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GoodBye Barnes and Noble?

Painful. That’s the best word to describe the order that I just put in with the BarnesandNoble.com site.

It started out simple enough. I selected a few items that I wanted. Went to the checkout and could not remember the email/password combonation that I had given them. So I poked around for a way to enter my membership number in to get a reset email sent to me. It doesn’t seem to exist. So I had to call customer service. After navigating the menuing system and getting to a customer service person I get asked all my details. After about five minutes I finally finish up with him and have the reset email.

Then I have to figure out what credit card I had previously used with them or lose out on the history that I had built into my account. I got lucky and figured that out. So I go to chose my payment method, gift cards. Oh my, if I want to use more than one at a time, I have to call and speak to customer service.

I chose the pay by phone option and complete my order. I then call the number and navigate through the menu again. I input the order number and am told by the computer voice it wasn’t recognized and I can retry or speak to a person. So I get transfered to a real live woman. In order to place the order I have to give order number, my name, address, an item on the order, and read off the gift card numbers (Two fifteen digit numbers, plus the four digit code for each, a grand total of 38 digits for those playing at home).

She said that the order was placed and that I would be getting an email to confirm. I left her with one message to pass on on my behalf. If the website does not, within 60 days, accept more than one gift card at a time I would not renew my membership nor would I purchase from them again until that happens.

It’s a shame too. I like going into the Barnes and Nobel stores. It’s always a nice experience to shop there. I’ve never had any real problem with their employees. Yet in this day and age restricting to only one gift card per order online is absurd. I can understand a limit of less than five for security reasons but a single card? I know that for me, last Christmas I got more gift cards than ‘tradional’ gifts. And many of them were for the same places, as I asked for.

So we’ll see what happens. I figure if I can have avoided shopping at a Wal-Mart for over five years now, a book store won’t be that difficult.