Gripes about Barnes and Noble

April 11, 2006. It has been 6 years since I last used Barnes and Noble's web site. It still is terrible compared to Amazon.com.

The search box where you enter a book title is very small. Perhaps this was done to save all the wasted screen real estate on the right side.

On the few books I looked at, their prices were higher than Amazon, even with a member discount.

Once you select a shipping method, you can never change it. I kept changing the books I was going to buy and a few times went to checkout and each time the checkout started where it left off, entering my credit card. I could never get back to the shipping options page to make changes.

Shipping options are very confusing if you live in Manhattan as all the help files don't mention the fact that they offer same day shipping in Manhattan. This is a feature of some other class of shipping, but which one?

Shortly after placing the order, I got this email message. I ordered one book that was less than $25 and should not have qualified for free shipping. The email message says both that I did qualify for free shipping and that I was charged $3.99 for shipping. You can't make this stuff up. Consider how long the web site has been in business, this is disgraceful.

April 2000 Buying Experience

The order arrived in a timely fashion, but there were only two books, not three. Just out of curiosity, I went to their web site the day the first two books arrived to see what it said about my third, missing book. It said the book was in stock and ships within 24 hours. Not true.

I also check my order status at their web site the day the first two books arrived. It showed the original total price of the order that reflected the cost for all three books. However, the receipt that came with the two books shows a partial price, one that only reflects the cost of the two books that were shipped. Its confusing as to what they actually charged my credit card (more on this below).

The order status also said that one book was shipped and two were "in process". This was not true, as I had two books in my possession.

Amazon has an option when purchasing multiple books for them not to ship the order until all the books are in stock which saves shipping charges. If you are in a hurry, they will send every book ASAP but you pay for the extra shipment(s). This seems fair enough. Barnes and Noble offered me no such option when I placed my order. Perhaps because their computer system thought (incorrectly) that all three books were in stock.

Placing the order online resulted in my first gripe. From having been an Amazon and Fatbrain customer, I am accustomed to paying $4 to ship one book and $1 for each additional book. The description of their shipping costs said it was $3 per order and 99 cents for each book. When I first read this, I assumed the shipping for 3 books would be $5 (rounded off). Nope. Its $6. It can be argued that this was my fault for not reading clearly, but it confused my wife too.

I checked again to see what the web site had to say today about my missing third book. From the Barnes and Noble home page, I used the Quick Search at the top of the page and did an author search. I entered the authors first and last name and clicked on the search button. This is what I got back:

The page cannot be displayed
There is a problem with a program on the page you are trying to reach, and the page cannot be displayed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please try the following:
Open the www.bn.com home page, and then look for links to the information you want.
Click the Refresh button, or try again later.
HTTP 403.1 Forbidden: Execute Access Forbidden
Internet Information Services
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Technical Information (for support personnel)
Background:
You have attempted to execute a CGI, ISAPI, or other executable program from a directory that does not allow programs to be executed.
More information: Microsoft Support

Being curious, I clicked on Microsoft Support link which took me a Microsoft TechNet web page. It turns out the above error only happens with version 5 of the Microsoft web server, Internet Information Server. This tells me that B&N is using Windows 2000 on their web servers. The TechNet explanation is:
This error can occur when there is a period (.) in the name of the virtual directory, for example:
http://www.mycompany.com/test.test
This, of course, disagrees completely with the text of the message, but that's a gripe with Microsoft.

Then I took the suggestion above and clicked on the refresh button in my web browser. The result was:

Undaunted, I went back to main Barnes and Noble home page to check my order status. Before I could even enter my userid and password on the order status page, I was treated to:

Fifteen minutes later, the web site was working. The order status shows one book shipped on 4/3/200 at 10PM. Another book shipped on 4/4/2000 at 5AM. Two books that arrived together in the same box, shipped at different times. Apparently "shipped" does not mean what I assumed it meant. Speaking of language:

The web page for my missing book was finally changed to better reflect reality. It now says that the book is in stock and ships in 2-3 days.

The order status now shows as complete, the book shipped today at 9am. There is a link on the order status page to track the shipment at the UPS web site. Great. Not so fast. I get to the UPS web site just fine with the tracking number pre-filled in. However, when I click on the TRACK button to see about the package:

The order status page on the Barnes and Noble web site is very confusing. It starts with a list of each book in the order, the book's status, and if it shipped, the date/time it shipped. Fine. But at the bottom of the page, it says each book is cancelled! This makes no sense at all.

Also, the first order status page that you see after entering your userid and password shows a list of all your recent Barnes and Noble orders. For each order, there are two links, one under the "Date of Order" column and the other under the "Order Number" column. As far as I can tell, each link takes you to the same place. Why have two links?

