that one particular store.

The lower part of the screen on my Nook stopped working replaced with vertical and horizontal stripes.

Neither reboots (including removing the battery) nor updating the software to the latest version made any difference.

After a brief search on the nook related internet forums I have learned that this is a well-known problem with Nook’s e-ink screens and I better bring it to the nearest Barns and Noble store for technical evaluation and possible replacement.

Nearest BarnesAndNoble, though, informed me that my warranty have expired 2 month ago and, thus, there is nothing they can do for me, except to sell me a new Nook. (Yeah, right. Another $200 gadget that lasts for about a year)

I just started thinking of buying a new Nook touch, attracted by the color and newer Android platform, but I am glad that this have happened before I wasted another $250 of my money on a Barns and Noble product and will now replace my defective Nook with a Kindle.

Needless to say that all of my books and music purchases will now go to Amazon.com as well.

I purchased a NOOK - Big mistake! spent lmost $300.00 have over $400.00 of e-books in my account and the damn thing keeps loosing its regestration. When I go through the re regester steps the device can not varify my password! Than you must call customer service (a big waiste of time) or go on line and get a one time pass word - I have had to get 5 one time passwords in the last 6 months! -- I would like to just get hard cover books in return for the ebooks and give back the nook! Is this possible? As far as recomending this device (Nook) I would NOT. Not in a million years.
for return comments:
rsradlauer@q.com

I actually bought the extended 2 year warranty only to find out in two MONTHS that it is really a one time warranty. The customer service line blamed the store for not disclosing this but the web site makes it very hard to find. I won't be shopping there again either

I purchased a children's book as a gift. I purchased it 3 weeks before the party.
The book was a duplicate gift. I offered to take it in to return it and to pick another.
The clerk told me that the return window had passed. Amanager passed by
looked at my receipt and confirmed the policy.
The book was in perfect condition, four days past the 14 day window, cost me all of
$6.75.
But for $6.75 they lost not only me but also everyone in my household as customers.
I understand the need for policies. But if they can't trust shift managers to be able to make
decisions. They invest a bit more time and money in their training programs.
I hope they do end up in BK!

The receipt clearly states this policy. Not B&N''s responsibility to read it to you.

I worked at a few stores that have the same policy regarding copyrighted material. There were people who'd buy books cheaper at a different place, remove the sticker and then try to return the book to the store that sells it for more. I've also worked in copy centers where customers will try to copy material and then return it to the bookstore. I've had so many customers curse me out because I wasn't allowed to copy books or photographs that have copyrights on them. It wouldn't such a big deal to me if it weren't against the law. I've even had customers tell me they don't remember where they even bought the book but still demand that I give them their money back.

It sucks for customers who are decent members of society to have to not be able to make a simple return just because there are dishonest people in the world.

Exactly what Seraphim said. Also, if it was a book, you can't expect them to let you buy a book and turn around a few days later to return it. You and your husband could have very well read the book then tried to get your money back. It's not the library, it's a retail establishment.

According to the website, you just have to have the receipt, or the gift receipt. That seems reasonable to me.

I am very worried that my Visa will be charged $12.00 per month for a discount of $20.00 this is a scam. I got ripped off by Barnes and Noble. What can be done about this? I'm a senior citizen on a limited income and can't afford this. The so called company is complete savings (cash back).

I ordered and paid for a nook book and downloaded it onto my nook for pc. I paid by credit card on 2/21/13, and my account recoed verified this purchase on the b and n website. I read several chapters of the book over a few days, but was suddenly blocked from reading it further and told that it had been a "sample". It took about an hour to try to fix this with their telephone agents, and I was assured yesterday that I had been given credit for the orignal purchase and could now repurchase the book. The website, however, continues to block me from repurchasing it, giving me messages that it is already in my nook library.
I have written letters to b and n without getting the problem fixed. I even tried to buy it as a "gift" to myself without success. Band n converted my gift into a certificate without my permission, then rejected the certificate numbers when I tried to add the value to my account.

