Cyberspatialniche

As the son of one teacher, the husband (even though not recognized inthis state) of another, and as college adjunct myself, I would like to express how appalled I am at the education bills currently circulating the drains of the Florida legislature. If there’s one unfortunate thing about pre-college education in Florida (and there’s certainly more than one), its how woefully underpaid the teachers are from district to district. While I understand that this is not something directly set by the state, it is none-the-less indicative of how little our state and local government thinks of education.
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I was looking for a few additional eBooks last night at B&N.com when I discovered that the Gene Wolfe book I recently purchased (which is fantastic, by the way) was listed for only $9.99. That’s about $8 less expensive than the pre-purchase price of $17.95. As if that didn’t enrage me enough (see my last post about the whole pre-purchase mess), after contacting their customer service department to report the price disparity and lack of useful information on the Nook eBook store (ie. that a book isn’t available yet to download), I received the following response:

Thank you for inquiring about eBook returns and refunds.

As stated on our website, Barnes & Noble eBooks cannot be returned and
are non-refundable.

Barnes & Noble offers very competitive pricing on many items, resulting
in the best value for our customers. However, as with all retail
products, prices are subject to change due to current promotions. As
such, we are unable to credit you for the difference in price, and will
honor the original price at the time of purchase.
We do apologize for any confusion. Thank you for your understanding.

I don’t want your flipping apology, B&N customer service representative. I want what is completely fair, a credit of the difference between the two prices. If an apology is all that they are willing to provide, then I will no longer patronize their store. After I run through my B&N gift cards, I will no longer purchase ANY books from their store. Instead, I will rely on other venues to purchase eBooks for the Nook (of which there are actually several).

Thank you, B&N, for proving just how terrible your customer service is. I’m so glad that I’ve never paid for a membership, and I look forward to going back to Border’s again for any physical book needs I may have. They’re a far better brick-and-mortar bookstore anyway!

I was just sitting down to use my Nook, the eBook reader from Barnes and Noble. Yeah, that thing that’s kinda like a Kindle. No, it isn’t all a touch-screen, just the bottom bit. Anyway, I was excited to find the latest Gene Wolfe book The Sorcerer’s House that someone had reviewed over at Tor.com. I pull up the Barnes and Noble store on my Nook, search for Gene Wolfe, and there it is! The price was a bit steep, $17.95, but after the recent row about eBook pricing being unfairly set by Amazon, I wasn’t going to mind paying a little more than usual. Its still cheaper than buying it in hardcover, and since I’m trying to downsize my library anyway, eBooks are more effective anyway.

I purchase the book with minimal effort and put the Nook down to wait while it presumable does its downloading magic. When I pick it back up, I notice that the book has still not downloaded, but rather I’m sitting at a screen describing the book, something like the back of the jacket copy. Ok, no worries, I think I’ve seen this button on here to download new content. I find that, press download, and resume my wait.

After a few minutes, I pick my Nook back up and discover a message indicating that this book has not yet been released!! This is the first mention of this on my Nook during the entire purchasing process, something that has previously kept me from purchasing a book online, print or electronic. If its not yet out, I won’t benefit by ordering it ahead of time, regardless of whether or not they charge my account for it yet. It might be on sale at another vendor when released for a better price, so why not just wait to see? I’m also not that worried about it being out-of-stock as, well, I don’t think that’s possible for eBooks!

So now, sad faces all around, as I have no new Gene Wolfe book to read tonight. I did succumb to purchasing The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency for $1.99, however, which I had been considering checking out. For future reference, if I do decide to buy more books at B&N’s eBook store, it will be only once I know that the book has been released, that its not available in ePub (my preferred format for eBooks anyway), and that its for a good price.