Earlybird
I had noticed that my first two books were shipped via "Earlybird Messenger service" and wondered what it meant. Naturally, I went to the Help section of the web site and selected the topic on shipping rates and options. It says nothing at all about "Earlybird messenger service". I asked B&N about this by entering my question on a web page that I think was in the help section. After I clicked on the submit button, it said that it had generated email to service@barnesandnoble.com.

Six days later, no reply, so I bypassed the web site and send an email message directly to service@barnesandnoble.com. They responded to my question the next day which tells me that the web site never really generated the email message. In another instance also, B&N had responded very quickly to a message sent to service@barnesandnoble.com, further indicating that the problem was that the web site ate my submission and never generated the email message on the back end.

Earlybird is a shipping method that is used only for the New York Metropolitan area. When placing an order, the system usually automatically chooses Early Bird shipping. The rates for this shipping method are as follows:
3 to 6 business days $3.00 per order plus $0.99 per item

Three to six business days for Earlybird? Not so early. Its not clear if Earlybird means UPS or FedEx or someone else, but there was no online tracking option with my Earlybird package, while there was with a UPS shipment from them. The shipping rates quoted above for Earlybird are the same as on the web site, which does not mention Earlybird shipping at all. I'm pretty sure those are their standard rates. (Later inquiries determined that Earlybird Messenger service is a courier service B&N uses when delivering in Manhattan).

Today the UPS web site knows about my package. It was shipped using "Next Day Air Saver". The first entry was at 7:17 PM on April 7th (a Friday). Barnes and Noble's web site said they shipped it at 9:32 AM on April 7th. That leaves 10 hours unaccounted for.

Because the Barnes and Noble computer system said my third book was in stock when it was not, they ended up sending it next day air when it finally shipped. According to the web site, the cost to ship one book by next day air is $11. The book in question costs less than $5. They, no doubt, took quite a loss on my order all because their computer system said a book was in stock when it apparently was not.

The web site home page loads really slowly with a 28.8 connection. Not just today, but every time.

The book was sent by UPS "Next Day Air Saver". It was neither the next day, nor by air. UPS first got the book in Edison, New Jersey and I live in New York City. Traffic may be bad, but there is no way they flew it across the Hudson River. Also, it shipped out on a Friday and I got it the following Monday, three days later.

Initially, the UPS web site said this package started its journey at 7:17 PM on Friday April 7th. Now the UPS web site has an additional earlier entry that says that the PICKUP MANIFEST was received at 3:18 PM that day. Barnes and Noble still says they shipped it at 9:32 AM that day.

One fallout from their sending my three books as two separate shipments is on billing. Rather than getting one bill, I ended up with two, one for each shipment. Perhaps this shouldn't be a gripe, in as much as they did not charge my credit card until the books shipped. Still, it makes it harder to reconcile my credit card statement. Even worse, the total cost of my initial order was not equal to the sum of the two separate charges. When dealing with a major retailer like Barnes and Noble you should be able to rely on them when their web site says you will be billed a certain amount. In my case, when I first placed my order, their web site quoted me a total fiction. They billed me twice, not once and for a different amount.

I ended up saving $1.07. They decided not to charge me for shipping the second book, which is 99 cents. The sales tax on the 99 cents brings it up to $1.07.

One of the books I ordered only because I knew of the author. Before ordering the book, I was curious to read the publishers description of it and other people's opinions. The Barnes and Noble site had neither. Amazon had two lengthy reader comments. One book does not make a pattern, but in this case, it does illustrate one. Amazon.com is a treasure trove of reader comments which I find very useful in judging books. Barnes and Noble has very few from what I've seen to date.

Other Opinions

The New York Times ran a story today on Barnesandnoble.com on the first page of the Business section (page C1). Its called "Superstore's Online Unit Seeks Stability" and was written by Doreen Carvajal. The Times only keeps their news stories online for a few days, so I can not link to it. Much of the article is devoted to employee turnover problems. It describes an exodus of employees at all levels, from all departments and explains some of the reasons why. The article made these points:

The article says that the company is currently run by Stephen Riggio, the brother of the chief executive officer of Barnes and Noble Inc., Leonard Riggio. Leonard is quoted as saying that no one knows the Internet better than Stephen. They should read my gripes. I bought books at Amazon and Fatbrain almost 10 times each and neither provoked any gripes.

BN.com Not A Best Seller. Forbes Magazine. By Penelope Patsuris
Barnesandnoble.com shouldn't be in as much trouble as it is, regardless of the hard times in e-tailing.

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BARNES	&NOBLE

Barnes and Noble Gripes

Buying Experience April 2006

April 2000 Buying Experience

Other Opinions