I recently bought a nook for my girlfriend for christmas after spending 300 on the book reader one of the corners suddenly went dead inside the machine. After a month of waiting for them to help me they finally took the nook back to look for it after 2 more weeks of calling them they finally said that would call me that night with my information after 4 more days I called them and they told me that not only would they not fix the factory problem they also claim it was my fault

I bought a book, realized it was the wrong version, and returned it the next day. The cashier apparently did not process the refund correctly back onto my bank card, and now 3 weeks later, still no refund (And it was in excess of $50 they owe back to me). I have called every week, as customer service said to do, and they still know nothing! It's as if I gave them the book back and said "keep my money". If it isn't resolved soon, I will be taking this to my attorney. This is unacceptable. Maybe talking to the press a little bit as well would get barnes and noble to improve and overhaul their business practices!

I have been trying for 2 months to get barnes and noble to credit me for my returned item that I bought from their ebay store. It only allows paypal, and they seem totally inept at doing so. I have spent hours on hold and then they promise my refund, but it never appears. You stay on hold forever with barnes and noble, and when they forward you the next person has no idea and you start all over again. Their computer system starts mixing your orders up. It’s just a total cf from the start.

Signed me up without asking to Completesavings.com. Costs 12 bucks per month.

While I was able to get the charge removed, it just kept coming. Barnes and Noble had to cancel it, not me. I had to cancel the credit card to get it to stop.

banes and noble was not helpful. Apparently, they make a lot from this scam.

When I purchased a Nook Color from the B&N store, I was suggested to use gift cards for the purchase so that I can use a promotion to get $20 back, sweet right? The part they do NOT tell you is, if you return the product, all you get is $200 worth gift cards, NO option to credit your money back to your credit card. Basically, they render their product impossible to return. If you try to return it like I did, you get no money back, they steal your money, and you get stuck with a high amount of useless gift cards that you will never ever use. Basically, they close all venues for you to return your product and get reimbursed.

My advise to everyone is steer clear of Barnes & Noble, since their business practices are dishonest. They do big mistakes as they did in my case, and they don't admit their mistake. All they care is how they can sit on your hard earned money, buy luring you by phony promotions to prevent you from ever being able to return their undesirable products. I am truly sorry to be so *** to ever step in their store, at least you don't repeat my mistake!

B&n advertises merchandise they do not have and cannot possibly obtain, as if they have it in stock. Unlike amazon, etc, one cannot check to see if the item is in stock before ordering. Once the order is placed, the fun begins! One item at a time, the emails saying shipping is delayed begin. You cannot change the order when it hasn't shipped; you cannot get a response from them in any form.. So you wait. I waited three months for an item before I web searched and found out that it was a limited edition collector's set from 2017 and only 3, 000 were printed worldwide. They're still advertising it (As new, no less) on their website today. I will never, ever place another order with them, and have asked my family not to give me gift cards there.

Barnes and Noble uses misleading promotions. I have a member card ( already a stupd thing, I learned) and get an on-line promotion coupon noting " unprecedented savings."

It turns out the combination of these two discounts still produces a book cost of 20% higher cost, or $5, for buying the book in the Barnes and Noble store than buying it on-line from Amazon.

I understand I should shop for price, but I object to the term " unprecedented savings" for a price that is 20% higher than the alterative.

I will never buy from Barnes and Noble again, and encourage others to learn the same lesson.

On the barnes and noble website it stated that if you ordered a nook before 4pm on june 16th, you would receive it before father's day. I ordered it at 10 am on june 16th and it will not be here until monday (After father's day). I emailed customer service when I noticed the ups tracking info stating a monday delivery. They were not helpful. They did not seem to care that this was false advertising. By reading other posts on this site, this seems to be a common problem. I wonder how many hundreds of other people expected to have a nook delivered for father's day and did not get it. I don't understand how a large company like this can continue to exist with such poor customer service and such out-right lying. They got their money - - I still am nook-less.

I am considering returning the nook when I do get it and buying a different e-reader. I can't continue to support a company that treats customers with so much disrespect.

I ordered a textbook from barnes and noble online for a great price of $87 on dec. 13th. I was sent a confirmation email saying it would ship jan. 6th. I thought this was a little odd having a shipping date so long after I ordered but it was ok with me since my class doesn't start until jan. 24th. On jan. 6th I received an email saying there would be a delay in my order and it would ship between 1-5 business days later. I waited the stated amount of time. I checked my order online on jan. 15th and it said it still hadn't shipped. Now I was getting concerned, so I emailed customer service. They canceled my order, stating they couldn't get the book. I called them and complained that they had strung me along for over a month with promises of shipping dates, without ever stating the item was backordered or not in stock or the like. I told them that to buy the book last minute from another vendor will cost me $180 instead of the $87 I was expecting and I might not even get it on time for start of class. Their response, "sorry for the inconvenience. Here is a $10 gift card. " so it will cost me over double the price and all they want to offer is $10!
I emailed their corporate headquarters and they stated that it says on the website "usually ships in 1-2 weeks" on my item. This statement is completely misleading and imho, false advertising. I will never buy from b&n online again!

