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Barnes & Noble Book Store Allegidly Fails To Honor Discount

Barnes & Noble Book Store Allegidly Fails To Honor Discount

November 30, 2013 at about 9:40 pm I placed an order for a book with Barnes & Noble Internet web site (BN.COM).  I have a coupon that stated that I should get 20% off if I buy in a store or on line.  The end date is November 30 but the fine print on the rear side of the discount it states “until December 1, 2013 at 2:50am Eastern Time.  I made the purchase on line and because I have a credit card registered with B&N the purchase went straight through without being allowed to take advantage of the discount.  I was never allowed to enter the coupon code.

I then felt obligated to notify B&N of my not being able to take advantage of the discount by using their web site portal (I removed the actual coupon code below):

You guys send me 20% off coupons to entice me to buy books.  I go on line to barnesandnoble.com and place an order.  I am never allowed to “Enter coupon code at checkout: XXXXXXXXXXXXX”.  I have a credit card on file and I guess I get screwed because of that.  I have a second 20% off coupon that I was also going to use but I would rather quit your store from any future purchases and add this incident to my blog.

 

Here is B&N response:

 “…this coupon cannot be applied to NOOK Book.”

The coupon states in large letters in front

“SAVE AN EXTRA 20% OFF ONE ITEM”

“Present this coupon AT BN.COM.  Enter coupon at checkout.”

I thought they sold books.  Oh, I guess only books that you can hold in your hand?

So the back of the discount coupon card has writing that requires a magnifying glass and it includes a whole list of items that the discount does not apply to.  Oh, B&N, I apologize for not digging into the fine print.  Well here is my reply to you.  I have my terms.  I demand a good shopping experience.

The following was a screen shot of iBooks price for the same item:

Above image taken Dec 1, 2013 at 11:50am

Other purchase options:

  • Google Play has the book for $11.99 (Dec 1, 2013)
  • Amazon Kindle: $7.99 (Dec 1, 2013)

Now B&N now makes me feel bad twice.  I get no discount from them and then discover that I could have made my purchase somewhere else at just over half their price.  I paid $14.99 for the book at Barnes & Noble.  I just learned a life lesson.  Be cautious with B&N or just don’t use B&N coupons at BN.COM.  You can use them in their walk in stores.  It has been my experience that the people running the cash registers at Barnes & Noble brick and mortar stores will bend over backwards to extend a discount to you.

 

The Barnes & Noble Nook Color

The Barnes & Noble Nook Color

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(This article is currently being updated, not finished.)

After Borders Book Store closed in my immediate area, I longed to visit a book store.  The closest store was Barnes & Noble at the other end of an adjoining city.  I went there with a friend and purchased a Barnes & Noble membership card for $25.  About a month later I entertained buying an e-reader.  My son and I had just purchased a Kindle Fire for my wife as a Christmas gift.  She loves to hold real books in her hand and my son and I did not know how well she would take to holding this weird device.  She took to the games that one can play on the Fire but not so much the books.  She was disappointed in the selection and prices for the e-books being offered.

Promotions came to me from Barnes & Noble to buy a Nook.  I have an iPad and love it to death but it is large and heavy and not that easy to carry around as an e-reader.  I did a lot of research and found that most of the e-reader devices were pretty capable, hard for me to discern compelling reasons to by any one device.  It seemed to me that one would be happy with just about any top brand e-reader.  I may have been wrong about that .  Here are some of my impressions.

  • The e-readers seem to me to be just a convenient purchase platform for the company.  In other words, you pay a lot of money for the company to make book offers.  I am paying to have their sales desk put into my hands?
  • The cost of the e-books may be cheaper when compared to hard back books but not soft cover.    You would think the e-book versions should be cheaper, but they seldom are for paper back books.
  • I purchased the Nook Color because I thought I needed color to read magazines and view color charts and graphs in some publications.  I have a subscription to the print and online versions of the Wall Street Journal.  I can read the Journal on my Android cell phone, my iPad and my laptop.  I can NOT read it on my Nook.  The Nook Color took a dive in my estimation.
  • I like non fiction books.  I found that many of the titles I wanted to buy are NOT available from any of the e-book stores (i.e. Google Books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon).

I may have made a mistake.  I should have purchased a Nook Simple Touch for book reading and embraced the Apple iPad for all other purposes, including games, magazine reading and reading newspapers.