10 October, 2013
Barnes & Noble
To Whom It May Concern;
On September 11, 2013 I placed an order for three books on
bn.com. I had a $40 gift card and was excited to share some of my favourite
children’s books with my son. I chose to order on bn.com to make the most of
the money I had, and was able to choose the free shipping option, making the
total of my order $40.02; pretty good. I entered the gift card information and
placed my order. I saw the confirmation page but didn’t write down the number;
the email would surely arrive shortly, and if not, bn.com would still have the
information. A few hours later, I checked back and there was no sign of my
order. I called customer service and they confirmed that there was no pending
order and that the full balance was still available on the gift card. I placed
the order again, upon their recommendation and received two email confirmations
of my order. Later that day I received a shipping email. Instead of telling me
that the two books that were available would ship immediately (as I expected),
it said all three books would ship October 2. I called customer service again
because I thought it was ridiculous that I would have to wait almost a month
for the books I ordered when 66% of the order was available immediately. When I
called I was informed that because I chose the free shipping option, they would
package the items in “as few packages as possible.” I didn’t realize that meant
“1 package, regardless of the delay time.” I tried to explain this would be
past our celebration, since one of the books was a gift, but to no avail. I
resigned myself to waiting.
On October 2, I received two shipping notifications.
Finally! However, upon opening the email, I saw that only the two immediately
available books had shipped and the third was not included. So I had waited a
month for absolutely no reason. I called customer service again and was
informed that the third book should ship within a week. This is also when I
realized that the order had been duplicated and my credit card had been
charged. I was mad because I had been assured that no other order was there. The
supervisor was unavailable until the next day, so I was told I would receive a
call the next day. After speaking with a supervisor, I was told that the order
on my credit card would be cancelled and refunded, and he would try to stop the
delivery of the duplicate order. I was very upset because this order had now
taken up much of my time and would take up more, since I was sure it would be
delivered and I would have to find the time to drop off the box for return.
With a 12 month old, this is not an easy feat. The supervisor offered me a $25
gift card for my inconvenience.
On October 8, I received another email telling me that my
delayed order required my attention. When I clicked on the link, I was told
that the order would ship on October 24, much later than the week I was
promised by customer service. I called back because I am moving to Alabama on October 21,
and would have to change the address to reflect my move. I was assured that the
product would ship on the 24th as there were currently 90 copies in
stock for 400+ orders, and that more stock was coming in from the publisher. The
address was changed without issue, and it changed the amount of the sales tax,
dropping my order to $39.87. I realized on October 9 that the balance of my
gift card had not been refunded. When I called customer service again, I was
informed that once the order was placed, the remaining 13 cents would go back
to the card. This makes no sense—the gift card would be charged when the order
was shipped, but despite the order amount having changed, I couldn’t use the
extra money until then. I know it’s not a lot of money, but it’s the principle
and it would’ve made a difference on an order I placed later—I was 9 cents
short, and this would’ve made all the difference. I was offered a $5 gift card,
which was very kind. I was also told that the previous supervisor should not
have told me any numbers on the books, and assured that stock was being replenished
even now and that the book would ship on October 24 as I had been told.
On October 10, I received an email informing me that my
order was cancelled. I was infuriated, irate. I was so mad that I was shaking.
After all of the problems with this order, this was the last straw. I called
customer service again (this makes 7 calls to customer service about this one
order) and was informed that they didn’t know why the order was cancelled. At
first, the representative told me it was because the book was out of stock.
When I said I had just spoken to someone yesterday who assured me the inventory
had just arrived, he changed his answer to “we don’t know.” He offered to place
a new order for the book. When we got to the payment, I said I wanted to pay with
the same gift card I had originally used, since the balance should be returned
to it. I didn’t have the gift card, since I thought I had used up the entirety
on the original order, but the representative looked it up and found the
information. When he told me I would be responsible for hipping charges, I
really lost it and asked to be transferred to a manager. This time, I wrote
down the name. I spoke with a manager named Rhonda. After explaining the entire
situation, she agreed that I should not be responsible for the shipping
charges. I maintain that with all of the problems, I should not have to pay for
the book, but would accept free, expedited shipping. She placed the order as a
pay-by-phone order since the funds would not be returned to my gift card for 24
hours, and said that she would make sure she checked on the gift card and
applied payment the next day so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. It would be
shipped to my current address wit the understanding that it would arrive before
my move. I was and am so angry that I am shaking. The price for the book has
now changed. Instead of the $14.99 that it cost on October 2, I am now going to
be charged 15.86 plus tax. She did not apply the coupon I asked the original
representative to apply (I was so upset I forgot to mention it to her) and I
was offered absolutely no recompense for this issue, which is by far the most
ridiculously asinine problem I have experienced. She also could offer no
explanation for why or even how the order was cancelled.
I am a loyal Barnes & Noble customer. I have a nook and
have spent a fair amount of time, energy and money building up my nook library.
I love supporting brick and mortar bookstores, only using the online feature
when I need to save my money. But this, this is asinine. This is unacceptable.
I do not know how you keep customers when you treat them like this and expect
them to put up with a SAGA to receive the products that they are paying good
money for. I do not have the money
to switch my e-reader and my e-book collection to a kindle, but it is an
appealing idea with all of these unnecessary, unexplainable problems I have
encountered (this is not the first order I have had issues with.) I cannot believe that your company expected me to shoulder
shipping costs, and still expects me to shoulder the change in price when I had
no choice in the cancellation. I am disappointed and furious with your company
right now.
Feel free to contact me with any questions, I am more than
happy to answer them. I will be posting this on your facebook page as well as
my facebook an my blog as an open letter to your company.
With disappointment,
Emmi Lawrence
emmiblawrence@gmail.com
www.emmiblawrence.blogspot.com
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