I agree with getting the runaround with Barnes and Noble customer service! July 23, 2013 I bought a nook HD online from there website and the next day after receiving my nook HD I called asking to return it, they gave RMA number and I sent it back to address they gave me.
i called them July 29, 2013 and they said they received the Nook HD and they refund. Yesterday August 19, 2013 i called again asking customer service the status of my refund, they gave me the runaround again.
i wonder what my next steps will be. I'm out $168.00 and still waiting!

Come on now, first they're books and second no receipt? You also left the books there? It smells like someone photocopied the books.

The worst company in the world. Was prevented from cancelling an order 5 minutes after placing it. The alleged link to cancel was not there. They removed it! Their chat rep told me this morning that their management removed the possibility to cancel orders to boost sales, which is criminal. Could not call since they put me on hold for 2 hrs. The item in question will be released in two weeks from now, which should not be a problem. Never again Barnes and Noble, , ,

B & D now outsourcing customer services to the Philippines. And good luck with that, because I gave up on any chance of a strait forward conversation (without the rep simply repeating my question back to me repeatedly while apparently struggling to understand either my accent or language?) and finally hung up after they parked me on hold indefinitely. Brilliant decision, B & D - glad you appreciate my $ and satisfaction so deeply that this is the result!

Please DO NOT EVER rent a textbook from Barnes and Noble. I ended up paying for $139 for a book that should only cost me $40. First of all, the rent is $32 for 60 days (neither quarter or semester last only for 60days), second of all, if you tries to extend the rental due date, they wont warn you that you could only rent it for certain period of time. So in my case, i paid barnes and nobles to extend my rent and, without any warning or email they removed my payment for extending the book and charged me for the full price of brand spanking new book instead. Thanks to Barnes and noble, instead of saving money, i got ripped off instead. Bad customer service! the advice that they gave me was "the best thing that you could do is to keep the book cause $139 already been charged to your bank account".

Worst experience I have ever had when I talk to one rep they always sent me to the opposite of them either store online, or telephone rep. It was horrible. NEVER IN MY LIFE BEING A CUSTOMER OF THEIRS.

My worst experience ever! DON´T BUY AT BARNES AND NOBLE. They have the worst customer service team. Very bad experience.

I am also disgusted with B&N. I have been waiting for a refund for a ColorNook that was returned after having encountered problems connecting it to the web at home. I gave up on it after 3 days. I complied with all their instructions upon returning it. Almost 3 months later there is no fund for the $300+ spent. After my 6th phone call, , I decided to do a formal complaint with the Attorney Generals Office (both in Albany and NYC). I am hoping that the AGO will get on their tails and get them to move a little quicker on this refund. Please be aware of their lousy refund track record.

I thought I had cancelled my rewards club membership back in Dec of 2008 but I was charged the fee again in December of 2009. I was irate, but I thought I could have made a mistake, so I called and complained. They just said no more charges would be done for membership the next year. Well in December of 2010 guess what happened, a charge. so I called, and complained, the day after the charge appeared, and they said they would refund my money. a month later, no refund so I called again, they said nothing was ever done but they would refund the money. 2 weeks later they still didn't do anything, so I called again and they said check with my bank for pending refunds. My bank has no record of anything for Barnes Noble. I called again and I got a nice but ignorant CS rep who said she can't do anything, but wait a few days and call back. I called back (I am in January 2011 now, a month and a half later from first call in December 2010) and even though there are a ton of notes about my situation, no refund was processed yet. Still trying to get satisfaction! Worst CS I have ever had!

The blatant incompetence, if not outright ignorance, some of the B&N customer service reps exhibit borders on wanton criminality of human pretense. Untrained circus animals have more potential than many of these so-called people. Example in point, is the time I was contacted regarding an order being in. At the checkout counter the person waiting on me told me it wasn't there - I knew it had to be so I waited and got back in line ... the next person found it no problem. This was not the only incident I've had with B&N. Another time I called in an order, providing the ISBN number to the rep on the phone - to the person's credit, they the title and author back to me to confirm it was the item I wanted, which it was. However, when it came in it was the wrong book - fortunately what I was looking for was on the shelf.

