Books-A-Million

Last Sunday November 15, 2020 I called the Winchester Virginia store and asked about returning about 300.00 worth of brand new books that had never had the spine cracked. I told Amy, the person who answered the phone about them and I didn't have the receipt and she said as long as I had my membership card they could take them back. On Monday November 16, 2020 I traveled an hour to the Winchester store to get there and them state that the books had to be returned within 30 days to get a refund. The manager advised me of the buy back program and told me because of COVID it would be no more than 48 hours before getting an offer on the books and I could pick up the money then. On Wednesday November 18, 2020 I called the store and Amy answered the phone again and I asked her if my offer was ready. She got very rude and belligerent and stated they were not that it would be 14 days, I stated to her that was not what I was advised of and her exact words were to come and pick up the books. I called the complaint line and filed a complaint with them about the attitude that Amy presented. The general manager called the next day and I let him know the rudeness of Amy. he stated he didn't know why she stated 14 days when it would be no longer than 48 hours. He stated he would call me back with an offer, in which did not happen. On Friday November 20, 2020, I called the store once again to ask about the offer and the books were still not ready but the guy who answered the phone said he would have them evaluated with in the hour and call me or text me with an offer amount. I was never called back and got a very plain text saying they were ready to be picked up so after calling store multiple times to be transferred to that department and getting no answer I drove another hour one way to the store. When I arrived I went to the counter and the girl advised me that out of 20 brand new books that had never been opened, only 2 had been appraised by the computer and the payout was $1.08 yes a dollar and eight cents. I asked the girl why all the books weren't being bought back and she said she didn't know it was up to the computer. I took the books back home and I have called the store to speak to the manager as well as the 800 number to file another complaint just to be placed on hold for a godly amount of time. I am upset because I SHOULD have been called with the offer, and I was not and it was not even worth the gas money to drive an 80 mile round trip! So, on top of being treated rudely by Amy, the manager nor the general manager had time to address my concerns. I will never shop at this store again! I have been a customer at this store for over 20 years and this is the FIRST time that I have ever wanted or needed to return brand new books that came from this place to begin with. Had I been explained this process I wouldn't have wasted my time. So in a sense that this corporation got over $300.00 from me in one single sale including renewing my books a million membership and was not able to take these books back when they were not used or even opened is Ludacris or the fact that the process was not explained by Amy to me on Sunday when I called. Or, the fact that not only Amy didn't provide good customer service, but neither the manager nor general manager could be bothered to contact me letting me know the value of these books after telling them that I drove over an hour one way to bring them to the store. I will and have posted reviews of my experience so that other customers know what happened. It isn't about the money, it's about the way I was treated and how the situation was handled. If the process was explained to me, I wouldn't have made special trip down. I would have went elsewhere. In the past few years, I have definitely noticed this store has definitely gone down hill. There is never anyone around to help you, you had to wait at the checkout counter for undetermined amount of times, and even when someone was available they had to ask someone who had to ask someone which I can deal with but this other complaint no it is unacceptable so in closing yes you did get over $300.00 out of me but it is and will be the LAST time I ever spend any amount of money or time in any of these stores. They thought I would actually "give" them brand new books that cost me so much money for a $1.08 and they thought wrong! I have no idea where or how you hire your associates, manager or general managers but you need to do a better job!