Barnes & Noble

My experience browsing/shopping/buying at Barnes and Noble.

I have a Yahoo! credit card which earns me Yahoo! Points which can be redeemed for gift certificates to various stores. On November 2nd I had finally earned up enough points to get me a $100 gift certificate at Barnes and Noble and decided to order some DVDs.

I figured it shouldn't be too difficult to find enough DVDs to use of the gift certificate. But I was wrong. Searching through every DVD every made on the web is not that easy, especially when you don't know exactly what you want. Amazon definitely makes it easier than B&N, but their web site is not my beef.

I found six DVDs I wanted and ordered them, having to pay a little more. All of the DVDs I purchased said "Same Day" or "2-3 Days" with regards to being in stock. This was a gift certificate order and I didn't want to pay any extra on separate shipping charges I checked please ship all at once. I placed the order on November 2nd, 2000

On November 7th they shipped one and only one DVD to me. Two weeks later, on November 16th, Barnes and Noble shipped me two more of the DVDs I ordered. Now for all DVDs to be in stock within 2-3 days having to wait two weeks for them to be shipped seems pretty poor. But hold on that's only three, I have three more coming to me....

On January 8th, I am still waiting for the last three DVDs to be shipped to me. I had totally forgotten about them when my roommate reminded me. Back in early December I sent a message to them from their web site asking about my order status, the web site says it is still "In Process". I sent another message today asking about the order, haven't heard anything back.

UPDATED: 2001-01-13
I received a follow-up e-mail the next day (Jan 9th), which started "Dear Valued Customer", it said my order was being expediated and they would wave shipping costs. Now four days later from when my 2-3 day order, which is now being expediated, their website order status still says "In Process"

Now the only reason I purchased something from Barnes & Noble's web site is because of the gift certificate I got from Yahoo! I found their web site to be difficult to use compared to Amazon's and their customer service to be non-existent. So instead of possibly gaining a customer by teaming up with Yahoo! Barnes and Noble has guaranteed that I won't be spending my money there. I'll stay an Amazon customer for now, or continue to buy offline.

UPDATED: 2001-02-02
Today marks the three month anniversary of when I placed the order and I still have not received my complete order. But according to their status page it is still "In Process" so I'm hopeful. I've sent another e-mail to service@barnesandnoble.com via their web form. We'll see what happens.

UPDATED: 2001-02-11
Here's the response I received on Feb 3rd:

We received your email regarding order #BNxxxxxxxx. Our records indicate that these items are available and in stock. Please call our Customer Service Center so that we can further assist you.

Ha! that is rich. My items are available and in stock, so I have to call them. Since I don't really feel like sitting on the phone for awhile, I respond with an e-mail saying..."If my items are in stock, will you please just ship them to me."

I received an e-mail back saying my order is "In Process" and they will send me an e-mail when the order has been shipped. I've heard that before. As always I am still waiting.

UPDATED: 2001-01-22
For no apparent reason, Barnes and Noble just cancelled part of my order according to their e-mail it was by my request. I don't quite understand why it only cancelled one of the three movies I am still waiting for.

In unrelated news, I ordered a book on Sunday Feb 18th from Amazon. I received the book Tuesday Feb 19th, and that is even with the holiday on Monday. They may not be able to make money, but at least Amazon knows how to serve their customers.