Barnes and Noble has horrible unfriendly customer service. Triaglen Town Center, Raleigh, NC 27616.

I would not visit their store either... I used to go there all the time but their service is horrible. The one I went to is the one in Cherry Valley Mall in Rockford IL! Very bad! Their manager chase people away from their sitting tables...even though I bought their food, they still chasing me and my kids away! DO NOT GO THERE. I now switch to Borders Book Store. They offer free Wi-Fi Service. I have since bought a lot of foods and coffee as well as many books. GOOD BYE Barnes and Noble! Good luck to your horrible service!

Tried to return a 2016 planner my mom bought me as a gift for Christmas. She did not keep the receipt as she was SURE it was the right planner...It wasn't. I thought I would have no issue since it's a planner that says "made for Barnes and Noble only", so it wasn't like she bought it somewhere else and was returning it here. The rude guy behind the counter just kept saying "We need the receipt to prove it was actually purchased". Wow, helpful. So I said, "So you're basically saying 'maybe your mom stole it'...and it's an item for $8 sold exclusively here? This is horrible." Luckily the stranger behind me in line backed me up. He seemed almost more upset than I was.

Seriously, my student debt will always haunt me, but not enough to cause me to steal. Thanks buddy. I'm shopping exclusively through Half.com or Amazon from now on even if an item I'm just dying to own is sitting on a shelf at Barnes & Noble.

I received a wonderfully generous gift from a dear friend that I can not use. It was purchased from Barnes & Noble. When I returned it I presented the clerk with the untouched item, 2 gift receipts, and the original sales receipt. The only option offered to me was a B&N gift card. My friend wanted to give me something special and I wanted to honor her wish by purchasing something more suitable. But unless I find $250 of worthwhile B&N merchandise that is not going to happen. This action is absurd and corporate greed has just lost B&N a lifelong customer.

Actually, Borders has pretty much the same return policy. And they have that return policy so that people wont treat the store like a library, sorry you got duped but, blame it on the public, not the business trying to make money.

Why the ### would you care? Is it really that big of a deal? Used clothing I can understand... but a textbook? Just buy an *actual* used one next time and save yourself the money.

It's probably a printing error. Not BN's fault.

Bring in a receipt next time! Plain and simple!

We had a similar experience, trying to return a game purchased @ the store. We knew it was purchased there, it was not opened. It had their price sticker. We simply wanted store credit. We did not have a gift receipt. We did not know the policy. We were treated like shoplifters. It was awful. I have spent a 20+ year career in fashion design, merchandising and retail. I hope this is NOT the future of the industry. I will take my business else where!

gryphon is exactly right. Im sorry you didn't like your gift. But imagine if policy allowed you to get credit for a book without a receipt. You could just walk into the store, pick a book off the shelf, walk to the registers and return it for store credit. This is why ALL returns and exchanges at Barnes & Noble must be accompanied by a receipt.

Dear Adolf,

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience, but it's possible that both you and the store manager were both right and wrong at the same time. In the bargain section of the store are books called "remainders". These books usually have a barcode on a sticker that is on the front of the book. If you received the book as a gift, it's possible that your friend or relative removed the cheaper bargain sticker from the book before they gave it to you.

This is important because the bargain product number is different from the product number for a new hardcover book. If the store manager flipped the book over and entered the product number for the new hardcover, the computer would have noted that the book is out of print, and might not have been sold from that store for several years. If you looked the book up online, the chances are that you probably looked it up by its title, not by the product number. The book that you saw online might have been a paperback version of the same book, or a bargain version.

Secondly, as for a return without a receipt, the store manager is not allowed to do that. It wasn't a decision made by the store manager, it is a company-wide policy that any returns must be in saleable condition, within fourteen days of purchase, and must be accompanied by a receipt. It would have been helpful if your friend or relative had asked for a gift receipt when they purchased the book for you.

Whenever something out of the ordinary happens at a cash register, the computer automatically sends what is called an "exception report" to the store's district manager and loss prevention officer. This report tells the district manager the names of the cashier and the manager who were involved in the transaction.

I know that many customers feel that exceptions should be made in their case, but employees have been terminated for little things like accepting returns without receipts. Retailers call this "internal theft" and in this economy, try getting another retail job after having been fired from your last position for stealing from your employer.